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Philip Swift

University College London, Anthropology, Honorary Research Associate

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Honorary Research Associate at the Department of Anthropology, University College London. My doctoral research (PhD Osaka University 2018) was on the concept of conversion in a Japanese new religion. My research interests include cosmology, ritual and transformation (in Japan and elsewhere), and the problems and issues of anthropological translation.
Having studied ancient history at UCL, I went on to do an MSc in anthropology (also at UCL), with the intention of pursuing a doctorate on ancient Roman magic, but it was largely the inspirational and revelatory teaching of Bruce Kapferer that irreversibly converted me to anthropology.

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Casper Bruun Jensen

Andrei Znamenski

University of Memphis

Charlotte Hardman

Babes-Bolyai University

Babes-Bolyai University

Universität Bremen

Zuzana Kostićová

Charles University, Prague

Beau Deurwaarder

University of Melbourne

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Papers by Philip Swift

Fake it till you make it: Baudrillard, Simulation and Ritual in Japan

An attempt to analyse Japanese ritual technologies in terms of Baudrillard's conception of simula... more

Hans Peter Duerr: Can witches fly?

A translation of Hans Peter Duerr's essay, which has been portrayed as nothing less than a charte... more

In the Witches' Kitchen: The Anarchist Anthropology of Hans Peter Duerr

An introduction to Hans Peter Duerr's severely neglected classic, Dreamtime (1978). German anthro... more An introduction to Hans Peter Duerr's severely neglected classic, Dreamtime (1978). German anthropology is finally receiving much-needed attention; hence, the present work is partly intended as a contribution to these ongoing efforts to explicate it for an Anglophone audience. But more than this, Dreamtime's challenging argument critically engages with themes of major importance to contemporary anthropology more generally-among them, the interrelated issues of ontology, translation and transformation. I attempt to explore this and trace out the significant affinities and resonances of Duerr's argument with the work of an eclectic collective of others, including Evans-Pritchard, Sahlins, Stengers, and Deleuze.

Prosthetic Revelations: Sticking the Teachings to the Body in a Japanese New Religion

Japan Review, 2022

The Japanese new religion, Mahikari, is known primarily for its practical technique of manual pur... more The Japanese new religion, Mahikari, is known primarily for its practical technique of manual purification, okiyome. However, this article instead focuses on the program of practices that is regarded as being equally important in terms of its purificatory and salvific effects: that of engaging with revelatory teachings, a form of engagement that is often articulated in terms of the expression "sticking the teachings to the body" (oshie o mi ni tsukeru). I consider this particular idiom of attachment and the ways in which it is actualized in devotional practices, and I contend that this notion of somatic yet spiritual "sticking" acts as a conceptual corrective to overly internalizing models of religiosity. In conclusion, I suggest that while Helen Hardacre once proposed that "cosmology" was analytically restricting, and argued instead in favor of "worldview," the issue with regards to the role of embodied practice in Mahikari calls for a reconsideration of these analytical terms. Accordingly, the article ends by suggesting a turn away from "worldview," back towards the category of the cosmological.

Heathen hermeneutics; Or, radical "radical interpretation"

HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory, 2022

Translation – both multi- and intra-lingual – is vital to anthropological method. Drawing a disti... more Translation – both multi- and intra-lingual – is vital to anthropological method. Drawing a distinction between two opposing modes of translation (“domesticating” versus “foreignizing”), this paper considers the ontological and ethical consequences of these two interpretative strategies, in particular, by critically engaging with the doctrine of Donald Davidson, the theoretical inspiration for Pina-Cabral’s work, World (2017). I argue, instead, in favour of a “pagan” or pluralizing conceptual method, inspired by Feyerabend, Lyotard, and Hans-Peter Duerr, and I suggest that their approaches demonstrate that even the polymodal ontology of Latour is lacking in plurality. In conclusion, I consider how the notion of foreignizing translation relates to the method associated with the ontological turn in anthropology

How to do things with worlds: A reply to responses

HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory, 2022

Discussing multiplicity, translation, the radicality of anthropology, and JL Austin's views on de... more

Bodies in place: The transformative atmospherics of lightscapes in Mahikari

Asian Anthropology, 2021

Practice centers (dojos) in the Japanese new religion Mahikari are perceived to be spaces suffuse... more Practice centers (dojos) in the Japanese new religion Mahikari are perceived to be spaces suffused with divine light. This article examines this understanding in terms of the enactment of a particular kind of atmosphere - a lightscape - which is deemed to be capable of automatically producing transformative effects. As a key ethnographic example of this idea of atmospheric effects, I consider the case of the primary training course, participation in which is the means of entry into Mahikari. Although the course itself appears to be didactic in design, I suggest that, as an event, a different dynamic is at work, in which the major aim is less about the transmission of information than it is about the elicitation of transformation, a change which is understood to be largely a consequence of the atmospheric conditions in the dojo.

