Studying local religious culture

1. Studying local religious culture

2. getting to know each other • the speaker • what can he teach you (if anything) • the audience • name & place • academic interests • text vs fieldwork • personal exposure to “religious life” • do we have a shared vocabulary (probably not!) • our Englishes& our Chineses (invent a Chinese version for this!) • full or abbreviated characters? • technical vocabulary • different view of normativity in research on religious culture

3. these lectures • “local” religious culture= all religious culture! • tensions between perception, expectations and what we (can) see • not a complete theoretical survey, was asked to put my own research central • studying religious culture: begin by accepting the other • ground rules • there are “stupid” questions: still ask them • there are “intelligent” questions: also ask them • use English or Chinese, whichever comes easier • questions will help me to understand the audience and its needs better

4. What do I know? • very little • what I do know: • incidental fieldwork (Hong Kong, Quanzhou region, Taiwan, mostly communal rituals, funerary rituals & Feeding the Hungry Ghosts rituals, exorcist ritual theatre, variety of sacrificial rituals) • historical research (communal religious culture, “ethnic minorities” [mostly Yao], lay Buddhism Song-Republican period, Triads, oral culture, temple cults) • secondary literature • studying religious culture: begin by accepting the other

5. Problems of documentation • either too normal and everyday (=> no record) • impact persecution and repression • normative sources • little research and even less fieldwork

6. “defining” religion (away)

7. religion • religion 宗教 : Christian assumptions • central text (~canon) • doctrine • ritual & doctrinal specialists • centre of control • institutions • does this cover actual life? And when? • religions of the books descending from early Judaism • even then only to a limit extent • places religious life outside of people • this definition includes and excludes: it “constructs” entities, rather than “finding” them • excludes even B, D, C, since neither have a single central text or centre of control • excludes all local religious life • top down (what do we study, who decides what is in or out of the phenomenon)

8. dangers of -isms • your definitions: Buddhism, Daoism, & Confucianism • Buddhism 佛教 • arrival China as –ism? • central text? who is in charge? • our assumptions • does it have a shared set of beliefs • Daoism 道教 • Confucianism 儒教 • Western term (horrible) vs Chinese term (better) • ideas of “Confucius” or “texts” linked to Confucius? • Neoconfucianism (reinvented tradition) • still no central text, only points (plural) of departure • Christianity 基督教, 天主教 (! Christianities) • recent arrival, but rapidly spreading • to be seen as a local religious culture as well

9. religious culture • quick definition: • the way (ways) groups of people organize themselves and create a world inside and around them, define life/living and death/being dead, whilst putting their own creative role outside the system and allow no falsification • God, creator, central texts etc. are not part definition, but part of what is created • “religious” as dimension, rather than entity in itself • adjective not noun • includes the Daoist, Buddhist, etc. • Includes practices, festivals, rituals, multiple perspectives, but also psychoanalysis (!), near-death experiences etc. • stress is on our role in distinguishing this dimension (etic), rather than ”uncovering” inside distinctions (emic) • need to look at emic distinctions • culture: not study of isolated objects (texts etc.), but texts etc. in context

10. vs. philosophical or scientific approaches • not so different in epistemological scope & emotional intent, but: • religious culture “is” • philosophy “discusses” (can ideally be falsified, or becomes ideology) • science “asks” (where it cannot be falsified it touches on religious culture) (≠科學) • philosophy and science recognize role of people in creating this system • ways of seeing these three spheres of action and/or reflection • as continuous spectrum • set of discourses that interact, but can be maintained separately (without becoming split personality)

11. social history • studying religious culture = social history • studying social history = religious history • using “religious” sources on social history • using “general” sources on religious history

12. Conceptual issues

13. some concepts I use (or not) • orthopraxis & standardisation pantheon (James Watson) • seeming sameness of religious practice across China • not quite orthodoxy : not normative • overlooks hidden differences under labels (Michael Szonyi) • doing religion (Adam Chau) • stories • beyond reading • telling stories as activity • ritual • not just performing transmitted texts: but transforming, maybe with texts and/or according to texts • our tasks: asking questions about performance and reception(s) and audience(s) • sacrifice • performance rather than just a set of symbols • setting up an exchange

