Conversion as Lateral Movement: Repetition and Ambiguity in Ifugao Pentecostalism

Recent discussions in refugee studies question the stereotypical representation of refugees as absolute victims and reveal the dual aspects of refugees: displacement and emplacement. Yet the academic field pays little attention to how refugees reconstitute a sense of belonging in situations of forced mobility through religious and ritual practices. In studying a group of Buddhist Karen refugees in Mae Sot valley on the Thailand-Myanmar border area, I explore how the Karen refugees negotiate a monastery-founding project during their exile and how religious belief and practices facilitate the Karen orientation to place. The paper argues that the web of connections constituting the Mae Sot borderlands have created a culturally accommodating space that enables the Karen to maintain continuity in religious practice, and that Buddhist practices in a familiar tradition help them to reproduce locality and engender a sense of place and belonging in a new social environment.

This study traces the evolution of religious healing practices associated with divine presence in China, from pre-modern traditions to the modern use of spirit-writing for obtaining divine prescriptions. It examines the continuity and transformation of these practices from the late imperial period to contemporary times. It argues that healing through divine prescriptions obtained via spirit-writing challenges the perceived dichotomy between religion and science, demonstrating that they have complementary roles, rather than being strictly opposing categories. For members of Jishenghui 濟生會, a lay Buddhist charity devoted to the Buddhist god Jigong 濟公 in Republican China, religion and scientific medical practice were integrated as complementary elements of daily life, combining doctrinal beliefs, ritual practices, and moral self-cultivation. This study examines how Jishenghui used spirit-writing to obtain and distribute divine prescriptions and medicines, demonstrating that the organization’s philanthropic activities and social standing were enhanced by the integration of religious beliefs with medical and charitable practices during the Republican period. This study bridges existing research on the histories of spirit-writing and Chinese medicine, and the distinctions made between “Buddhist medicine” and “Daoist medicine”. The article contends that, for ordinary people, no strict distinction existed between Buddhist and Daoist healing practices; instead, a shared religious culture regarding illness and healing was predominant. By contextualizing key analytical concepts such as “divine medicine”, especially “divine prescriptions” (jifang 乩方 and xianfang 仙方) within the broader history of Chinese medicine and religious practices, this article demonstrates the social significance of spirit-writing as a ritual technique to provide healing and charity by lay Buddhists in Republican China, and its enduring relevance in contemporary Chinese societies.

This article is devoted to the religious identity and ritual practices of the contemporary Cham Ahier of south-central Vietnam (Bình Thuận and Ninh Thuận provinces). Contemporary understanding of Cham identity was derived from a number of groundbreaking works published by French colonial scholars. However, past thinking about the central role of “Indianized” religions (Hinduism and Buddhism) in the formation of Cham religious beliefs and practices was challenged by more recent publications focused on the growth of Islamic practices in the second millennium CE. Although the contemporary Cham community is divided into different groups that inherited these historic religious differences, the south-central Cham maintain a relatively high level of ethnic and cultural coherence through a reference to the concept of Ahier-Awal cosmological dualism, one which is heavily promoted by Cham intellectuals. This dualist concept helps transcend the religious conflicts between the Cham Ahier (“Cham Hindu”) and Cham Awal (“Cham Muslim”). This article describes the complexities of Cham Ahier religious identity through an analysis of their ritual practices. It approaches the Cham Ahier community and its religious practices within the broader context of the religious milieu, explaining how different sources of religious traditions were appropriated and intertwined, while, at the same time, acknowledging that there were also tensions involved in this process.

Introduction. The relevance of the issues raised is due to the contradictory nature of the evolution of religious and pseudo-religious rites of Muslims, as well as the ambiguous attitude towards them from the Muslim Ummah of the region. The objective of the study is to explore the regional features of some religious and ethnic cult practices of Muslims residing in the Republic of Mordovia. Materials and Methods. The study considered such materials as the data of the sociological survey “Muslim Traditions and Rites of the Tatars in a Region” employing the method of semi-formalized interviews (47 people), which assessed the level and the intensity of religiosity. The content and specificity of the rites, religious and ethnic rituals were analyzed. The canonicity of the rituals was assessed. Results. Various religious traditions and rites having regional specifics and observed by Muslims in the Republic of Mordovia have been analyzed. These include: a Dua prayer performed over water, the rite of ‘iskyat’, cult of Wali, the rite of ‘bashkoda’ preceding a marriage, and a memorial rite for deceased. An analysis of the religious ritual practices of Muslims in the Republic of Mordovia has made it possible to ascertain the presence of elements of cultural diffusion in some religious practices. Discussion and Conclusion. Despite certain disagreement regarding the performance of a number of religious rites within the regional Muslim Ummah, most of the considered forms of religious life in the minds of people are inseparable from the Muslim tradition and are perceived as part of the original Muslim culture. The materials of the article will be useful for the authorities to improve the regional ethno-confessional policy.

