Description
Book SynopsisWhat 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 thingsstatues, talismans, garments, even sacred automobilesare 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 coexistence 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 interfaith interactions around the world.
In this volume, cont
Trade Review
"By focusing on the material dimensions of religious life, this stimulating volume sheds new light on some important sources of both creativity and conflict in Southeast Asia. Through a fascinating range of cases, the authors demonstrate the power of things to provoke, facilitate, and constrain people's religious projects. This book is the fruitful outcome of strong local knowledge brought to bear on questions of wide interest across this complex region."—Webb Keane, University of Michigan, author of Signs of Recognition: Powers and Hazards of Representation in an Indonesian Society and Christian Moderns: Freedom and Fetish in the Mission Encounter
