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New Religiosities, Modern Capitalism, and Moral Complexities in Southeast Asia
Edited by JULIETTE KONING AND GWENAËL NJOTO-FEILLARD
Religion
and Society in Asia Pacific
Series Editor
Mark R. Mullins
Japanese Studies Centre
University of Auckland
Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand
Aims of the Series
While various book series on Religion and Society already exist, most tend to be Euro-centric or have a North American focus. The proposed series would promote contemporary scholarship on the Asia-Pacific Region, particularly studies that give attention to the interaction and mutual transformation of religions across national boundaries and beyond their country of origin. This would be a multidisciplinary series that includes both historical and contemporary ethnographic studies, which would contribute to our understanding of the traditional and changing roles of religion in multiple socio-political contexts in the region. Especially welcome would be comparative studies that expand the frame of analysis beyond the nation-state and those that address emerging issues and trends related to globalization, such as religious pluralism and social conflict over the re-emerging public role of religion, transnational religious movements, and Asian religions in diaspora communities.
More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/15178
Juliette Koning • Gwenaël Njoto-Feillard Editors
New Religiosities, Modern Capitalism, and Moral Complexities in Southeast Asia
Editors
Juliette Koning
Oxford Brookes University
Faculty of Business Oxford Brookes University
Oxford, United Kingdom
Gwenaël Njoto-Feillard CASE, Centre Asie du Sud-Est (Southeast Asia Centre - CNRS, Paris, France)
This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made.
This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by Springer Nature
The registered company is Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
The registered company address is: 152 Beach Road, #22-06/08 Gateway East, Singapore 189721, Singapore
P reface
This edited volume found its inception in 2013 when we started a conversation to work on a book that would address present-day religious dynamics in Southeast Asia from a ‘new economic sociology’ perspective. We have a shared interest in the convergence of religious and economic domains and felt there was scope for empirical studies exploring the complex and negotiated interactions of religious (growing pluralism and antagonisms) and economic (penetration of market economy and economic liberalism) developments and related questions of ethics and morality in the Southeast Asian context. After having established the idea, we worked towards inviting academics specialized in a variety of Southeast Asian religious traditions with the aim to gain a better understanding of these developments across a variety of countries and religions.
We were delighted to receive many positive responses, which led to having all chapter authors around the table in June 2014 in Paris for a two-day workshop. This workshop was kindly hosted by IISMM (Institut d’études de l’Islam et des sociétés du monde musulman, Institute for the Study of Islam and Muslim Societies) part of EHESS (École des hautes en sciences sociales, School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences) in Paris.
The workshop in Paris was the perfect start for this book project as we were able to discuss each of the draft chapters in detail and amongst each other. We were very honoured to have Professor Robert W. Hefner with us. His insightful comments, suggestions and questions have been tremendously important for the direction of this book and the subsequent revision of the various chapters. We are also very pleased that he was willing to
share his comments and reflections in a final chapter (extensive epilogue) for this edited volume.
This project and the resulting book would not have been possible without the financial support from IRASEC, the Research Institute on Contemporary Southeast Asia (a joint-institute of CNRS and the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, based in Bangkok), CASE (Centre for Southeast Asian Studies, a joint research centre of EHESS, CNRS and Inalco in Paris), the “Asian Dynamics Project” of HéSam University (Hautes Études, Sorbonne, Arts et Métiers), and IISMM. For their continuous support in this project, we would especially like to thank François Robinne (Director of IRASEC) and Rémy Madinier (Co-Director of CASE).
Finally, we would also like to thank the reviewers of our manuscript whose insightful comments helped us to reposition the volume and make stronger links to core debates in the sociology and anthropology of religion, and moral economy. We are especially grateful to the many people in Southeast Asia who willingly shared their experiences with us over time and in many different locations, both rural and urban, in lowland and upland places, and from Thailand to Indonesia.
Juliette Koning
31 August 2016 Gwenaël Njoto-Feillard
1 Introduction: New Religiosities, Modern Capitalism, and Moral Complexities in Southeast Asia 1
Juliette Koning and Gwenaël Njoto-Feillard
2 Muhammadiyah vs. Mammon: The Economic Trials and Tribulations of an Islamic Modernist Mass Organization in Indonesia (1990s–2000s) 17 Gwenaël Njoto-Feillard
3 Beyond the Prosperity Gospel: Moral Identity Work and Organizational Cultures in Pentecostal-Charismatic Churches in Indonesia 39
Juliette Koning
4 New Life in an Expanding Market Economy: Moral Issues among Cambodia’s Highland Protestants 65 Catherine Scheer
5 A Moral Economy in Motion: The Dynamics and Limitations of a Pentecostal Alternative Society in Cambodia 89 Jeremy Jammes
6 A Church for Us: Itineraries of Burmese Migrants Navigating in Thailand Through the Charismatic Christian Church 121 Alexander Horstmann
7 Of Riches and Faith: The Prosperity Gospels of Megachurches in Singapore 147 Terence Chong
8 Religious Worlding: Christianity and the New Production of Space in the Philippines 169
Jayeel Serrano Cornelio
9 What is a Halal Lab? Islamic Technoscience in Malaysia 199
Johan Fischer
10 Religion, Prosperity, and Lottery Lore: The Linkage of New Religious Networks to Gambling Practices in Thailand 223 Rachelle M. Scott
11 Made in Singapore: Conceiving, Making and Using Ritual Objects in Hindu Domains 247 Vineeta Sinha
12 Epilogue: Capitalist Rationalities and Religious Moralities—An
Robert W. Hefner
n otes on c ontributors
Terence Chong is a sociologist and senior fellow at the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore. He is also Head of the Nalanda-Sriwijaya Centre and coordinator of the Regional Social and Cultural Studies Programme. His research interests include Christianity in Southeast Asia, heritage, cultural policies and politics in Singapore and the sociology of religion and deviance.