This study examined the relation between marital satisfaction and religious holiday ritual practices. One hundred twenty couples, married 9 years on average, completed measures of religious holiday practices (current family and family-of-origin) and marital satisfaction. Couples were interviewed about how important religion was to their family life. Marital satisfaction was related to religious holiday rituals beyond a global indication of religiousness. A different pattern was found for husbands and wives, with husbands' satisfaction more closely linked to ritual meaning and wives' satisfaction associated with routine practices. Family-of-origin rituals were connected across generations. Wives' marital satisfaction was related to husbands' report of religious holiday rituals but not the converse. Results are discussed in terms of how rituals affirm relationships, connect values and beliefs, and may have differential meaning for men and women.

Feminist theologians have commonly identified Reinhold Niebuhr's Christian realism as a prime example of a patriarchal theological ethic that promotes domination. In this study, the author claims that Niebuhr's thought can be usefully appropriated and revised in service of a new ethic – a feminist Christian realism. This new ethic is offered as an answer to the loss of moral grounding and critical judgment within some North American feminist theologies. She contends that an increasingly radical feminist emphasis on divine immanence and human boundedness has undercut key assumptions upon which feminism rests. Niebuhr's realism, she believes, can be the source of a necessary correction. Feminist theologians. Miles argues, would be better served by using the categories of Christian realism to retrieve critically, a more positive understanding of divine transcendence and human self‐transcendence while maintaining their emphasis on human boundedness and divine presence. This position is developed by drawing together the contributions of Niebuhr, Rosemary Radford Ruether, and Sharon Welch (two prominent feminist theologians). Ruether's turn to creation and Welch's turn to community together provide an important corrective to Niebuhr's Christian realism.

Supporting Religion and Spirituality to Enhance Quality of Life of People With Intellectual Disability: A Jewish Perspective

Purpose – This study aims to examine the transformation process in traditional beliefs and practices in the use of sand in the Songkran Festival in Chiang Mai, Northern Thailand. Design/methodology/approach – This study uses historical and ethnographic methods to understand the transformation of the sand rituals in the Songkran Festival in Chiang Mai. The historical approach is used to investigate the past ritual practices of the sand pagoda, while the ethnographic approach is used to gather evidence about the recent practices surrounding the construction and deployment of the sand pagoda; the historical and archival research for this study has also accessed material from newspapers and photographs. Because observation and interviews are major methods of ethnographic research, participant observation at the sand pagoda rituals in the Songkran Festival was conducted, as well as interviews with the relevant interest groups to collect data on the rituals and the recent changes in these practices. Findings – The transformation process in the traditional beliefs and practices surrounding the construction of sand pagodas in the Songkran Festival in Chiang Mai, Northern Thailand, is a result of the influence of tourism, the development of a market economy and the accompanying commoditisation process and secularisation and the decline of Buddhism in the local communities in Chiang Mai. Research limitations/implications – This study has implications for other religious practices which have become increasingly staged and reinvented in the process of tourism development. It only examines one among many other elements in the increasingly touristic secularisation of formerly religious beliefs and practices. Practical implications – The paper contributes to an expanding literature on the transformation of traditional rituals as a consequence of external factors, especially tourism promotion and the ways in which formerly sacred spaces and activities become commoditised. Originality/value – This is the first study which focuses on the transformation of practices surrounding sand pagodas in the Songkran Festival in Chiang Mai, in relation to the promotion of tourism, processes of commoditisation and the declining importance of Buddhism.

