Cough sweets and angels: the ordinary ethics of the extraordinary in S ufi practice in L ebanon

This article presents an ethnographic account of the social production of the miraculous in S ufi practice in L ebanon, including displays of bodily mortification. It examines the interdependence of the extraordinary and the ordinary/everyday, following, but problematizing, M ax W eber's classic discussion of charismatic authority. For W eber the extraordinary lies outside the bounds of rules. Adopting the terms of some recent interventions in the anthropology of ethics, I claim on the contrary that the extraordinary has its ordinary ethics too. In so doing I not only add to the anthropology of wonder but also challenge those who would argue that anthropology's especial focus is on the ordinary, to the exclusion of its opposite. If this is not to be mere piety, sorting out what belongs to which category will prove challenging. Especially within the anthropology of religion, one can hardly do with one without the other.