Jayeel Serrano Cornelio is the Director of the Development Studies Program at the Ateneo de Manila University, the Philippines, and was a postdoctoral research fellow at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity. He writes on Christianity and society. He is also the author of Being Catholic in the Contemporary Philippines: Young People Reinterpreting Religion (2016).
Johan Fischer is an associate professor and Head of Studies (International Development Studies) in the Department of Social Sciences and Business, Roskilde University, Denmark. His work focuses on modern religion and consumer culture: the interfaces between class, consumption, market relations and the state in a globalized world.
Robert W. Hefner is Professor of Anthropology and Director of the Institute on Culture, Religion, and World Affairs (CURA) at Boston University (USA). He is involved in research projects comparing responses to modern social change (“modernity”) in Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism.
Alexander Horstmann is Professor of Modern Southeast Asian Studies at the School of Humanities at Tallinn University, Estonia. He published six books and numerous research articles on the anthropology and sociology of Southeast Asia, most recently with Jin-Heon Jung (2015): Building Noah’s Ark for Migrants, Refugees, and Religious Communities, Palgrave Macmillan.
Jeremy Jammes is an associate professor and Director of the Institute of Asian Studies at the Universiti Brunei Darussalam. He is also co-editor of the Springer Book Series Asia in Transition
Juliette Koning is Reader in Organization Studies and Asian Business at Oxford Brookes University (UK). Her recent research includes the intersections between religion, identity and entrepreneurship in Indonesia, for which she combines anthropology and organization studies.
Gwenaël Njoto-Feillard holds a PhD in political science (2010) from Sciences Po Paris. He is an associate researcher at the Center for Southeast Asian Studies in Paris (CASE, CNRS-EHESS-Inalco), associate fellow at the Institute of East Asian Studies in Lyon (IAO, CNRS), as well as at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS) in Singapore.
Catherine Scheer is a postdoctoral fellow at the Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore, where she is part of the Religion and Globalization cluster. She obtained her PhD in anthropology from the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Paris, and is affiliated to the Centre Asie du Sud-Est (EHESS/CNRS). Her research interests include sociocultural change and Christian missions.
Rachelle M. Scott is Associate Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Tennessee (USA). She is the author of Nirvana for Sale?: Buddhism, Wealth, and the Dhammakaya Temple in Contemporary Thailand and is working on a book project entitled Gifts of Beauty and Blessings of Wealth: The New Prosperity Goddesses of Thailand.
Vineeta Sinha is a professor and concurrently Head of the South Asian Studies Programme and the Department of Sociology, National University of Singapore. She has written extensively on forms of Hindu religiosity in the diaspora, religion–state encounters and the intersection of religion and commodification processes.
L
ist of f igures
Image 6.1 MCA mother church in Sukhumvit Prakanong, Klongtan Nuea, Thailand (Photograph by Alexander Horstmann) 127
Image 8.1 Aerial view of Philippine Arena in Ciudad de Victoria The expressway on the left leads to regions north of Metro Manila, the Philippines. Map data: Google 177
Image 8.2 Aerial view of the International House of Prayer in Amvel City, the Philippines. In the lower left corner is The Premier Medical Center. Map data: Google 179
Image 8.3 Aerial view of KJC’s King Dome (under construction) in Davao City in Mindanao, the Philippines. The estate also includes Jose Maria College (lower left) and the church’s studio and other offices. Map data: Google 181
Image 8.4 Aerial view of the Prayer Mountain at Mt. Apo in Davao, the Philippines. The pastoral house is in the lower left corner. Map data: Google 182
Image 8.5 Aerial view of Every Nation headquarters in Bonifacio Global City, the Philippines. In its vicinity are various international schools, shopping centers, hotels, businesses, and diplomatic offices. Map data: Google 184
Image 10.1 The Mae Nak shrine at Wat Mahabut, Bangkok, Thailand (Photograph by Rachelle M. Scott)
Image 10.2 Luang Phau Tuad statue at Huay Mongkol, Hua Hin, Thailand (Photograph by Rachelle M. Scott)
233
237
Image 10.3 A shrine to Nang Kwak and Kumanthong at a hardware store in Chiang Mai, Thailand (Photograph by Rachelle M. Scott) 239
L ist of t ab L es
Table 5.1 Theological differences among Evangelicals 90
Table 5.2 Evangelical and Pentecostal spectrum in Cambodia in 2009 92
Table 5.3 The Pentecostal description of the modular cube used by Foursquare pastors to evangelize people 107
CHAPTER 1
Introduction: New Religiosities, Modern Capitalism, and Moral Complexities in Southeast Asia
Juliette Koning and Gwenaël Njoto-Feillard
Since the mid-1980s, Southeast Asia, like many other regions in the world, is witnessing the rise of a “New Spirit of Capitalism” (Roberts 1995), characterized by economic and religious interactions of a different magnitude and intensity from before. We see, for instance, that Charismatic Christianity promoting its well-known prosperity gospel is booming in Indonesia (Koning 2009) while in Singapore several mega-churches now fill the landscape as places of worship where thousands of followers meet regularly and donate millions of dollars to the building of malls and entertainment complexes (Chong 2015). In Thailand, the Dhammakaya organization adopts mobilization techniques similar to Protestant churches and proposes a utilitarian understanding of Buddhist meditation (Scott 2009) and in the Philippines, the El Shaddai movement incarnates a new
J. Koning (*) Oxford Brookes Business School, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, UK
G. Njoto-Feillard
Center for Southeast Asian Studies (CASE), CASE, a joint research center of CNRS-EHESS-Inalco, Paris, France
J. Koning, G. Njoto-Feillard (eds.), New Religiosities, Modern Capitalism and Moral Complexities in Southeast Asia, Religion and Society in Asia Pacific, DOI 10.1007/978-981-10-2969-1_1
1
form of popular Catholicism that is much more comfortable with the idea of pious enrichment than Roman Catholicism (Wiegele 2005). In various places of worship across the region, religious objects such as amulets are subject to an intensive commercialization (Kitiarsa 2008a). In the context of the Indian diaspora for instance, the commodification of Hindu worship results in the emergence of new “brokers” in spiritual and material realms (Sinha 2011). In Indonesia and Malaysia, various businesses are set up to cater to the growing market of Islamic consumption (Fischer 2008) and religious mass-organizations, and Islamist political parties are making an economic turn by setting up their own businesses and by using the motivational techniques of Western management to mobilize their adherents and compete on the market for salvation goods (Njoto-Feillard 2012). In tandem with these developments, many Southeast Asian countries experience a growing fluidity of modern urban life, which creates a new generation of charismatic figures who are preaching pious materialism and respond to the demands of those in search of meaning (Fealy 2008; Rudnyckyj 2010; Hoesterey 2015).
