The Anthropology of Religion, Charisma, and Ghosts

The Anthropology of Religion, Charisma, and Ghosts PDF Author: Stephan Feuchtwang
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
ISBN: 3110223554
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 222

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Book Description
China has many religions. But rituals of local temples are none of these. They celebrate many gods and their powers to respond. Gods are invited as welcome guests by appropriate rituals of welcome and communication. Other rituals pacify ghosts and harmful powers. These rituals are rich with their own poetry, a poetry of performance, not just of contemplation. Interpreting this poetry demands revision of theories of ritual and religion. The author has spent over four decades studying Chinese ritual and religion through observation in contemporary China and Taiwan, constantly revising and rethinking theories of religion, ritual and their role in different political regimes.

The Anthropology of Religion, Charisma, and Ghosts

The Anthropology of Religion, Charisma, and Ghosts PDF Author: Stephan Feuchtwang
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
ISBN: 3110223554
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 222

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Book Description
China has many religions. But rituals of local temples are none of these. They celebrate many gods and their powers to respond. Gods are invited as welcome guests by appropriate rituals of welcome and communication. Other rituals pacify ghosts and harmful powers. These rituals are rich with their own poetry, a poetry of performance, not just of contemplation. Interpreting this poetry demands revision of theories of ritual and religion. The author has spent over four decades studying Chinese ritual and religion through observation in contemporary China and Taiwan, constantly revising and rethinking theories of religion, ritual and their role in different political regimes.

The Anthropology of Religious Charisma

The Anthropology of Religious Charisma PDF Author: C. Lindholm
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1137377631
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 248

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Book Description
According to Max Weber, charisma is opposed to bureaucratic order. This collection reveals the limits of that formula. The contributors show how charisma is a part of cultural frameworks while retaining its ecstatic character among American and Italian Catholics, Syrian Sufis, Taiwanese Buddhists, Hassidic Jews, and Amazonian shamans, among others.

Religion in Context

Religion in Context PDF Author: I. M. Lewis
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521566346
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 220

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Book Description
Religious power assumes many strikingly different forms, which are often regarded as unique, unrelated, and even mutually exclusive. Religion in Context, however, adopts a holistic approach and argues that these apparently contradictory mystical experiences are in fact part of a web of mutually defining and sustaining elements. Stressing the importance of rigorous social contextualisation, I. M. Lewis analyses phenomena such as spirit-possession, witchcraft, cannibalism, and shamanism, revealing connections between them and with the world religions. This expanded and updated edition illuminates critical aspects of religious power, and demonstrates the value of a comparative approach to formulating anthropological theory. It will be of value to students of anthropology, religion, and to anyone concerned with the nature of religion in the modern world.

The Ashgate Research Companion to Anthropology

The Ashgate Research Companion to Anthropology PDF Author: Andrew J. Strathern
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317044118
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 441

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Book Description
This companion provides an indispensable overview of contemporary and classical issues in social and cultural anthropology. Although anthropology has expanded greatly over time in terms of the diversity of topics in which its practitioners engage, many of the broad themes and topics at the heart of anthropological thought remain perennially vital, such as understanding order and change, diversity and continuity, and conflict and co-operation in the reproduction of social life. Bringing together leading scholars in the field, the contributors to this volume provide us with thoughtful and fruitful ways of thinking about a number of contemporary and long-standing arenas of work where both established and more recent researchers are engaged. The companion begins by exploring classic topics such as Religion; Rituals; Language and Culture; Violence; and Gender. This is followed by a focus on current developments within the discipline including Human Rights; Globalization; and Diasporas and Cosmopolitanism. It provides an interesting and challenging look at the state of current thinking in anthropology, serving as a rich resource for scholars and students alike.

Believing in Ghosts and Spirits

Believing in Ghosts and Spirits PDF Author: Hu Baozhu
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000258475
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 298

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Book Description
The present book by Hu Baozhu explores the subject of ghosts and spirits and attempts to map the religious landscape of ancient China. The main focus of attention is the character gui 鬼, an essential key to the understanding of spiritual beings. The author analyses the character gui in various materials – lexicons and dictionaries, excavated manuscripts and inscriptions, and received classical texts. Gui is examined from the perspective of its linguistic root, literary interpretation, ritual practices, sociopolitical implication, and cosmological thinking. In the gradual process of coming to know the otherworld in terms of ghosts and spirits, Chinese people in ancient times attempted to identify and classify these spiritual entities. In their philosophical thinking, they connected the subject of gui with the movement of the universe. Thus the belief in ghosts and spirits in ancient China appeared to be a moral standard for all, not only providing a room for individual religiosity but also implementing the purpose of family-oriented social order, the legitimization of political operations, and the understanding of the way of Heaven and Earth.

