Sacred-languistic community imagined membership as alchemic absorption rather than adherence

Evidence

By conversion, I mean not so much the acceptance of particular religious tenets, but alchemic absorption. The barbarian becomes ‘Middle Kingdom’, the Rif Muslim, the Ilongo Christian. The whole nature of man’s being is sacrally malleable. (Contrast thus the prestige of these old world-languages, towering high over all vernaculars, with Esperanto or Volapük, which lie ignored between them.) It was, after all, this possibility of conversion through the sacred language that made it possible for an ‘Englishman’ to become Pope8 and a ‘Manchu’ Son of Heaven. — Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities, 64

Categorization

• XREF: This contrast between sacrally malleable identity and fixed national identity scaffolds the reader’s scaffolding theory of racialized/religious Othering. — connects to: Sacred-language communities absorbed outsiders through script mastery — Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections on…, 61; Sacred languages were imagined as emanations of reality itself — Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections on…, 64; Shared journeys among strangers create the sense of an imagined community — Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections on…, 223 (+6 more)

Related

• Sacred-language communities absorbed outsiders through script mastery (similarity 0.87)
• Sacred languages were imagined as emanations of reality itself (similarity 0.85)
• A universal imagined community was reproduced through countless particular local forms (similarity 0.81)
• Pre-modern great communities imagined themselves via sacred script, not ethnicity (similarity 0.80)

Broader Connections

• Social unity is felt through concrete relations rather than abstract awareness #expands (0.85) — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 169
• Shared journeys among strangers create the sense of an imagined community #expands (0.82) — Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities, 223
• Anonymity rooted in self-stripping becomes a substitute for community belonging #complicates (0.80)
• Social structures are objectivated meanings built through inter-subjective exchange #expands (0.78)
• Time-binding cultures value history, ritual symbols, and rooted community #complicates (0.75) — James W. Carey, Communication as Culture- Essays on…, 624
• A universal imagined community was reproduced through countless particular local forms #contradicts (0.72) — Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities, 82