Water Powers: Sacred Aquatic Animals of the Asia-Pacific / Sonja Aman, Barbara R. Ambros, Darmanto Darmanto, Susan M. Darlington, Lindsey DeWitt Prat, Georgina Drew, Florence Durney, Kathryn Dyt, Fynn Holm, Andrew Alan Johnson, Tuan Anh Nguyen, Evan Nicoll-Johnson, Marius Palz, Gerard Persoon, Victoria C. Ramenzoni, Aike P. Rots, Veronica Walker Vadillo, Aike P. Rots, Florence Durney, Lindsey DeWitt Prat, Sonja Aman.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Rots, Aike P., editor.

Durney, Florence, editor.

DeWitt Prat, Lindsey, editor.

Åman, Sonja, editor.

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource

Place of Publication:

Honolulu University of Hawaii Press, [2026]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

Water Powers is an interdisciplinary collection that presents timely, original research on sacred aquatic animalsfrom dragons and nagas to crocodiles, eels, dugongs, and whalesand environmental change. Contributors examine the past and present significance of these creatures in Nepal, India, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, China, Japan, Okinawa, Indonesia, and Aotearoa-New Zealand to explore the diverse relationships between animals, deities, humans, and bodies of water. In so doing, they challenge narratives about disenchantment as a core aspect of modernization, seeking to give the sacred creatures and the rituals associated with them a more central place in debates about environmental degradation and conservation initiatives. Their work converges around three core themes: (1) divine embodiment and materiality (how sacred beings manifest themselves and act in the world); (2) making and crossing boundaries (how aquatic animals are constrained by but also challenge physical, ontological, and conceptual boundaries); and (3) crises and relationality (how more-than-human relationships change in response to environmental and other crises). Water Powers will appeal to scholars and students across multiple fields, including anthropology, religious studies, environmental humanities, geography, development studies, history, and archaeology. The book will also interest development experts, conservationists, museum curators, and readers engaged with culture, religion, and environmental change in the Asia-Pacific region.

Contents:

Frontmatter

CONTENTS

Acknowledgments

Introduction: Bridging Troubled Waters / Aike P. Rots, Florence Durney, Sonja Aman

Part I Rivers and Deltas

CHAPTER 1 Shaken, Angry, and Absent: Naga Water Guardians as Indicators of Environmental (Im)Balance in the Himalaya / Georgina Drew

CHAPTER 2 The Eel Who Became a God: River Animals in Narrative Literature of Early Medieval China / Evan Nicoll-Johnson

CHAPTER 3 Crocodiles, Dragons, and Species Fluidity in Vietnam / Kathryn Dyt

CHAPTER 4 The Snake, the Crocodile, and the King: Nautical Technology and Supernatural Potencies in Angkor / Veronica Walker Vadillo

CHAPTER 5 The Catfish King and the Black Naga / Andrew Alan Johnson

CHAPTER 6 A Long-Life Ritual for a River: Water, Spirituality, and Environmentalism in Northern Thailand / Susan M. Darlington

CHAPTER 7 Releasing Aquatic Life in Early Modern Japan / Barbara R. Ambros

Part II Seas and Coasts

CHAPTER 8 Past and Present Powers of the Okinawan Dugong / Marius Palz

CHAPTER 9 Three Thousand Ebisus: Untangling Whale and Dolphin Worship in Japan / Fynn Holm

CHAPTER 10 How the Whale God Became Heritage: The Transformation of Whale Festivals in a Nang, Vietnam / Tuan Anh Nguyen, Aike P. Rots

CHAPTER 11 Crocodiles Are Watching: Spirits, Social Order, and Ecological Transformation on Siberut Island, Indonesia / Darmanto, Gerard Persoon

CHAPTER 12 The Sarong of the Sailfish: A Potent Object from Ende, Flores / Victoria C. Ramenzoni

CHAPTER 13 Threatening or Treasuring? The Conflicted Politics of Whales and Whaling in AotearoaNew Zealand / Sonja Aman

Epilogue / Florence Durney, Aike P. Rots

Contributors

Index

Notes:

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed April 14 2026)

ISBN:

979-88-8070-314-2