Two or three things that I know about Marshall Sahlins

Two or Two or three things that I know about Marshall Sahlins, 2021

A brief appreciation of the enduring significance of Marshall Sahlins’ indefatigable championing ... more

Sympathy for the Devil

A critical, anthropological review of Steven Pinker's Better Angels of Our Nature

Attuning to the Webs of En: Ontography, Japanese Spirit Worlds and the ‘Tact’ of Minakata

by Casper Bruun Jensen and Philip Swift

Focusing on Japanese gods and monsters, this paper explores methodological and conceptual possibi... more Focusing on Japanese gods and monsters, this paper explores methodological and conceptual possibilities for the anthropological elicitation of spirit worlds. Rather than as cognitive constructs, beliefs, or responses to socio-political transformation, spirit worlds, we argue, can be articulated by focusing on processes of embodiment and becoming, materialization and dematerialization. In our emphasis on the situated practices and relational interactions out of which spirits and their worlds emerge, this approach can be seen as a particular inflection of the “ontological turn.”
We first examine how Japanese folklore studies and “monsterology” framed spirit worlds in terms of belief, and how these interpretations paved the way for studies centering on the nationalist politics of spirits. Subsequently, we find inspiration in the work of the eclectic Japanese scientist Minakata Kumagusu, who developed an ingenious perspective on how spiritual beings and people encounter one another in cosmic webs.
Finally, with reference to the story of a Colonel Sanders figure in Osaka, which morphed into a capricious spirit, we show that engagement with such webs requires “ontological tact”.

Touching conversion: Tangible transformations in a Japanese new religion. The 2009 RAI Curl Essay Prize

HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory, Jan 1, 2012

This article aims to explore the concept of conversion by means of the transformative practices o... more This article aims to explore the concept of conversion by means of the transformative practices of Mahikari, a Japanese new religion. Examining current theories in the sociology of conversion, it argues that the epistemological preoccupations of the latter are inadequate for an understanding of conversion as transformation. Instead, an ontological approach is recommended in which Mahikari conversions show up as visceral, sensuous transitions, mediated through touch. In conclusion, the article attempts an anthropological critique of the sociology of religion’s turn away from religion.

The Relevance of Anthropology? A Marxist Response

A critique of Pascal Boyer's vision of anthropology with assistance from the Marx Brothers

The Monstering of Anthropology

A critique of the 'cognitive science' critique of anthropology

Divinity and Experiment: Conversion in a Japanese Jam Jar

Making Spirits: Materiality and Transcendence in Contemporary Religions, 2013

The pragmatism of Japanese religions is well known. Here, I consider the experimental tendency as... more The pragmatism of Japanese religions is well known. Here, I consider the experimental tendency as evidenced in the Japanese new religion Mahikari; namely, the idea that ritual effects may be tested in experimental trials. By means of a conceptual contrast between two types of operation - representation and intervention - I argue that Mahikari experiments disclose an understanding of ritual as an empirically verifiable and efficacious practice of producing conversions.

The Physics of Ritual: Spirit Mediation and Sensational Form in a Japanese New Religion

Ritual, in the anthropology of Japan, has largely been treated in representational terms as expre... more Ritual, in the anthropology of Japan, has largely been treated in representational terms as expressive of the social. Against this, I consider as a counterexample the ritual technique of purification of the Japanese new religion Sūkyō Mahikari, analysed in terms of its physical and metaphysical infrastructure; in particular, the function of its form. I suggest that form is central to the production of ritual effects, and I develop some of the implications of this for thinking about the relation between morphology and efficacy in Japanese ritual technologies.

Chapter 6. Cosmetic Cosmologies in Japan: Notes Towards a Superficial Investigation in Shaffner and Wardle (eds) Cosmopolitics (2017)

Tiger and Bond stood in the shade of the avenue of giant cryptomerias and observed the pilgrims, ... more Tiger and Bond stood in the shade of the avenue of giant cryptomerias and observed the pilgrims, slung with cameras, who were visiting the famous Outer Shrine of Ise, the greatest temple to the creed of Shintoism. Tiger said, 'All right. You have observed these people and their actions. They have been saying prayers to the sun goddess. Go and say a prayer without drawing attention to yourself.'

