Religion, Media and Materiality - Spiritual Economies in Southeast Asia

与“世俗化正在推进”的论调相反，在东南亚等经济发达地区也出现了新的宗教活力。正是在这个全球化和亚洲资本主义的时代，宗教活动变得越来越重要。新技术，尤其是电子和数字媒体，在与神、灵魂和祖先的交流中起着突出的作用。人类主体及其能动性在宗教与媒介关系的研究中具有重要意义，而物质客体和非人类实体在现世与来世的互动中也被赋予能动性。本研究项目以跨文化视角探讨东南亚地区生者与死者之间的交流实践，并以（后）社会主义越南为研究对象。随着越南向社会主义市场经济转型，在这个经历快速变化的社会中，恍惚媒介和新技术媒体是宗教活动的一部分，它们的作用嵌入了政治和经济发展。该研究项目侧重于纸质祭品，特别是那些以ipad和手机等技术媒介形式提供给祖先和灵魂的祭品。研究的重点是纸制品的生产、交易和燃烧的文化逻辑，以及它们在另一个世界的再物质化的想象。作为现世与来世、内在与超越之间的媒介，纸祭是不同世界的行动者之间相互关系的重要组成部分。因此，实物提供了对循环和流动性的洞察，以及宗教信息和实践的调解和转移。纸质祭品代表了颠覆资本主义和市场社会主义原则的另一种经济逻辑。

Counter to the thesis of progressing secularization of today s world, new religious dynamics are developing even in economically booming areas such as Southeast Asia. It is precisely in this age of globalization and of an Asian capitalism that religious practices are becoming ever more significant. New technologies, especially electronic and digital media, play a prominent role when it comes to communication with gods, spirits, and ancestors. While human subjects and their agency are of significance in the study of the relationship between religion and media, material objects and non-human entities are also ascribed agency in the interaction between this world and the hereafter. The research project explores communicative practices between the living and the dead in Southeast Asia using a cross cultural perspective and focusing on (post-) socialist Vietnam. Trance mediums and new technical media, whose agency is embedded in political and economic developments, are part of religious practices in a society undergoing rapid changes as Vietnam transforms into a socialist market economy. The research project focuses on votive paper offerings, especially those in the form of technical media such as iPads and mobile phones, which are offered to the ancestors and spirits. The research centers on the cultural logic of the production, trade and burning of material objects made of paper as well as imaginations about their re-materialization in the otherworld. As intermediaries between this world and the hereafter, between immanence and transcendence, paper offerings are a crucial part of reciprocal relationships between actors in different worlds. Material objects therefore provide insight into the circulation and mobility as well as the mediation and transfer of religious messages and practices. Votive paper offerings represent an alternative economic logic that subverts capitalist and market socialist principles.