In Japan, where organized religion is increasingly viewed with a critical eye, one of the country's most enduring social and religious traditions-commemorating ancestral spirits-is undergoing rapid change. The highly competitive market for household altars is the source of innovative and sometimes radical concepts that represent a paradigm shift in how families and individuals should interact with ancestral spirits. No longer catering to guidelines from mainstream Buddhist denominations about altar style and function, companies building and marketing contemporary altars (gendai butsudan) present a highly-refined product that not only harmonizes with modern interior designs but also emphasizes individual preferences and spirituality in how the altar is conceptualized and used. Based on ethnographic fieldwork, this paper will demonstrate how some of the products, marketing strategies, and key players in this multi-billion yen industry help shape fundamental ideas of religious and ritual practice in contemporary Japanese society. Keywords: Household altar - butsudan - ancestor worship - spirituality - kuyo (ProQuest: ... denotes formulae omitted.) AS THE JAPANESE economy continues to recover from its long recession, one of its largest consumer markets-the sale of household Buddhist altars (butsudan ...) -is expected to reach around 175,000,000,000 yen (Kobori 2007).1 While an impressive amount of money, can this figure be equated in any way with the extent or depth of Buddhist practice and belief in Japan? By looking at recent innovations, new concepts, and changing consumer preferences that have little to do with established Buddhist denominations, this paper will try and complicate easy assumptions about the role and utility of household altars in present-day Japan. In most retail markets, supply and demand is determined by variables such as consumer confidence, advertising, product familiarity, government regulations, and so on. The market for household altars takes on additional, rather convoluted dynamics. On the one hand, it is characterized and dominated by the predictable factors mentioned above. But it is also shaped in decisive ways through religious traditions, temple affiliations, contemporary news events, and individual beliefs. The sale of butsudan is also influenced by aesthetic notions about style and interior design, by individualistic preferences and consumer psychology, and by the power of advertising to synthesize these traditions and inclinations into a unique and easily-recognized product. The following discussion introduces the marketing strategies and concepts behind one of Japan's most innovative producers and distributors of contemporary household altars. With fifty-four franchise outlets throughout the country, eight showrooms in major urban centers, and a catalog of over one hundred and fifty different styles, the Yagiken corporation ... epitomizes evolving notions of religious practice that complement rather than hold sway over emerging lifestyle choices. Their catalogs, website pages, and salespeople educate consumers about the memorialization of ancestors and relatives in ways that depart from established religious practice and progress towards a more individualized, expressive, and eclectic spirituality. In fact, though the company uses the generic term butsudan to describe what they sell, we will see how the concept takes on new and surprising referents. Similar to telephones, bicycles, or homes, the correspondence between the word and what it actually signifies may not be readily apparent at first glance. It is common in the West to associate the tradition of Buddhism with meditation and enlightenment, and to project these assumptions on various regions of the world that are seen as traditionally Buddhist. However, as many scholars and commentators have pointed out, this stereotype obscures a longstanding emphasis throughout East Asian Buddhism on venerating one's ancestors and petitioning their spirits (as well as those of familiar Buddhist bodhisattvas) for health, prosperity, and safety. …

Javanese people, usually called Kejawen people, believe that all religions teach good values and spiritualpurity to reach perfection in life. They train their spiritual life and inner sense to achieve the highest existence of a human being.When the preaching of Islam came to Java, their rituals and religious practices were influenced by the new values of Islam.Through some dialogical processes, then occurs syncretism as a form of their religious and ritual practices.

Reviewed by: Partners of Zaynab: A Gendered Perspective of Shia Muslim Faith by Diane D’Souza Yafa Shanneik Partners of Zaynab: A Gendered Perspective of Shia Muslim Faith, by Diane D’Souza, 2014. Columbia, South Carolina: The University of South Carolina Press, 264 pp., $49.95. isbn: 978-1-61117-377-2 (hbk). In Partners of Zaynab, the author examines the lived religious experiences and ritual practices of Twelver Shiʿa South Asian urban women. The research is based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted between 1994 and 2000 in Hyderabad, India. D’Souza examines religious narratives that shape the women’s spiritual lives and highlights the important and influential role women play within the traditionally male-centred Shiʿa religious context of Hyderabad. She argues that women are not mere followers of men’s religious practices but are rather active in constructing their own understanding of Shiʿa religious devotion that is articulated through their own defined ritual performances. The book starts with a historical overview of the historical events Shiʿa believe caused the split of the Muslim community after the death of the Prophet Muhammad. It describes the Umayyad period that led to the events of Karbala and caused the death of Imam Husayn and his family and supporters whom Shiʿa have been mourning each year since then. What gives these accounts their distinctive contribution is the detailed description of the political and socio-religious roles Shiʿa female figures played within these historical events such as the Prophet Muhammad’s daughter Fatimah; his granddaughter Zaynab; or Hind, the wife of the Umayyad caliph, Yazid, who ordered the killing of Husayn. Taking these role models as an example of female agency, Hyderabadi women actively engaged in collecting donations and were able to secure enough funds to build their own communal space for female religious activities exclusively. In this ashurkhanah in Hyderabad’s Old City, women exercise religious and social leadership and authority in organising and defining their own mourning and remembrance gatherings. Within these gatherings different women play various roles, in arranging the place and making it ready for the ritual, organising the food afterwards as well as leading the [End Page 242] ritual in the form of reciting the Qurʾan and saying prayers, retelling the events they are commemorating, reciting lamentation poetry and ending with performing self-flagellation as an expression of their sorrow for the killing of Imam Husayn and his family. Partners of Zaynab offers a valuable overview of the various types of Shiʿa religious rituals, whether mourning or celebratory. For instance, events such as the wedding of Fatimah and ʿAli are also celebrated by the women. The author engages in more detail with religious Shiʿa symbols such as the ʿalam, the Shiʿa emblematic crest, and the meaning and role it plays in ritual performances. It discusses rituals of intercession and blessing such as dastarkhan, also known as sofreh in Pakistan and Iran. It highlights how women use the ʿalam and/or dastarkhan in times of hardship, such as sickness, or when they are in need for divine blessings and seek an intervention from the family of the Prophet through a prayer of petition. It describes the components and meanings of such rituals of supplications and what role women play therein, particularly highlighting the unique power women have in such rituals, since men have no access to rituals such as the dastarkhan and ask women to perform them on their behalf. Supplication rituals therefore offer women the exclusive space to exercise autonomy, leadership, and authority within their community. In Partners of Zaynab, the ethnographic and the textual foci harmonically complement each other. The book engages particularly with Hyderabadi Shiʿa poetry and the meanings women assign to it in their ritual practises. The author highlights the importance and power of recalling Shiʿa historical events, through reciting lamentation poetry or retelling the story in prose form, both playing a major part in Shiʿa rituals and being the driving force for the ultimate ritual climax – weeping and self-flagellation. It states the qualities and characteristics that women, performing the role of an orator, should have in order to successfully lead the...

