Fabricating Authenticity
Edited by
Jason W.M. Ellsworth [+–]
Dalhousie University
Jason W. M. Ellsworth is a doctoral candidate in the Sociology and Social Anthropology Department at Dalhousie University. He currently works at the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Prince Edward Island and serves on the Executive Committee of the Canadian Anthropology Society. His research explores a diverse array of topics including the Anthropology and Sociology of Religion, Buddhism in North America, Food and Food Movements, Theories of Value, Political Economy, Marketing, Transnationalism, and Orientalism.
Andie Alexander [+–]
Leibniz University Hannover
Andie Alexander is a doctoral candidate in the Institute for the Study of Religion at Leibniz University Hannover. She is co-editor (with Jason W. M. Ellsworth) of Fabricating Authenticity (Equinox, 2024) and is Managing Editor of The Religious Studies Project. Her research focuses on identity construction, discourses of difference and experience, and conceptions of the individual as a way to examine how post-9/11 discourses of inclusivity and pluralism implicitly work as a form of governance and subject-making which construct and constrain the liberal Muslim subject.
Fabricating Authenticity expands on revised posts that originally appeared on the blog for Culture on the Edge — an international research collaborative that analyzes strategies of identification. The newly envisioned main chapters in this volume draw on a variety of sites, topics, and case studies to explore what is at stake in claims of authenticity. Here, authenticity is examined as a socially contested and constructed label that is used to manage and codify a variety of choices in relation to understandings of identity formation. Building on the main chapters, Fabricating Authenticity is a collaborative enterprise that engages fourteen early career scholars to respond, critique, and press further the approaches and arguments put forth by members of Culture on the Edge.
Following the format of the earlier volumes in the Working with Culture on the Edge series, the introduction and afterword provide a more substantive, theoretical analysis on the discourse of authenticity. Together with the main chapters and responses, Fabricating Authenticity explores everyday examples that work as productive conversation-starters for those wanting to complicate and examine authenticity claims, thus making this an ideal volume for the introductory classroom and beyond.
Series: Working with Culture on the Edge
Table of Contents
Preface
Preface [+–] ix-x
Dalhousie University
Jason W. M. Ellsworth is a doctoral candidate in the Sociology and Social Anthropology Department at Dalhousie University. He currently works at the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Prince Edward Island and serves on the Executive Committee of the Canadian Anthropology Society. His research explores a diverse array of topics including the Anthropology and Sociology of Religion, Buddhism in North America, Food and Food Movements, Theories of Value, Political Economy, Marketing, Transnationalism, and Orientalism.
Leibniz University Hannover
Andie Alexander is a doctoral candidate in the Institute for the Study of Religion at Leibniz University Hannover. She is co-editor (with Jason W. M. Ellsworth) of Fabricating Authenticity (Equinox, 2024) and is Managing Editor of The Religious Studies Project. Her research focuses on identity construction, discourses of difference and experience, and conceptions of the individual as a way to examine how post-9/11 discourses of inclusivity and pluralism implicitly work as a form of governance and subject-making which construct and constrain the liberal Muslim subject.
As members of Culture on the Edge, Ellsworth and Alexander reflect on the aims of the scholarly collaborative and how it has benefitted both their own work and the development of Fabricating Authenticity in the “Working with Culture on the Edge” book series.
Introduction
Commodifying Authenticity [+–] 1-15
Dalhousie University
Jason W. M. Ellsworth is a doctoral candidate in the Sociology and Social Anthropology Department at Dalhousie University. He currently works at the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Prince Edward Island and serves on the Executive Committee of the Canadian Anthropology Society. His research explores a diverse array of topics including the Anthropology and Sociology of Religion, Buddhism in North America, Food and Food Movements, Theories of Value, Political Economy, Marketing, Transnationalism, and Orientalism.
Leibniz University Hannover
Andie Alexander is a doctoral candidate in the Institute for the Study of Religion at Leibniz University Hannover. She is co-editor (with Jason W. M. Ellsworth) of Fabricating Authenticity (Equinox, 2024) and is Managing Editor of The Religious Studies Project. Her research focuses on identity construction, discourses of difference and experience, and conceptions of the individual as a way to examine how post-9/11 discourses of inclusivity and pluralism implicitly work as a form of governance and subject-making which construct and constrain the liberal Muslim subject.
