La mobilité religieuse à l’aune du butinage

Abstract

In this article, we consider the place of religious mobility as one of the fundamental social structures governing religious practice. Rather than considering stable institutional loyalty as the norm, as indeed implied by common conceptions of religion, we suggest an alternative in the form of religious butinage, whose core feature is dynamic, polymorphous mobility. The notion of religious butinage thus reverses the classic perspective that sees religious mobility, and in particular conversion, as an exceptional occurrence requiring explanation through recourse to external factors (for example, social changes, economic transformation, or psychological hardships).