Spirit Cults Research Articles

Decline of Village Spirit Cults and Growth of Urban Spirit Mediumship: the Persistence of Spirit Beliefs, the Position of Women and Modernization

Decline of Village Spirit Cults and Growth of Urban Spirit Mediumship: the Persistence of Spirit Beliefs, the Position of Women and Modernization

Spirit Cults and Buddhism in Luang Prabang, Laos: Analyses of Rituals in the Boat Race Festivals

Theravada Buddhism is the official religion in Laos and the ethnic Lao have been denying, theologically and historically, spirit cults (phi). However, many researchers have found that the spirit cults remain strong in practice, and are sometimes mingled strongly with Buddhism. Even in Luang Prabang, the royal capital of Laos until 1975, where supremacy of Buddhism, as the official religion of the kingdom, was and still is especially emphasized and where residents express negative attitude toward spirit cults, some aspects of the cults can be noticed in their rituals. Specifically, influence of the spirit cults is observed in the Buddhist rituals related to ceremonial boat races, including the “boat spirit” worship deriving from the sacred tree from which the boats are manufactured, the rite of Phou Ngeu Nya Ngeu deities, and veneration of the Naga (mythological river deity). These are carefully integrated into Buddhism through justifying procedures and are considered to be separated from general spirit cults.

Malay-Muslim spirits and Malaysian capitalist modernity: A study of keramat propitiation among property developers in Penang

Abstract: Property developers in Penang (Malaysia) were erecting shrines and performing rituals to propitiate a Malay-Muslim guardian spirit of local sacred places known interchangeably as keramat or Datuk Kong during a period of euphoric economic growth in Malaysia in the early 1990s. Drawing on anthropological approaches, this article explores the symbolic significance of this peculiar capitalist sacralisation in Penang. It argues that keramat propitiation among property developers can be better grasped by understanding how this spirit cult is engendered and acted on by deep historical structures of cultural hybridity, socioeconomic and ethnonationalist transformations in Malaysia. It is with this background that the keramat cult converges with Chinese supernatural beliefs and becomes a potent idiom that expresses and negotiates contradictions inherent in a highly speculative activity and ethnically charged political economy in Malaysia. This conjunction between the keramat cult and property development activities brings to light the centrality of ethnicity and religion in characterising capitalist formations in a new Asian economy and urban environment.

Demoniacs, Dissent, and Disempowerment in the Late Roman West: Some Case Studies from the Hagiographical Literature

In the hagiographical literature of the late Roman West, demonic possession is a recurring motif providing a recognizable, culturally appropriate means for expressing societal dysfunction. This paper complements existing scholarship on demonic possession by developing a methodology for exploring the factors motivating the demoniacs themselves. Some episodes of possession in the hagiographical literature of the period are examined using recent anthro-pological studies of spirit cults and psychosomatic illness as an analytical framework. These episodes are interpreted as examples of individuals consciously or subconsciously expressing anger at or anxiety about the world in which they lived and their place in that world.

The sound of two hands clapping: the education of a Tibetan Buddhist monk

List of Illustrations Note on Translation and Transliteration Acknowledgments Introduction Part I. The Context 1. Tibetan Buddhism: A Brief Historical Overview 2. Tibetan Monasticism 3. Becoming a Monk: Teacher and Discipline Part II. Tibetan Scholastic Practices 4. Literacy and Memorization 5. The General Structure of the Tibetan Curriculum 6. Two Curricular Models 7. Scholasticism and Orality: Myth and Reality 8. Commentary and Meditation 9. The Supplement: Hermeneutical or Deconstructive? 10. Debate as Practice 11. Debate in the Curriculum 12. Is Debate a Mode of Inquiry? Part III. Reflections 13. Rationality and Spirit Cult 14. The Limits of the Inquiry Conclusion: Past and Future Uncertainties Notes Select Bibliography Index

“Disreputable Magicians,” the Dark Destroyer, and the Trickster Lord: Reflections on Semai Religion and a Possible Common Religious Base in South and Southeast Asia

