Syncretism/Anti-Syncretism The Politics of Religious Synthesis |
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| Editor:
| Stewart, Charles
Shaw, Rosalind |
| Series title: | European Association of Social Anthropologists Ser. |
| ISBN: | 978-0-415-11116-4 |
| Publication Date: | Oct 1994 |
| Publisher: | Routledge
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| Book Format: | Hardback |
| List Price: | AUD $212.00 |
Book Description:
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The contributors explore the issues of agency and power which motivate the conflicting discourses surrounding syncretism, that is the mixing of different religious traditions within a culture.Syncretism - the synthesis of different religious - is a contentious word. Some regard it as a pejorative term, referring to local versions of notionally standard 'world religions' which are deemed 'inauthentic' because saturated with indigenous content. Syncretic versions of Christianity do not...
More DescriptionThe contributors explore the issues of agency and power which motivate the conflicting discourses surrounding syncretism, that is the mixing of different religious traditions within a culture.Syncretism - the synthesis of different religious - is a contentious word. Some regard it as a pejorative term, referring to local versions of notionally standard 'world religions' which are deemed 'inauthentic' because saturated with indigenous content. Syncretic versions of Christianity do not conform to 'official' (read 'European') models. In other contexts however, the syncretic amalgamation of religions may be validated as a mode of resistance to colonial hegemony, a sign of cultural survival, or as a means of authorising political dominance in a multicultural state.In Syncretism/Anti-Syncretism the contributors explore the issues of agency and power which are integral to the very process of syncretism and to the competing discourses surrounding the term.