In addition to the 28 chapters, this volume has a longer, more substantive Introduction and Afterword that offer a variety of examples exploring what’s at stake in discourses on authenticity and how they are inextricably linked to what Jean-François Bayart terms “operational acts of identification.” The Introduction, through a variety of examples such as self-help books, Coca-Cola, national cuisines, and wine, considers how authenticity rhetoric is employed and commodified, demonstrating just how pervasive it is in our current social worlds. Rather than joining the “authenticity” debates, this volume aims to complicate and problematize discourses of authenticity, which are otherwise left unexamined or even taken at face value, to examine the practical effects and consequences of these claims.
Chapter 1
Is there Lettuce in Greek Salad? [+–] 16-23
University of Alabama
Russell T. McCutcheon is University Research Professor and, for 18 years, was the Chair of the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Alabama. He has written on problems in the academic labor market throughout his 30-year career and helped to design and run Alabama’s skills-based M.A. in religion in culture. Among his recent work is the edited resource for instructors, Teaching in Religious Studies and Beyond (Bloomsbury 2024).
In this chapter, McCutcheon complicates the notion of authentic Greek food. Using personal stories based on encounters with popular food such as Greek salad and dolmas (grape leaves) he shows how claims of authenticity and legitimacy are not innocent descriptions of obvious facts, but instead are examples of how identity is asserted and contested making these mundane moments some of the most interesting opportunities scholars can have to study how people the world over manage and justify how they organize their lives.
Chapter 2
Beyond Authenticity? [+–] 24-29
Ian Alexander Cuthbertson is an independent scholar who is broadly interested in exploring how the category “religion” is deployed to legitimize certain beliefs, practices, and institutions while delegitimizing others. Ian lives in England with his wife Virginia and their son Ciaran and often puts pineapple on pizza.
Building on McCutcheon’s analysis, Cuthbertson shows how the most interesting question is not whether a particular object or thing really is authentic or inauthentic but rather how and why and by whom it is designated as such. From food to theme parks he argues that authenticity claims depend on three related ideas: authority, origins and traditions. Authenticity is not the binary of authentic vs. inauthentic, but better thought of as a spectrum of social accomplishment that relies on the expectations and preferences of the people involved.
Chapter 3
Marketing the Authentic Taco [+–] 30-33
Dalhousie University
Jason W. M. Ellsworth is a doctoral candidate in the Sociology and Social Anthropology Department at Dalhousie University. He currently works at the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Prince Edward Island and serves on the Executive Committee of the Canadian Anthropology Society. His research explores a diverse array of topics including the Anthropology and Sociology of Religion, Buddhism in North America, Food and Food Movements, Theories of Value, Political Economy, Marketing, Transnationalism, and Orientalism.
In this chapter, Ellsworth discusses the wide array of food labels that pervade our food system today. Focusing on discourses of authenticity, he uses a case study of Mexican restaurants in a small province in Canada to show how authenticity is used in a competitive manner to legitimate businesses and cultural narratives. However, he also argues that there is a fetish for real and genuine experiences that drives demand for the authentic.
Chapter 4
A Remembrance of Dishes Past [+–] 34-38
University of Victoria
Rachel D. Brown is Program and Research Coordinator at the Centre for Studies in Religion and Society, and an Assistant Teaching Professor in Anthropology and Religion, Culture, and Society, at the University of Victoria in British Columbia, Canada. She has a Ph.D. in Religion and Culture from Wilfrid Laurier University and specializes in food, migration, lived religion, and contemporary Islam. Rachel has published multiple journal articles and book chapters on food and migration/minorities, Muslim integration in France, the experience of minority religious communities in the Pacific Northwest, and researcher positionality and knowledge production.
Furthering Ellsworth’s analysis, Brown considers how David Chang in his show Ugly Delicious not only struggles with how authenticity is deployed, but at times, effectively navigates such discourses better than some academics. Brown argues that both ethnographers and cooks are constrained by the memories of a place, time, dish—memories which are often imperfect and usually impacted by various positionalities that the ethnographer/cook brings to the process.
Chapter 5
The Open University
Christopher Cotter is Staff Tutor (Lecturer) in Sociology & Religious Studies at The Open University. He is co-founder of The Religious Studies Project, co-editor of After World Religions: Reconstructing Religious Studies (Routledge, 2016) and author of The Critical Study of Non-Religion: Discourse, Identification, Locality (Bloomsbury, 2020).