Recent studies of globalization tend to stress its novelties, especially new patterns of consumption and mediated communication (e.g., Appadurai 1996). But the view from the margins and from the lowest social strata of globalizing states seems less novel. This paper explores the ways in which the impact of anciently emergent slaveholding despotisms and their colonies seems refracted in the cosmology of southeast Asian peoples as a stupid terrorist storm god, whose literally bestial power is available to humans who can surrender to it in an almost erotic ecstasy of yearning and desire. These cosmologies, the paper suggests, constitute a still relevant, nuanced critique of world-conquering globalization. We see them only as eccentrics or as survivors…locked into a religiose fantasy-world; they are quaint historical fossils…But where social or political assumptions or enquiries into value are at issue, then the answer must be very much more complex. The danger is that we should confuse the reputability of beliefs, and the reputability of those who professed them, with depth or shallowness. (Thompson 1993:107, 108) Hinduism was thus a religious accumulation derived from all periods of India's history; primitive cults of fertility, hero reverence, and sun worship were…overlaid with an elaborate system of philosophical speculation. Hinduism countenanced almost every level of religious belief from crude animism to metaphysical monism. Hinduism could be transferred, therefore, only in a selective way…During the development of Hinduism in India, Siva worship absorbed a large number of pre-Aryan spirit cults. It did the same in Southeast Asia…(Cady 1964:36–37)

Valsecchi, Pierluigi & Viti, Fabio (dir.). – Mondes Akan/Akan Worlds. Identité et pouvoir en Afrique occidentale/Identity and Power in West Africa. Paris-Montréal, L’Harmattan, 1999, 361 p., bibl.

The contributions to Akan Worlds center around the rise to power and its manifestations at various levels, from micro-level (local spirit cult, village, lineage) to macro-level (chiefdom or state). While the contributions deal with specific polities such as Nzima (2), Efutu (2), Bono (1), Baoule (2) and Ashanti (2), few deal with “integration by conquest” which was the dominant model of Akan expansion in the past. Chouin argues that cross-ethnic region-wide associations are neglected by resea...

Globalization and Identity: Dialectics of Flow and Closure

Introduction. (Birgit Meyer and Peter Geshiere). Nationalism and Transnationalism. Cirassian Encounters: The Self as Other and the Production of the Homeland in the North Caucasus. (Seteney Shami). Transnationalism in the Era of Nation--States: China, 1900--1945. (Prasenjit Duara). The French Colonial Policy of Assimilation and the Civility of the Originaires of the Four Communes (Senegal): A Nineteenth Century Globalization Project. (Mamadou Diouf). Enforcing the Human Rights of Citizens and Non--Citizens in the Era of Maastricht: Some Reflections on the Importance of States. (Jacqueline Bhabha). Commodities and Fantasies. Small Product, Big Issues: Value Contestations and Cultural Identities in Cross--Border Commodity Networks. Commodities and the Power of Prayer: Pentecostalist Attitudes Towards Consumption in Contemporary Ghana. (Birgit Meyer). Domesticating Diamonds and Dollars: Identity, Expenditure and Sharing in Southwestern Zaire (1984--1997). (Filip De Boeck). Globalization and the Power of Indeterminate Meaning: Witchcraft and Spirit Cults in Africa and East Asia. (Peter Geschiere). Theoretical Reflections. Time and the Global: Against the Homogeneous, Empty Communities in Contemporary Social Theory. John D. Kelly. Globalization and Virtuality: Analytical Problems Posed by the Contemporary Transformation of African Societies. (Wim van Binsbergen). Dead Certainty: Ethnic Violence in the Era of Globalization. (Arjun Appadurai). Epilogue: On Some Reports from a Free Space. (Ulf Hannerz). Notes on Contributors. Index

Distance learning from purdah in nineteenth-century northern Nigeria: The work of Asma'u Fodiyo

