There has long been a debate about implications of globalization for the survival of the world of... more There has long been a debate about implications of globalization for the survival of the world of sovereign nation-states, and the role of nationalism as both an agent of and a response to globalization. In contrast, until recently there has been much less debate about the fate of religion. ‘Globalization’ has been viewed as part of the rationalization process, which has already relegated religion to the dustbin of history, just as it threatens the nation, as the world moves toward a cosmopolitan ethics and politics. The chapters in this book, however, make the case for the salience and resilience of religion, often in conjunction with nationalism, in the contemporary world in several ways. This book highlights the diverse ways in which religions first and foremost make use of the traditional power and communication channels available to them, like strategies of conversion, the preservation of traditional value systems, and the intertwining of religious and political power. Nevertheless, challenged by a more culturally and religiously diversified societies and by the growth of new religious sects, contemporary religions are also forced to let go of these well known strategies of preservation and formulate new ways of establishing their position in local contexts. This collection of essays by established and emerging scholars brings together theory-driven and empirically-based research and case-studies about the global and bottom-up strategies of religions and religious traditions in Europe and beyond to rethink their positions in their local communities and in the world.
In terms of our often chimerical Image of px.iya.yi culture, tayuhan dance can at first sight app... more In terms of our often chimerical Image of px.iya.yi culture, tayuhan dance can at first sight appear bewilderingly un-Javanese. Contrary to most Indonesian dance styles, tayuhan involves men dancing directly with women,1 in a fashion which on occasion may be flirtatious or even intimate. The female dancers are paid professionals known as ttz d k z k or tandh.ak.2 When it is a man's turn to "receive the dance scarf," these women come to sit at his side, sing him a song, and, at its end, offer him a glass of alcohol, which he dashes down boldly, then taking to the dance floor. Although the practice is generally discouraged today, sometimes women may sit on the male dancer's lap, and on a few occasions actually kiss him. Such sexual behavior by tlz d h e k has contributed to the widespread perception of them as prostitutes, and, together with the dance's drinking and economic expense, has also caused Muslim reformists and some government officials in recent years to call for the dance's abolition. Whatever notoriety tayuhan has gained, however, it still enjoys considerable popularity in areas of East and (to a perhaps lesser degree) Central Java. In many communities, moreover, it is not only a popular form of entertainment, but an integral part of spirit shrine ritual associated with annual hzxAih. dut&a festivity. Without the dance, one is told, crops might fail, people would fall ill, and the land might turn barren. This identification of tayuhan with fertility rites has only served to reinforce reformist Muslim opposition to the dance tradition. From an analytic perspective, the fertility theme raises larger questions on the origins of the dance and its relation to other regional dance traditions.
LONG PROJECT like the one that made this book possible incurs great debts. My research trips to I... more LONG PROJECT like the one that made this book possible incurs great debts. My research trips to Indonesia during 1991-98 were supported by several foundations. I must thank, first of all, Karen Colvard of the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation for funding during 1993-95 to carry out a first wave of interviews and analysis on Muslim discussions of violence and democracy. Without the foundation's inspired commitment to the comparative study of the causes of and cures for social violence, this project would have never been possible. Under the direction of Mary Zurbuchen, the Ford Foundation, Jakarta, financed visits for the last phases of this study (1997-98), as well as a later study (1999) on Javanese traditions of pluralism and tolerance that will form the focus of a separate book. I am honored to have worked with the foundation and deeply grateful for its support. Between the Guggenheim and Ford funding, I received generous support for annual visits to Indonesia from the German Bertelsmann Wissenschafts Stiftung, as part of a twelve-country study of pluralism and tolerance directed by my colleague at the Institute for the Study of Economic Culture (ISEC) at Boston University, Peter L. Berger. I extend special thanks to Volker Than at Bertelsmann for his generosity during my visits to Stiftung events in London and Berlin. I thank Peter for his kind support of the Indonesia project, my work as director of the ISEC project on civil society (1993-98), and, more generally, for ten years of warm collegiality. Final write up of the research was made possible by a generous grant to ISEC by an anonymous donor, for which I am also grateful. Also at ISEC, finally, I thank Adam Seligman and Robert Weller for years of shared reflection on democracy across cultures. In Indonesia I thank the Indonesian Council of Sciences (LIPI) for acting as local sponsor of several research projects over the years and the Department of Religion for supporting my trip to Indonesia to help organize a conference on Islam and modernity in 1995. I also want to express my deep gratitude to Enceng Shobirin and my friends at LP3ES, a Jakarta nongovernmental organization. Each summer during the 1990s Shobirin and his colleagues used their considerable knowledge of the Jakartan scene to arrange interviews, making my study both feasible and enjoyable. My debt to the more than four hundred people I interviewed in Indonesia, many of whom became dear friends, is too great to detail. However, I must single out four people for special mention: Nurcholish Madjid, Mochtar Pabotinggi, Abdurrahman Wahid, and Adnan Buyung Nasution. The actions of these great democrats provided me with the inspiration needed to write this book.
