While maritime and littoral cultures form specific constraints for the everyday beliefs and practices of religion, also specific elements of religions influence the everyday life of the people on and near the sea. In terms of high seas travel, many encounters between different cultures took and take place on the sea shores.
This workshop brings together researchers of maritime culture who are dealing with its religion\s from various perspectives and fields of research in order to discuss religion\s at sea from a theoretical as well as historical (i.e. based on empirical data) perspective.
It aims at two focal points:
a history-oriented focus includes a broad geographical and temporal range to inform each other about the breadth of empirical data;
a theory-oriented focus aims at identifying different religious elements in those various maritime cultures in order to discuss what makes them distinct from profane elements.
The discussions will also cover methodological questions about data of a rather vernacular culture and comparison between cul-tures and religions.
With this workshop initiates a continuative conversation between the research fields of cultural anthropology, maritime history and religious studies.