Review of Josephson, "The Invention of Religion in Japan"

Where The Wild Things Are. Review of Henare, Holbraad, Wastell, "Thinking Through Things"

Do androids dream of mimetic grief? Some comments on Japanese dolls

Mono-mania? : A Japanese take on 'thing theory'

Originally a blog on the OAC; subsequently published in Monogaku 5 – kankaku kachi kenkyū. (Kyoto Daigaku Kokoro no Mirai Kenkyū Sentā) , 2011

Fake it till you make it: Baudrillard, Simulation and Ritual in Japan

An attempt to analyse Japanese ritual technologies in terms of Baudrillard's conception of simula... more

Hans Peter Duerr: Can witches fly?

A translation of Hans Peter Duerr's essay, which has been portrayed as nothing less than a charte... more

In the Witches' Kitchen: The Anarchist Anthropology of Hans Peter Duerr

An introduction to Hans Peter Duerr's severely neglected classic, Dreamtime (1978). German anthro... more An introduction to Hans Peter Duerr's severely neglected classic, Dreamtime (1978). German anthropology is finally receiving much-needed attention; hence, the present work is partly intended as a contribution to these ongoing efforts to explicate it for an Anglophone audience. But more than this, Dreamtime's challenging argument critically engages with themes of major importance to contemporary anthropology more generally-among them, the interrelated issues of ontology, translation and transformation. I attempt to explore this and trace out the significant affinities and resonances of Duerr's argument with the work of an eclectic collective of others, including Evans-Pritchard, Sahlins, Stengers, and Deleuze.

Prosthetic Revelations: Sticking the Teachings to the Body in a Japanese New Religion

Japan Review, 2022

The Japanese new religion, Mahikari, is known primarily for its practical technique of manual pur... more The Japanese new religion, Mahikari, is known primarily for its practical technique of manual purification, okiyome. However, this article instead focuses on the program of practices that is regarded as being equally important in terms of its purificatory and salvific effects: that of engaging with revelatory teachings, a form of engagement that is often articulated in terms of the expression "sticking the teachings to the body" (oshie o mi ni tsukeru). I consider this particular idiom of attachment and the ways in which it is actualized in devotional practices, and I contend that this notion of somatic yet spiritual "sticking" acts as a conceptual corrective to overly internalizing models of religiosity. In conclusion, I suggest that while Helen Hardacre once proposed that "cosmology" was analytically restricting, and argued instead in favor of "worldview," the issue with regards to the role of embodied practice in Mahikari calls for a reconsideration of these analytical terms. Accordingly, the article ends by suggesting a turn away from "worldview," back towards the category of the cosmological.

Heathen hermeneutics; Or, radical "radical interpretation"

HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory, 2022

Translation – both multi- and intra-lingual – is vital to anthropological method. Drawing a disti... more Translation – both multi- and intra-lingual – is vital to anthropological method. Drawing a distinction between two opposing modes of translation (“domesticating” versus “foreignizing”), this paper considers the ontological and ethical consequences of these two interpretative strategies, in particular, by critically engaging with the doctrine of Donald Davidson, the theoretical inspiration for Pina-Cabral’s work, World (2017). I argue, instead, in favour of a “pagan” or pluralizing conceptual method, inspired by Feyerabend, Lyotard, and Hans-Peter Duerr, and I suggest that their approaches demonstrate that even the polymodal ontology of Latour is lacking in plurality. In conclusion, I consider how the notion of foreignizing translation relates to the method associated with the ontological turn in anthropology

How to do things with worlds: A reply to responses

HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory, 2022

Discussing multiplicity, translation, the radicality of anthropology, and JL Austin's views on de... more

Bodies in place: The transformative atmospherics of lightscapes in Mahikari

Asian Anthropology, 2021

Practice centers (dojos) in the Japanese new religion Mahikari are perceived to be spaces suffuse... more Practice centers (dojos) in the Japanese new religion Mahikari are perceived to be spaces suffused with divine light. This article examines this understanding in terms of the enactment of a particular kind of atmosphere - a lightscape - which is deemed to be capable of automatically producing transformative effects. As a key ethnographic example of this idea of atmospheric effects, I consider the case of the primary training course, participation in which is the means of entry into Mahikari. Although the course itself appears to be didactic in design, I suggest that, as an event, a different dynamic is at work, in which the major aim is less about the transmission of information than it is about the elicitation of transformation, a change which is understood to be largely a consequence of the atmospheric conditions in the dojo.