In this chapter, Cotter reflects on how various elements of boundaries, branding, and consumerism are linked to, establish, and complicate constructions of the “true” and “authentic” self. Touching on commodity fetishism and processes of reification, Cotter critiques the fallacy of consumer choice and his own positionality in the consumer marketplace as an early adopter.
Chapter 6
Fool’s Gold: Tapping into Luxury [+–] 45-50
Harvard University
Ping-hsiu Alice Lin (PhD CUHK) is a sociocultural anthropologist with interests in commodities, labor and artisanship, geosciences, and extractive industries in South and Southeast Asia. Her in-progress manuscript examines the ways in which movement, labor, and imperial histories transform minerals into precious stones in the borderlands of Pakistan and Afghanistan, demonstrating how ideas related to value in minerals circulate among trade hubs in Asia. Lin is currently a postdoctoral fellow in the Anthropology Department at Harvard University. In July 2025, she will start as an assistant professor in the department. Between 2021 and 2023 she was a postdoctoral fellow at the Harvard Academy for International and Area Studies.
Building on Cotter’s argument, Lin uses her own ethnographic research on the supply chain of luxurious precious stones to argue that luxury, just as notions of authenticity, cannot be understood independently of material factors, social stratification or historical change. Lin shows how modern aesthetic shopping malls are designed to center consumerist practice in a fashion that reinserts the “authentic” into the shopping experience.
Chapter 7
Brown University
Tara Baldrick-Morrone is a Postdoctoral Research Associate in Critical Classical Studies at Brown University. Her current research focuses on how twentieth-century American scholars and politicians used ancient Mediterranean texts to restrict access to reproductive healthcare.
In this chapter, Baldrick-Morrone takes aim at two contradictory ideas: that women are supposed to wear makeup because that’s what women are supposed to do, and yet wearing makeup can put women at a disadvantage when looking to gain or have their authority recognized. Drawing on different studies, Baldrick-Morrone argues that existing bias favors looks and appearance over a woman’s credentials or previous experience when evaluating whether a woman is capable of occupying a role of authority.
Chapter 8
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Sierra L. Lawson is a doctoral student in the Religion and Culture track in the department of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Sierra’s current work examines competing transatlantic discourses on maternal health within visual and textual archives. She is specifically interested in the devotional labor of “Morisca” women in the Ebro region and women in early Andean colonies as mutually influenced by and influencing imperial grammars for classifying ‘religion.’ In studying rhetorics of devotion she has previously focused on communities who describe themselves as Marian—and, specifically, Guadalupan—devotees.
Following Baldrick-Morrone’s argument, Lawson examines the use of the category “experience” in higher education discourse, specifically in response to challenges posed by COVID-19. Lawson contends that institutions employ terms such as “experience” in public statements to highlight positive aspects while omitting problematic and complex dimensions of the college environment which works to frame what counts as an authentic “experience” and reifies the “college experience” as a self-evident, desirable commodity.
Chapter 9
A Man, a Tan, “God’s Plan” [+–] 59-62
University of Alabama
Richard Newton is Associate Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Alabama. He is author of Identifying Roots: Alex Haley and the Anthropology of Scriptures(Equinox Publishing Ltd., 2020) and former editor of the Bulletin for the Study of Religion. Newton is also curator of the social media professional development network, Sowing the Seed: Fruitful Conversations in Religion, Culture and Teaching (SowingTheSeed.org).
In this chapter, Newton deconstructs hip hop artist Drake’s philanthropy in the music video for his song “God’s Plan,” exploring the social and political dimensions of the seemingly altruistic act of giving. Newton argues the “authentic” nature of a gift is not what should be of interest, but instead that we need to focus on why certain public acts of philanthropy prompt scrutiny and questions about motivations, while others receive less attention.
Chapter 10
University of Victoria, PhD candidate
Stacie Swain is a Ukrainian-British doctoral student in the Department of Political Science and the Indigenous Nationhood Program at the University of Victoria, in lək̓ʷəŋən territories (Victoria, B.C.). Her research considers the intersection of Indigenous ceremony with the categories of religion and politics, particularly in relation to settler colonialism, Indigenous legal orders, and the governance of public space.