This convergence of religious and economic domains is closely related to the socio-economic upheavals that marked the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Globally, individuals and organizations have been confronted by two phenomena of major significance: the rise of capitalism as a global paradigm and the global resurgence of religion. As Robert Wuthnow aptly put it, what we are witnessing is not necessarily a uniform and constant imposition of economic norms on religious values and behavior, but rather “a set of highly complex negotiated interactions” (1994, p.632). It is these complex and negotiated interactions of religious (growing pluralism and antagonisms) and economic (penetration of market economy and economic liberalism) developments and related questions of ethics and morality in the Southeast Asian context that our edited volume addresses.
Not much is known about the moral complexities in Southeast Asia that (potentially) arise when religious and economic developments converge. The present volume, with its ethnographic case study approach, thus fills an important gap. A study worthwhile to mention here is the edited volume by Kitiarsa (2008b) that analyzes the market-oriented changes in the Asian religious landscape through the concept of “religious commodification”. In the New Blackwell Companion to the Sociology of Religion (edited by Turner), Kitiarsa defines the concept as an “emerging multifaceted and multidimensional marketized process, which turns a religious faith or tradition into consumable and marketable goods” (2010,
INTRODUCTION: NEW RELIGIOSITIES, MODERN CAPITALISM, AND MORAL...
p.565). Whereas religious commodification is particularly concerned with how “religion adopts market logics” (Kitiarsa 2010, p.564), we are interested in the ways in which particular constellations of such religious and economic interactions and negotiations lead to a re-embedding, recreation, rebalancing and reinterpretation of social and moral selves, spiritual and material understandings, economic and religious spaces and objects, and religious networks and connectivity. We consider these relationships to be dynamic, fluid and embedded in local social, cultural and political contexts. Thus, we not only explore the dynamic relationship between religious and economic developments but also add a neglected dimension to it by investigating the religious-ethical or moral negotiations of and potential resistance to processes of (religious) commodification. We do so by building on and adding to various approaches in economic sociology and the sociology and anthropology of religion that problematize the economic-religious interface.
It was in the 1990s/2000s that we saw a renewed interest in the relationship between culture/religion and economics (Wuthnow 1994, 2005). There are obvious reasons for this: the “disenchantment of the world” predicted by the theory of secularization did not take place. Instead, we have seen the revival of religion across the globe (globalization of religion), including re-sacralization processes and the rise of extremism in different religious traditions to the point that it now represents a pressing matter. The links between religion and development (Berger and Redding 2010), between fundamentalisms and the economy (Kuran 1993), the “rationale” of terrorism (Berman 2009), and the possibility of de-radicalization and economic reconversion of militants have all become subjects of critical importance.
A number of approaches have emerged with a view to studying the relationship between such religious and economic realities. Most prominently located in this arena are the economics of religion and the sociology of religion. The economics of religion approach consists of researchers, including economists, seeking answers to questions of how religion might impact on economic action and behavior (Wilson 1997), on economic performance at the national level (Noland 2005) or on economic growth of countries more in general (Barro and McCleary 2003). More broadly, this approach, using Rational Choice Theory (RCT), supply-and-demand theories and various other “tools of economic theory and a large body of data” (Iannaccone 1998, p.1465), focuses on “determinants of religious belief and behavior, the nature of religious institutions, and the social and
economic impact of religion” (Iannaccone 1998, p.1465). Churches and other religious institutions are considered akin to businesses, producing “spiritual goods” and competing for the faithful in a given market. Devotees meanwhile act as clients or consumers by selecting the institution that offers them the best cost–benefit ratio (Iannaccone 1994). A major criticism here is the restrictions imposed by the RCT (making homo religiosus into a homo economicus) and elements of deterministic reasoning that support many of the underlying models.
Almost parallel to these developments in the economics of religion, the sociology of religion developed an interest in the economic approach. The sociology of religion generally studies the causes and consequences of religion for a particular society, institution, community and/or professional group (Fenn 2001). The renewed interest in economics made rational choice the “new paradigm” in the sociology of religion (Turner 2010; see also Lehmann 2010). This paradigm opened up research into questions sociologists had as such not really addressed, namely “how religion is marketed, and how it has become a commodity alongside other consumer objects” (Turner 2010, p.14). But there was also criticism of the dominant focus on rationality “precisely because of its emphasis on free markets, individual choice and subjectivity” (Turner 2010, p.14). This raises the critical question about the fit of the underlying theoretical models and concepts used in economics (and economics of religion in particular) to address more sociological and cultural queries. In an attempt to circumvent some of these criticisms, Obadia and Wood (2011, p.xxiii) propose to make a distinction between “economy-near concepts” to be used “when religious behaviour is effectively impacted by economic factors” and “economy-distant concepts” used “when religious behaviour is metaphorically comparable with economic logics or processes”. If anything, the chapters in this volume are to be found more at metaphorical end of the spectrum. This edited volume, however, does not seek to establish causal relations about whether economic development determines religious behavior or whether religious behavior determines economic growth. We strive to come to a better understanding of the moral dimensions within the meaning-making processes of the actors and institutions involved in the interaction between the two domains. We therefore take the position that both realms speak to each other; how, why and with what outcomes is what we are focusing on.
