Smells and Bells

Rasmussen says that Indonesians use the term "music that breathes or has the scent of Islam." Discuss. 

In the chapter Celebrating Religion and Nation , Rasmussen writes about the Sayembara Azan: The Call to Prayer Contest. This is a four day contest in which men perform the Azan in public in front of a panel of judges who are evaluating them based on six criterium. Like Rasmussen says, I agree that it was strange to learn that this sacred practice, the Azan, was performed in such a way that it seemed to take away from its significance, sacrilegious as Rasmussen says. Rasmussen brings up four points about this practice and the last one was the most interesting to me. She said that by having this contest in the public, it separated it from its religious significance. By doing that, the practice was made more available for both people like her (a woman, non-muslim, researcher), and more importantly, for native Indonesians who might not be active participants in the religion. These public events are a way to draw them into the community. I think this is an interesting point especially i...

Muslim people engaged in Qur’an recitation in Indonesia would never describe what they are doing as music. Islam has a complicated relationship with music, and even beyond that the Indonesian definition of music require instruments. However, Anna Rasmussen claims that the recitation she is studying is a form of music. We discussed this in class, which made me wonder at what point chanting becomes music. I think the answer lies in the concept of the “festivalization of religion” that Rasmussen brings up in chapter four. There is a fine line between ritual and art. First, I do not believe that most people would describe their own rituals as a form of art. The application of that label requires an outsider’s perspective in many cases. Second, the Indonesian government encourages the performance of religion in a way that transforms ritual into art. This may be how Qur’an recitation can become music. When recitation becomes a public event and a competition, the intention behind it is tran...

As we were talking about connections in class I couldn’t help thinking about how much of a social creature humans are and how we need connections to survive. Human beings would not be able to survive if they didn’t have connections.  This relates back to when Diane Ackerman talked about how nurtured babies turn out better than ones that aren’t. Babies are taught how to make connections since birth, this is because it enables them to survive. Having social connections allows humans to reproduce, hunt, and protect themselves.  There was also the question of if the need for the connection comes first or finding the connection. I believe that the need for the connection comes first because they need it for survival. Humans are constantly on the lookout for connections because that is how we evolved.  I’m not sure about connections to nature or God, but I think that comes from the need to feel like you’re a part of something and that you’re included in the w...

While reading the chapter “Celebrating Religion and Nation; The Festivilization of the Qur’an,” I found myself thinking, ‘isn’t this a little sacrilegious?’ Making Qur’anic recitation into a huge competition (into many huge competitions)? As Rasmussen puts it, the “Festivalization” of religion demonstrated in these recitation competitions combines religion and state authority. “Islamic arts…” Rasmussen argues, “are manifested as authentic Indonesian national praxis” (126). This along with state and corporate sponsorship of these recitation competitions had me thinking that this kind of recitation no longer seems very religious. I thought, if this kind of traditionally religious practice is being performed for monetary gain, personal glory, or upward social mobility, it cheapens or erodes the original intent of the practice. But thinking more specifically in terms of the sensory information we’re focused on in this class, the acts of learning, performing, and perfecting Qur’anic recita...

Today wasn't my first time "doing" miracle berries. While abroad last year, studying food security, we spent a class discussing sugar, obesity and the relationship between the two. As part of the class we had miracle berries and tried apples, lemons and limes, just like today. We were talking about how the miracle berry and its chemical components could be used in food and how that would be beneficial. By incorporating the berry into other foods that we eat, we could make them taste sweeter, and more enjoyable, without actually adding sugar or other sweeteners which can be harmful to our health. The way we used the miracle berry then was in a social/health context, so I tried thinking about how that could overlap with our religious context that we discussed today. We discussed how by using the miracle berry we were changing the food to taste differently and better (sweeter). That relates to how we understand God as being good. It then becomes a question of "is Go...

Street musicians in Chicago performing on buckets Throughout the reading, the same though continue to remain in my mind that Anne Rasmussen posed in the beginning of her writings: What is music?  Although the answer seems clear, there are people who find find ambient "background" noise as music. Is the difference in music or not that intention and effort put in? Even the presence of an instrument doesn't exactly equate to people considering it music. Think, for example, about a novice playing the saxophone (or many wind instruments, actually), people around them may say that it's not music and may even call it "racket". Older people talking about music of a younger generation may call it noise ("turn off that noise!"). This eliminates the idea that just an instrument is needed to indeed make something musical. For that matter; What is an instrument?  Colloquially, instruments pop into our heads that are made with the intention to produ...

