Divinely significant

Towards a postsecular approach to the materiality of popular religion in Asia

Bibliographic Data

ID5701436
AuthorsD Byrne (0000-0001-9799-8572, Western Sydney University, corresponding author)
Year2020
Volume26
Issue9
Pages857-873
Publication date2020-09-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueInternational Journal of Heritage Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1352-7258 • E-ISSN: 1470-3610
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/13527258.2019.1590447
OpenAlexW2923167619
LanguageEN
Citations received7
References cited56

The material embeddedness of the divine in the objects and sites of popular religion in Asia establishes the grounds for a conflict between devotees and heritage practitioners – the same objects are central to the practice of each but each hones in on them via a radically different ontology. While in principle offering an even-handed consideration of all aspects of a thing’s meaning, the secular-rationalist underpinning of the practice of significance-assessment in heritage management acts to marginalise or even efface the eruptively miraculous qualities of divine sites and objects. It serves, in other words, as a regime of insignificance. Against this background, I argue that the posthuman turn in the humanities and social sciences, and in particular its openness to forms of agency, vibrancy and vitality in the object world, offers prospects for a kind of heritage practice newly comfortable with the vibrancy that belief in the supernatural lends to the things of popular religion. There has, I suggest, never been a better time for heritage practice to get over its problem with the supernatural

Aesthetics · Agency (philosophy · Environmental ethics · Epistemology · Materialism · Materiality (auditing · Object (grammar · Social science · Sociology · Theology · Vitality · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Cultural Heritage Management and Preservation · Philosophy · Religious Tourism and Spaces

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