e-rhizome, 2021 (vol. 3), issue 2

Editors’ Preface

Oleg Kyselov, Tetiana Kalenychenko

e-rhizome 2021, 3(2):66-67  

Do all roads lead to Uman? The Hasidic pilgrimage during the pandemic times

Alla Marchenko

e-rhizome 2021, 3(2):68-85 | DOI: 10.5507/rh.2021.005  

In this text, I analyze official public narratives in Ukraine in 2020 connected to the Hasidic pilgrimage to Uman, the best known and most popular destination of its kind in Europe. The pandemic year 2020 brought restrictions to mass gatherings, including the pilgrimages, for the first time since the collapse of the Soviet Union. I have differentiated two competing discourses connected to the pilgrimage - "pilgrimage as a source of danger" and "pilgrimage as a proxy for Ukraine's good reputation", both of which unveiled the problem of representation. The case of the Hasidic pilgrimage to Uman during the pandemic times could serve as a model for building...

'They're so into it': Perceptions of 'Religion', Orthodoxy and Belonging in Post-Yugoslav Serbia

Nicholas Lackenby

e-rhizome 2021, 3(2):86-102 | DOI: 10.5507/rh.2021.006  

Much has been written about how people embraced new religious identities following the collapse of socialist regimes. This article argues that it is also important to consider the perspective of those (sometimes sceptical) people who may be less eager to participate in new, emergent forms of embodied religious practice. In the ethnographic context of post-Yugoslav Serbia, I ask how 'religion' is perceived, constituted, and evaluated from the sidelines. How do local perceptions of what 'religion' is connect - and collide - with wider ethno-moral communities? I make this argument through a close analysis of an interview with a female interlocutor, a...

Political Practices of Ukrainian Muslims: Between the Apolitical and the Radical

Denys Brylov

e-rhizome 2021, 3(2):103-120 | DOI: 10.5507/rh.2021.007  

The article examines the political practices of Ukrainian Muslims. It covers three main streams of political behavior: a) predominantly apolitical Islam of Muslim organizations connected with the transnational Sufi movement Al-Ahbash, b) political activism of Muslim organizations connected with the global Muslim Brotherhood network, c) radical (jihadist) practices of a small part of Muslims represented by immigrants from the North Caucasus and Crimea. The article employs Kasper Mathiesen's concept of "traditional Islam" which is based on Talal Asad's anthropological approach to Islam as a discursive tradition. This paper also uses the approach of Barbara...

Book Review: Tornike Metreveli, Orthodox Christianity and the Politics of Transition: Ukraine, Serbia and Georgia. Routledge, 2021.

Andriy Fert

e-rhizome 2021, 3(2):121-125