Religious Minorities Online

Main Editors:

Erica Baffelli (The University of Manchester)

Alexander van der Haven (University of Bergen)

Michael Stausberg (University of Bergen)

Editorial Board:

Carole Cusack (The University of Sydney)

Rosalind Hackett (University of Tennessee)　

Titus Hjelm (University of Helsinki)

Knut A. Jacobsen (University of Bergen)

Norihito Takahashi (Toyo University)

Introduction – Religious Minorities: Conceptual Perspectives

Michael Stausberg, Alexander Van Der Haven and Erica Baffelli

Abstract

This essay proposes definitions of key terms such as ‘minoritization’, ‘majoritization’, and ‘religious minority’, and problematizes standard criteria of identification of religious minorities while also advocating for an understanding of religious minorities as dynamic, processual, relational, contextual, situational, and intersectional. By doing this, it also warns against homogenizing representations of religious minorities and addresses minorities within minorities. It presents several important distinctions among and within religious minorities in terms of size, location, origin, legitimacy, recognition, social position, and self-perceptions. The essay discusses the mechanisms that turn assemblages of people into minorities and different criteria and strategies that establish such social formations as ‘religious minorities.’ This includes processes of recognition and non-recognition by societies and different forms of minorities (‘wild’ and ‘tame’ ones). The essay historicizes the emergence of the category and the problem of ‘religious minorities’ in the context of colonialism, modern conceptions of the nation-state, democracy, and international politics. Last but not least, it reflects on the importance of religious minorities as a theme for research, and as a lens for understanding the dynamics of religion in society.

Article

The term ‘religious minorities’ (or some vernacular equivalent) is part of the common lexicon of political language; in many countries this and similar terminologies such as ‘minority religions’, ‘minor religions’, or ‘minority religious groups’ are used in everyday talk, in self-identifications, and in processes of othering. The term is also used to celebrate ‘diversity’, ‘pluralism’, ‘multiculturalism’, and similar ideas. Majority/minority tropes are also invoked by people who are numerically a majority, but claim to have lost their predominance in a society or remember their past, real or imagined, as a minority; mobilizing an understanding of being ‘a threatened majority’ is a typical ingredient of what Arjun Appadurai calls “predatory identities”—namely, such identities “whose social construction and mobilization require the extinction of other, proximate social categories” (Appadurai 2006, 51). In contexts where homogeneity is emphasized, such as nationalist discourses, minorities can be perceived as potentially disruptive and dangerous, and feature prominently in conspiracy narratives. Similarly, the fear of a perceived threat implies dichotomised views about ‘good’ and ‘bad’ minorities. This essay offers a discussion of conceptual perspectives on religious minorities; we will begin by proposing definitions of key terms.

Read the Introduction in full here:

Here you will find instructions for searching in the Religious Minorities Online and explanations of the individual search functions.

Search

You have the following options for searching.

Search form

The search form allows you to search using various search criteria. To do so, select the appropriate criterion in the search field and enter your search term(s) in the search field. The following search criteria are available:

1. Full Text: Searches in all entries for the entered terms. Finds all entries that contain all searched terms and therefore returns the most results. For a more specific search, the other search criteria are more suitable.
   
   The following operators can be used in the search field:
• *: Added to a string. Searches for entries including all terms that match the searched string with any addition.
• AND: Searches for entries including all the terms connected by this operator (default search function).
• OR: Searches for entries including at least one of the terms connected by this operator.
• NOT: Searches for entries including the first, but not the second of the terms connected by this operator.

These operators can be combined with each other.

2. Title: Finds all entries whose titles contain all searched terms. This search criterion can be used to search specifically for entries for particular terms. Search with truncation does not work at the moment.
3. Author: Finds all entries with authors of the searched name. Suggests up to 15 matching author names in alphabetical order as you type. This search criterion can be used to search for entries by specific authors.
4. Keyword: Finds all entries to which the searched keyword is assigned. Suggests up to 15 matching keywords in alphabetical order as you type. This search criterion can be used to search for entries that deal with a specific religious topic.
5. Type: Select a type from the drop-down menu: Article. Finds all entries of this type.
6. Subject: Finds all entries that are assigned to the searched subject area. Suggests up to 15 matching subject areas in alphabetical order as you type. This search criterion can be used to search for entries that belong to a specific subject area.
7. Publication Year: Select Exact to search for a single year, or Range to search for a range of years. Finds all entries that have been published electronically in this year or range of years.
8. Bibliography: Finds all entries whose bibliography contains all searched terms. This search criterion can be used to search for specific sources or their titles, authors, etc.
9. Entry language: Select a language from the drop-down menu. Finds all entries which are written in this language. Only english language is available for RMO.

Please note: The search is not case sensitive.

You have the option to apply several search criteria at the same time. To do this, click on "Add row" in the search form. This creates a second search field in which you can set another search criterion (or else the same one). You can create as many additional search fields as you like.
If you use more than one search field, the search will find all entries that match all search criteria ("Search for all of these terms"). Instead, you can also select "Search for any of these terms" above the search fields, which will cause the search to find all entries that match at least one of the searched criteria.
By clicking on "Add NOT" you create a search field to which you can assign a search criterion. Terms entered in this search field will be excluded from the search. You can add this search field as often as you like.
By combining the above functions, you are able to perform very specific searches.

Example

You want to search the Religious Minorities Online for all entries that mention the word "Temple" and which belong to the subject "Themes". However, you want to exclude entries by the author "Natalia Muchnik" from the search. For this you use the search form as follows:

1. Create a second search field via "Add row".
2. Select the search for "all of these terms" (default option).
3. In the first search field, select the search criterion Full Text and enter the search term "Temple".
4. In the second search field, select the search criterion Subject and enter the search term "Themes".
5. Create a third search field via "Add NOT". This is marked with a "NOT".
6. Select the search criterion Author in this search field and enter “Natalia Muchnik”.
7. After clicking on "Search" you will see 1 out of 1 hits in the results list.

Results list

The results that match your search are listed on one or more pages. The number of search results as well as the search criteria can be found above the results list.

Each search result consists of the title of the entry, author(s) if existent, access information, entry type, online publication date (print publication date in brackets, if applicable), the cover of the database as well as a button to download the PDF ("Download PDF"), if available, and a text preview showing relevant text passages and highlighting the searched term in yellow (only for Full Text search criterion).

You can access a search result by clicking on the title or cover of the database. If you do not have access to the database, please log in first.

The search results are sorted by relevancy (frequency and weighting of the searched terms). You can also sort by date ("New to old" or "Old to new") or by title ("A to Z" or "Z to A").
Furthermore, instead of the default 10 results per page, you can also display 20, 50 or 100 results per page.

The search results can be further restricted under "Filter Results". Various filter options are available for this:

1. Access: This option filters the search results according to who can access them. By default, "All content" is found. It is possible to filter by "Licensed content", "Open Access", "Publicly available" as well as "All available content".
2. Type
3. Publication Year
4. Subject
5. Entry language

All filters can be combined with each other. Filtering by certain filter options excludes further certain filter options if there are no entries which match both options.