Asma'u Fodiyo is a major figure in African history. Born in 1793 at Degel, she was the daughter of Shehu an Fodiyo, who let his approval of her be known. Her scholarship and organizational skills were put to use by her brother, Caliph Muhammad Bello, who realized that some of the next generation would be born to slave mothers captured in the jihad. Many of these mothers were followers of a spirit cult and had but a hazy knowledge of Islam. Asma'u was put at the helm of women's education and wrote easy-to-learn poetry to teach her students how to be good Muslims. From her home she identified women leaders in rural areas and devised a way of banding women together so they could travel in safety to meet her, receive instruction, learn her songs and take them home to put to use in the community. She died in 1863 and was buried close to her father.

Appropriation of Women's Indigenous Knowledge: The Case of the Matrilineal Lua in Northern Thailand

The Lua according to their mythology are the original inhabitants of northern Thailand. Today however they are regarded as ethnic minorities who inhabit this region. A study of their myths and their legends reveals the importance of spirit cults matriclans and womens role in the discovery production and trade of salt. The matriclan system is also established in the longhouses and their social structure. However with the entry of the Thai state power has shifted from the Lua women to Thai men who represent the state. This has also resulted in the appropriation of womens traditional knowledge about the technology and rituals surrounding forest conservation and sustainable use of resources. Further there has been a shift in gender relations in favor of men among the Lua people. (authors)

Appropriation of Women’s Indigenous Knowledge: The Case of the Matrilineal Lua in Northern Thailand

The Lua, according to their mythology, are the original inhabitants of northern Thailand. Today, however, they are regarded as ethnic minorities who inhabit this region. A study of their myths and legends reveals the importance of spirit cults, matriclans, and women’s role in the discovery, production, and trade of salt. The matriclan system is also established in the longhouses and their social structure. However, with the entry of the Thai state, power has shifted from the Lua women to Thai men who represent the state. This has also resulted in the appropriation of women’s traditional knowledge about the technology and rituals surrounding forest conservation and sustainable use of resources. Further, there has been a shift in gender relations in favor of men among the Lua people.

Islam and the Spirit Cults in New Order Indonesia: Global Flows vs. Local Knowledge

Professor Clifford Geertz said that in the tradition-laden culture of the central Indonesian island of Java ... parents dote on their children in ways that other societies would consider indulgent, even excessive. children are spoiled, said Mr. Geertz ... Mr. Geertz said that when Mr. Suharto rebuffed the International Monetary Fund last year and refused to close down many of his children's business operations ... he was able to draw on centuries of Javanese tradition .... It's not a matter of everybody in Java is exactly the same or that they all have some sort of Javanism in them that essentially determines what they do, he said, seated with his back to a collection of toothy tribal masks gathered on his travels. But the way things are going in that country, at least from afar, it does not seem unfamiliar to me. ... With the Javanese, you don't see violence coming until it happens, Mr. Geertz said. Once this politeness and deference and controlled demeanor collapse, then all hell breaks loose.1

Female Spirit Cults as a Window on Gender Relations in the Highlands of Papua New Guinea

Female Spirit Cults as a Window on Gender Relations in the Highlands of Papua New Guinea