Any attempt to explore the relationship between representations of Muslims and public advocacy in... more Any attempt to explore the relationship between representations of Muslims and public advocacy in modern Western societies must at some point situate both processes in relation to the broader crises of liberal citizenship currently afflicting Western democracies. Calls heard in the 1990s for multicultural citizenship and pluralist “recognition” have long since given way to demands for the exclusion of new immigrants and the coercive assimilation of those – especially Muslims -- long since arrived. This essay examines French Catholic and Muslim perspectives on secularism and citizenship in contemporary France. It highlights disagreements among progressive secularists as well as mainline Catholics and Muslims over how to engage the secular state as well as one’s fellow citizens. It explores the ways in which Catholic advocacy for and with Muslim citizens has been challenged by conservative trends in French Catholicism, as well as the perceived rise of Salafism and, most important, gro...
By emphasizing that individual religious freedom depends for its realization on complex social em... more By emphasizing that individual religious freedom depends for its realization on complex social embeddings, the concept of institutional religious freedom provides an important corrective to conventional, individualistic approaches to religious freedom. The concept also helpfully complicates the investigation of religious freedom by encouraging analysts to recognize that different societal and civilizational traditions define religion itself in significantly different ways. Tensions such as these between different social definitions of religion and between different manifestations of institutional religious freedom have been a chronic feature of religious life in Indonesia since the establishment of the republic in 1945. This paper examines these legacies in the context of contemporary Indonesia, especially in light of ongoing disputes over the legal and ethical status of spiritual traditions (kepercayaan) long barred from full state recognition. The essay also explores the theoretic...
The politics of multiculturalism: Pluralism and …, 2001
he community tends to be organized for production rather than for social life; social demand is s... more he community tends to be organized for production rather than for social life; social demand is sectionalized, and within each section of the community the social demand becomes disorganized and ineffective, so that in each section the members are debarred from leading the full life of a citizen in a homogeneous community; finally, the reaction against these abnormal conditions, taking in each section the form of Nationalism, sets one community against the other so as to emphasize the plural character of the society and aggravate its instability, thereby enhancing the need for it to be held together by some force exerted from outside. (1944, 459
Market Cultures: Society and Morality in New Asian Capitalisms. Robert W. Hefner. ed. Boulder. CO... more Market Cultures: Society and Morality in New Asian Capitalisms. Robert W. Hefner. ed. Boulder. CO: Westview Press. 1998.328 pp.
