Lenore Manderson Wendy Smith Matt Tomlinson Editors. Flows of Faith. Religious Reach and Community in Asia and the Pacific

Transcription

1 Flows of Faith

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3 Lenore Manderson Wendy Smith Matt Tomlinson Editors Flows of Faith Religious Reach and Community in Asia and the Pacific

4 Editors Lenore Manderson School of Psychology and Psychiatry Monash University Dandenong Road, Caulfield East Victoria 3145 Australia Wendy Smith Department of Management Monash University Wellington Road, Clayton Victoria 3800 Australia Matt Tomlinson College of Asia and the Pacific Australian National University Canberra, ACT 0200 Australia ISBN e-isbn DOI / Springer Dordrecht Heidelberg London New York Library of Congress Control Number: Springer Science+Business Media B.V No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming, recording or otherwise, without written permission from the Publisher, with the exception of any material supplied specifically for the purpose of being entered and executed on a computer system, for exclusive use by the purchaser of the work. Printed on acid-free paper Springer is part of Springer Science+Business Media (

5 Preface Flows of Faith grew out of our awareness of the dynamic conjunction of two broad fields of enquiry religion and transnationalism. Religion, long a subject of study in the social sciences, has seen a strong resurgence of interest, in part for political reasons. The study of transnational processes, conversely, reminds us that even the most intensively focused local studies cannot ignore the global ecumene. Religion remains an especially mysterious and elusive aspect of culture, because it often deals with ideas about the supernatural. Anthropologists largely focus on the way lived societies are organized according to culturally defined beliefs, practices and materials, including the structured ways in which we behave and relate to each other. Our work in this area is essentially empirical. Religious beliefs are very much the exception, concerned with states when we cease to become social beings and how we relate to and our obligations to those who were before us. Yet beliefs in the ultimately unknowable states before birth and after death are firmly grounded in the here-and-now of social life. Religions often provide the very values which, commonly held, allow communities of human beings to cooperate together for mutual survival. Despite the secular impulse of modernity, faith and religious affiliation continually reassert and offer people existential and practical support. Newly created and long-established communities gather for regular religious services in conventional settings in churches, mosques and temples but in diverse locations. Through conversion, a growing number of people worldwide embrace belief systems that fit uncomfortably in any local historical tradition. Consider the rise of global new religious movements, whose members convert, away from family or community norms, to religions whose beliefs and ritual practices are grounded in traditions very culturally distant from their society of upbringing. Such people constitute new social groups within mainstream society, often highly visible in terms of their residence patterns, daily routines, dress and diet. This is true not just in highly industrialized settings where individualism is heralded, but also in smaller-scale community-based societies and in newly industrialized and marketizing economies. And at the same time, faith communities are now truly global as a consequence of migration flows, missionary outreach and tourism and travel. They are the consequence, too, of contemporary information technologies that enable belief systems v

