Articles of Faith: Material Piety, Devotional Aesthetics and the Construction of a Moral Economy in the Transnational Sathya Sai Movement

摘要

Despite a broad and growing devotee base for the transnational Sathya Sai Movement, little research exists on Sai sacred objects: their meanings, their patterns of circulation and their production and exchange in the world of Sai devotion. This article offers a meditation on these Sai sacred artifacts, their visuality, their modes of acquisition by devotees and their multiple biographies in various realms. I analyze the hermeneutics of quiddity to demonstrate how ideas of transcendence and transformation are embedded within and shaped around the Sai objects, thereby creating a language and disciplined practice of material piety that shapes the ontology of Sai devotion. I examine how the sacred objects act, and are acted upon, to shape a a??politics of visual materialitya?? in three ways: (1) as iconic magical devices to legitimate Sai Baba's long-distance charismatic authority for the transnational devotee base, through innovative a??strategies of affiliation,a?? (2) as desirable objects that devotees cherish for their beauty and scopophilic value, creating a normative a??devotional aesthetic,a?? and (3) as symbols of devotional status signifying a??valuea?? based on their mode of acquisition, engaging a a??narrative of affect.a?? These maneuvers and devices invest the objects with a a??strategic ambiguitya?? aiding in the construction of a global moral economy. The article is part of a larger project on the expansion of constructed religious experience in emergent transnational religious movements.View full textDownload full textRelated var addthis_config = { ui_cobrand: "Taylor & Francis Online", services_compact: "citeulike,netvibes,twitter,technorati,delicious,linkedin,facebook,stumbleupon,digg,google,more", pubid: "ra-4dff56cd6bb1830b" }; var addthis_config = {"data_track_addressbar":true,"ui_click":true}; Add to shortlist Link Permalink http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/08949468.2012.687959