In terms of our often chimerical Image of px.iya.yi culture, tayuhan dance can at first sight app... more In terms of our often chimerical Image of px.iya.yi culture, tayuhan dance can at first sight appear bewilderingly un-Javanese. Contrary to most Indonesian dance styles, tayuhan involves men dancing directly with women,1 in a fashion which on occasion may be flirtatious or even intimate. The female dancers are paid professionals known as ttz d k z k or tandh.ak.2 When it is a man's turn to "receive the dance scarf," these women come to sit at his side, sing him a song, and, at its end, offer him a glass of alcohol, which he dashes down boldly, then taking to the dance floor. Although the practice is generally discouraged today, sometimes women may sit on the male dancer's lap, and on a few occasions actually kiss him. Such sexual behavior by tlz d h e k has contributed to the widespread perception of them as prostitutes, and, together with the dance's drinking and economic expense, has also caused Muslim reformists and some government officials in recent years to call for the dance's abolition. Whatever notoriety tayuhan has gained, however, it still enjoys considerable popularity in areas of East and (to a perhaps lesser degree) Central Java. In many communities, moreover, it is not only a popular form of entertainment, but an integral part of spirit shrine ritual associated with annual hzxAih. dut&a festivity. Without the dance, one is told, crops might fail, people would fall ill, and the land might turn barren. This identification of tayuhan with fertility rites has only served to reinforce reformist Muslim opposition to the dance tradition. From an analytic perspective, the fertility theme raises larger questions on the origins of the dance and its relation to other regional dance traditions.
Page 1. * m '$ mm $-2&i& ■ Conversion Historical... more Page 1. * m '$ mm $-2&i& ■ Conversion Historical and Anthropological Perspectives on a Great Transformation Edited and with an Introduction by Robert W. Hefner Page 2. Conversion to Christianity Historical and Anthropological ...
written for The Spiritual Capital Research Program …
Page 1. SPIRITUAL CAPITAL IN COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE Peter L. Berger and Robert W. Hefner Institu... more Page 1. SPIRITUAL CAPITAL IN COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE Peter L. Berger and Robert W. Hefner Institute for the Study of Economic Culture, Institute on Religion and World Affairs, Boston University For more than a century ...
... Schooling Islam: The Culture and Politics of Modern Muslim Education Edited by Robert W. He... more ... Schooling Islam: The Culture and Politics of Modern Muslim Education Edited by Robert W. Hefner and Muhammad Qasim Zaman. Lyn Parker. ... More content like this. Find more content: like this article. Find more content written by: Lyn Parker. ...
There has long been a debate about implications of globalization for the survival of the world of... more There has long been a debate about implications of globalization for the survival of the world of sovereign nation-states, and the role of nationalism as both an agent of and a response to globalization. In contrast, until recently there has been much less debate about the fate of religion. ‘Globalization’ has been viewed as part of the rationalization process, which has already relegated religion to the dustbin of history, just as it threatens the nation, as the world moves toward a cosmopolitan ethics and politics. The chapters in this book, however, make the case for the salience and resilience of religion, often in conjunction with nationalism, in the contemporary world in several ways. This book highlights the diverse ways in which religions first and foremost make use of the traditional power and communication channels available to them, like strategies of conversion, the preservation of traditional value systems, and the intertwining of religious and political power. Nevertheless, challenged by a more culturally and religiously diversified societies and by the growth of new religious sects, contemporary religions are also forced to let go of these well known strategies of preservation and formulate new ways of establishing their position in local contexts. This collection of essays by established and emerging scholars brings together theory-driven and empirically-based research and case-studies about the global and bottom-up strategies of religions and religious traditions in Europe and beyond to rethink their positions in their local communities and in the world.
In terms of our often chimerical Image of px.iya.yi culture, tayuhan dance can at first sight app... more In terms of our often chimerical Image of px.iya.yi culture, tayuhan dance can at first sight appear bewilderingly un-Javanese. Contrary to most Indonesian dance styles, tayuhan involves men dancing directly with women,1 in a fashion which on occasion may be flirtatious or even intimate. The female dancers are paid professionals known as ttz d k z k or tandh.ak.2 When it is a man's turn to "receive the dance scarf," these women come to sit at his side, sing him a song, and, at its end, offer him a glass of alcohol, which he dashes down boldly, then taking to the dance floor. Although the practice is generally discouraged today, sometimes women may sit on the male dancer's lap, and on a few occasions actually kiss him. Such sexual behavior by tlz d h e k has contributed to the widespread perception of them as prostitutes, and, together with the dance's drinking and economic expense, has also caused Muslim reformists and some government officials in recent years to call for the dance's abolition. Whatever notoriety tayuhan has gained, however, it still enjoys considerable popularity in areas of East and (to a perhaps lesser degree) Central Java. In many communities, moreover, it is not only a popular form of entertainment, but an integral part of spirit shrine ritual associated with annual hzxAih. dut&a festivity. Without the dance, one is told, crops might fail, people would fall ill, and the land might turn barren. This identification of tayuhan with fertility rites has only served to reinforce reformist Muslim opposition to the dance tradition. From an analytic perspective, the fertility theme raises larger questions on the origins of the dance and its relation to other regional dance traditions.