     In the second chapter of "Women, the recited Qur'an, and Islamic music in Indonesia", Anne Rasmussen begins her analysis of the Islamic soundscape and the community of voices that contribute to the "tapestry of loose free-meter heterophony emanating quasi-simultaneously from numerous sources". Her work highlights the sense of community fostered by Islamic traditions and rituals, and here takes a closer look at the nature of recitation and the significance of the ear to religious ceremony. Before reading this excerpt, I had no idea how tightly linked the Qu'ran was to oral tradition. My perception of any ancient religious text is that such a text must have been written down to prevent the mutation of the scriptures over time. However, Rasmussen tells us this is not the case for Islam and the Qu'ran. According to Rasmussen's citation (Nelson), the Qu'ran did "not exist to preserve against change; it is taken for granted that oral tra...

Hand print of a bacteria culture. Link is to common germs however, I'm using it to connect to the Saberi section on human cultures After reading the Saberi piece, one of the most interesting concepts that arose was that human cultures and the cultures of our own biology: an interesting dualism I wouldn't have ever thought of. The premise of the article itself is interesting: the intersection of where religion and biology meet.The fact that the bacteria involved with making cheese can be found on some people's skin is so unheard of. It makes me think more about the culture of microbes.  Over the winter break I read a book on the significance of microbes and bacteria in our lives and it supports the concept of a human culture's culture, and actually takes it a step further. Each individual has a unique microbial makeup inside and out of our bodies, from birth, if naturally delivered we receive our mother's microbes preparing us for life. Another interesti...

In “The Second Gate” of Shulhan Shel Arba by Rabbenu Bahya ben Asher Hlava, he uses the passage “My soul bless YHWH, all that is inside me [bless] His holy name” to highlight the necessity of bodies and nourishing the body to praise God. The soul may be what we usually focus on, but the body houses the soul and in this world, we can’t recognize one without the other. In this book, the passage has to do with eating, tasting, and dinner rituals, but I couldn’t help thinking of how this same point has been illustrated with this same passage but through sight and sound rather than taste. As soon as I read this quote, I got this song stuck in my head. The overall structure of Godspell is goofy parables followed by big, theatrical musical numbers that incorporate a line or two of scripture. All of this takes place over the lose arc of the gospel story, beginning with Jesus’s baptism and ending with his death. The parable that precedes this song in the show is about the ide...

“Therefore the reverent person ought to have his intention connected to the higher things, and have his eating be to sustain his body alone and not to be drawn to physical pleasures, for being drawn to physical pleasures is the cause for the loss of both body and soul, and the cause for forgetting the point, for out of eating and drinking he will become full of himself [lit., lift up his heart] and stumble into great pitfalls and sins, and do things which should not be done.” This quote from the Second Gate perplexed me. The idea that a person could altogether avoid taking pleasure from food seems odd. If food did not make us feel good, if it was just a tool to avoid starving, much of the social and cultural aspects of eating would become irrelevant. Taste is the sense that has the most power to bring us together. Eating is a social behavior. We come together for family meals, we mark special occasions and holidays by altering what we eat, we celebrate by eating, we make guests feel w...

            Like most young children, I adored candy. My parents often retell the story of the night where a seven-year-old me emerged from my slumber with smudged chocolate and sticky candy all over my face and hair. In one night, I had eaten a half a pound of Halloween candy.             However, despite my late-night binge of Halloween candy, I believe that my relationship with sugar as a child is atypical to most other kids' experience. Throughout most of my childhood, I almost always had Oreos, cookies, and ice cream in my pantry or fridge available to me. At the same time however, the ready abundance of sugar available to me almost seem to make sweets less special. While most kids saw sugar as a treat or reward, I had always had a great amount of sugar accessible for consumption whether or not I did something good or bad. Although I enjoyed my sugared snacks, I...

Pixabay photo One of the main reasons people say a blessing before eating their food is to take a moment of mindfulness. It’s important to take breaks and be thankful and grateful for what you have.  It doesn’t have to be a religious blessing to pause and be thankful for your life. I was recently at a sporting event on campus and they played the National Anthem before the game started. I thought that this could also be interpreted as a moment of mindfulness. Everyone is silent and calm. There is no way to tell if everyone is thinking the same thing, but even just taking the moment of peacefulness allows the mind to rest and be still.  Taking a pause before the game allowed to players to gather their thoughts and mentally prepare before the game started. Mindfulness before the game starting probably allowed the players to perform better during the game, just like how eating the food would’ve felt and tasted better after pausing.  Mindfulness can enhanc...

Symbolism plays an important role in religious ceremonies because people cannot have the divine being where they want him all the time. So they start creating ways to be in touch with God. Such as in Christianity, eating bread is symbolized to be eating God-made flesh. There are similar rituals in Judaism where they eat the food of God. A big difference between taste and the other senses is that the object that is being sensed is internalized, whereas all the other senses use an external sensation. Taste cannot extend anywhere like the other senses can. This allows the humans to have no barrier between the divine (symbolized as food) and themselves. This is the closest they can get to God, but internalizing Him.  This thought of getting the closest they can to someone by ingesting and gaining power from it led my mind to wander to the thought of serial killers that also happen to be cannibals. I know that it might be a stretch, but there are some similarities. I...