Talal Asad 1

Talal Asad

Talal AsadBorn 1933

Saudi Arabia

Nationality Saudi and American

Fields Anthropology

Academic advisors E. E. Evans-Pritchard

Notable students Saba MahmoodDavid ScottCharles Hirschkind

Part of a series on

Anthropologyof religion

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Talal Asad (born 1933) is an anthropologist at the CUNY Graduate Center.[2]

Asad has made important theoretical contributions to post-colonialism, Christianity, Islam, and ritual studies and hasrecently called for, and initiated, an anthropology of secularism. Using a genealogical method developed byFriedrich Nietzsche and made prominent by Michel Foucault, Asad "complicates terms of comparison that manyanthropologists, theologians, philosophers, and political scientists receive as the unexamined background ofthinking, judgment, and action as such. By doing so, he creates clearings, opening new possibilities forcommunication, connection, and creative invention where opposition or studied indifference prevailed".[3]

His long-term research concerns the transformation of religious law (the shari'ah) in nineteenth- andtwentieth-century Egypt with special reference to arguments about what constitutes secular and progressive reform.

BiographyHe was born in Saudi Arabia to Austrian Pakistani diplomat, writer and reformer Muhammad Asad, a Jew whoconverted to Islam in his mid-20s, and a Saudi Arabian Muslim mother, Munira Hussein Al Shammari (died1978).[4]

Critical thematicsWilliam E. Connolly attempts to summarize Asad's theoretical contributions on secularism as follows:[5]

1.1. Secularism is not merely the division between public and private realms that allows religious diversity to flourishin the latter. It can itself be a carrier of harsh exclusions. And it secretes a new definition of "religion" thatconceals some of its most problematic practices from itself.

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2.2. In creating its characteristic division between secular public space and religious private space, Europeansecularism sought to shuffle ritual and discipline into the private realm. In doing so, however, it loses touch withthe ways in which embodied practices of conduct help to constitute culture, including European culture.

3.3. The constitution of modern Europe, as a continent and a secular civilization, makes it incumbent to treat Muslimsin its midst on the one hand as abstract citizens and on the other as a distinctive minority either to be tolerated (theliberal orientation) or restricted (the national orientation), depending on the politics of the day.

4.4. European, modern, secular constitutions of Islam, in cumulative effect, converge upon a series of simple contrastsbetween themselves and Islamic practices. These terms of contrast falsify the deep grammar of Europeansecularism and contribute to the culture wars some bearers of these very definitions seek to ameliorate.

Formations of The SecularFormations of the Secular: Christianity, Islam, Modernity is both an original work and a reworking of previousessays and papers by Asad.[6] In Formations of The Secular, Asad examines what he views as the curious characterof modern European and American societies and their notion of secularism.Secularism, often viewed as a neutral or flat space that forbids religious opinion or interference in political questions,is found to be somewhat curious to Asad. Specifically, Asad's experiences with the response to the 2001 September11th attacks from the point of view of a Muslim in United States exposed him to explosions of intolerance thatseemed to him entirely compatible with secularism in a highly modern society.[7] However, rather than simplyletting such a coincidence pass, Asad continue by stating that such behaviors are "intertwined" with secularism in a"modern society".[8]

This leads Asad's deployment of the genealogical method in order to understand why a country like the United Statesseemingly behaves in such a manner despite the generally understood status status as secular despite the distinctlyreligious Manichean tones good and evil often found within the historical record of the United States.[9] Hefurther notes that despite the nominally secular character of The United States, repressive measures have beendirected at real and imagined secular opponents.[10]

These events, as well as other questions, lead Asad to what might be termed the thesis of the book:The secular, I argue, is neither continuous with the religious that supposedly preceded it (that is, it is notthe latest phase of a sacred origin) nor a simple break from it (that is, it is not the opposite, an essencethat excludes the sacred). I take the secular to be a concept that brings together certain behaviors,knowledges, and sensibilities in modern life.[11]

Building on that notion, Asad is also critical of the more common concept of secularism, which he views as havingno distinct features that demarcate it from other prior forms of secularism found elsewhere in the world. Instead hefavors another approach to viewing modern secularism:

