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Possessed by the Spirits
The essays in this volume examine the resurgence of the Mother Goddess religion among contemporary Vietnamese following the economic "Renovation" period in Vietnam. Anthropologists explore the forces that compel individuals to become mediums and the social repercussions of their decisions and interactions.
The Buddha Side
The most common description of the supernatural landscape in Vietnam makes a distinction between Buddhist and non-Buddhist “sides.” The “Buddha side” (ben phat) is the focus of this investigation into the intersection of gender, power, and religious praxis. Employing an anthropological approach to Buddhist practice that takes into account modes of action that are not only socially constructed and contextual, but also negotiated by the actors, The Buddha Side uniquely explores how gender and age affect understandings of what it means to be a Buddhist. In seeking to map out the ways and meanings of Buddhist engagement, Alexander Soucy examines everything from the skeptical statements o...
Engaging the Spirit World
In many parts of the contemporary world, spirit beliefs and practices have taken on a pivotal role in addressing the discontinuities and uncertainties of modern life. The myriad ways in which devotees engage the spirit world show the tremendous creative potential of these practices and their innate adaptability to changing times and circumstances. Through in-depth anthropological case studies from Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Myanmar, Laos, and Vietnam, the contributors to this book investigate the role and impact of different social, political, and economic dynamics in the reconfiguration of local spirit worlds in modern Southeast Asia. Their findings contribute to the re-enchantment debate by revealing that the “spirited modernities” that have emerged in the process not only embody a distinct feature of the contemporary moment, but also invite a critical rethinking of the concept of modernity itself.
Traveling Spirits
Globalisation has provided tools for religious actors and organisations to thrive in migrant communities, as fluid transnational networks help project messages across borders and from a local to a global audience. This volume addresses several under-examined questions of religious practices within migrant communities and transnational religious networks.
Modernity and Re-enchantment
Covers shared logics of spiritual efficacy across a range of practices, which include ancestor veneration, spirit mediumship, Buddhist sectarianism and Catholic myths and miracles. Defines, documents, and discusses each issue relating to Vietnam studies.
Mediums and Magical Things
Statues, paintings, and masks—like the bodies of shamans and spirit mediums—give material form and presence to otherwise invisible entities, and sometimes these objects are understood to be enlivened, agentive on their own terms. This book explores how magical images are expected to work with the shamans and spirit mediums who tend and use them in contemporary South Korea, Vietnam, Myanmar, Bali, and elsewhere in Asia. It considers how such things are fabricated, marketed, cared for, disposed of, and sometimes transformed into art-market commodities and museum artifacts.
Decolonizing Ecotheology
Decolonizing Ecotheology: Indigenous and Subaltern Challenges is a pioneering attempt to contest the politics of conquest, commodification, and homogenization in mainstream ecotheology, informed by the voices of Indigenous and subaltern communities from around the world. The book marshals a robust polyphony of reportage, wonder, analysis, and acumen seeking to open the door to a different prospect for a planet under grave duress and a different self-assessment for our own species in the mix. At the heart of that prospect is an embrace of soils and waters as commons and a privileging of subaltern experience and marginalized witness as the bellwethers of greatest import. Of course, decolonization finds its ultimate test in the actual return of land and waters to precontact Indigenous who yet have feet on the ground or paddles in the waves, and who conjure dignity and vision in the manifold of their relations, in spite of ceaseless onslaught and dismissal. Their courage is the haunt these pages hallow like an Abel never entirely erased from the history. May the moaning stop and the re-creation begin!
Conflict, Violence, and Displacement in Indonesia
This volume foregrounds the dynamics of displacement and the experiences of internal refugees uprooted by conflict and violence in Indonesia. Contributors examine internal displacement in the context of militarized conflict and violence in East Timor, Aceh, and Papua, and in other parts of Outer Island Indonesia during the transition from authoritarian rule. The volume also explores official and humanitarian discourses on displacement and their significance for the politics of representation.
Songs for the Spirits
Songs for the Spirits examines the Vietnamese practice of communing with spirits through music and performance. During rituals dedicated to a pantheon of indigenous spirits, musicians perform an elaborate sequence of songs--a "songscape"--for possessed mediums who carry out ritual actions, distribute blessed gifts to disciples, and dance to the music's infectious rhythms. Condemned by French authorities in the colonial period and prohibited by the Vietnamese Communist Party in the late 1950s, mediumship practices have undergone a strong resurgence since the early 1990s, and they are now being drawn upon to promote national identity and cultural heritage through folklorized performances of ri...
Zen Conquests
At the tail end of the twentieth century, a monk transformed a small village temple on the outskirts of Hanoi into a monastery and meditation center called Thiền Viện Sùng Phúc—a place where monastics and lay Buddhists could learn and practice Zen meditation. In time the original temple was replaced by numerous large buildings to accommodate meditation sessions, youth events, weddings, classes, and a variety of other activities designed to keep practitioners engaged. Thiền Viện Sùng Phúc’s approach to Buddhism as a life commitment for all ages and genders has been very successful, attracting more than a thousand Buddhists to its weekly services. It joined Thiền phái Trúc ...