6 vi Preface and their institutions to operate beyond and through borders. Text messages provide daily prayers and support to the faithful; religious events are streamed by internet; list-serves encourage connection, proselytization, discourse and dissent. The global picture is of growing heterodoxy, with tensions that emerge with diversity tempered by the energies and tolerances of cosmopolitan beliefs and practices. When such belief systems, validated by an ultimately unknowable supernatural order, cross boundaries, what are the implications? How do acts of conversion, revitalization and religious innovation depend on boundary-crossing, whether those boundaries are indicated by differences in language, ethnicity, political orientation, or national identity? And how can we understand the power and mystery of beliefs inspired by spiritual experience or religious institutions, as they impact on the political order, the environment and on individual lifestyles? In 2009, through an Australia Research Council Asia Pacific Futures Research Network (ARC APFRN) grant, the three of us, anthropologists at Monash University, began this collaboration: Lenore Manderson, a medical anthropologist and social historian who has worked with immigrant Australians and in various settings in Asia; Wendy Smith, an organizational anthropologist who has worked particularly in Japan and Malaysia; and Matt Tomlinson, a cultural anthropologist with expertise in the Pacific. We began by convening a 2-day colloquium in December The colloquium took as its starting point questions associated with manifestations of religion, culture and identity, including the spread of religions within and from different parts of Asia and the Pacific. We chose to contrast old and new religions, the orthodox and heterodox. In the context of population mobility, transnational flows and globalization, we aimed to re-examine the fluidity of religious belief and to explore systems and structures of faith across the boundaries of nation state, ethnicity, kin and community. We therefore considered both the movement and constitution of major old religions the so-called great traditions in diverse settings as a result of colonialism, missionization and the movement of their adherents, and contrasted this with the growth of new religious movements throughout the region. The expansion of old and new religions in diverse locations, and the local inflections provided to them, challenge the orthodoxy of the association between religion and culture. Conversion in particular points to the plasticity of culture and the search by individuals to find identity in faith-based organizations, regardless of the cultural origins of such belief systems. Yet at the same time, familiar religion provides grounding and a source of identity and community for individuals who migrate to different unfamiliar settings, enabling people to feel at home wherever they are. The detailed ethnographies from the participating anthropologists, and the richness of the discussions, proved that the juxtaposition of Asia and the Pacific was a fruitful catalyst to understand the underlying structures of belief s transportability through the emerging themes of place and identity, marginality and belonging. Our anthropological perspectives proved to be fertile ones, as detailed realities informed our awareness of the remarkable coincidences and leaps of belief across disparate cultural and national boundaries. The theme of innovation, as beliefs are transposed intercontextually to suit individual, community or national strategies, unifies the collection. The chapters in this volume illustrate that the study of religion

7 Preface vii is a rich source of investigation for many phenomena in the globalizing world, and of the echoes of common patterns in different religious contexts for example, Christian beliefs about Mount Zion, drawn from the Old Testament, being invoked and implanting in Taiwan and the Solomon Islands, as described in two of the chapters. But attention to globalization also suggests that global pilgrimage ends up radically transforming, or even destroying, the spiritual paradises which pilgrims seek, why and how young people in the West adopt the extreme disciplines of Indian asceticism while remaining within their home societies, and how faith and religious identity provide new social networks and support systems in newly settled communities. The chapters illustrate that age-old religious beliefs and the innovative doctrines of the new religious movements are equally malleable across geographical distance, political borders and cultural systems. We thank the Australian Research Council and the APFRN for the grant to convene the colloquium. We thank Monash University, including the Faculties of Arts, Business and Economics, and Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences, and in particular, we thank Bharati Kalle and Carla Chan Unger for their administrative and editorial support. We are immensely grateful too to Esther Otten, our editor at Springer, who encouraged our efforts and streamlined the complicated editorial and production process. Lenore Manderson Wendy Smith Matt Tomlinson

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9 Contents 1 Beliefs Beyond Borders and Communities of Faith... 1 Lenore Manderson, Wendy Smith, and Matt Tomlinson 2 Religion in the Age of Globalization: Emerging Trends, Indonesian Examples Thomas A. Reuter 3 Master Li Encounters Jesus: Christianity and the Configurations of Falun Gong Benjamin Penny 4 Brahma Kumaris: Purity and the Globalization of Faith Tamasin Ramsay, Wendy Smith, and Lenore Manderson 5 Secularism, Society, and Symbols of Religion: Bosnian Muslim Australians Encounter Christmas Lejla Voloder 6 Preaching over Borders: Constructing Publics for Islamic Oratory in Indonesia Julian Millie 7 Re-examining Ecological Aspects of Vrindavan Pilgrimage Joshua Nash 8 Heterotopia and the Southern Heaven: Xingyun s Antipodean Buddhist Mission Scott Pacey 9 The Gateway to the Fly: Christianity, Continuity, and Spaces of Conversion in Papua New Guinea Alison Dundon 10 Circulating Matters of Belief: Engendering Marian Movements during the Bougainville Crisis Anna-Karina Hermkens ix

10 x Contents 11 The New Testament Church and Mount Zion in Taiwan Paul J. Farrelly 12 Straightening the Path from the Ends of the Earth: The Deep Sea Canoe Movement in Solomon Islands Jaap Timmer 13 Passports to Eternity: Whales Teeth and Transcendence in Fijian Methodism Matt Tomlinson Index