LONG PROJECT like the one that made this book possible incurs great debts. My research trips to I... more LONG PROJECT like the one that made this book possible incurs great debts. My research trips to Indonesia during 1991-98 were supported by several foundations. I must thank, first of all, Karen Colvard of the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation for funding during 1993-95 to carry out a first wave of interviews and analysis on Muslim discussions of violence and democracy. Without the foundation's inspired commitment to the comparative study of the causes of and cures for social violence, this project would have never been possible. Under the direction of Mary Zurbuchen, the Ford Foundation, Jakarta, financed visits for the last phases of this study (1997-98), as well as a later study (1999) on Javanese traditions of pluralism and tolerance that will form the focus of a separate book. I am honored to have worked with the foundation and deeply grateful for its support. Between the Guggenheim and Ford funding, I received generous support for annual visits to Indonesia from the German Bertelsmann Wissenschafts Stiftung, as part of a twelve-country study of pluralism and tolerance directed by my colleague at the Institute for the Study of Economic Culture (ISEC) at Boston University, Peter L. Berger. I extend special thanks to Volker Than at Bertelsmann for his generosity during my visits to Stiftung events in London and Berlin. I thank Peter for his kind support of the Indonesia project, my work as director of the ISEC project on civil society (1993-98), and, more generally, for ten years of warm collegiality. Final write up of the research was made possible by a generous grant to ISEC by an anonymous donor, for which I am also grateful. Also at ISEC, finally, I thank Adam Seligman and Robert Weller for years of shared reflection on democracy across cultures. In Indonesia I thank the Indonesian Council of Sciences (LIPI) for acting as local sponsor of several research projects over the years and the Department of Religion for supporting my trip to Indonesia to help organize a conference on Islam and modernity in 1995. I also want to express my deep gratitude to Enceng Shobirin and my friends at LP3ES, a Jakarta nongovernmental organization. Each summer during the 1990s Shobirin and his colleagues used their considerable knowledge of the Jakartan scene to arrange interviews, making my study both feasible and enjoyable. My debt to the more than four hundred people I interviewed in Indonesia, many of whom became dear friends, is too great to detail. However, I must single out four people for special mention: Nurcholish Madjid, Mochtar Pabotinggi, Abdurrahman Wahid, and Adnan Buyung Nasution. The actions of these great democrats provided me with the inspiration needed to write this book.
Any attempt to explore the relationship between representations of Muslims and public advocacy in... more Any attempt to explore the relationship between representations of Muslims and public advocacy in modern Western societies must at some point situate both processes in relation to the broader crises of liberal citizenship currently afflicting Western democracies. Calls heard in the 1990s for multicultural citizenship and pluralist “recognition” have long since given way to demands for the exclusion of new immigrants and the coercive assimilation of those – especially Muslims -- long since arrived. This essay examines French Catholic and Muslim perspectives on secularism and citizenship in contemporary France. It highlights disagreements among progressive secularists as well as mainline Catholics and Muslims over how to engage the secular state as well as one’s fellow citizens. It explores the ways in which Catholic advocacy for and with Muslim citizens has been challenged by conservative trends in French Catholicism, as well as the perceived rise of Salafism and, most important, gro...