<i>Molam Phifa</i> in Northeast Thailand

The purpose of this article is to describe in concrete terms, the Molam Phifa as a practitioner of khong haksa, or the spiritual power to avoid affliction, an indigenous notion that has not been studied before, and thus to it approach the reality of practical religion in rural northeastern Thailand. The data collection was conducted in the region where one of the Molam Phifas lived, using mainly questionaries and in-depth interviews for 5 months in 1994.Literally, Molam Phifa is a specialist in singing songs for Phifa (the Supreme Being) which is part of Thai-Lao peasant culture. Among the villagers, Molam Phifa is known as a ritual specialist, especially performing healing rituals by singing and dancing and Phifa possession of her body. It is reported that most of Molam Phifa are females and each has her own group of believers, gaining recruits who are cured in the healing rituals. Moreover, there are collective rituals held twice a year, when many believers gather at the Molam Phifa's house to make offerings to Phifa.For the villagers, khong haksa is a notion of spiritual power against the evil or calamity which causes illness, and it subsumes the concepts of Buddhism and spirit belief, including various kind of things perceived as spiritual power, such as Phifa, tham, etc. In relation to Buddhism, there are not only many discourses from Buddhism, but believing and making offerings to khong haksa is also perceived as merit-making behavior.Since the indigenous knowledge of Molam Phifa has innumerable diversity, it is necessary to consider the historical perspective of the area where it has developed. After examination the historical process of the village formation, it was found that when the villagers were faced the socio-cultural changes caused from “modernization, ” many had to change their occupations, which required them to go out of the village sphere. In this case, Molam Phifas served them, unfettered by village boundaries and kinship structure, by using their spiritual power different from the power of village guardian spirits or ancestral spirits which have their own spheres of protective power. In other words, this case study shows the process of becoming the center of the religious practice by reorganizing various religious factors in a local way, though lived in a village where the Buddhist temple was not the center of religious practice. This case also shows that khong haksa, or the indigenous notion of power, has been developed and succeeded, especially in Northeast Thailand, by high mobility of the population and a flexible kinship network, and recognized by the people as the supernatural power to protect kinship and social networks beyond village society or kinship groups. Consequently, the indigenous notion of power, like khong haksa, could be the key factor of dynamic construction and integration of Buddhism and spirit cults at the practice level.

S. J. Tambiah, Buddhism and the Spirit Cults in North-east Thailand

S. J. Tambiah, Buddhism and the Spirit Cults in North-east Thailand

Globalization and the Power of Indeterminate Meaning: Witchcraft and Spirit Cults in Africa and East Asia

The obsession with witchcraft in many parts of present‐day Africa is not to be viewed as some sort of traditional residue. On the contrary, it is especially present in the more modern spheres of society. In a comparative, global perspective, this linking of modernity and witchcraft is not particular to Africa: in other parts of our globalized world, modern developments coincide with a proliferation of what the Comaroffs (forthcoming) call ‘the economies of the occult’. In this article, representations in South and West Cameroon about ekong, supposedly a novel form of witchcraft explicitly associated with modern forms of wealth, are compared to Weller's study of the upsurge of spirit cults in Taiwan, during the recent economic boom of this ‘Asian tiger’. The power of such discourses on occult forces is that they relate people's fascination with the open‐endedness of global flows to the search for fixed orientation points and identities. Both witchcraft and spirit cults exhibit a surprising capacity for combining the local and the global. Both also have specific implications for the ways in which people try to deal with modernity's challenge.

Alternating Ontologies: Exchange and Ritual in Anganen History

In this article I examine the changing social and historical context of exchange and ritual amongst the Anganen of the Southern Highlands Province of Papua New Guinea, a neglected theme in Highland ethnography. I focus primarily on the history of the incorporation of one spirit cult ritual, rimbu, and its relationship to the other major spirit cult, kabit, and just how these two cults inter‐relate with two major categories of exchange—the ceremonial pig kill (yasolu) and the more ‘mundane’ forms of exchange associated with such events as marriage and death. It is the structural parallels, differences and interconnections between these two exchange categories and the two ritual types which have guided much of the historical development of local social structure until colonisation. This has resulted in a substantial, though not necessarily stable, integration of ritual and exchange which has been ‘played out’ over the approximately fifteen‐year periods between yasolu pig kills. I argue that it is this set of oppositions that provides the structural basis for different potentialities for male capacity. On occasion these may be so graphically distinct that they may be called differing social ontologies, different baselines for being and action.Different aspects of rimbu were adopted from around the turn of the twentieth century until colonisation some 50 years later when both kabit and rimbu were abandoned under mission pressure. However, to talk about the adoption of rimbu and the changes to Anganen social structure which it helped to produce as ‘pre‐colonial’ history is misleading to the extent that much of the impetus for change was bound up in the efflorescence of trade caused by the Australian pearling industry in the Torres Strait. I call this period ‘ante‐colonial’ in order to highlight the impact of the Australians and the irony that what the Australians indirectly helped create, rimbu as a central feature to Anganen social life, was destroyed with the direct colonial presence and missionisation.