In my view the secular is neither singular in origin nor stable in its historical identity, although it worksthrough a series of particular oppositions.[12]

With that said, Asad's goal for the book is to understand how a more general pre-secularism mutates into the morefamiliar "novel" form of secularism present within Euro-American societies Asad makes clear his interest in thisspecific "novel" variant.[13]

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Select bibliography The Kababish Arabs: Power, Authority, and Consent in a Nomadic Tribe. Praeger Publishers, 1970. ISBN

0-900966-21-1 "Market Model, Class Structure, and Consent: A Reconsideration of Swat Political Organization." Man 7(1)

(1972), pp.7489. Editor, Anthropology & the Colonial Encounter. Ithaca Press, 1973. ISBN 0-903729-00-8 The Idea of an Anthropology of Islam. Center for Contemporary Arab Studies, 1986. ISBN 978-9991289526 Genealogies of Religion: Discipline and Reasons of Power in Christianity and Islam. The Johns Hopkins

University Press, 1993. ISBN 0-8018-4632-3 Formations of the Secular: Christianity, Islam, Modernity. Stanford University Press, 2003. ISBN 0-8047-4768-7 On Suicide Bombing. Columbia University Press, 2007. ISBN 978-0-231-14152-9

Further readingMain article: List of important publications in anthropology

References[1] http:/ / en. wikipedia. org/ w/ index. php?title=Template:Anthropology_of_religion& action=edit[2] http:/ / web. gc. cuny. edu/ Anthropology/ fac_asad. html[3] William E. Connolly in Powers of the Secular Modern: Talal Asad and His Interlocutors, Stanford 2006, 75.[4] Chaghatai, Muhammad Asad, Vol. 1, p. 339.[5] Connolly, pp. 75-76. (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=2qetHOkVxMgC& printsec=frontcover& dq=Powers+ of+ the+ Secular+

Modern:+ Talal+ Asad+ and+ His+ Interlocutors#PPA75,M1)[6] Asad, Talal. Formations of the Secular: Christianity, Islam, Modernity. Stanford, Calif: Stanford, 2003, 'Acknowledgements'.[7][7] Ibid., 7.[8][8] Ibid., 7.[9][9] Ibid., 7.[10][10] Ibid., 7.[11][11] Ibid., 24.[12][12] Ibid., 24.[13][13] Ibid., 1-2.

External links CUNY Graduate Center Anthropology Faculty Website (http:/ / anthropology. commons. gc. cuny. edu/

talal-asad/ ) Interview with Asad (https:/ / www. youtube. com/ watch?v=kfAGnxKfwOg) on YouTube "AsiaSource Interview with Talal Asad" by Nermeen Shaikh (http:/ / www. asiasource. org/ news/

special_reports/ asad. cfm)

Article Sources and Contributors 4

Article Sources and ContributorsTalal Asad Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=619667910 Contributors: Abdelrhman 1990, All Hallow's Wraith, AnGabreel, And we drown, Anthrophilos, Avraham,Behemoth, Bender235, BigHaz, Blainster, Chowdhun, ChrisGualtieri, Coffeezombie, Crystallina, Daudzoss, Editor26, Epbr123, Fatih Kurt, Girl2k, Harac, Ironholds, Isinbill, Jayjg,Johnpacklambert, Joyson Prabhu, Jprschaefer, Kapitop, Khatru2, Kimdime, Languagehat, Laureapuella, LittleWink, MER-C, Mar4d, Maralia, Markwebbb, Miss-simworld, MrNiceGuy1113,Nauticashades, Neptunekh2, Omnipaedista, PelleSmith, Plehn, Pleven, Poloplayers, Rishqo, SMasters, Salma helali, Saskialouise, Schrauwers, Sebesta, Shdi22f, Stallions2010, Sylvain1972,TamarYaron, Tom Lougheed, Topbanana, Tylerdurden73, Tzahy, Void waterbear, Woohookitty, 35 anonymous edits

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Talal AsadBiographyCritical thematicsFormations of The SecularSelect bibliographyFurther readingReferencesExternal links

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