Two or three things that I know about Marshall Sahlins

Two or Two or three things that I know about Marshall Sahlins, 2021

A brief appreciation of the enduring significance of Marshall Sahlins’ indefatigable championing ... more

Sympathy for the Devil

A critical, anthropological review of Steven Pinker's Better Angels of Our Nature

Attuning to the Webs of En: Ontography, Japanese Spirit Worlds and the ‘Tact’ of Minakata

by Casper Bruun Jensen and Philip Swift

Focusing on Japanese gods and monsters, this paper explores methodological and conceptual possibi... more Focusing on Japanese gods and monsters, this paper explores methodological and conceptual possibilities for the anthropological elicitation of spirit worlds. Rather than as cognitive constructs, beliefs, or responses to socio-political transformation, spirit worlds, we argue, can be articulated by focusing on processes of embodiment and becoming, materialization and dematerialization. In our emphasis on the situated practices and relational interactions out of which spirits and their worlds emerge, this approach can be seen as a particular inflection of the “ontological turn.”
We first examine how Japanese folklore studies and “monsterology” framed spirit worlds in terms of belief, and how these interpretations paved the way for studies centering on the nationalist politics of spirits. Subsequently, we find inspiration in the work of the eclectic Japanese scientist Minakata Kumagusu, who developed an ingenious perspective on how spiritual beings and people encounter one another in cosmic webs.
Finally, with reference to the story of a Colonel Sanders figure in Osaka, which morphed into a capricious spirit, we show that engagement with such webs requires “ontological tact”.

Touching conversion: Tangible transformations in a Japanese new religion. The 2009 RAI Curl Essay Prize

HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory, Jan 1, 2012

This article aims to explore the concept of conversion by means of the transformative practices o... more This article aims to explore the concept of conversion by means of the transformative practices of Mahikari, a Japanese new religion. Examining current theories in the sociology of conversion, it argues that the epistemological preoccupations of the latter are inadequate for an understanding of conversion as transformation. Instead, an ontological approach is recommended in which Mahikari conversions show up as visceral, sensuous transitions, mediated through touch. In conclusion, the article attempts an anthropological critique of the sociology of religion’s turn away from religion.

The Relevance of Anthropology? A Marxist Response

A critique of Pascal Boyer's vision of anthropology with assistance from the Marx Brothers

The Monstering of Anthropology

A critique of the 'cognitive science' critique of anthropology

Divinity and Experiment: Conversion in a Japanese Jam Jar

Making Spirits: Materiality and Transcendence in Contemporary Religions, 2013

The pragmatism of Japanese religions is well known. Here, I consider the experimental tendency as... more The pragmatism of Japanese religions is well known. Here, I consider the experimental tendency as evidenced in the Japanese new religion Mahikari; namely, the idea that ritual effects may be tested in experimental trials. By means of a conceptual contrast between two types of operation - representation and intervention - I argue that Mahikari experiments disclose an understanding of ritual as an empirically verifiable and efficacious practice of producing conversions.

The Physics of Ritual: Spirit Mediation and Sensational Form in a Japanese New Religion

Ritual, in the anthropology of Japan, has largely been treated in representational terms as expre... more Ritual, in the anthropology of Japan, has largely been treated in representational terms as expressive of the social. Against this, I consider as a counterexample the ritual technique of purification of the Japanese new religion Sūkyō Mahikari, analysed in terms of its physical and metaphysical infrastructure; in particular, the function of its form. I suggest that form is central to the production of ritual effects, and I develop some of the implications of this for thinking about the relation between morphology and efficacy in Japanese ritual technologies.

Chapter 6. Cosmetic Cosmologies in Japan: Notes Towards a Superficial Investigation in Shaffner and Wardle (eds) Cosmopolitics (2017)

Tiger and Bond stood in the shade of the avenue of giant cryptomerias and observed the pilgrims, ... more Tiger and Bond stood in the shade of the avenue of giant cryptomerias and observed the pilgrims, slung with cameras, who were visiting the famous Outer Shrine of Ise, the greatest temple to the creed of Shintoism. Tiger said, 'All right. You have observed these people and their actions. They have been saying prayers to the sun goddess. Go and say a prayer without drawing attention to yourself.'

