How to do research in religious studies without being too preoccupied with finding religion? How to resist the temptation of translating things categorically into religion and indigeneity? How to take seriously practices that powerful institutions try to delegitimize as ‘false religion’ or ‘primitive religion’? How to do critical research without religionizing and indigenizing practices and communities uncritically?

In this episode, we meet Professor Bjørn Ola Tafjord, who describes how episodes during his work in Talamanca (Costa Rica) and Tromsø (Norway) have made him question stereotypical academic uses and expectations of indigenous religions. His study of the Baháʼí Faith as an indigenous religion of Bribri people in Talamanca challenges both authenticity discourses and biased ideas about classes of religions, but, most importantly, it focuses on the role of academic translations.
For more on this topic, read Tafjord's chapter Translating Indigeneities: Educative Encounters in Talamanca, Tromsø and Elsewhere (Routledge 2020) (Open Access).
This podcast is brought to you by INREL and GOVMAT from the Department of Archaeology, History, Religious Studies and Theology at UiT The Arctic University of Norway.
Recording studio and technical support: UiT Result.
Musical intro and outro: Lasse Michelsen.
Host, editor and logo designer: Liudmila Nikanorova.