By emphasizing that individual religious freedom depends for its realization on complex social em... more By emphasizing that individual religious freedom depends for its realization on complex social embeddings, the concept of institutional religious freedom provides an important corrective to conventional, individualistic approaches to religious freedom. The concept also helpfully complicates the investigation of religious freedom by encouraging analysts to recognize that different societal and civilizational traditions define religion itself in significantly different ways. Tensions such as these between different social definitions of religion and between different manifestations of institutional religious freedom have been a chronic feature of religious life in Indonesia since the establishment of the republic in 1945. This paper examines these legacies in the context of contemporary Indonesia, especially in light of ongoing disputes over the legal and ethical status of spiritual traditions (kepercayaan) long barred from full state recognition. The essay also explores the theoretic...
The politics of multiculturalism: Pluralism and …, 2001
he community tends to be organized for production rather than for social life; social demand is s... more he community tends to be organized for production rather than for social life; social demand is sectionalized, and within each section of the community the social demand becomes disorganized and ineffective, so that in each section the members are debarred from leading the full life of a citizen in a homogeneous community; finally, the reaction against these abnormal conditions, taking in each section the form of Nationalism, sets one community against the other so as to emphasize the plural character of the society and aggravate its instability, thereby enhancing the need for it to be held together by some force exerted from outside. (1944, 459
Market Cultures: Society and Morality in New Asian Capitalisms. Robert W. Hefner. ed. Boulder. CO... more Market Cultures: Society and Morality in New Asian Capitalisms. Robert W. Hefner. ed. Boulder. CO: Westview Press. 1998.328 pp.
In terms of our often chimerical Image of px.iya.yi culture, tayuhan dance can at first sight app... more In terms of our often chimerical Image of px.iya.yi culture, tayuhan dance can at first sight appear bewilderingly un-Javanese. Contrary to most Indonesian dance styles, tayuhan involves men dancing directly with women,1 in a fashion which on occasion may be flirtatious or even intimate. The female dancers are paid professionals known as ttz d k z k or tandh.ak.2 When it is a man's turn to "receive the dance scarf," these women come to sit at his side, sing him a song, and, at its end, offer him a glass of alcohol, which he dashes down boldly, then taking to the dance floor. Although the practice is generally discouraged today, sometimes women may sit on the male dancer's lap, and on a few occasions actually kiss him. Such sexual behavior by tlz d h e k has contributed to the widespread perception of them as prostitutes, and, together with the dance's drinking and economic expense, has also caused Muslim reformists and some government officials in recent years to call for the dance's abolition. Whatever notoriety tayuhan has gained, however, it still enjoys considerable popularity in areas of East and (to a perhaps lesser degree) Central Java. In many communities, moreover, it is not only a popular form of entertainment, but an integral part of spirit shrine ritual associated with annual hzxAih. dut&a festivity. Without the dance, one is told, crops might fail, people would fall ill, and the land might turn barren. This identification of tayuhan with fertility rites has only served to reinforce reformist Muslim opposition to the dance tradition. From an analytic perspective, the fertility theme raises larger questions on the origins of the dance and its relation to other regional dance traditions.
Page 1. * m '$ mm $-2&i& ■ Conversion Historical... more Page 1. * m '$ mm $-2&i& ■ Conversion Historical and Anthropological Perspectives on a Great Transformation Edited and with an Introduction by Robert W. Hefner Page 2. Conversion to Christianity Historical and Anthropological ...
written for The Spiritual Capital Research Program …
Page 1. SPIRITUAL CAPITAL IN COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE Peter L. Berger and Robert W. Hefner Institu... more Page 1. SPIRITUAL CAPITAL IN COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE Peter L. Berger and Robert W. Hefner Institute for the Study of Economic Culture, Institute on Religion and World Affairs, Boston University For more than a century ...
... Schooling Islam: The Culture and Politics of Modern Muslim Education Edited by Robert W. He... more ... Schooling Islam: The Culture and Politics of Modern Muslim Education Edited by Robert W. Hefner and Muhammad Qasim Zaman. Lyn Parker. ... More content like this. Find more content: like this article. Find more content written by: Lyn Parker. ...
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