The above has shown that it is an accepted position to argue that the rise of new religiosities and the revival and renewing of “older” traditions through mass media and the Internet are compatible with individualism
INTRODUCTION:
and the consumer society. Without necessarily challenging this position, we think it important to ask a related and somewhat neglected question, namely: are there ethical and moral developments in the slipstream of these wider processes at the religion-economy interface through which new or different forms of community develop, new or different networks and connections are established and new or different moral orientations are created? There are three approaches, which have proven more fruitful and relevant for such a question, namely Moral Economy, Cultural Embeddedness and the Anthropology of Religion. We will discuss them in this order and articulate how in varying degrees these support the arguments in our book.
To problematize the moral and ethical issues involved, we first turn to the moral economy concept which is famously related to the work by E.P. Thompson (1971) and J.C. Scott (1976), both discussing what happens if moral rights are being jeopardized by changing markets or economic landscapes (food riots and peasant rebellion). These rights, it is argued, are embedded in a “moral universe” (Booth 1994, p.654), which puts to question the supposedly disconnection between the economic and noneconomic. Polanyi (1957, 1968) already debated an economic domination disconnected from the moral and social, a question brought back into academic debates by Mark Granovetter’s seminal essay “Economic Action and Social Structure: The Problem of Embeddedness” (1985) and for the Asian context by Robert Hefner’s edited volume Market Cultures (1998). Polanyi’s thinking thus figures prominently in the revival of the moral economy concept across a variety of disciplines (from anthropology to political economy).
Thompson’s famous work showcases the tensions between “historical experiences, customary practices and moral expectations” against the “cruel exigencies of the new industrial capitalist order” (Edelman 2015, p.56). Thompson’s use of moral was thus profoundly political, with moral denoting both customs as well as “a principled stance vis-à-vis society” (Edelman 2015, p.55). Both interpretations are relevant for our understanding of the interactions and negotiations that take place within the religion-economy interface.
Contemporary studies use the moral economy approach to investigate the extent to which economic activities are “structured by moral dispositions” and the extent to which the latter are “compromised, overridden or reinforced by economic pressures” (Sayer 2004, p.2). It debates the idea that the market logic takes over and would shape the direction of all other
developments, including religious ones. As shown by Moberg (2014), moral economic understandings are still a driving force in today’s societies but contrary to some belief, the market’s logic of supply and demand has not “obliterated earlier ethical notions of how economies ought to operate” (Moberg 2014, p.10).
The moral economy concept and legacy thus articulate that the economy or market is and always has been “embedded in webs of norms and values of humanity, affecting and being affected by individual and very human evaluations and sentiments” (Bolton and Laaser 2013, p.516).
The work by Haynes (2013) among Pentecostals in the Copperbelt (Zambia), for instance, shows that believers through their religion engage with and push back against corrosive forces of the market and she argues that “Pentecostalism is part of the set of ontological, social, and epistemological resources that people in urban Zambia draw on to create lives and livelihoods in the face of social and economic uncertainty” (Haynes 2013, p.93). Bolton and Laaser (2013, p.510) make a similar point and state “people who engage in economic practices draw consciously and unconsciously upon historically established customs, practices and their lay morality.” Importantly, they point out that people may respond strongly the moment economic practices jeopardize norms of fairness. As Sandel (2012) points out, although buying and selling increasingly governs the whole of life, markets do have limits.
While much of the moral economy literature takes a rather (political) economic-centric view and is not very explicit on the content of the moral dispositions, it does allow us to raise questions on the moral limits of capitalism and marketization and the role of agency in doing so. This agency component within the moral economy framework, with people making moral evaluations of the market makes it relevant for our interest in the interactions and negotiations between religion and economic developments and the moral complexities within them. As argued by Hefner (this volume) “the capitalist transformations that have reshaped our world do not always end in a narrowed, neoliberal self-interest.”
The interest in how (moral) values and the market interact finds a second framework in the cultural embeddedness of economic action (DiMaggio 1990, 1994; Zelizer 1988, 2002), which is part of the wider renewal of economic sociology. It should be noted that economic sociology was originally a rather structuralist approach that relied on concrete studies of social networks. It considered the theory of culture, and subsequently of religion, too vague to constitute the subject of serious research
on economic phenomena. The cultural approach was felt to be indicative of an over-socialized view of man, one that is no more legitimate than the under-socialized homo economicus of neoclassical theory (Swedberg 2003). At the same time, the sociology of religion had disregarded the economic field, and was more concerned with the dynamics of new religious movements in the 1970s, and with the relationship between the state and religion(s) in the 1980s. The generally accepted view was that religion had probably little influence on economic variables. This did change however, as we discussed above.
The cultural embeddedness approach, as Philippe Steiner (2007, p.43) nicely synthesizes, seeks to answer a particular question: “how does the world of ultimate values (religious, political, anthropological ones) interact with the market, when the market becomes a generalized form of social interaction?” Indeed, this approach first considers the tensions produced by the encounter between religious and economic spheres in the specific context of contemporary capitalism; and, consequently, the various strategies of negotiation that emerge both at the ideological and socio-structural level. In doing so, it re-established that culture and socialstructure have to be considered conjointly. As Robert Wuthnow (2005, p.608) puts it, while the former economic sociology (Weber, Durkheim and Simmel) was macroscopic, non-contextual and typological, the new approach uses:
[…] discourse, cultural toolkits, the symbolic resources through which people make sense of their lives, the dynamic interaction among producers and consumers of culture, and such cultural objects as texts, rituals, and public performances. Many of these emphases are captured in the concept of social practices. Practices are strings of behavior woven together around habits and rules and embedded in traditions and social settings that reinforce their meaningfulness.
