Jan-Åke Alvarsson

Professor

1. Uppgift eller anställning / Position

Professor i kulturantropologi sedan 2009, skyddsombud sedan 2011, ordf. i arbetsmiljögruppen

 2. Bakgrund / Background

Filosofie doktorsexamen (PhD), kulturantropologi, 1987, Uppsala universitet; Docent i kulturantropologi, (Associate Professor) Uppsala universitet 1991; Docent i kulturantropologi, (Associate Professor) 1998, Etnologiska institutionen, Åbo Akademi, Finland.
Universitetslektor (University Lecturer) i kulturantropologi vid Uppsala Universitet 1987-2003. Generalsekreterare (Secretary General) (50%) för den 48:e Internationella Amerikanist-kongressen (the 48th International Congress of Americanists) (Stockholm/Uppsala) 1993-94. Studierektor (Director of Studies) (1987-1992) vid Institutionen för kulturantropologioch etnologi, Uppsala universitet. 1993-2006 chefredaktör (editor in chief) för tidskriften Acta Americana (Uppsala).2000-2007 ordförande (President) i Svenska Amerikanistsällskapet (The Swedish Americanist Society), SAMS. Från 2007 föreståndare för Institutet för Pentekostala Studier (From 2007 Director of the Institute for Pentecostal Studies, Uppsala). 2006-2012 Huvudredaktör Svenskt Frikyrkolexikon (Atlantis). 2009– Member of the Editorial Board of JEPTA (Journal of the European Pentecostal Theological Association); 2010- Member of the Editorial Board of PentecoStudies, (Birmingham);

 
 3. Forskningsprofil / Research Profile [English]

My doctoral thesis (1988) was about change and continuity in economic, social and political organization among the 'Weenhayek Indians of the Gran Chaco. The following major work (1994) treated the symbolic dimension of their material culture, in particular the designs of their fibre bags. Thereafter, I have worked on Nordic anthropological history (e.g. 1992a, 1994b, 1997a, 1997b), pan-Amerindian tendencies in names and naming (1998b, 1999d) the role of mythology in social change, war and aggression in a cultural perspective (1999a), Amerindian loan words in English and Swedish, and Amerindian history (1997c). _    During the last few years I have put more and more emphasis on the anthropology of religion, among other things on the religion of hunters and gatherers, psychotropic plants in the Americas (1995), shamanism, religious encounters, conversion (1999e), missionary culture, missionary influence on Amerindian cultures, mission history (2002), naming practices and Pentecostalism. Within the latter field I have been interested in the narrative character of Pentecostalism; its emphasis on personal experience and experience as a basis for belief. This has led to an interest in Swedish Pentecostal missionary work in Bolivia (2002), a study of the interrelationship between African American and Swedish Pentecostalism (not yet published) and an overview of Scandinavian Pentecostalism as a whole (2008a, 2011).

 4. Pågående och senaste forskningsprojekt / Ongoing and Latest Research Projects

-African-American Roots of [Swedish] Pentecostalism (2003-2004).
-Socio-Cultural Effects of Bilingual Education (2004-2006). Financed by Sida.
-'Weenhayek Ethnography: A “thick” representation of an Amerindian culture  (2011-2013). Financed by Sida through PMU InterLife.

 5. De tio viktigaste eller senaste publicerade verken / The Ten Most Important or Most Recent Publications

 -2003. [with Rita Laura Segato] (editor & author): Religions in Transition: Mobility, Merging and Globalization in the Emergence of Contemporary Religious Adhesions. Uppsala: USCA No 37.
 -2005 [Editor] The Missionary Process. [Co-authors: Anna Maria Claesson, Emil Erdtman, Birgitta Meurling, Elmer S. Miller, Marie Perruchon, & Anders Ruuth] Uppsala: Studia Missionalia Svecana XCIX. 214 pp.
 -2008a Pingströrelsen (i:) Ingvar Svanberg & David Westerlund (red.) Religion i Sverige. Stockholm: Dialogos. s. 179-183. ISBN 978-91-7504-199-5.
 -2008b Missions, Christian: Protestant Missions in Latin  America (in:) Peter N. Stearns, Professor of History and Provost, George Mason University (ed.),  Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern World: 1750 to the Present. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 13-978019517-632-2.
 -2009a Traditional Amerindian Religion in the Eyes of an Indigenous Pentecostal Church (in:) David Westerlund (ed.) Global Pentecostalism: Encounters with Other Religious Traditions. London: I.B. Tauris. pp. 277-293. ISBN 978-1-84511-877-8.
 -2009b Pentecostalismo como un nuevo componente en la identidad latinoamericana (en:) Andrzej Dembicz (ed.) América Latina: Interpretaticiones a inicios del siglo XXI. Estudios y Memorias No 41. Warsaw: Centro de Estudios Latinoamericanos, CESLA, Uniwersytet Warszawski, pp.277–291. ISBN 83-89251-48-5
 -2009c Some Notes on Swedish Contributions to Pentecostalism in Latin America (in:) Swedish Missiological Themes, SMT, Special Issue on Swedish Pentecostal Mission in a Global Context. (Uppsala) ISSN 0346-217X, Vol. 97, No 3., 2009 pp. 377–393.
 -2010 Shamanism and Armed Conflict: A Case Study of the Interface Between Religion and War in Aboriginal South America, (in:) Revista del CESLA (Warsaw), No. 13, Vol. 1, 2010, pp. 233-256. ISSN 1641-4713.
 -2011 Scandinavian Pentecostalism (in:) William K. Kay & Anne E. Dyer (editors), 2011, European Pentecostalism. Series: GPCS; Vol. 7 ISBN 13-9789004207301. Leiden, Boston & Tokyo: Brill, pp. 19–39.
 -2012a Indianreligioner (i:) Magnus Lundberg & David Westerlund (red.), 2012, Religion i Latinamerika. Stockholm: Dialogos. ISBN 978-91-7504-246-6, pp. 62–103.
 -2012b Why Go Back to the Old Ways? Bilingual Education and Ethnoregenesis among the ’Weenhayek of the Bolivian Gran Chaco (in:) Christian Isendahl (ed.) The Past Ahead: Language, Culture and Identity in the Neotropics. Uppsala University: Studies in Global Archaeology 18, pp. 59–78.
 

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