Research Catalog
Syncretism/anti-syncretism : the politics of religious synthesis
- Title
- Syncretism/anti-syncretism : the politics of religious synthesis / edited by Charles Stewart and Rosalind Shaw.
- Publication
- London ; New York : Routledge, 1994.
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| Status | Format | Access | Call Number | Item Location |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Text | Use in library | BL410 .S96 1994 | Off-site |
Details
- Additional Authors
- Description
- viii, 225 pages : illustrations, maps; 23 cm
- Summary
- "Syncretism, refers to the mixing of different religious traditions whether as active, ongoing process or as historical fact. In the present era of displacement, migration and generally increasing "cultural compression" syncretism is very much a current event. But syncretism does not just happen because religions have similarities and cross over into one another. It occurs in social conditions characterized by unequal power and it is sometimes directed by the interests and agency of prominent individuals. Contributors to this volume explore not only how syncretism occurs, but how the very idea of religious mixture is accepted or contested in ten different societies. Topics covered include multiculturalism in India, Japanese "new religions," the translation of the Bible in Ghana, the Christian interpretation of circumcision in Papua New Guinea and Turkish migrants' efforts to remain Muslims in Germany. Whether syncretism is a good or a bad thing is a disputed matter. Anti-syncretism can arise in situations of multiculturalism where a group attempts to preserve its integrity by guarding against foreign influences. In situations of ethnic revival groups are liable to deconstruct their own traditions and extirpate elements considered to be foreign or borrowed. Dispensing with objectivist and historicist attempts to decide what is syncretic, the contributors to this volume use their anthropological expertise and experience to present local understandings and debates about what is mixed, what is pure, and which is most 'authentic' "--Publisher description.
- Uniform Title
- European Association of Social Anthropologists (Series)
- Subject
- Note
- "European Association of Social Anthropologists."
- Bibliography (note)
- Includes bibliographical references and indexes.
- Contents
- What 'Alhaji Airplane' saw in Mecca, and what happened when he came home: ritual transformation in a Mende community (Sierra Leone) / Mariane Ferme -- Beyond syncretism: translation and diabolization in the appropriation of Protestantism in Africa / Birgit Meyer -- Variation on a Christian theme: the healing synthesis of Zulu Zionism / Jim Kernan -- The politics of religious synthesis: Roman Catholicism and Hindu village society in Tamil Nadu, India / David Mosse -- Ritual, power and colonial domination: male initiation among the Ngaing of Papua New Guinea / Wolfgang Kempf -- Syncretism as a dimension of nationalist discourse in modern Greece / Charles Stewart -- Syncretic inventions: 'Indianness' and the Day of the Monkey / David M. Guss -- Manipulated identities: syncretism and uniqueness of tradition in modern Japanese discourse / Klaus-Peter Koepping -- Are fireworks Islamic? Towards an understanding of Turkish migrants and Islam in Germany / Lale Yalçin-Heckmann -- Syncretism, multiculturalism and the discourse of tolerance / Peter van der Veer.
- ISBN
- 0415111161
- 9780415111164
- 041511117X
- 9780415111171
- 9780203451090
- 0203451090
- LCCN
- 93046102
- OCLC
- ocm29548092
- 29548092
- SCSB-2034961
- Owning Institutions
- Princeton University Library