Olivier Servais

Funerals in the ‘World of Warcraft’: Religion, polemic, and styles of play in a videogame universe

This article discusses ‘World of Warcraft’ (WoW), one of the most popular of today’s ‘massively multiplayer online role playing games’ (MMORPG). The author focuses on the funeral ceremonies organized by players within the game. The first section gives a brief outline of the different perspectives in current research relative to the study of religion on the internet and particularly in digital universes. The second contains the discussion on cyber funerals in WoW and the different dimensions of such ceremonies. In particular, the author examines the controversy surrounding a ceremony honoring a deceased player, which was unexpectedly and violently interrupted by other players. In the third and final part, the author considers the anthropological issues that this case raises.

Chapter 3: Energy “Needs”, Desires, and Wishes : Anthropological Insights and Prospective Views

Publisher Summary This chapter introduces energy needs and decent lifestyle and their social and cultural preconceptions. It acknowledges, on one hand, that there are “biologic needs” related to every human existence and, on the other hand, that these are radically relative, historically and culturally. Therefore, it seems misguided to try to define “needs” as a particular set of objective conditions, which means neutrally and validly for others. A consequence of this observed relativity is the impossibility of defining as frivolous certain choices that a person or collective might make for themselves and consider an absolute necessity. The logic of “need” is never far from the logic of desire and wishes, and resists external constraints, even if they are collectively imposed and accepted, as illustrated by infringements of traffic codes. What makes the difference between survival defined as satisfying physiological necessities versus a life that is human and respects the environment and available resources may be the possibility of choosing for oneself diminished “needs” that are assumed as meaningful and not only as constraining. The autonomy principle defines the difference between physical survival and austere life.

Energy “Needs”, Desires, and Wishes: Anthropological Insights and Prospective Views

Publisher Summary This chapter introduces energy needs and decent lifestyle and their social and cultural preconceptions. It acknowledges, on one hand, that there are “biologic needs” related to every human existence and, on the other hand, that these are radically relative, historically and culturally. Therefore, it seems misguided to try to define “needs” as a particular set of objective conditions, which means neutrally and validly for others. A consequence of this observed relativity is the impossibility of defining as frivolous certain choices that a person or collective might make for themselves and consider an absolute necessity. The logic of “need” is never far from the logic of desire and wishes, and resists external constraints, even if they are collectively imposed and accepted, as illustrated by infringements of traffic codes. What makes the difference between survival defined as satisfying physiological necessities versus a life that is human and respects the environment and available resources may be the possibility of choosing for oneself diminished “needs” that are assumed as meaningful and not only as constraining. The autonomy principle defines the difference between physical survival and austere life.

La “Religion Invisible” En Belgique: Questions De Visibilité

“Visible religion” in Belgium takes the form it takes in many other Western European countries: classic forms of practices, beliefs, and identifications can be distinguished, but the gap between these and traditional religious forms is increasing. However, this gap does not keep the “visible religion” from seeking fundamental meaning, or producing and celebrating the same. Quite the contrary, as concerns practices and beliefs relative to death, for example, older forms do not simply disappear, but are replaced by new arrangements. These new arrangements are self-produced and self-maintained, but they do not give rise to an increase in individualization in a context of dissolution of forms. It may be that still newer forms will rise upon the ashes of these forms. Should they not be described as “religious”? And in order to transcend their relative “invisibility”, must the sociology of religion not also break with its history of colonization by prior forms?

L’eschatologie « No life ». Incorporation et Avatarisation d’érémitisme digital

In this article we develop an analysis of No lifes, those whose horizon of sense has decided to anchor mostly in their virtual lives. These digital hermits, as they are classified by some, beyond the simplifying perspective of addicts of the digital universes, often prove to be practitioners of convictions, whose diversity of profiles testifies to the complexity of the paths and the axiological choices. Like new trajectories of conversion, these recluses of the 21st century appear as a contemporary, virtual, way of digital eschatology. After returning to the reasons that motivate players to withdraw from the world and take refuge in digital universes, we will show how an analogy with hermits is heuristically fertile.