Swain furthers Newton’s argument from musicians to anti-extractive industry movements to consider how concepts like philanthrocapitalism, petro-states, and paid protesters help to make visible the material realities that underlie authenticity discourses. Contending that philanthrocapitalism creates a socially stratified society, Swain argues that within a petro-state, society relies on the profits generated by corporations and shows hows these same corporations, lobbyists, and media deploy the rhetoric of “paid protestors” to challenge the authenticity of the motivations of people who challenge extractive industries and related investments.
Chapter 11
University of Bonn
Matt Sheedy holds a Ph.D. in the study of religion and is a visiting professor in the department of North American Studies at the University of Bonn, Germany. His research interests include critical social theory, theories of secularism and atheism, as well as representations of Christianity, Islam, and Native American traditions in popular and political culture. He is currently working on a book called Contesting the Secular: Religious Symbols, Identity Politics, and the Fragility of “Western” Values.
In this chapter, Sheedy’s explores the media portrayal of the 2019 Covington Catholic High School incident involving a Native American elder and MAGA student supporters to examine the tendency, especially in white, Euro-Western cultures, of centering the “individual” as the locus of meaning. Whether or not the initial narrative of the story was distorted, Sheedy argues that the asymmetries of power to create, shape, and control such narratives are contingent upon existing fields of knowledge, where certain symbols and language can rely on a degree of intelligibility among the general public, while others cannot.
Chapter 12
Symbols and Ownership [+–] 79-82
University of Pittsburgh
Yasmine Flodin-Ali is Assistant Professor of Modern Islam and Race at the University of Pittsburgh’s Department of Religious Studies. Her current book project maps the landscape of early twentieth century Muslim movements in the United States.
Building on Sheedy’s argument, Flodin-Ali outlines how media responses to acts of violence, strategically employ rhetoric of the “individual” to downplay and isolate white men as mentally ill lone-wolves disconnected from the larger group, while people of color are often represented as collective entities that threaten white America. Flodin-Ali demonstrates that from the standpoint of those with power, the creation of more equitable playing fields can feel like a loss of power and argues that the use of victimization narratives works to authorize the group’s socio-political agenda.
Chapter 13
Donald Trump: A “Baby Christian”? [+–] 83-86
Avila University
Leslie Dorrough Smith is Professor of Religious Studies at Avila University and a member of the Women’s and Gender Studies faculty.
In this chapter, Smith draws on 2016 rhetoric describing Donald Trump as a “baby Christian” to explore how this label functions not as a theological designation but instead as a logo or brand used to market Trump as a Christian to “values voters” while also accounting for his shortcomings. Smith argues that the vague symbolism of these logos is what makes them so effective for wide and diverse audiences.
Chapter 14
An Orbiter is a Simp, a Foid is a Foid [+–] 87-91
Nevada S. Drollinger Smith holds an M.A. in Religious Studies and works in Behavioral Health Quality and Compliance.
Furthering Smith’s argument, Drollinger-Smith provides examples of how rhetoric from incel communities denotes “true” incels or “real” women, to explore how those terms are constructed and employed to establish one’s identity or place within society. Drollinger-Smith argues that these terms have less to do with whether one really is an incel and more to do with how the label can be adapted and employed.
Chapter 15
Naming Things [+–] 92-95
University of Alabama
Steven W. Ramey is a Professor in Religious Studies at the University of Alabama, where he also directs the Asian Studies Program.
In this chapter, Ramey unpacks media uses of the terms “church” and “cult” following a World Peace and Unification Sanctuary ceremony blessing AR-15s in Pennsylvania, USA, noting that these labels are not neutral descriptors. Ramey argues that whether discussing a mainstream or marginalized group, scholars must be careful not to reinforce popular labels and instead critically analyze how and by whom certain labels are being employed.
Chapter 16
While Whitey’s on the Moon [+–] 96-101
Catawba College
Annie Rose O’Brien is an Assistant Professor of Religion at Catawba College in Salisbury, North Carolina. Her work considers race, religion, and public memory in the Southern US through the contemporary memorialization of lynching murder victims and the defacement, removal, destruction, and—more recently—the re-installation of Confederate monuments. She explores how subaltern memory is unearthed in order to contest dominant symbols, narratives, and mythologies of the nation-state, as well as the colonial logics which continue to belie its actions. Her work emphasizes white claims of supremacy as part of a
project of spatial domination which seeks to sacralize whiteness through public history, ritual acts, and visual and material culture.
project of spatial domination which seeks to sacralize whiteness through public history, ritual acts, and visual and material culture.
