Beyond Primitivism: Indigenous Religious Traditions and Modernity

by Olupona,Jacob K.

• ISBN13: 9780415273190
• ISBN10: 0415273196
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2003-12-18
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

What role do indigenous religions play in today's world? Beyond Primitivismis a complete appraisal of indigenous religions - faiths integrally connected to the cultures in which they originate, as distinct from globa religions of conversion - as practiced across America, Africa, Asia and the Pacific today. At a time when local traditions across the world are colliding with global culture, it explores the future of indigenous faiths as they encounter modernity and globalization.Beyond Primitivismargues that indigenous religions are not irrelevant in modern society, but that they are dynamic, progressive forces of continuing vitality and influence. Including essays on Haitianvodou, Korean shamanism, the Sri Lankan 'Wild Man', the contributors reveal the relevance of native religions to millions of believers worldwide, challenging the perception that they are vanishing from the face of the globe and demanding a much greater recognition of their importance.

Table of Contents

List of illustrations	x
Notes on contributors	xi
Preface	xi
Introduction	1	(20)
JACOB K. OLUPONA
PART I Modernity and methodology	21	(88)
1 Do Jews make good Protestants? The cross-cultural study of ritual	23	(14)
NAOMI JANOWITZ
2 Can we move beyond primitivism? On recovering the indigenes of indigenous religions in the academic study of religion	37	(34)
ARMIN W. GEERTZ
3 "Classify and conquer": Friedrich Max Müller, indigenous religious traditions, and imperial comparative religion	71	(18)
DAVID CHIDESTER
4 A postcolonial meaning of religion: some reflections from the indigenous world	89	(10)
CHARLES H. LONG
5 Saami responses to Christianity: resistance and change	99	(12)
HAKAN RYDVING
PART II The Americas	109	(70)
6 Tribal religious traditions are constantly devalued in Western discourse on religion	111	(7)
JOHN C. MOHAWK
7 Guidelines for the study of Mesoamerican religious traditions	118	(10)
ALFREDO LOPEZ AUSTIN
8 Jaguar Christians in the contact zone: concealed narratives in the histories of religions in the Americas	128	(11)
DAVID CARRASCO
9 Modernity, resistance, and the Iroquois Longhouse people	139	(10)
CHRIS JOCKS
10 "He, not they, best protected the village": religious and other conflicts in twentieth-century Guatemala	149	(15)
BRUCE LINCOLN
11 Vodou in the "Tenth Department": New York's Haitian community	164	(8)
KAREN McCARTHY BROWN
12 Assaulting California's sacred mountains: shamans vs. New Age merchants of Nirvana	172	(7)
HELEN McCARTHY
PART III Africa and Asia	179	(116)
13 Understanding sacrifice and sanctity in Benin indigenous religion, Nigeria: a case study	181	(19)
FLORA EDOUWAYE S. KAPLAN
14 The Earth Mother scripture: unmasking the neo-archaic	200	(14)
WHALEN W. LAI
15 Popular religions and modernity in Japan	214	(10)
MICHIO ARAKI
16 Rethinking indigenous religious traditions: the case of the Ainu	224	(21)
KATARINA V. SJÖBERG
17 Korean shamans and the definition of "religion": a view from the grass roots	245	(11)
LAUREL KENDALL
18 Mandaya myth, memory, and the heroic religious tradition: between Islam and Christianity	256	(16)
ARAM A. YENGOYAN
19 The Viiddas: representations of the wild man in Sri Lanka	272	(23)
GANANATH OBEYESEKERE
PART IV The Pacific Islands	295	(48)
20 On wondering about wonder: Melanesians and the cargo	297	(17)
GABBY W. TROMPF
21 Thinking and teaching with the indigenous traditions of Melanesia	314	(11)
MARY N. MACDONALD
22 The Hawaiian lei on a voyage through modernities: a study in post-contact religion	325	(18)
STEVEN I. FRIESEN
Index	343