11 List of Figures Fig. 4.1 Dadi Prakashmani ( front left ), Brahma Baba ( center ) and Dadi Chandramani ( rear left ); 1960 (Courtesy of Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual University, Mount Abu, Rajasthan) Fig. 4.2 Dadi Savitri ( left ), Mama ( third from right ), Dadi Kumarka/ Prakashmani ( second from right ), Dadi Shantamani ( front ); late 1950s (exact date unknown), Lucknow (Courtesy of Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual University, Mount Abu, Rajasthan) Fig. 4.3 Left to Right : Mitthu Dadi, Rukhmani Dadi, Devta (Kamalsundri Dadi), Prakashmani Dadi, Manmohini Didi; late 1950s (exact date unknown), Delhi area (Courtesy of Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual University, Mount Abu, Rajasthan) Fig. 8.1 The Pure Land scene at the Nan Tian Temple in Wollongong; 2009 (Photograph by Scott Pacey) Fig. 8.2 The Pure Land Cave at Foguang Shan, in Taiwan; 2005 (Photograph by Scott Pacey) Fig Map showing Buka and Bougainville Island. Map by George Chakvetadze (2011). Courtesy of Oxford University Press Fig Mary, The Immaculate Conception; Photograph by Anna-Karina Hermkens. Courtesy of Anna-Karina Hermkens Fig Francis Ona, consecrating Bougainville in Mary s name and promising to work towards peace in front of the International Pilgrim Virgin Statue of Fatima in Guava village; Fragment from the film Pilgrim of Peace, made by Fr. Zdzislaw Mlak (Courtesy of Fr. Zdzislaw Mlak) xi

12 xii Fig Fig Fig Fig Fig Fig List of Figures Mary Mother of Peace; Painting, artist unknown. Photograph by Anna-Karina Hermkens. Courtesy of Anna-Karina Hermkens The Holy Temple on Mount Zion; 2007 (Photograph by Paul J. Farrelly) View from the main door of the Holy Temple, Mount Zion; 2007 (Photograph by Paul J. Farrelly) Ritual presentation of a whale s tooth at a chiefly kava ceremony, Vatulele Island; 1993 (Photograph by Rod Ewins. Courtesy of Rod Ewins) Fijian sperm whale s tooth ( tabua ) with sennit cord (Photograph by Matt Tomlinson) Two tabua hanging in the Methodist Church, Namuka Island, Lau; 2009 (Photograph by Matt Tomlinson)

13 Contributors Alison Dundon is an anthropologist whose research focuses on Gogodala communities in the Western Province of Papua New Guinea. The publications and research papers that have arisen out of fieldwork in this area of Melanesia engage a variety of themes and issues from gender, sexuality and HIV/AIDS, migration, illness and health, community and resource-based development, modernity, Christianity, globalization, place, art, and culture or custom. Recent publications include an edited collection of papers on Christianity and globalization in Melanesia in The Asia Pacifi c Journal of Anthropology (February 2011) Paul J. Farrelly is a doctoral candidate in the Australian Centre on China in the World at the Australian National University. His current research is on new religious movements and religious innovation in Taiwan and the flow of religious and spiritual ideas from Taiwan to China Anna-Karina Hermkens is a postdoctoral researcher in anthropology. She is affiliated with the Research Institute for Religious Studies and Theology, Radboud University Nijmegen, Netherlands, and the Australian National University in Canberra. Her PhD-thesis (2005) dealt with dynamics of gender, identity, and material culture in Papua New Guinea. Since 2008, she has been doing research on the ideological underpinnings of violent conflicts in Solomon Islands, Bougainville and North Moluccas (Indonesia) in terms of religion and gender Lenore Manderson is an inaugural ARC Federation Fellow and Professor of Medical Anthropology at Monash University. She has conducted research in anthropology, social history and public health in Australia, South East and East Asia, and Africa, and has a broad interest in social inclusion, inequality, health, illness and well-being, and the social- and political-economic factors that shape the human condition. She is coeditor of Chronic Conditions, Fluid States (2010) and author, among other works, of Surface Tensions (2011) Julian Millie is lecturer and researcher in the anthropology section of the School of Political Inquiry at Monash University. His research focuses on the Islamic culture xiii

