New Tasks for the Anthropological Studies on Religious Conversion

Christian Narratives among the Duruma in the Coastal Areas of Kenya

Abstract

The purpose of the present study is to explore a new direction for the anthropology of religious conversion, based on the examination of Christian narratives among the Duruma, a people who inhabit in the coastal areas of Kenya. Among Duruma Christians, while devil worshippers are said to interrupt the activities of Christian churches, possessive spirits have acquired the character of an enemy of God. Though it apparently seems to be a consequence of syncretism between Christianity and traditional religion among the Duruma, it is difficult to find the contrast between world religion and traditional religion, as well as some Christian connotations of the concepts of conversion and religion, in the folk terms and testimonies. Given this situation, this study proposes to describe the lifeworld which consists of spiritual insecurity, instead of tracing the process of syncretism, as a task for the anthropology of religious conversion.