Cultivating Charismatic Power

Cultivating Charismatic Power PDF Author: Tiffany Cone
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319747630
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 215

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Book Description
Islam and China are topics of relevance and contention in today’s economic, political and religious climate. In this work, Tiffany Cone makes an important contribution to these contemporary discourses through an ethnographic case study of Islamic leadership and the cultivation of charismatic power by Sufi disciples at a shrine site in Northwest China. Though this volume focuses on a specific religious community, it carries valuable insights into religious unity, syncretism and religious legitimacy, materialism and religious integrity, and the stability of religious institutions in light of rapid economic growth. Cultivating Charismatic Power speaks to global concerns about the rise of a militant Islam and an increasingly aggressive Chinese State. As such, it will appeal to scholars and practitioners across a range of fields including anthropology, philosophy, religious studies, Islamic Studies, and Chinese Studies.

A Companion to the Anthropology of Religion

A Companion to the Anthropology of Religion PDF Author: Janice Boddy
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1119124999
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 584

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Book Description
A Companion to the Anthropology of Religion presents a collection of original, ethnographically-informed essays that explore the variety of beliefs, practices, and religious experiences in the contemporary world and asks how to think about religion as a subject of anthropological inquiry. Presents a collection of original, ethnographically-informed essays exploring the wide variety of beliefs, practices, and religious experiences in the contemporary world Explores a broad range of topics including the ‘perspectivism’ debate, the rise of religious nationalism, reflections on religion and new media, religion and politics, and ideas of self and gender in relation to religious belief Includes examples drawn from different religious traditions and from several regions of the world Features newly-commissioned articles reflecting the most up-to-date research and critical thinking in the field, written by an international team of leading scholars Adds immeasurably to our understanding of the complex relationships between religion, culture, society, and the individual in today’s world

Heritage and Religion in East Asia

Heritage and Religion in East Asia PDF Author: Shu-Li Wang
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000327744
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 281

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Book Description
Heritage and Religion in East Asia examines how religious heritage, in a mobile way, plays across national boundaries in East Asia and, in doing so, the book provides new theoretical insights into the articulation of heritage and religion. Drawing on primary, comparative research carried out in four East Asian countries, much of which was undertaken by East Asian scholars, the book shows how the inscription of religious items as "Heritage" has stimulated cross-border interactions among religious practitioners and boosted tourism along modern pilgrimage routes. Considering how these forces encourage cross-border links in heritage practices and religious movements in China, Taiwan, South Korea, and Japan, the volume also questions what role heritage plays in a region where Buddhism, Taoism, and other various folk religious practices are dominant. Arguing that it is diversity and vibrancy that makes religious discourse in East Asia unique, the contributors explore how this particularity both energizes and is empowered by heritage practices in East Asia. Heritage and Religion in East Asia enriches understanding of the impact of heritage and religious culture in modern society and will be of interest to academics and students working in heritage studies, anthropology, religion, and East Asian studies.

Religion and Religious Practices in Rural China

Religion and Religious Practices in Rural China PDF Author: Mu Peng
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000727068
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 306

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Book Description
This book explores how, unlike in the West, the daily religious life of most Chinese people spreads without institutional propagation. Based upon more than a decade of field research in rural China, the book demonstrates the decisive role of rites of passage and yearly festival rituals held in every household in shaping people’s religious dispositions. It focuses on the family, the unit most central to Chinese culture and society, and reveals the repertoire embodied in daily life in a world envisioned as comprising both the “yin” world of ancestors, spirits, and ghosts, and the “yang” world of the living. It discusses especially the concept of bai, which refers to both concrete bodily movements that express respect and awe, such as bowing, kneeling, or holding up ritual offerings, and to people’s religious inclinations and dispositions, which indicate that they are aware of a spiritual realm that is separate from yet close to the world of the living. Overall, the book shows that the daily practices of religion are not a separate sphere, but rather belief and ritual integrated into a way of dwelling in a world envisaged as consisting of both the “yin” and the “yang” worlds that regularly communicate with each other.

Challenging Authorities

Challenging Authorities PDF Author: Arne S. Steinforth
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030769240
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 471

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Book Description
When the notion of ‘alternative facts’ and the alleged dawning of a ‘postfactual’ world entered public discourse, social anthropologists found themselves in unexpectedly familiar territory. In theirempirical experience, fact—knowledge accepted as true—derives its salience from social mechanisms of legitimization, thereby demonstrating a deep interconnection with power and authority. In thisperspective, fact is a continually contested and volatile social category. Due to the specific histories of their colonial and post-independence experience, African societies offer a particularly broad array of insights into social processes of juxtaposition, opposition, and even outright competition between different postulated authorities. The contributions to the present volume explore the variety of ways in which authority is contested in Southern and Eastern Africa, investigating localized discourses on which institution, what kind of knowledge, or whose expertise is accepted as authoritative, thus highlighting the specificities and pluralities in ‘modern’ societies. This edited volume engages with larger theoretical questions regarding power and authority in the context of (post)colonial states (neo)traditional authority, claiming space, conflict and (in)justice, and contestations of knowledge. It offers in-depth critical analyses of ethnographic data that put contemporary African phenomena on equal footing with current controversies in North America, Europe, and other global settings.