Review of Josephson, "The Invention of Religion in Japan"

Where The Wild Things Are. Review of Henare, Holbraad, Wastell, "Thinking Through Things"

Do androids dream of mimetic grief? Some comments on Japanese dolls

Mono-mania? : A Japanese take on 'thing theory'

Originally a blog on the OAC; subsequently published in Monogaku 5 – kankaku kachi kenkyū. (Kyoto Daigaku Kokoro no Mirai Kenkyū Sentā) , 2011

Cosmopolitics: The Collected Papers of the OAC, Volume I

by OAC Press, Huon Wardle, Justin Shaffner, John Keith Hart, and Philip Swift

One world, or many? Cosmopolitics has two current meanings. The first is Kant's: we all live in t... more One world, or many? Cosmopolitics has two current meanings. The first is Kant's: we all live in the same world and the aim of anthropology is to explore the politics of that fact starting with each human being’s particular knowledge of the world and their judgements about it. The second is newer, but echoes Leibniz: human worldviews are not detachable from the network of perspectives and agencies that help sustain them: humanity has no universal register: human lives exist as elements of ethnologically and ontologically diverse cosmoses-in-the-making: there can be no clear translation between these; only a politics of approximation and negotiation. The Open Anthropology Cooperative's first volume of collected papers sets about exploring this fundamental antinomy in contemporary anthropology drawing on a series of individual works originally published and discussed at its online site.

Cosmopolitics: Collected Papers of the OAC, Volume I
Editors, Justin Shaffner and Huon Wardle

1“Introduction: Cosmopolitics as a Way of Thinking,” by Huon Wardle and Justin Shaffner
2 "Cosmopolitics and Common Sense," by Huon Wardle
3 "What Did Kant Mean by and Why Did He Adopt a Cosmopolitan Point of View in History?," by Thomas Sturm
4 "Can the Thing Speak?," by Martin Holbraad
5 "Devouring Objects of Study Food and Fieldwork," by Sidney W. Mintz
6 "Cosmetic Cosmologies in Japan Notes Towards a Superficial Investigation," by Philip Swift
7 "Why do the gods look like that? Material Embodiments of Shifting Meanings," by John McCreery
8 "How Knowledge Grows An Anthropological Anamorphosis," by Alberto Corsín Jiménez
9 “An Amazonian Question of Ironies and the Grotesque,” by Joanna Overing
10 "Lance Armstrong: The Reality Show (A Cultural Analysis)," by Lee Drummond
11 "Ritual Murder?," by Jean La Fontaine
12 "An Extreme Reading of Facebook," by Daniel Miller
13 "Friendship, Anthropology," by Liria de la Cruz and Paloma Gay y Blasco

Cosmopolitics: Collected Papers of The Open Anthropology Cooperative, Volume I (2017)

by Justin Shaffner, Huon Wardle, Philip Swift, Joanna Overing, and OAC Press

Cosmopolitics: Collected Papers of the OAC, Volume I (2017) Editors, Justin Shaffner and Huon War... more Cosmopolitics: Collected Papers of the OAC, Volume I (2017)
Editors, Justin Shaffner and Huon Wardle

Foreword by Keith Hart
1“Introduction: Cosmopolitics as a Way of Thinking,” by Huon Wardle and Justin Shaffner
2 "Cosmopolitics and Common Sense," by Huon Wardle
3 "What Did Kant Mean by and Why Did He Adopt a Cosmopolitan Point of View in History?," by Thomas Sturm
4 "Can the Thing Speak?," by Martin Holbraad
5 "Devouring Objects of Study Food and Fieldwork," by Sidney W. Mintz
6 "Cosmetic Cosmologies in Japan Notes Towards a Superficial Investigation," by Philip Swift
7 "Why do the gods look like that? Material Embodiments of Shifting Meanings," by John McCreery
8 "How Knowledge Grows An Anthropological Anamorphosis," by Alberto Corsín Jiménez
9 “An Amazonian Question of Ironies and the Grotesque,” by Joanna Overing
10 "Lance Armstrong: The Reality Show (A Cultural Analysis)," by Lee Drummond
11 "Ritual Murder?," by Jean La Fontaine
12 "An Extreme Reading of Facebook," by Daniel Miller
13 "Friendship, Anthropology," by Liria de la Cruz and Paloma Gay y Blasco

Ways of World Breaking (and Re-Making)

A review of Takashi Miura, "Agents of World Renewal" (2019) which aims to address the cosmologica... more

Prosthetic Revelations: Sticking truth to the body in a Japanese New Religion

The Japanese new religion, Mahikari, is known primarily for its practical technique of manual pur... more The Japanese new religion, Mahikari, is known primarily for its practical technique of manual purification. This paper focuses, instead, on the programme of practices that is regarded as being equally important in terms of its purificatory effects: that of engaging with revelatory teachings, a form of engagement that is often articulated in terms of the expression, ‘sticking the teachings to the body’ (oshie o mi ni tsukeru). l consider this particular idiom of attachment and the ways in which it is actualized in devotional practices, and I suggest that this concept of somatic - yet also spiritual - 'sticking' acts as a conceptual corrective to overly internalising models of conversion in sociology