Beyond the Weberian Trails

An Essay on the Anthropology of Southeast Asian Buddhism

Datos Bibliográficos

ID4856582
AutoresPattana Kitiarsa (National University of Singapore, autor de correspondencia)
Año2009
Volumen3
Número2
Páginas200-224
Fecha de publicación2009-03-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaReligion Compass (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1749-8171 • E-ISSN: 1749-8171
EditorialWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/j.1749-8171.2009.00135.x
OpenAlexW2065583951
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas6
Referencias citadas86

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

Archaeology · Buddhism · Ethnography · Ethnology · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Southeast asia · Anthropology · Asian Geopolitics and Ethnography · Gender Studies · History · Law · Southeast Asian Sociopolitical Studies · Vietnamese History and Culture Studies