Senior Lecturer, School of Behavioral Sciences, Peres Academic Center, Israel
Contact : asaf.sharabi@gmail.com
Dr. Asaf Sharabi is a senior lecturer in the School of Behavioral Sciences at the Peres Academic Center. He obtained his doctorate in social anthropology in 2010 from Bar Ilan University. His research interests include anthropology and sociology of religion, ritual healing, anthropology of gods, anthropology of Hinduism, and anthropology of Judaism. He has done ethnographic fieldwork in both Israel and India (Western Himalayas). In 2021, his research “Gods and Goddesses in the Western Himalayas – A Comparative Ethnographic Research” won a research grant from the Israel Science Foundation (ISF). In 2023, his book The Biography of a God : Mahasu in the Himalayas was published by Amsterdam University Press.
Main Research Interests
Cultural Anthropology ; Anthropology and Sociology of Religion ; Anthropology of Modernity ; Medical and Psychological Anthropology ; Ritual Healing ; Social Performance ; Identity and Agency ; Himalayan Society ; Israeli Society
Main publications
Book
2023 – Sharabi, Asaf. The Biography of a God : Mahasu in the Himalayas.Amsterdam : Amsterdam University Press.
Articles in Peer-Reviewed Journals
2021 – Sharabi, Asaf. The Politics of Madness and Spirit Possession in Northern India. Medical Anthropology, Cross-Cultural Studies in Health and Illness, Volume 40, Issue 2, 182–195
2020 – Sharabi, Asaf. Omniscient Gods and Precision and Intent in Rituals : The Case of Orthodox Judaism. Journal of Contemporary Religion, 35 (2) : 307–322.
2019 – Sharabi, Asaf. Is it God Speaking ? Agency of Deities in the Western Himalaya Anthropological Forum. A Journal of Social Anthropology and Comparative Sociology, Volume 29, Issue 4, 356–373
2018 – Sharabi, Asaf and Hagar Shalev. 2018. Charismatic Mediumship and Traditional Priesthood : Power Relations in a Religious Field. Religion 48 (2) : 198–214.
2018 – Shalev, Hagar and Asaf Sharabi. 2018. Sanskritization of the Upper Castes : The Case of Mahāsū Followers. Anthropos, 113 (1), 258–267.
2017 – Guzmen-Carmeli, Shlomo and Asaf Sharabi. Textual Healing : Tailor-Made Kabbalistic Therapeutics in Jerusalem. Anthropology and Medicine.
2016 – Sharabi, Asaf and Hagar Shalev. From Ruler to Healer : Changes in Religious Experience in the Western Himalayas. Himalaya 36 (2) : 22–35.
2015 – Sharabi, Asaf. Religion and Modernity : Religious Revival Movement in Israel. Journal of Contemporary Ethnography 44 (2) : 223–248.
2014 – Sharabi, Asaf. Deep Healing : Ritual Healing in the Teshuvah Movement. Anthropology and Medicine 21 (3) : 277–289.
2014 – Guzmen-Carmeli, Shlomo and Asaf Sharabi. The Holy Contract : the social contract of the Toldos Aharon Hasidic dynasty. Social Compass 61 (3) : 290–390.
2013 – Sharabi, Asaf. ’Boundary Work’ in Religious Revival Movements : The Case of the ’Teshuva Movement’ in Israel. Ethnography 14 (2) : 233–254.
2013 – Sharabi, Asaf and Shlomo Guzmen-Carmeli. The Teshuva Bargain : Ritual Healing Performances at Rabbi Amnon Yitzchak’s rallies. Journal of Ritual Studies 27 (2) : 97–110.
2012 – Sharabi, Asaf. ’Teshuvah Baskets’ in the Israeli Teshuvah Market. Culture and Religion, 13 (3) : 273–293.
Book Chapters
Sharabi, Asaf. Forthcoming. Mediums and Deep Healing : Ritual Healing in the Western Himalayas. In PC Joshi and Chakraverti Mahajan (Ed.), Recent Trends in Indian Medical Anthropology. Delhi : Concept Publishing Company