The Datuk Kong Spirit Cult Movement in Penang: Being and Belonging in Multi-Ethnic Malaysia

This paper attempts to survey the development of a Malaysian Sino-Malay spirit cult, known as Nadugong in Chinese, or Datuk Keramat in Malay. The development of this cult shows that Malaysian Chinese are increasingly aware of their ethnic identity vis-à-vis the Malay identity, whereby local-born Chinese seek to adapt themselves to the patterns of multi-ethnic cultures while at the same time trying very hard to maintain their ethnic boundaries through the organization of their own socio-cultural institutions.The outcome of this adaptive response may be seen in what is known as localization — a multilateral acculturative rather than a unilateral assimilative process. This process renders the existing syncretized elements more complex and has served as an internal defence-mechanism against, rather than as an unconditional submission to, the on-going proselytizing ideologies of “Malay nationalism” and “Malay national-culturism” based on the parameters of Malay culture, Malay language, Islam, and Malay esthetic values.

Bonded Histories: Genealogies of Labor Servitude in Colonial India.

To the modern world, the notions that freedom is an innate condition of human beings and that money possesses the power to bind people appear as natural facts. Bonded Histories traces the historical processes by which these notions became established as dominant discourses in India during colonial rule and continued into post-colonial India. Gyan Prakash locates the formulation of these discourses in the history of bonded labour in southern Bihar. He focuses on the emergence and subsequent transformation of the relationship of reciprocal power and dependence between landlords and labourers. The author explores the way in which these transformations were connected with broader shifts in the political economy of this part of the subcontinent; with the changing structures of agricultural production, land tenure and revenue demand; with local social hierarchies and the ideology of castes; and with Hindu cosmologies, spirit cults and their articulation in ritual practices.

The Place of Religion in Vietnam Today

This paper seeks to review the place of religion and its relation with the state in Vietnam today. I augment the available literature with material accumulated during a recent visit to Vietnam. The topic is admittedly a large and complex one, for two principal reasons. First, religion in Vietnam includes several forms of Buddhism (Phat Giao), elements of Confucianism, Roman Catholic and Protestant Christianity, a small Islamic community, several indigenous religions like Cao Dai and Hoa Hao, as well as a host of animistic and spirit cults associated with such diverse ethnic minorities as the Montagnards.' Second, since the end of World War II, Vietnam has been confronted with years of political turbulence and war, conditions that have had an intense impact on virtually all those religions in the country that claim some kind of institution or church. The introduction of a Communist system of government in the North (1954) and in the South (1975) continues to demand changes and adjustment from the religions, as they struggle to keep themselves spiritually stable as well as acceptable to the Communist regime. I wish to confine this study largely to Buddhism and Roman Catholicism, if only because, in terms of numbers, they are the biggest religions in the country, with important roles to play in the coming of age of Vietnam.2 By way of method, I wish first to make a few observations on how the state views the role of religion in Vietnam and how it communicates with the various religions. Second, Buddhism will be reviewed, followed by, third, some comments on Roman Catholicism. I'll then pass a few concluding remarks. When Vietnam was unified in 1975, it was at once evident to the major religions (especially in the South) that they would have to adapt to the aims and goals of Communism or suffer undeclared but obviously hurtful consequences. In the North, which had been Communist since 1954, there was indeed no record of pogroms against religion, despite a great deal of propaganda from the South that Roman Catholics, for example, would be persecuted. In the opinion of Professor Ly Chan Trung, Ho Chi Minh, in his wide travels and experience, had in fact seen the good as well as the bad consequences that religion can have.3 Ho Chi Minh tolerated Buddhism and Christianity as long as they did