Bibliography 2: #BIB39612

Key	BIB39612
Reference type	Thesis
Title	Bahá'í e dinamismo religioso : Il caso di studio di una comunità globalizzata : un'analisi storico-religiosa fra Italia e Tunisia
Translated title	Bahá'ís and Religious Dynamism : The Case Study of a Globalized Community : A Historical-Religious Analysis between Italy and Tunisia
Author	Scialdone, Marta
Year	2024
Date	2023/2024
Place published	Roma
Abstract	This work focuses on the Bahá'í communities of Italy and Tunisia, analyzed from a historical-religious perspective, supported by ethnographic research. Beginning with its genesis and origins in Persia in the second half of the 19th century, the work traces the development and spread of the Bahá'í religion, analyzing its principles, practices, and "non-rituality." It was deemed necessary to provide a historical context to better orient the reader within the social, political, and religious context in which the Bahá'í religion was embedded, and to sketch portraits of its key figures: from the Bāb, the precursor, to Bahá'u'lláh, the founder, to the Universal House of Justice, the administrative body that today guides the world community. Regarding its origins, the aim was to highlight how the Bahá'í community was inserted into a unique geopolitical context, closely connected to a religious environment dominated by Shi'ite Islam and a series of interconnected schools and variants, to which several authoritative figures contributed. By analyzing the pioneers, "missionary migrants" who volunteered their services to the community, it was possible to study the trajectories of the new belief's spread, implemented primarily under the guidance of Shoghi Effendi, great-grandson of Bahá'u'lláh and "heir apparent" in the genealogical line, who continued the work of his ancestors in the early decades of the twentieth century. Particular attention has been paid to the arrival and settlement of communities of believers in Italy and Tunisia, both religiously plural contexts, attempting to distinguish the categories of plurality and pluralism and highlighting the "new" concept of superdiversity, coined in 2007 by scholar Steven Vertovec. The first element common to both communities is their status as religious minorities. I have analyzed some ambiguities regarding the veiled presence of rituals accompanying believers' "changes of status"—acceptance of faith, naming, marriage, and burial—considering the emic perspective in continuous comparison with the "ethical" perspective, and thus questioning certain assumptions through theoretical references. The final section of the paper explores the study category of cultural sustainability, highlighting its origins and the possible connections with religion, and the difficulty of seeking a univocal definition. It introduces the interpretations of cultural sustainability provided by the oral testimonies of Bahá'í believers collected during fieldwork. The final chapter also aims to connect two seemingly distant fields of study: the historical-religious one and the one inherent in the overarching theme of sustainability, interpreted in its "cultural" sense.
Language	Italian
Keywords	ITALY; TUNISIA; HISTORY; SOCIOLOGY; RITUAL
Number of pages	307
Thesis type	Doctorate
Academic department	Dipartimento di Storia, Antropologia, Religioni, Arte, Spettacolo
University	Sapienza Università di Roma
Degree	Ph.D.
Advisor	Faranda, Laura and Sbardella, Francesca
File attachments	internal-pdf://0734365919/Scialdone (2024) Bahai_dinamismo.pdf

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