Religion, Media and Materiality - Spiritual Economies in Southeast Asia

宗教、媒体和物质性——东南亚的精神经济

• 批准号: 270448282
• 负责人: Privatdozentin Dr. Gertrud Hüwelmeier
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Institut für Europäische Ethnologie
• 依托单位国家: 德国
• 项目类别: Research Grants
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 德国
• 起止时间: 2014-12-31 至 2020-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gepris.dfg.de/gepris/projekt/270448282?language=en
• 关键词: Religion; Media; Materiality; Spiritual; Economies

Counter to the thesis of progressing secularization of today s world, new religious dynamics are developing even in economically booming areas such as Southeast Asia. It is precisely in this age of globalization and of an Asian capitalism that religious practices are becoming ever more significant. New technologies, especially electronic and digital media, play a prominent role when it comes to communication with gods, spirits, and ancestors. While human subjects and their agency are of significance in the study of the relationship between religion and media, material objects and non-human entities are also ascribed agency in the interaction between this world and the hereafter. The research project explores communicative practices between the living and the dead in Southeast Asia using a cross cultural perspective and focusing on (post-) socialist Vietnam. Trance mediums and new technical media, whose agency is embedded in political and economic developments, are part of religious practices in a society undergoing rapid changes as Vietnam transforms into a socialist market economy. The research project focuses on votive paper offerings, especially those in the form of technical media such as iPads and mobile phones, which are offered to the ancestors and spirits. The research centers on the cultural logic of the production, trade and burning of material objects made of paper as well as imaginations about their re-materialization in the otherworld. As intermediaries between this world and the hereafter, between immanence and transcendence, paper offerings are a crucial part of reciprocal relationships between actors in different worlds. Material objects therefore provide insight into the circulation and mobility as well as the mediation and transfer of religious messages and practices. Votive paper offerings represent an alternative economic logic that subverts capitalist and market socialist principles.

与当今世界不断推进世俗化的论点相反，即使在东南亚等经济繁荣的地区，新的宗教动态也在发展。正是在这个全球化和亚洲资本主义时代，宗教活动变得越来越重要。新技术，尤其是电子和数字媒体，在与神、灵魂和祖先的交流方面发挥着突出的作用。虽然人类主体及其代理在宗教与媒介之间的关系研究中具有重要意义，但物质对象和非人类实体在今世与来世的互动中也被赋予代理。该研究项目从跨文化角度探讨东南亚生者与死者之间的交流实践，重点关注（后）社会主义越南。迷幻媒介和新技术媒体的作用植根于政治和经济发展之中，是随着越南向社会主义市场经济转型而经历快速变革的社会中宗教实践的一部分。该研究项目的重点是纸质祭品，尤其是iPad和手机等技术媒体形式的祭品，这些祭品是献给祖先和灵魂的。研究的重点是纸制品的生产、贸易和燃烧的文化逻辑，以及它们在另一个世界重新物质化的想象。作为现世与来世、内在与超越之间的中介，纸供品是不同世界参与者之间相互关系的重要组成部分。因此，物质对象可以洞察宗教信息和实践的流通和流动以及中介和传递。还愿纸代表了另一种颠覆资本主义和市场社会主义原则的经济逻辑。