This focus on social practices and the underlying habits, norms and rules embedded in both historical and socio-cultural contexts align with developments in the anthropology of religion, the third approach we consider. While anthropology had been relatively absent from the larger field of the economics of religion, it is now engaging the field more directly. As Obadia and Wood point out (2011), anthropologists have been more concerned with economy and religion (and not so much with the economics of religion), which dovetails with our interest in the interactions and negotiations INTRODUCTION:
J. KONING AND G. NJOTO-FEILLARD
between the two. Csordas (2009), a prominent scholar of anthropology and religion, indeed argues that it is more fruitful to see religion, economy and politics for that matter as all closely intertwined instead of seeing religion as a commodity or as guided by market processes. Some anthropologists of religion, after the postmodern and postcolonial turns, “now see their contribution as being rather to reconsider modern, secular society as symbolically and culturally constituted, and as much based on the religious impulse as on reason” (Hackett 2005, p.157).
The anthropology of religion brings methodological guidance to our book through its focus on holism, historical and contextual sensitivity, fieldwork and observation, and the lived experience of religion. The approach takes local practices as a point of departure and asks how people engage with the practices of their religions and, relevant for the approach we take, there is a felt need to look at connections between and across social domains (economy and religion, or religion and politics, or all three) (Bielo 2015; Bowen 2015). It also, explicitly (and related to the comparative nature of anthropology in general) engages with the globalization of religion. Mobility, migration and mass media made religion a traveling idea, belief and good that crosses borders similar to the growing flow of ideas and goods in general under globalization. Local adaptations, re-imaginings and new interpretations also mean that “religious culture in most settings has become more pluralized and agonistic” (Hefner, this volume). This raises questions about the impact of such pluralization (antagonisms between old and new religions and old and new social bonds) and competition (competing in the marketplace, self-identification through religious goods and services) on ethical subjectivities. The aim of this edited volume, therefore, is to explore religion-economy interactions, negotiations and processes in Southeast Asia and the ways in which these readdress broader issues of morality.
There is not one approach as such that we adhere to in this book, but the chapters are developed on the basis of several shared notions that we draw on from the broader social science approach to the study of religion as discussed above. First of all, religion and economy are social domains that are intertwined and recent global trends in both make studying their connections and moral ramifications pertinent (moral economy). Second, to understand the religion-economy interface it is important to understand people, practices and institutions in cultural context (cultural embeddedness), which allows for expanding the research questions into the realm of morality. Third, the chapters in this book follow an ethnographic and/
or anthropological research tradition in that they are based on empirical fieldwork, that is, on observing and/or participating in the religious practices of the communities studied (anthropology of religion). Finally, Southeast Asia offers a timely and unique platform to explore these processes of meaning making. As we have addressed at the beginning of this chapter, the religious landscape in Southeast Asia is changing rapidly and pluralization and related tensions and antagonisms follow suit; the chapters in this book give reckoning of these developments across such countries as Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Cambodia, Thailand and the Philippines.
In the first contribution, Gwenaël Njoto-Feillard describes the emergence of Market Islam through the case of Muhammadiyah, Indonesia’s largest modernist Muslim organization. In the 2000s, Muhammadiyah, next to its philanthropic activities, developed a productive sector constituted by a bank, a holding company and various businesses. NjotoFeillard illustrates how, in this process, the organization faced serious conflicts between ethical values stemming from the socio-religious sphere and instrumental rationality implied by business practices. He argues that these axiological tensions were amplified by the organizational structure of Muhammadiyah. This chapter illustrates the ways in which religious and economic norms and (moral) values are negotiated.
After the exploration by Njoto-Feillard of an Indonesian Muslim community, Juliette Koning takes us to a Christian one. She discusses how Pentecostal-Charismatic Christianity in Indonesia might impact on the moral self and the wider community. There is undeniably a strong attraction to the charismatic movement preaching personal material success and this-worldly rewards as well as offering experiential worship services. Focusing on the individual material and spiritual rewards alone, however, prohibits a better understanding of the ethical and moral dimensions of the faith. To unravel such moral implications, Koning investigates several Pentecostal rituals, such as leadership and the calling (testimonies), cell group meetings, social mission activities and praying and worship services. It shows that these rituals lead to two forms of moral re-embedding, a re-embedding in the family of co-believers and a moral re-embedding in wider society, which brings us beyond the prosperity gospel.
From Indonesia we move to Cambodia with Catherine Scheer’s chapter on Bunong Protestants. She analyzes how a recently Christianized indigenous minority engages with an emerging market economy. Scheer argues that when the market economy started to expand in the 1990s, leading a “new life” as a Christian became strongly associated with adopting a developed
J. KONING AND G. NJOTO-FEILLARD
lifestyle. Even though many Bunong took up novel economic practices, they remained largely embedded in a network of religiously moralized social bonds. This changed with the arrival of rubber companies in 2009, which dramatically broadened the reach of the wage labor economy and deeply altered the Bunong villagers’ way of life. In the face of these changes, many local Protestants expressed a loss of moral orientation. Although attracted by modern life, they were concerned that materialistic behavior would conflict with their existing values. Scheer’s chapter shows how morality can get caught up between religious and economic developments.
Staying in Cambodia, Jeremy Jammes presents an ethnographic study of the Foursquare Church in Northeast Cambodia and their mode of socialization and proselytization. Evangelical Protestantism was introduced in Cambodia in 1923. In the early 1990s, it experienced an exponential growth in membership. Jammes sets out to understand how the Pentecostal church in this area proposed an alternative society, based on a specific moral economy. He analyzes the nature, character, expression, and trajectories of conversion and religious commitment of members and pastors. The overall aim is to answer a fundamental research question: what kind of moral and economic transformation does Pentecostal conversion provide to the daily lives of its followers?
