Indigenous Religions as Minority Religions: Power, Adaptation and Agency
The School of Social Sciences, Religion and Society Research proudly presents a public lecture presented by Professor James L. Cox.
The School of Social Sciences, Religion and Society Research proudly presents a public lecture presented by Professor James L. Cox.
Dear Colleagues,
The School of Social Sciences, Religion and Society Research proudly presents:
Public Lecture Presented by Professor James L. Cox
Indigenous Religions as Minority Religions: Power, Adaptation and Agency
DATE: 21st March 2024
TIME: 10am - 12pm
VENUE: Western Sydney University - Liverpool Campus
Level 9, Conference Room 1 (LP-03.9.01)
100 Macquarie Street, Liverpool NSW 2170
Biographical Statement
James L. Cox is Emeritus Professor of Religious Studies in the University of Edinburgh and Adjunct Professor in the School of
Social Sciences, Western Sydney University. He has written widely on the phenomenology of religion, particularly as
applied to the study of Indigenous Religions. His most recent books include: The Invention of God in Indigenous Societies
(Routledge 2014); Restoring the Chain of Memory: T.G.H. Strehlow and the Repatriation of Australian Indigenous
Knowledge (Equinox 2018); A Phenomenology of Indigenous Religions: Theory and Practice (Bloomsbury 2022).
Lecture Title
Indigenous Religions as Minority Religions: Power, Adaptation and Agency
Abstract
Census reports and world religion surveys indicate that the number of adherents to Indigenous Religions globally has
diminished radically over the past century reducing them in many regions to tiny minorities. This could lead to the
conclusion that as their numbers decrease the significance of Indigenous Religions politically, culturally, socially and
economically likewise diminishes. This lecture challenges such an assertion. It begins by defining precisely what is meant by
an Indigenous Religion. This leads to an examination of how Indigenous Religions interact with other seemingly dominant
religions and concludes that commonly practitioners of Indigenous Religions also are affiliated to major world religions like
Christianity, Islam and Buddhism, as well as so-called secular forms of religion. This implies that an Indigenous minority
does not refer exclusively to a numerical indicator, but also can be understood as a relationship of power. This is illustrated
initially by reference to a strategy devised among a select group of Indigenous leaders in Australia, the Rainbow Spirit
Elders, who intentionally transformed the central Christian doctrine of the Incarnation into an ancient and ubiquitous
Indigenous symbol, the rainbow-serpent. A detailed case study drawn from Alaska follows which demonstrates that
Indigenous communities in Alaska continue to respond to the 1971 capitalist land claims settlement imposed by the United
States Government by deliberately integrating the seemingly all-consuming “religious” force of the market economy into
customary patterns of life. The cases of Australia and Alaska show that classifying Indigenous Religions as minorities needs
to be qualified, contextualized and nuanced.
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