Building on Ramey’s argument, O’Brien draws on a couple of examples to explore the practical effects of our language—particularly that of authentic American identity—in maintaining power structures that oppress marginalized communities. O’Brien argues that our histories and narratives of identity are not neutral and require thoughtful and critical engagement to better understand how certain narratives are authorized and others are delegitimized.
Chapter 17
In Their Own Terms [+–] 102-106
University of Alabama
Vaia Touna is Associate Professor in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa. She is author of Fabrications of the Greek Past: Religion, Tradition, and the Making of Modern Identities (Brill, 2017) and editor of Strategic Acts in the Study of Identity: Towards a Dynamic Theory of People and Place (Equinox, 2019). Her research focuses on the sociology of religion, acts of identification and social formation, methodological issues concerning the use of the category of “religion” in the study of the ancient Graeco-Roman world, as well as the study of the past in general.
In this chapter, Touna draws on the Coen brothers’ film O Brother, Where Art Thou? to consider the role of anachronism in modern representations and retellings of ancient Greek myths and history. Touna argues that claims of studying these histories “in their own terms” authorizes the scholar’s work rather than contending with the myriad of scholarly interests framing and constructing notions of “the past.”
Chapter 18
Shaking a Buddhist House of Cards [+–] 107-111
Leibniz University Hannover
Julia Oppermann is an MA student in the Religion in the Public Sphere program at Leibniz
University Hannover, Germany, where she also works as the program’s social media manager. Her master’s thesis examines discourses of alternative medicine in Germany and how the category of “religion” is used to delegitimize such practices from the larger field of medicine. Her further research interests focus on new religious movements and on the interconnection of religion and law in modern societies.
University Hannover, Germany, where she also works as the program’s social media manager. Her master’s thesis examines discourses of alternative medicine in Germany and how the category of “religion” is used to delegitimize such practices from the larger field of medicine. Her further research interests focus on new religious movements and on the interconnection of religion and law in modern societies.
Expanding on Touna’s analysis, Oppermann examines a recent controversy at a small Buddhist temple in Thailand whose monks were defrocked after testing positive for methamphetamine to explore the implicit anachronism in constructions of “authentic” representations of Buddhism and Buddhist practices. Oppermann argues that these are not merely reflections of reality and that instead of attempting to delineate what does or does not get to count as “authentic Buddhism,” we should consider how and why those claims are made.
Chapter 19
“A Good Fake or a Bad Fake”? [+–] 112-116
Leibniz University Hannover
Andie Alexander is a doctoral candidate in the Institute for the Study of Religion at Leibniz University Hannover. She is co-editor (with Jason W. M. Ellsworth) of Fabricating Authenticity (Equinox, 2024) and is Managing Editor of The Religious Studies Project. Her research focuses on identity construction, discourses of difference and experience, and conceptions of the individual as a way to examine how post-9/11 discourses of inclusivity and pluralism implicitly work as a form of governance and subject-making which construct and constrain the liberal Muslim subject.
In this chapter, Alexander complicates notions of authenticity as they pertain to the world of art, art conservation and preservation, and art forgeries. Comparing two relatively recent examples of art restoration, she explores what’s at stake in achieving an “authentic” restoration that maintains what is claimed to be the “intention” of the artist. Working through these examples, Alexander considers how and when the rhetoric of authenticity is employed and explores how such claims are often linked to the purported value of the artwork rather than the “authentic” quality of the piece.
Chapter 20
Independent Scholar
Daniel Jones is an independent scholar, editor, writer, and educator whose research focuses on the intersection of religious, environmental, resource extraction, and science and technology discourses. Daniel received an MA in Religious Studies from Missouri State University, and currently edits the American Religion section of the journal Religious Studies Review.
Building on Alexander’s argument, Jones considers a recent controversy regarding Charismatic preacher Perry Stone’s use of his cell phone while purportedly speaking in tongues (glossolalia) to examine how ritual practices, media and technology, and notions of attention work to (de)legitimize the “authenticity” of performance. Jones further considers how normative assumptions of “attention” reify ableist and neuronormative ideologies by establishing neurotypical behavior as the standard for “authentic” or “sincere” religious performance.