14 xiv Contributors of Indonesia, and particularly cultural production connected with religious gatherings. His most recent book is Splashed by the Saint: Ritual Reading and Islamic Sanctity in West Java (KITLV 2009), and his current research project concerns Islamic oratory in Indonesia Joshua Nash is a research associate in the Discipline of Linguistics at the University of Adelaide where he completed his Ph.D. in His research focuses on synthesizing ecological approaches to the study of language with Indian perspectives on spirituality, ecology, and ethnography. He has conducted linguistic fieldwork on Norfolk Island, South Pacific, since 2007 and environmental fieldwork in Vrindavan, India, since 1998 Scott Pacey is a Golda Meir Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of East Asian Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His research interests include the Chinese Buddhist encounter with non-buddhist ideologies and systems of thought, Buddhism in the modern context, and the engagement of contemporary Chinese intellectuals with classical religious and philosophical ideas Benjamin Penny is Deputy Director of the Australian Centre on China in the World, College of Asia and the Pacific, The Australian National University. He researches Chinese religious and spiritual movements in the medieval period, the nineteenth century, and in contemporary times. His book The Religion of Falun Gong will be published by the University of Chicago Press in 2012 Tamasin Ramsay is Adjunct Research Fellow at Monash University s School of Psychology and Psychiatry where she was awarded her PhD in She is also NGO Representative to the United Nations for the Brahma Kumaris. Tamasin s developing research interest is in social asceticism, which she defines as the tension between spiritual practitioners intimate adherence to religious ideals and practices, and finding ways to live meaningful and productive lives in an increasingly complex world. (Tamasin is also a paramedic, and an active volunteer with the New York City Medical Reserve Corps and the American Red Cross.) Thomas A. Reuter is a Future Fellow (Australian Research Council) at the University of Melbourne s Asia Institute. After obtaining his Ph.D. from ANU in 1997, he taught at Heidelberg University, held postdoctoral and QElI Fellowships at Melbourne, and a Research Fellowship at Monash University. He was President of the Australian Anthropological Association ( ) and is the chair of the World Council of Anthropological Associations. His research has focused on Indonesian ethnology (Bali, Java, Kalimantan), social movements, religion, political anthropology, social organization, status, globalization, and general theory Wendy Smith is Director of the Centre for Malaysian Studies, Monash Asia Institute, and senior lecturer, Department of Management, Monash University. She recently co-edited Global-ka suru Asia-kei Shukyo: Keiei to Marketing [Globalizing Asian Religions: Management and Marketing] Osaka: Toho Shuppan (2012). She has conducted extensive research on Japanese management transfer to Malaysia, globalizing religious organizations in Japan, Southeast Asia, India and the EU, and social protection among Turkish communities in Australia and Germany

15 Contributors xv Jaap Timmer is lecturer and director of the Master of Applied Anthropology at Macquarie University, Sydney. He is the author of Living with Intricate Futures (2000) and numerous articles on cultural change, millenarianism, and political developments in Indonesian and Papua and on political ecology and access to justice in East Kalimantan. His recent work focuses on the anthropology of the state, alternative constitutions, religion, and lost tribes in the Asia Pacific region Matt Tomlinson is a Future Fellow in the Department of Anthropology at Australian National University s College of Asia and the Pacific. He is the author of In God s Image: The Metaculture of Fijian Christianity (University of California Press, 2009) and coeditor of The Limits of Meaning: Case Studies in the Anthropology of Christianity (Berghahn, 2006) Lejla Voloder is a lecturer in the School of Political and Social Inquiry at Monash University. Her research interests include migrant integration and citizenship, the impact of stigma and discrimination on identities, the politics of assimilation and multiculturalism, and intersections of religious and secular practice in Australia and Turkey

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