A similar question is addressed by Alexander Horstmann, whose chapter explores the urban aspirations of Burmese migrants in Bangkok who congregate in a relatively new church (established in the 1990s). Being a non-denominational and independent church, this Burmese evangelical church reaches out to Christians and, being a missionary church, to nonChristians. The church keeps expanding its membership that commits to pay the tithe (ten percent of the income) and the first flute (one-month full salary) through worship service, Bible studies and active proselytizing (crusades) in Burmese and Burmese minority languages. Horstmann chooses to focus on religious spatialities in Bangkok thus opening up a perspective on the agency of Burmese migrants and the “moral” mastering of their livelihoods beyond a sole focus on work.
Staying within the Christian tradition, Terence Chong examines the development and character of prosperity gospels in Singapore. The prosperity gospels have been able to indigenize themselves by adapting to local history and socio-politics, developing characteristics that are both global and uniquely local. Chong argues that the prosperity gospels could take root in Singapore because first of all, the politically conscious “liberal Christianity” of the 1960s declined, in part due to the developmentalist
state; second, this decline paved the way for evangelical revivalism of the 1980s, which was closely associated with the expansion of the local middle class, and third, the spirit world of Pentecostal evangelism created a pathway between the spiritual and material where prayers were expected to result in manifestations in the corporeal world. The chapter shows the importance of a historical and contextual approach to understand the dynamics of religious and economic developments.
Jayeel Cornelio’s chapter continues Chong’s by also focusing on the mega-church phenomenon but from a rather different perspective. Cornelio discusses a new mode of religious competition that is taking place in the Philippines; a process that involves the production of space in the form of religious worlding. Based on the experience of four influential religious groups in the Philippines that have their own indigenous interpretations of Christianity, Cornelio describes the construction of religious spaces with an attempt for the grandiose and the repositioning (or worlding) of the Philippines as a new center for their own interpretations of Christianity. Inscribed in the aesthetics, proportion, and function of these physical developments is a clear global outlook meant to set them apart from others. To become the biggest, grandest, or the center is the aspiration of such religious organizations. Their presence is unmistakable because of their widely attended religious activities and successful presence on television, radio and social media.
Returning to Islam, the chapter by Johan Fischer takes us to a particular type of moral economy, namely Islamic technoscience in modern Malaysia. Based on fieldwork in Malaysia and in Islamic science universities in particular, the chapter explores how a localized form of Islamic technoscience, conditions and is conditioned by halal. Halal is no longer an expression of an esoteric form of production, trade and consumption, but part of a huge and expanding globalized market in regulation and technoscience. Fischer argues that an important question is the historical tension between Islamic revivalism and the secular that runs through Malaysia’s modern history. His chapter shows that the convergence and compatibility of Islam and technoscience is a sign that Malaysia is a global laboratory for not only halal research, but also a rationalized form of Islam.
The next two chapters discuss the changing role and meaning of ritual objects in present-day Southeast Asia. Rachelle Scott examines the prevalent place of the lottery in contemporary Thai religious practice. During visits to Buddhist temples, many Thais listen attentively for any number that a popular monk might refer while preaching; in the same way,
numerous lottery seekers make offerings at spirit shrines in the hope of seeing numbers while at the shrine or later in their dreams. The procurement of lottery numbers is linked to Buddhist ideas of authority, sanctity, and miraculous powers and to stories of spirits who grant boons to their patrons. The fact that lottery vendors are usually located near Buddhist temples and spirit shrines reinforces the close association of these religious spaces with the acquisition of lottery numbers. Scott’s chapter demonstrates how stories of lottery success cultivate and sustain interest in specific religious sites and in so doing, how they create new religious networks for prosperity seekers.
Vineeta Sinha’s chapter focuses on visual representations of Hindu divinity as creatively imagined, conceptualized and produced by a cluster of Singaporean Hindus. Sinha argues that we might be witnessing a reconfigured relationship between the processes of production and consumption of ritual objects in that devotees as agents now form a conceptual bridge between producers and consumers. The tradition in the Indian context, where both services and objects required for the performance of rituals were provided and produced by jatis—occupational groups, charged with these responsibilities, thus stands to be completely reconfigured. As religious practitioners use goods and services they have themselves conceptualized, created and possibly produced, they clearly renegotiate their meanings and resonance, compelling theorists to shift the emphasis away from the politics and morality of consumption toward other modalities.
In the last chapter, as an extended epilogue, Robert Hefner reflects on what the now much discussed anthropology of morality can contribute to the understanding of economic change. Hefner rightly reminds us that the study of capitalist rationalization and religion has to take into account the fact that things have changed significantly since Max Weber. Modern capitalism is now transnational and intensely consumerist, while religion has become pluralized and agonistic. Hefner notes that this has created and legitimated new forms of religious knowledge and practice, especially among the growing middle classes. Thus, what we see is the emergence new forms of religionized and connected capitalist ethic in different religious traditions. An important gist of Hefner’s chapter, and core to the arguments in this edited volume, is that although new varieties of capitalism today have more aggressively sought to reconstruct appetites and subjectivity, they have not had the effect long predicted by scholars from Marx and Weber to the anti-neoliberalism writers today: namely, doing away with ethical and religious arguments and movements against more J.
INTRODUCTION: NEW RELIGIOSITIES, MODERN CAPITALISM, AND MORAL...
atomized and economistic (i.e. neoliberal) senses of self and community. From these arguments onward, Hefner offers a critical commentary on each of the chapters in this volume.
