The Goddess Mazu Has Many Homes

Place, Experience, and Autoethnographic Encounter With the Sacred

Dados Bibliográficos

ID7213093
AutoresAdam Grydehøj (0000-0002-9149-9497, autor correspondente)
Ano2024
Volume1
Fascículo1
Data de publicação2024-06-30
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoFolk, knowledge, place (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 3007-8849 • E-ISSN: 3007-8849
EditoraBeewolf Press Limited (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.24043/fkp.3
OpenAlexW4401193816
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas9

This paper asks how researchers can fruitfully and respectfully approach traditions of the sacred. It centres on the author’s efforts to use autoethnography to interact with the Chinese sea goddess Mazu at Nansha Tianhou Temple in Guangzhou, China. Combining methods and concepts from folklore and human geography, the paper takes an experience-centred and relational approach to religion, belief, and the supernatural while understanding the sacred in terms of excess. The paper argues that reflexive, autoethnographic openness to experiences with the sacred can help researchers understand how people are influenced by the sacred and how this influence is productive of culture, society, and place. Through the autoethnographic study at the heart of this paper, the author experiences Mazu (who transcends folklore, Buddhism, Confucianism, and Taoism) as a complex and multifaceted figure, combining a young woman, a tutelary deity, and the imperial Tianhou (Queen of Heaven). The author’s interactions with Mazu prompt thoughts about home and belonging, highlighting subjectivity and divine agency in the experience of the sacred

Aesthetics · Art · Autoethnography · Sociology · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Gender Studies · Geographies of human-animal interactions