Épilogue : Vers une reconfiguration techno-scientifique des narrations religieuses ?

In this Afterword, we propose lines of convergence between all the articles of this double special issue and, beyond this, hermeneutic keys to read these techno-scientific mutations and their impact on religious narratives.

Epilogue: Towards a technical-scientific reconfiguration of religious narratives?

In this Afterword, we propose lines of convergence between all the articles of this double special issue and, beyond this, hermeneutic keys to read these techno-scientific mutations and their impact on religious narratives.

Vers une identité wallonne 2.0 ? Urbanité, mobilité, et relocalisation

Force est de constater que ces derniers mois, voire ces dernieres annees, la situation belge interpelle particulierement. Ecart sociologique Nord-Sud croissant, repression accrue des migrants, fin des frontieres nationales, autant d’indices d’un mal-etre identitaire chez nos contemporains. Au-dela des boucs emissaires traditionnels (voisins, nomades, pauvres, etc.), cette atmosphere corrosive temoigne sans aucun doute de lignes de forces souterraines, probablement bien plus responsables des tensions en cours que ne le sont les malheureuses cibles habituelles. De fait, en quelques decennies la sociologie du plat pays a evolue de maniere massive, et peut-etre etonnamment, plus au Sud du pays, francophone, qu’au Nord, adepte de la langue de Vondel.

Roues des casinos, Néo-traditionalistes et évangéliques: religion, politique et développement économique dans quelques communautés Anishinaabeg du Sud du Lac Supérieur

La creation de Casinos sur le territoire des reserves autochtones aux Etats-Unis comme au Canada est un developpement qui suscite d’intenses debats au sein de plusieurs communautes. Ce projet de developpement economique semble souvent dresser contre lui des groupes aux ancrages religieux assez differents, mais dont les positions donnent lieu a des images d’Epinal peu eclairantes. Il semble au contraire qu’une observation plus fine des realites temoigne de convergences improbables, et surtout de la complexite des positionnements a l’egard de ces etablissements. Dans cette optique, deux acteurs importants ont ete retenus pour l’analyse. Tout d’abord les groupes traditionalistes amerindiens, des mouvements mefiants vis-a-vis de la modernite occidentale et revendiquant un reancrage des communautes dans les spiritualites amerindiennes. On concoit aisement que de tels collectifs aient pu s’opposer fermement a la dynamique capitaliste que representent les casinos. Ensuite les Eglises evangeliques qui constituent le fer de lance de la lutte contre les jeux de hasard a l’echelle nationale. Dans la presente etude de cas, on tente ainsi de repondre a la question suivante : quels sont les positionnements des mouvements evangeliques et des groupes amerindiens traditionalistes sur cette problematique des casinos chippewa au Michigan, Wisconsin et Minnesota ? Et, de maniere sous-jacente, quels sont les ressorts permettant d’expliquer l’evolution des positionnements des acteurs sur cette question ? Pour l’auteur, le cas a analyser est emblematique de cette situation ambigue entre traditionalisme de preservation et evangelisme face a cette nouvelle source de prosperite.

Energy “Needs”, Desires, and Wishes

Publisher Summary This chapter introduces energy needs and decent lifestyle and their social and cultural preconceptions. It acknowledges, on one hand, that there are “biologic needs” related to every human existence and, on the other hand, that these are radically relative, historically and culturally. Therefore, it seems misguided to try to define “needs” as a particular set of objective conditions, which means neutrally and validly for others. A consequence of this observed relativity is the impossibility of defining as frivolous certain choices that a person or collective might make for themselves and consider an absolute necessity. The logic of “need” is never far from the logic of desire and wishes, and resists external constraints, even if they are collectively imposed and accepted, as illustrated by infringements of traffic codes. What makes the difference between survival defined as satisfying physiological necessities versus a life that is human and respects the environment and available resources may be the possibility of choosing for oneself diminished “needs” that are assumed as meaningful and not only as constraining. The autonomy principle defines the difference between physical survival and austere life.