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CHAPTER 2
Muhammadiyah vs. Mammon: The Economic Trials and Tribulations of an Islamic Modernist Mass Organization in Indonesia (1990s–2000s)1
Gwenaël Njoto-Feillard
I ntroduct Ion
The concept of Islamic economics was formulated around the first half of the twentieth century, as a third way that would offer a solution to the injustices of capitalism and the failures of Communism. Confronted with the real or perceived danger of the secularizing West, Islamist thinkers also came to assert that the Muslim faith needed to be strongly reaffirmed and rigorously practiced in all domains of life—the economy included (Kuran 2004). Ironically, however, it was the 1973 oil-boom in the Middle East that allowed the concept to be implemented and further developed in the following decades. Today, it is a generally accepted idea that Islamic economics—as applied in the banking and financial sectors—represent an
G. Njoto-Feillard (*)
Center for Southeast Asian Studies (CASE), CASE, a joint research center of CNRS-EHESS-Inalco, Paris, France
J. Koning, G. Njoto-Feillard (eds.), New Religiosities, Modern Capitalism and Moral Complexities in Southeast Asia, Religion and Society in Asia Pacific, DOI 10.1007/978-981-10-2969-1_2
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Our figure was made from a small plant in fine flower in the conservatory of G. Hibbert, esq.
PLATE CCCCLXXXVIII.
BROUSSONETIA PAPYRIFERA.
Paper Mulberry. CLASS XXII. ORDER IV.
DIŒCIA TETRANDRIA. Chives and Pointals on different Plants. Four Chives.
E beneath and remaining, 3-sometimes 4-toothed. Blossom none. Shaft thread-shaped. Fruit cylindrically club-shaped, and two-lipped at the point.
S naked at the point of the fruit.
Broussonetia papyrifera. Vent. Tab. Veg. et Willd. Sp. Pl.
SPECIFIC CHARACTER.
B foliis tri-vel quinque-lobis, acutis, serratis, supra scabris, subtus pubescentibus.
B with leaves from 3-to 5-lobed, pointed, sawed, rough on the upper surface, and softly haired beneath.
REFERENCE TO THE PLATE.
Male Plant
1. An empalement and chives, in an infant state.
2. The same magnified.
3 An empalement and chives in perfection
4. The same magnified.
Female Plant.
1. The catkin with a pointal detached.
2 A section of the same when in fruit
3. One of the florets with the seed detached.
4. A seed cut in two, and magnified.
T useful plant is the Morus papyrifera of Linnæus, but certainly would not have been so called by him, had both, the male and female plant come under his inspection, as it does not belong either to the class or order of the Mulberry. Neither of the plants, when in bloom, possesses much beauty, but they have rather a sombre aspect: yet the female plant, when in fruit, is certainly very handsome. In Japan and the South Sea Islands, where it is indigenous, the bark of it serves to make a clothing for the natives. In Japan, it not only makes cloth for them, but all the Japanese paper is made from the bark of it. There are four sorts. The first is a royal size, of a square form, very smooth, and painted on one side. The second is a fine letter paper, in sheets often three feet long. The third is used for covering their best varnished articles, and so fine as sometimes to look like a spider’s web. The fourth is a common writing-paper, varying in size and form. The process of its manufacture is by cutting off the shoots after the leaves fall, and boiling them till the bark separates. It is then peeled off, and steeped 3 or 4 hours in water, to purify, and the black outer cuticle, and green matter within, are scraped off and separated, according to their qualities. It is again boiled with a little ashes, and stirred with a bamboo stick; and the boiling is complete when its downy fibres can be separated with a touch of the finger. It is then agitated in water till it appears like a lump of tow, and again beat with camphor wood battens, and strained, for the coarser paper. An infusion of the roots of the Hibiscus manihot, or the leaves of Rivaria Japonica, with the flour of Japan rice, is then mixed with it, and poured on their moulds; which are not, like ours, formed of wire, but of fine rushes, and the sheets laid on a matted table with a fine shred of bamboo between each, and covered by a
board with a stone upon it, to squeeze out the water, dried the next day singly on flat boards, and then packed up for sale.
Our figure was made from fine plants in the garden of J. Vere, esq.
PLATE CCCCLXXXIX.
GNAPHALIUM GRANDIFLORUM.
Large-flowered Gnaphalium.
CLASS XIX. ORDER II.
SYNGENESIA POLYGAMIA SUPERFLUA. Tips united. Superfluous Polygamy.
ESSENTIAL GENERIC CHARACTER.
R nudum. Pappus pilosus, vel plumosus. Calyx imbricatus, radiatus, radio colorato.
R naked. Down hairy, or feathery. Empalement imbricated, rayed, with the ray coloured.
G with large flowers: flowers grow in panicles, white, and shining: footstalks white, and woolly: leaves are ovate-pointed, and covered with a white wool.
REFERENCE TO THE PLATE.
1. A scale of the empalement.
2. The same shown from the under side.
3. A flower complete.
4 The same magnified
5. The seed-bud, chives, and pointal magnified.
6. Seed-bud and pointal.
7. The same magnified.
T Gnaphalium is at present the largest flowering species (the G. eximium excepted). Its flowers are equally durable with those of any Xeranthemum, nor does it vary essentially in any particular from that genus (as a section of which it would have been much better understood). The genus Elychrisum we find, upon examination, to be built upon the same equivocal ground, and there is little doubt but at some future period those two superfluous genera
will fall into the old Linnæan genus of Xeranthemum. Our figure was made from a fine plant in the Clapham collection, about a foot and a half high. We have seen it grow much taller, but it is not then so handsome. It is certainly not a new plant, but has not been as yet figured in any modern publication. The whiteness so prevalent in its flowers and leaves (by way of contrast to the green foliage of most other plants) would render it deserving a place in every collection, even if its long-lived shining flowers were not a sufficient recommendation.
PLATE CCCCXC.
PONTEDERIA DILATATA.
Dilated Pontederia.
CLASS VI. ORDER I.
HEXANDRIA MONOGYNIA. Six Chives. One Pointal.
