The spirit of things : materiality and religious diversity in Southeast Asia / Julius Bautista, editor.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Bautista, Julius.

Series:

Studies on Southeast Asia ; no. 58.

Southeast Asia Program publications

Studies on Southeast Asia ; no. 58

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Religious pluralism--Southeast Asia.

Religious pluralism.

Religious articles--Southeast Asia.

Religious articles.

Religion.

Southeast Asia--Religion.

Southeast Asia.

Physical Description:

x, 220 pages : illustrations ; 26 cm.

Place of Publication:

Ithaca, N.Y. : Southeast Asia Program, Cornell University, 2012.

Summary:

What role do objects play in crafting the religions of Southeast Asia and shaping the experiences of believers? The Spirit of Things explores religious materiality in a region marked by shifting boundaries, multiple beliefs, and trends toward religious exclusivism. While most studies of religion in Southeast Asia focus on doctrines or governmental policy, contributors to this volume recognize that religious "things"-statues, talismans, garments, even sacred automobiles-are crucial to worship, and that they have a broad impact on social cohesion. By engaging with religion in its tangible forms, faith communities reiterate their essential narratives, allegiances, and boundaries, and negotiate their co-existence with competing belief systems. These ethnographic and historical studies of Southeast Asia furnish us with intriguing perspectives on wider debates concerning the challenges of secularization, pluralism, and inter-faith interactions around the world. Book jacket.

Contents:

Preface : motion, devotion, and materiality in Southeast Asia / Julius Bautista

Introduction : materiality in a problematically plural Southeast Asia / Julius Bautista and Anthony Reid

Icon, iconoclasm, art commodity : are objects still agents in Vietnam? / Laurel Kendall, Vũ Thị Thanh Tâm, and Nguyêʼn Thị Thu Hương

Of Proton, Mercedes, and MPVs : car culture among middle-class Malays in suburban Malaysia / Johan Fischer

A spirit medium as architect : Caodaism's visual theology / Janet Hoskins

Material religion and ethnic identity : Buddhist visual culture and the Burmanization of the eastern Shan state / Klemens Karlsson

Holy water and material religion in a pilgrimage shrine in Malaysia / Yeoh Seng Guan

"The land of the great image" and the test of time : the making of Buddha images in Arakan (Burma/Myanmar) / Alexandra de Mersan

The problem with "empty crosses" : thinking through materiality in Bidayuh religious practices / Liana Chua

Dressing for modern war in old-fashioned magic : traditional protective charms of Thailand's forces in the Vietnam War / Richard A. Ruth

Concentrating people and endogenous potency at the Southeast Asian periphery : the case of the longan house altar of the Bentian of Indonesian Borneo / Kenneth Sillander

Becoming active/active becoming : Prince Vessantara scrolls and the creation of a moral community / Sandra Cate and Leedom Lefferts

The potency of poon : religious sculpture, performativity, and the Mahal na Senyor of Lucban / Cecilia De La Paz

Bodies for the gods : image worship in Chinese popular religion / Margaret Chan.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN:

9780877277880

0877277885

9780877277583

0877277583

OCLC:

815636158