Soundscapes of Uyghur Islam

In Soundscapes of Uyghur Islam, Rachel Harris explores the religious practice of a group of Uyghur women in a small village in China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, tracing connections with Mecca, Istanbul, Bishkek, and Beijing. She examines the spiritual and political geographies they inhabit, and how various forms of Islam that arrive via travel and the internet come into dialogue with local embodied practices, creating new forms that facilitate powerful, affective experiences of faith.

Format: Hardback
Length: 266 pages
Publication date: 03 November 2020
Publisher: Indiana University Press

China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region is facing a severe crisis of securitization and mass incarceration, which has led to the exploration of the religious practices of a group of Uyghur women in a small village. Despite their remote location, these women are mobile and connected, and their religious soundscapes transcend transnational networks. In her book, Soundscapes of Uyghur Islam, author Rachel Harris delves into the spiritual and political geographies inhabited by these village women, tracing connections with Mecca, Istanbul, Bishkek, and Beijing. Through the lens of sound, embodiment, and territoriality, Harris highlights the patterns of religious change among Uyghurs and the cultural erasure policies employed by the Chinese state to assert its control over the land occupied by the Uyghurs. By drawing on contemporary approaches to the circulation of popular music, Harris examines how various forms of Islam that arrive through travel and the internet engage with local embodied practices, leading to the creation of new practices that facilitate powerful and affective experiences of faith.

Weight: 554g
Dimension: 159 x 235 x 23 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780253050182