GENERIC CHARACTER.
C . Spatha communis, oblonga, latere dehiscens.
C monopetala, 6-fida.
S . Filamenta sex, corollæ inserta. Antheræ oblongæ.
P . Germen oblongum, inferum. Stylus simplex.
P . Capsula trilocularis, triangularis.
S plurima.
O . In quibusdam speciebus germen est superum: in aliis inferum.
E . Spathe common, oblong, opening sideways.
B one-petalled, 6-cleft.
C . Threads six, inserted into the blossom. Tips oblong.
P . Seed-bud oblong, beneath. Shaft simple.
S - . Capsule three-locular, three-angled.
S many.
O . In some species the seed-bud is above, in others beneath.
SPECIFIC CHARACTER.
P germine supero: foliis sagittatis, obtusis, vel acutis: floribus umbellatis, confertis, cæruleis.
Habitat in India Orientali.
P with the seed-buds above: leaves arrow-shaped, obtuse, or pointed: flowers in crowded umbels, of a blue colour.
Native of the East Indies.
REFERENCE TO THE PLATE.
1. A blossom spread open.
2 Seed-bud and pointal, summit magnified
3. The plant in miniature.
T handsome aquatic is a native of the East Indies, and figured in Col. Syms’s Embassy to the Kingdom of Ava, under the title of Pontederia dilatata. On examining some plants in the hot-house of J. Vere, esq. (whence our figure was taken) we observed so much variation in them, that we are inclined to think the P. hastata of Dr. Roxburgh’s Coromandel Plants represents (from a weak plant) the same species our figure delineates.
G with lance-shaped leaves: blossom pitcher-shaped, white, and very sweet-scented: cup angular: stem rooting.
REFERENCE TO THE PLATE.
1 The empalement
2. The blossom spread open.
3. Seed-bud and pointal.
T Gardenia radirans is a native of Japan, and is figured by Thunberg in his Botanical Dissertation. The figure is small and coarse, but yet characteristic. We have represented a fine young plant, as its fragrant flowers are then much better relieved by the surrounding leaves. It is at present cultivated in the hot-house; but we are inclined to think it might succeed in the protection of the green-house. The luxuriance of its petals frequently absorbs nearly all
the parts of fructification. But our specimen fortunately afforded three antheræ out of the five, and the pointal entire.
Our figure was made from a plant in the nursery of Messrs. Whitley and Brames.
PLATE CCCCXCII.
OXYLOBIUM CORDIFOLIUM.
Heart-leaved Oxylobium.
CLASS X. ORDER I.
DECANDRIA MONOGYNIA. Ten Chives. One Pointal.
GENERIC CHARACTER.
C simplex, quinquepartitus.
C papilionacea.
S subulatus. Stigma obtusum.
L ovato-acuminatum, apice compressum, polyspermum.
E simple, five-parted.
B butterfly-shaped.
S awl-shaped. Summit blunt.
P pointedly egg-shaped, compressed at the end, and many-seeded.
REFERENCE TO THE PLATE.
1 A leaf magnified
2. The empalement.
3. The standard.
4. A back view of the same.
5 One of the wings
6. The keel.
7. The chives.
8 The same spread open, one tip magnified
9 Seed-bud and pointal, summit magnified
10. A ripe seed-vessel.
11. The same spread open.
P of a Papilionaceous character furnish the most frequent opportunity for generic divisions. Nine Genera have already been made by Dr. Smith and others to contain the Butterfly flowers of New Holland. Our little novelty agrees with neither. From Pultenæa, Aotus, Mirbelia, and Dillwynia, it differs in the pod not being two-seeded. The two last genera have also the cups two-lipped, and the first with appendages attached to it. Gompholobium
has a globular pod, and Chorizema an oblong one and a bilabiate calyx. Daviesia, Viminaria, and Sphærolobium have pods one-seeded. Thus situated, we are under the necessity of adding one more to the number of genera, perhaps already too extended. We have never seen it exceed a foot in height. The foliage is mostly in whorls: and the stem, leaves, cups, and fruits are hairy.
Our figure represents one of the plants from the nursery of Messrs. Loddige, who first raised it from seed, and where we observed its brilliant little flowers in successive bloom for at least six months.
INDEX
TO THE PLANTS CONTAINED IN VOL. VII.
Plate
433 Agave Americana Great American Aloe
434 Pultenæa nana Dwarf Pultenæa
435 Verbena mutabilis Changeableflowered Vervain
436 Corræa viridiflora Green-flowered Corræa
437 Protea canaliculata Channelled-leaved Protea
438 Protea speciosa Showy Protea
439 Stapelia orbicularis Orbicular Stapelia
440 Sophora sericea Silky-leaved Sophora
441 Epidendrum fuscatum Brown-flowered Epidendrum
442 Protea pulchella, Var. speciosa Waved-leaved Protea, Specious Variety
443 Erythrina speciosa Showy Erythrina
444 Lobelia hirsuta Hairy Lobelia
445 Epidendrum lineare Linear-leaved Epidendrum
446 Dolichos hirsutus Hairy-stemmed Dolichos
G. H. Shrub. September.
G. H. Shrub. All Summer.
H. H. Shrub. All the Year.
G. H. Shrub. March.
G. H. Shrub. December.
G. H. Shrub. December.
G. H. Shrub. December.
G. H. Shrub. December.
H. H. Shrub. June.
G. H. Shrub. April.
H. H. Shrub. April.
G. H. Shrub. March.
H. H. Shrub. July.
H. H. Shrub. August.
447 Protea argentiflora Silvery-flowered Protea
448 Pæonia suffruticosa, Var. flore purpureo
449 Linum trigynum
450 Albuca fastigiata
451 Diosma ericæfolia
452 Achania mollis
G. H. Shrub. August.
Shrubby Pænoia, Purple-flowered Variety G. H. Shrub. April.