14. concepts I dislike • popular (modern concept, compare 俗, 愚) • vs. elite (modern concept, compare 士) • vs. widespread • “among the people” 民間 • too vague: how to count (80% Chinese people until 1970s are peasants!) • heretic/heterodox (modern concept, compare 邪,妖,左道) • any pejorative terms (superstition, cult, sect etc.) • Great Tradition & Little Traditions (R. Redfield) • diffused religion (CK Yang)

15. power • then: who does the writing and why? • rarely just recording • selection => leaving out and editing • literate=> elites with specific sets of norms & values • influenced by self-representation • our task: to uncover the editing and reframing • now: professionals • literate & university trained • part of academic discourse • need to find a job • connected to central & local institutions • independent?

16. text • text fixes unavoidably • act of writing down • use of concepts (consistency) • all (almost) historical sources are textual in some way • texts • texts by literate people on oral culture • text privileged by our witnesses and by us • this summer course good example! • research shamanism always begins with Chuci楚辭 • our texts become new norms • text versus practice • text ≠practice • text in practice • texts reflecting (part of) practice

17. Text and orality • need to save the texts from themselves • compare “classicist” traditions and importance commentary (written and oral, the latter only fragmentarily transmitted in writing) • ritual practice • changing attitudes towards texts • history of use of the written • oral culture • not necessarily “popular” • changing attitudes towards orality • oral more prestigious than text for many centuries

18. Some comments on existing research

20. Where is china

21. What is china • Or rather: does China exist before 1911 (or even later?) • what “we” in the West mean by the term China ≠ Chinese terms 中國, 中華民囯,中華人民共和國 • China ≠ dynastic titles • for our topic: • lack of cultural and religious integration • political history bias=> capital region ≠ rest of the empire • social history bias=> Lower Yangzi region ≠ rest of the empire • anthropology & religious studies bias=> Fujian (Taiwan)≠ rest of China • and yet: • Yao Daoist ritual can tell us much on earlier role(s) Daoist ritual

22. which China • (many) historians: when and as long as “classical Chinese” is (was) used in the sources • (many) Western anthropologists: China begins long after 1949, nowadays even after 1976, as long as you can talk to people (since usually cannot read [classical] Chinese [very well, anyhow]!) • (especially) Chinese anthropologists: only “minorities” (anthropology is of the quaint) • (most) Chinese folklorists: local Han-culture throughout fieldwork • sociologists, literary studies : modern China is urban, modern is what we recognize as “ours”/Western • and so on and so forth

23. Geographical assumptions • China as entity? • regions: provinces (nowadays) ≠ regions • W. G. Skinner remains relevant • local language regions • dogma of a single China (esp. relevant when discussing “ethnic minorities”, which are often majorities locally) • communication nodes (<=markets, roads, etc.) • results migration • history of local religious culture regionally different • north : “south” (wherever the south may be) • within the south: e.g. Jiangnan, Fujian, Guangdong/Guangxi all very different

24. Local religious culture • all religious culture is local, some examples: • temples • territorial cults • charismatic cults • monasteries of all sizes • surprisingly Buddhism & Daoism were regionally distributed phenomena (1. generally speaking; 2. in their local variations) • tied to local economy&society and only rarely to imperial courts • types of religious specialists • shamans and mediums • performers funerary rituals • classicist teachers (Zhu Xi himself)

25. Agenda for this course

26. An advance peek • Labelling of religious culture (on the importance of vocabulary and the dangers of normative writing) • Religious culture at the centre of social organisation (“diffused” suggests there is something separate) • Charitable activities and religious life (tendency towards secularisation) • Spirit writing, shamans and mediums: contact with the extra-human world (significance of divine communciation) • New religious groups (uniting “elite” and “popular” culture) • Triads (strongly indebted to elite culture: unite the political and religious dimensions to build social group) • Rumours and collective fear (the power of oral communication) • The cult of Lord Guan (an example of a multivocal temple cult)