Chapter 21
Do People Misunderstand their Own Religion? [+–] 125-130
St. Thomas Aquinas College
Craig Martin, Ph.D., is Professor of Religious Studies at St. Thomas Aquinas College. He writes on discourse analysis and ideology critique; his most recent books include Capitalizing Religion: Ideology and the Opiate of the Bourgeoisie (Bloomsbury, 2014) and A Critical Introduction to the Study of Religion, 2nd Edition (Routledge, 2017).
In this chapter, Martin draws on two examples to explore whose claims and understandings of religion are authenticated or legitimated and in what ways. Martin highlights that “authentic” understandings of religion are often applied to white, male-led, institutional practices, while marking practices of women and ethnic minorities as “inauthentic” and argues that the role of the scholar is to consider how religions are defined, by whom, and for what purposes.
Chapter 22
But is it Really Religion? [+–] 131-134
Ohio State University
Savannah H. Finver is a doctoral student at Ohio State University where she is pursuing a degree in Comparative Studies. Her interests lie in discourses on religion as they appear in U.S. law and politics, especially as they pertain to the assignment of civil rights and legal privileges.
Furthering Martin’s analysis, Finver explores the effects of legal classifications of religion with regard to the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. Finver considers the question of “parody” vs. “real” religion to highlight the socio-political interests driving that distinction and argues that instead of participating in these authenticity debates, scholars should consider which groups are unquestioningly granted the classification of “religion” to understand what legal rights and protections come from such a designation.
Chapter 23
If it’s not Authentic, it’s not a Religion [+–] 135-138
University of Helsinki
Teemu Taira is Senior Lecturer in the Study of Religion, University of Helsinki. His publications include Media Portrayals of Religion and the Secular Sacred (Ashgate 2013, co-authored with Kim Knott & Elizabeth Poole), Taking ‘Religion’ Seriously: Essays on the Discursive Study of Religion (Brill 2022) and more than 70 articles in journals and edited volumes.
In this chapter, Taira unpacks the legal criteria for classifying certain groups as “authentic religions” and how those criteria are applied in the case of the Temple of the Jedi Order in the UK. In considering which groups are or are not granted legal (and protected status), Taira argues that these criteria reify a Christo-centric definition and legal classification of religion which fabricate non-normative religions as “inauthentic.”
Chapter 24
Wilfrid Laurier University-University of Waterloo
Zabeen Khamisa is a doctoral candidate in the joint Wilfrid Laurier University-University of Waterloo PhD, Religious Diversity in North America. Zabeen’s research interests include religion and socio-political movements, Sikhism in North America, digital religion, the sociology and anthropology of religion, and cultural economics. Her dissertation research is focused on progressive Sikh millennials in Canada.
Khamisa builds on Taira’s analysis of “good” or “authentic” religion to consider what happens to groups labeled as “bad” religion. Exploring the social violence and discrimination of Sikhs and Muslims post-9/11 North America, Khamisa argues that marginalized, non-Christian religions have to apply Christo-centric notions of authentic religion, which may or may not align with how they construct their identities, so to legitimize their own authenticity.
Chapter 25
Fullerton College
Martha Smith is Professor of Religious Studies at Fullerton College in Southern California. Her current research and teaching interests include North American religious diversity and pluralism, race and ethnicity studies, diversity and social justice. Her courses focus on the diversity of the American religious landscape, especially the ways in which race, gender, and ethnicity are connected to religious identities and the significance of material culture and lived religious experience in American life.
In this chapter, Smith considers how the notion of authenticity is employed in discussions and understandings of genetic ancestry testing. Drawing on various responses to ancestry testing—from overtly racist internet forums to commercials and programs aiming to frame cultural diversity in a positive way—Smith argues that these competing narratives and constructs of identity ultimately authorize their claims through a reification of biological essentialism.
Chapter 26
Making Sense of a Sense of Self [+–] 149-153
Grand Valley State University
Israel L. Domínguez is Assistant Professor of Interdisciplinary Studies at Grand Valley State University. His primary research interests focus on decolonization within the context of the U.S.-Mexico borderland religious traditions.
Furthering Smith’s analysis, Domínguez explores the complexity of indigenous identity and highlights the lack of historical records of many people in indigenous communities in the Américas. Drawing on Anzaldúa’s theory of nepantla, Domínguez argues that many identity categories—like those present in GATs—reify white, European colonial notions of authentic identity while delegitimizing racially-, culturally- and gender-fluid categories that don’t fit within the binary system.