Javanese people, usually called Kejawen people, believe that all religions teach good values and spiritualpurity to reach perfection in life. They train their spiritual life and inner sense to achieve the highest existence of a human being.When the preaching of Islam came to Java, their rituals and religious practices were influenced by the new values of Islam.Through some dialogical processes, then occurs syncretism as a form of their religious and ritual practices.

Since the inauguration in 1986 of the reforms known as Đổi Mới, ritual and religious practices have proliferated in the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. This renewed interest in religious and ritual practice has been the object of intensive scholarly interest both in Vietnam and outside, and has been interpreted in terms of revival (phục hồi), invention and politics of tradition. This collection of articles deals with this phenomenon of ritual revival in Vietnam as well but attempts to go beyond the – by now common – approaches that connect it with the emerging religious practice and political liberalisation, economic reform and the emerging market in the context of Đổi Mới. Instead, these papers explore in more depth the ritual dimensions of life from the central state down to the individual level.

This study examined the phenomenon of socio-religious interaction between the Hindu and Islamic communities of Wetu Telu in Taman Kemaliq Pura Lingsar, Lombok. Using a qualitative approach, this study aimed to understand how Taman Kemaliq becomes an acculturation space that facilitates and reflects interfaith harmony. The research uncovered shared histories and religious practices that affirmed communal identity and religious tolerance through in-depth interviews, participatory observations, and document analysis. The results showed that Taman Kemaliq is a place for religious rituals and a symbol of harmony and collective identity. Simultaneous religious practices, such as rarak kembang waru ceremonies for Muslims and odalan ceremonies for Hindus, provide a platform for both communities to express their own beliefs and traditions while strengthening social relations between communities. This research found that Taman Kemaliq was a sacred place that united differences through ritual practices and strengthened tolerance and harmonious interaction between religious communities in daily life. The study offered new perspectives on religious and cultural practices as tools of inclusive social development and their potential to inspire interfaith harmony. These findings are important for anthropological, theological, and cultural studies, and they show that Taman Kemaliq can be a real example of multicultural societies managing diversity and creating harmony.

Cognitive flexibility is operationalized in the neuropsychological literature as the ability to shift between modes of thinking and adapt to novel or changing environments. Religious belief systems consist of strict rules and rituals that offer adherents certainty, consistency, and stability. Consequently, we hypothesized that religious adherence and practice of repetitive religious rituals may be related to the persistence versus flexibility of one’s cognition. The present study investigated the extent to which tendencies towards cognitive flexibility versus persistence are related to three facets of religious life: religious affiliation, religious practice, and religious upbringing. In a large sample (N = 744), we found that religious disbelief was related to cognitive flexibility across three independent behavioural measures: the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test, Remote Associates Test, and Alternative Uses Test. Furthermore, lower frequency of religious service attendance was related to cognitive flexibility. When analysing participants’ religious upbringing in relation to their current religious affiliation, it was manifest that current affiliation was more influential than religious upbringing in all the measured facets of cognitive flexibility. The findings indicate that religious affiliation and engagement may shape and be shaped by cognitive control styles towards flexibility versus persistence, highlighting the tight links between flexibility of thought and religious ideologies.