Religion, Media and Materiality - Spiritual Economies in Southeast Asia

与当今世界世俗化进程的论点相反，新的宗教动态甚至在东南亚等经济繁荣的地区也在发展。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，特别是电子和数字媒体，在与神、灵和祖先的沟通方面发挥着突出的作用。虽然人类主体及其代理在宗教与媒体之间的关系研究中具有重要意义，但物质对象和非人类实体也被认为是今世与来世之间互动的代理。该研究项目探讨了东南亚生者和死者之间的交流实践，使用跨文化的视角，并专注于（后）社会主义越南。随着越南向社会主义市场经济的转型，恍惚媒介和新技术媒介的机构嵌入政治和经济发展，是社会快速变化的宗教实践的一部分。该研究项目的重点是还愿纸产品，特别是那些在技术媒体的形式，如iPad和移动的手机，这是提供给祖先和精神。研究的中心是纸制品的生产、交易和燃烧的文化逻辑，以及关于纸制品在另一个世界重新物质化的想象。作为今世与来世、内在性与超越性之间的中介，纸祭是不同世界中参与者之间互惠关系的重要组成部分。因此，实物提供了对宗教信息和实践的流通和流动以及调解和传递的深入了解。还愿性的纸祭品代表了一种颠覆资本主义和市场社会主义原则的替代经济逻辑。

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.