ʿAshūrāʾ Rituals, Identity and Politics: A Comparative Approach (Lebanon and India)
Abstract
The Karbala paradigm and the Ashura / Muharram rituals shape a religious culture common to all communities of the Shi‘i worlds. The five types of rituals observed during the celebrations raise many questions for historians and anthropologists.
This Karbala paradigm is not fixed, but was changed, during the 20th century : reform, politicization and gender discourse reinvented tradition, in different ways depending on the social groups involved and on the societies and contexts they live in. Religious authorities play a more or less important role in this process. Here, the cases of Lebanon and Hyderabad are studied and put into perspective. Two questions are particularly explored with a comparative approach : images and ritual objects on the one had, and rituals of mortification on the other hand.