Beyond the Weberian Trails: An Essay on the Anthropology of Southeast Asian Buddhism
Theravada Buddhism is one of the most important fields of inquiry within a larger context of Southeast Asian studies. In this essay, I discuss an overview of anthropolo gical studies of Theravada Buddhism in Southeast Asia since the 1960s. I argue that key intellectual and social forces, which have...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Interlibrary Loan: | Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany) |
| Published: |
2009
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| In: |
Religion compass
Year: 2009, Volume: 3, Issue: 2, Pages: 200-224 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | Theravada Buddhism is one of the most important fields of inquiry within a larger context of Southeast Asian studies. In this essay, I discuss an overview of anthropolo gical studies of Theravada Buddhism in Southeast Asia since the 1960s. I argue that key intellectual and social forces, which have characterized and sustained the anthropological studies of Buddhism in the region, are the combination of the following factors: (1) an insistent and subtle applications of Weberian thoughts to understand complexity and multivalency of Buddhist practices in the region's diverse contexts; (2) some critical problematic relationships between Buddhism and the post-Indochinese War (post-Cold War) nation states and other turbulent politics of the social life of the Buddhists; and (3) some surging global interests in Theravada Buddhism, especially its teachings and meditational practices. Such interests have transformed the Buddhist World of Southeast Asia into a transnational religious phenomenon and instantly placed Southeast Asian Buddhism at the center of the world's theological and intellectual Buddhist landscapes. Toward the end, I suggest some critical issues that could ignite new directions in the field of study and create some vibrant and exciting generations of ethnographies on Southeast Asian Buddhism. |
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| ISSN: | 1749-8171 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Religion compass
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1111/j.1749-8171.2009.00135.x |