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This book addresses the growing academic concerns of the market-religion convergences in Asia. Bringing together a group of leading scholars from Asia, Europe, Australia and North America, it discusses multiple issues regarding religious commodifications and their consequences across Asia’s diverse religious traditions. Covering key issues in the anthropology and sociology of contemporary Asian religion, it draws theoretical implications for the study of religions in the light of the shift of religious institutions from traditional religious beliefs to material prosperity. The fact that religions compete with each other in a ‘market of faiths’ is also at the core of the analysis. The contributions show how ordinary people and religious institutions in Asia adjusted to, and negotiated with, the penetrative forces of a global market economy into the region’s changing religio-cultural landscapes. An excellent contribution to the growing demands of ethnographically and theoretically updated interpretations of Asian religions, Religious Commodifications in Asia will be of interest to scholars of Asian religion and new religious movements.
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RELIGIOUS COMMODIFICATIONS IN ASIA This book examines the key issues arising from the convergences and divergences of religion and market forces in Asia. Bringing together a group of leading scholars from Asia, Europe, Australia and North America, it explores religious commodifications and their consequences across Asia’s diverse religious traditions. The book covers important themes in the anthropology and sociology of contemporary Asian religion. It draws theoretical implications for the study of religions in the light of the shift of religious institutions from traditional religious beliefs to material prosperity. The fact that religions compete with each other in a ‘market of faiths’ is also at the core of the analysis. The contributions demonstrate how ordinary people and religious institutions in Asia adjusted to, and negotiated with, the penetrative forces of global market economy into the region’s changing religio-cultural landscapes. An excellent contribution to the growing demands of ethnographically and theoretically updated interpretations of Asian religions, this book will be of interest to scholars of Asian religion and new religious movements. Pattana Kitiarsa is currently Visiting Fellow in the Southeast Asian Studies Programme, National University of Singapore. He has published both in Thai and English in the fields of Thai popular Buddhism and cultures, politics of development, transnational labour migration, Thai boxing and films. ROUTLEDGE STUDIES IN ASIAN RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY DECONSTRUCTION AND THE ETHICAL IN ASIAN THOUGHT Edited by Youru Wang AN INTRODUCTION TO DAOIST THOUGHT Action, language, and ethics in Zhuangzi Eske Møllgaard RELIGIOUS COMMODIFICATIONS IN ASIA Marketing Gods Edited by Pattana Kitiarsa RELIGIOUS COMMODIFICATIONS IN ASIA Marketing Gods Edited by Pattana Kitiarsa First published 2008 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 270 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10016 This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2007. “To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.” Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2008 Editorial selection and matter, Pattana Kitiarsa; individual chapters, the contributors All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval syst