Reviews for Movin' on Up A Woman's Guide Beyond Religion to Spirit Living

The average rating for Movin' on Up A Woman's Guide Beyond Religion to Spirit Living based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2016-09-28 00:00:00 Bill Simmons This book, an ethnography of Muslim lifeways in the city of Turkistan based on research conducted in the 1990s, does at least one excellent thing. It shows, conclusively, that Kazakstan was not converted to a superficial veneer of Islam, under which substantial survivals from 'shamanism' persisted unchanged. Instead, he demonstrates persuasively that Muslimness (musılmanshılıq) is not only normative in the local context of Kazakstan, but also deeply affective and present in the lives of many Kazaks. Given this, it seems unfair to judge the book according to wistful statements about the roads less travelled, but I was left with a deep sense of dissatisfaction with his treatment of a number of topics. His concept of sacred geography and the spacial inherence of religion were promising, but underdeveloped. This is especially disappointing given that he references Humphrey's work on the Daur Mongols, but does not engage with her treatment of 'chiefly' vs. 'shamanic' geographies. If he had, this would have made his analysis of how Sufi shrines define the landscape far more perceptive. Likewise, he skirts around the gendered nature of religious behavior and perceptions about the varied spiritual capacities of men and women at different stages of life. Additionally, his comments about women adopting healing practices as a compensatory response to social marginalization suffer from a lack of information about the roles played by (or barred to) women in other aspects of Kazak society. As it fills a void and has some genuinely well-conceived sections, this book makes a valuable contribution to the study of religion, and particularly Islam, in Central Asia. However it was also hampered by missed opportunities for deep engagement with some of its main themes.

Review # 2 was written on 2016-11-17 00:00:00 Michael Lockhart Very valuable for anyone who wants to understand Islam in Central Asia. The research is of course from a limited geographical area, but it is probably relevant for understanding the faith of ordinary Central Asian Muslims other places too. (Actually, I didn't read the finally published book, but a Word document with the dissertation. I assume the content is more or less the same as the published book.) I haven't been able to find much literature about this topic. There is this one and Maria Elisabeth Louw's "Everyday Islam in Post-Soviet Central Asia," which is also good and describes Islam in Uzbekistan, mainly Bukhara. Another book in the pipeline is Razia Sultanova: "From Shamanism to Sufism: Women, Islam and Culture in Central Asia." It should be out in early 2014. Most other books about Islam in Central Asia deal with the relationship between religion and politics.