Casting Faiths: The Construction of Religion in East and Southeast
Asia
Description: The Asia Research Institute (ARI) and Department of History
of the National University of Singapore present the workshop Casting
Faiths: The Construction of Religion in East and Southeast Asia, to
be held in Singapore June 7-8, 2005.
URL: www.ari.nus.edu.sg/conf2005/faiths.htm
Abstract:
Nowhere was the interaction of cultures produced by colonialism more striking than in the realm of religion. Religious fervor motivated intrepid missionaries and dogged resistance, and produced many of the most spectacular flashpoints of conflict. Less dramatic but equally important were the efforts of missionaries, scholars, and administrators who codified, shaped, and sanitized the understanding of Asian religion, and the influence of such portrayals on the contours of empire. Religious ideas shaped the epistemological structure by which the colonial encounter was understood, administered and remembered.
This workshop will explore the various ways in which knowledge of religion has been constructed in colonial and post-colonial East and Southeast Asia. Although the language and ideas of post-colonial theory are employed, we will go beyond the period of European colonization to include any relationship of center and periphery/colony and metropole, and encourage topics from the 18th century to the present day. Papers from all disciplines are invited to explore the relationship between knowledge and power, the role of the archive, classroom and courtroom, the codification/texualization of religious cultures, and the influence of colonial ethnography on our understanding of religion in the region.
The discussion will be divided into four panels to focus on different types of knowledge:
Academic scholarship - the place of academic discourse and scholarly
societies on the production of religious knowledge.
Colonial anthropology and ethnology
Creation of classical traditions and linguistic expertise
Western religious definitions and the search for universal religion
Religious teleology and social progress
Law and policy formation – the role of legal ideas and concepts
in administering and defining religion
Religious revolt and the language of criminality
Legislation of ecclesiastic communities
Codification of religious rights and separation of religion and state
Essentialization of religion and ethnicity
Society and social reform – the assumptions of public initiatives
and reform movements motivated by or against religion
Women’s organizations and salvation movements
Charitable societies – spiritual and material salvation
Religious education and the creation of elite classes
Missionary movements and the transformation of everyday life
Separation of spirituality and secularism
Popular images – images aimed at the consuming public and the mixture
of cultural discourse and marketing
Religious tourism, both pious and curious
Film, books, children’s literature
Documentaries and popular social science
Propaganda images
Those interested in submitting a paper should send a brief (500 words) abstract to the conference organizers by November 1st, 2004. Completed papers must be submitted before April 15th, 2005. We request first right of refusal of papers for possible inclusion in an edited volume following the conference. For more information, please contact Dr. Maitrii Aung-Thwin (hismvat@nus.edu.sg) or Dr. Thomas DuBois (histdd@nus.edu.sg).
Limited funding support for accommodation and travel to Singapore will be available for presenters.