Engaging the spirit world in modern Southeast Asia
By: edited by Andrea Lauser, Kirsten W. Endres
Series: Asian anthropologies -- v. 5; Asian anthropologies -- v. 5.
Publisher: Berghahn Books
Published: 2011
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 234
ISBN-13: 9780857453587; 9780857453594
Subjects: Spiritualism; Religious life and customs; Religion and culture
Description: "'The world today is as furiously religious as it ever was.' This quote from Peter Berger now appears to be undisputed in the contemporary social and cultural sciences. A look around the globe reveals that modernization does not necessarily lead to a decline of religion, neither in society nor in the minds of individuals. Moreover, the multifaceted and divergent responses to modernization processes have significantly contributed to a critical reflection on the notion of a singular modernity, and as a result it has been suggested to speak of multiple, vernacular, alternative, or "other" modernities. Southeast Asia in particular presents a rich field of inquiry into the dynamics of these "modernities" that have produced and shaped a wide variety of religious phenomena. With case studies from Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Myanmar, and Vietnam, these contributions reveal contemporary religious practices in Southeast Asia as thoroughly modern manifestations of uncertainties, moral disquiet and unequal rewards in the contemporary moment."--Publisher's description.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Introduction : multivocal arenas of modern enchantment in Southeast Asia / Kirsten W. Endres and Andrea Lauser; title: Can things reach the dead? : the ontological status of objects and the study of Lao Buddhist rituals for the spirits of the deceased / Patrice Ladwig; title: Spirited warriors : conspiracy and protection on Lombok / Kari Telle; title: From the mystical to the molecular : modernity, martial arts and agency in Java / Lee Wilson; title: Changing spirits' identities? : rethinking the four palaces' spirit representations in the context of social and political changes in northern Vietnam / Claire Chauvet; title: Gods, gifts, markets, and superstition : spirited consumption from Korea to Vietnam / Laurel Kendall; title: Contests of commemoration : virgin war martyrs, state memorials, and the invocation of the spirit world in contemporary Vietnam / Kirsten W. Endres and Andrea Lauser; title: Trans-ethnic cosmologies that won't go away : keramat symbolisms in Malaysian capitalist sacralization / Beng-Lan Goh; title: Being a spirit medium in contemporary Burma / Bénédicte Brac de la Perrière; title: Reconfigurations of the manora ancestral worship and spirit possession in southern Thailand / Alexander Horstmann; title: The horror of the modern : violation, violence, and the rampage of urban youths in the contemporary Thai ghost films / Pattana Kitiarsa.