"As Above, So Below": Contemporary British Cosmologies of Spirituality and the New Age

导言：在宗教人类学中，与“新时代”这一宽泛范畴相关的流行现象没有得到充分的研究和简化。虽然传统的宗教认同有所下降，但最近的一项英国民意调查显示，20%的人相信“更大的精神力量”，但不相信上帝（YouGov 2015）。先前的少数人类学研究呈现出一幅简单化、同质化的图景。这项研究将通过创新的宇宙论和本体论方法，“与”新时代思考。它将展示新时代是如何异质的，但实践在不同的个人、地点和事件之间流动，在地面上创造一个生活网络。除此之外，新时代本身将被条件反射地定位为英国社会的理论。研究背景：“宇宙学”指的是实体相互作用的方式（Venkatesan 2014, 77）。以定义松散的“本体论转向”运动为例，我的研究将从人种学数据本身产生概念，允许新时代宇宙学递归地分析自己（Holbraad & Pedersen 2017,16）。关于存在的主张在实验上等同于关于存在的理论（Pedersen 2012），将新时代现象转变为完全成熟的概念，而不仅仅是物质对象，能够解释自己和周围的其他现象。通过我的民族志领域站点的几个关键中心追踪这些对象和实践，将显示新时代既是一场实地的生活运动，具有实践之间的真实联系，同时也代表了其内部的多样性。这种本体论方法的“方法论一元论”（Pedersen 2012）瓦解了社会生活的不同领域。考察个人和非个人力量被理解和实践的方式，将使我能够解决新时代实践与更广泛的社会力量之间的关系。继Pedersen将蒙古萨满教视为“社会转型的本土理论”（2011,223）之后，本研究将展示新时代实践如何成为当代英国社会的理论。研究方法：在Hebden Bridge进行人种学参与性观察，并附带非结构化访谈；本研究将从多个精神商店，繁忙的瑜伽中心，几家素食咖啡馆和整体治疗中心开始。该项目将探索这些建筑之间的连续和不连续的流动，参观它们的个人，以及围绕它们组织的事件。“节点民族志”以“单一、特殊和短暂”为分析单位（Kyriakides 2015,24），提供了一种探索事件的方式。人类学家越来越意识到“线上”和“线下”的身份和实践并不是分开的（Pink et al. 2016, 44-45），因此将包括数字民族志（Pink et al. 2016）元素。影响：即使在学术文献中，新时代也经常被描绘成商品化和轻浮的（Davidsen 2012, 189）。通过描绘出这些精神在许多人的日常生活中所扮演的重要角色，当代英国精神的一个关键部分可以被理解和尊重。此外，通过展示新时代宇宙论和参与这种实践的人如何理解更广泛的英国社会，我的研究将影响广泛的问题，如对媒体和政治家的不信任，人们如何应对经济和个人危机，以及如何解决相互竞争的宗教和精神传统之间的冲突。

Introduction:Popular phenomena associated with the broad category of the "New Age" are understudied and simplified in the anthropology of religion. While traditional religious identification has declined, a recent UK poll indicated that 20% believe in a 'greater spiritual power', but not God (YouGov 2015). The few previous anthropological studies present a simplistic, homogenous picture. This research will think "with" the New Age, through innovative cosmological and "ontological" approaches. It will show how the New Age is heterogenous, yet practices flow between different individuals, locations and events, creating a lived network on the ground. Beyond this, the New Age itself will be reflexively positioned as a theory of British society.Research Context:A "cosmology" refers to the ways in which entities interact (Venkatesan 2014, 77). Following the example of studies in the loosely-defined "ontological turn" movement, my research will generate concepts from the ethnographic data itself, allowing New Age cosmologies to recursively analyse themselves (Holbraad & Pedersen 2017, 16). Claims about what exists are experimentally equated with theories about what exists (Pedersen 2012), turning New Age phenomena into fully-fledged concepts, not just material objects, that are able to explain themselves and other phenomena around them. Tracing these objects and practices through several key hubs in my ethnographic field site will show the New Age as both a lived movement on the ground, with real connections between practices, while at the same time representing its internal diversity.The "methodological monism" (Pedersen 2012) of this ontological approach collapses separate spheres of social life. Examining the ways in which personal and impersonal forces are understood and practiced, will enable me to address the relation between New Age practices and wider social forces.Following Pedersen's approach to Mongolian shamanism as an 'indigenous theory of societal transition' (2011, 223), this research will show how New Age practices emerge as theories of contemporary British society.Methodology:Ethnographic participant observation, with attendant unstructured interviews will be performed in Hebden Bridge; this research will start from the multiple spiritual stores, busy yoga centre, several vegan cafes, and holistic therapy centre. The project will explore the continuous and discontinuous flows between these buildings, individuals who visit them, and the events that organise around them. 'Nodal ethnography', which takes 'the singular, particular and ephemeral' as the unit of analysis (Kyriakides 2015, 24), provides a way of exploring events. Anthropologists have an increasing awareness that "online" and "offline" identities and practices are not separate (Pink et al. 2016, 44-45), so a digital ethnography (Pink et al. 2016) element will be included.Impacts:Even in academic literature, the New Age is often portrayed as commodified and frivolous (Davidsen 2012, 189). By drawing out the important role in which these spiritualities play in many people's daily lives, a critical part of contemporary British spirituality can be understood and respected. Further than this, by showing how New Age cosmologies and the people involved in such practices understand wider British society, my research will impact wide questions such as the distrust of media and politicians, how people cope with economic and personal crises, and how conflict is resolved between competing religious and spiritual traditions.