Editors’ Introduction: Borders, Performance, Deities

Borders are everywhere.They can be found not only on maps and at demilitarized zones, but anywhere where there is a question of in or out, more or less, or yes or no.Borders are crucial for understanding nations, estates, rules of conduct, social norms, and our very bodies.When we think of the role of borders in religion, there are several classical approaches that immediately suggest themselves.Perhaps most obviously, borders suggest boundaries, modes of separating, distinguishing domains of space or perhaps thought.They are where we "draw the line, " how we locate the inner and outer, the self and other, the native and foreign.Borders also lend themselves easily to spatialized modes of thinking.They can be drawn or represented graphically on maps, in graphs, and in charts.Perhaps most fundamentally, borders so conceived help us think in terms of structure, of lines of separation in physical and conceptual spaces.They are easily abstracted, capable of being conceived in almost mathematical abstraction, as static as the objects in an Euclidean proof.This line of thinking has infused some of the most well-established theories across a number of fields in the humanities.It can be seen throughout the work of Mary Douglas, who in her Purity and Danger famously explored issues of pollution and taboo in terms of cultural boundaries and classifications (Douglas 1966).For Douglas, taboos serve as the borders of what is acceptable and in accord with social values-what is, in a word, safe.Societies need taboos and