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The Necessity / Possibility to Re‐name: A Spiritual Autoethnography
Author(s) -
Rafi Haleh
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
anthropology and humanism
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.153
H-Index - 17
eISSN - 1548-1409
pISSN - 1559-9167
DOI - 10.1111/anhu.12320
Subject(s) - autoethnography , faith , mysticism , sociology , aesthetics , epistemology , psychoanalysis , gender studies , psychology , philosophy , theology
Summary This article is a spiritual autoethnography that discusses the necessity and possibility of finding names for personal religious or spiritual beliefs. It investigates the multiple nature of selfhood, crossing boundaries, and shifting identities by relating the life story of the author from being born a Muslim to being an atheist, and then to becoming interested in religious mysticism and being a devoted spiritual traveler. By means of autoethnographic techniques, the article illustrates how people are urged to find new names for what they are specifically when they perform religious rules of a faith in a different way. The article also discusses the consequences of re‐naming.