Chapter 27
The Moves we Make [+–] 154-158
University of Alabama
K. Merinda Simmons is Associate Professor of Religious Studies and Graduate Director of the Religion in Culture MA Program at the University of Alabama. Her books include Changing the Subject: Writing Women across the African Diaspora (Ohio State UP, 2014), The Trouble with Post-Blackness (co-edited with Houston A. Baker, Jr., Columbia UP, 2015), and Race and New Modernisms (co-authored with James A. Crank, Bloomsbury, 2019). She is editor of the book series Concepts in the Study of Religion: Critical Primers (Equinox).
Examining the competing (and predominantly “progressive”) discourses policing trans identifications in the cases of Rachel Dolezal and Caitlyn Jenner, Simmons critically reflects on the construction, (im)permeability, and crossing of various identification boundaries to highlight how dominant and normative understandings of race and gender have serious and even life-threatening consequences for those who diverge from the status quo.
Chapter 28
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Hinasahar Muneeruddin is a doctoral student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in the Islamic Studies track of the Religious Studies program and currently pursuing her graduate certificate in Women and Gender Studies. Her research lies at the intersections of Islam, gender, race, affect, and performativity.
Building on Simmons’ analysis, Muneeruddin juxtaposes how two examples of contested “authentic” trans* identification discourses are strategically employed in disparate ways. Muneeruddin first examines how Jessica Krug’s claims created a sense of racial authority in her scholarship by perpetuating the commodification of Blackness in the US; she then outlines how trans* Muslims strategically reclaim rhetoric of “authentic Muslimness” to create safe spaces for trans* Muslims and combat exclusionary, cis-heteronormative Muslim practices.
Afterword
Afterword: A Little Heritage Goes a Long Way [+–] 164-177
Leibniz University Hannover
Andie Alexander is a doctoral candidate in the Institute for the Study of Religion at Leibniz University Hannover. She is co-editor (with Jason W. M. Ellsworth) of Fabricating Authenticity (Equinox, 2024) and is Managing Editor of The Religious Studies Project. Her research focuses on identity construction, discourses of difference and experience, and conceptions of the individual as a way to examine how post-9/11 discourses of inclusivity and pluralism implicitly work as a form of governance and subject-making which construct and constrain the liberal Muslim subject.
Dalhousie University
Jason W. M. Ellsworth is a doctoral candidate in the Sociology and Social Anthropology Department at Dalhousie University. He currently works at the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Prince Edward Island and serves on the Executive Committee of the Canadian Anthropology Society. His research explores a diverse array of topics including the Anthropology and Sociology of Religion, Buddhism in North America, Food and Food Movements, Theories of Value, Political Economy, Marketing, Transnationalism, and Orientalism.
In addition to the 28 chapters, this volume has a longer, more substantive Introduction and Afterword that offer a variety of examples exploring what’s at stake in discourses on authenticity and how they are inextricably linked to what Jean-François Bayart terms “operational acts of identification.” The Afterword, in closing the volume, offers a final, extended example—incorporating a mix of the approaches and arguments throughout the volume—to demonstrate how these analyses are not strictly limited to a particular case study. The Afterword centers on the question of how authenticity discourses are employed to construct (or delegitimize) notions of an ancient Scottish heritage through (re)branding and commodifying strategic origins narratives.
End Matter
Index 178-188
Dalhousie University
Jason W. M. Ellsworth is a doctoral candidate in the Sociology and Social Anthropology Department at Dalhousie University. He currently works at the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Prince Edward Island and serves on the Executive Committee of the Canadian Anthropology Society. His research explores a diverse array of topics including the Anthropology and Sociology of Religion, Buddhism in North America, Food and Food Movements, Theories of Value, Political Economy, Marketing, Transnationalism, and Orientalism.
Leibniz University Hannover
Andie Alexander is a doctoral candidate in the Institute for the Study of Religion at Leibniz University Hannover. She is co-editor (with Jason W. M. Ellsworth) of Fabricating Authenticity (Equinox, 2024) and is Managing Editor of The Religious Studies Project. Her research focuses on identity construction, discourses of difference and experience, and conceptions of the individual as a way to examine how post-9/11 discourses of inclusivity and pluralism implicitly work as a form of governance and subject-making which construct and constrain the liberal Muslim subject.
