Material Culture and Asian Religions

出版者:Routledge

作者:Benjamin Fleming

页数:324

出版时间:2014-3

价格:$140.00

装帧:Hardcover

isbn号码:9780415843782

具体描述

Traditionally, research on the history of Asian religions has been marked by a bias for literary evidence, privileging canonical texts penned in ‘classical’ languages. Not only has a focus on literary evidence shaped the dominant narratives about the religious histories of Asia, in both scholarship and popular culture, but it has contributed to the tendency to study different religious traditions in relative isolation from one another. Today, moreover, historical work is often based on modern textual editions and, increasingly, on electronic databases. What may be lost, in the process, is the visceral sense of the text as artifact – as a material object that formed part of a broader material culture, in which the boundaries between religious traditions were sometimes more fluid than canonical literature might suggest.

This volume brings together specialists in a variety of Asian cultures to discuss the methodological challenges involved in integrating material evidence for the reconstruction of the religious histories of South, Southeast, Central, and East Asia. By means of specific ‘test cases,’ the volume explores the importance of considering material and literary evidence in concert. What untold stories do these sources help us to recover? How might they push us to reevaluate historical narratives traditionally told from literary sources? By addressing these questions from the perspectives of different subfields and religious traditions, contributors map out the challenges involved in interpreting different types of data, assessing the problems of interpretation distinct to specific types of material evidence (e.g., coins, temple art, manuscripts, donative inscriptions) and considering the issues raised by the different patterns in the preservation of such evidence in different locales. Special attention is paid to newly-discovered and neglected sources; to our evidence for trade, migration, and inter-regional cultural exchange; and to geographical locales that served as "contact zones" connecting cultures. In addition, the chapters in this volume represent the rich range of religious traditions across Asia – including Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, Shinto, and Chinese religions, as well as Islam and eastern Christianities.

作者简介

Benjamin J. Fleming is Visiting Scholar in Religious Studies, Cataloger of Indic Manuscripts, University of Pennsylvania. He has published articles in Numen, BSOAS, and Religion Compass on pilgrimage and ritual in South Asia. His manuscript preservation and digitization work includes the Ramamala Library Project (Bangladesh) through the British Library’s Endangered Archive Program.

Richard D. Mann is Associate Professor, Religion Program, College of the Humanities, Carleton University. He has worked on Indian numismatics, the early history of the deity Skanda-Karttikea and epic narratives. Most recently, he is the author of The Rise of Mahasena (2012).

目录信息

1. Introduction: Material Culture and Religious Studies Benjamin J. Fleming and Richard D. Mann
Part I: The Materiality of Writing
2.Bamboo and the Production of Philosophy: A Hypothesis about a Shift in Writing and Thought in Early China Dirk Meyer
3. Seeing in Between the Space: The Aura of Writing and the Shape of Artistic Productions in Medieval South Asia Jinah Kim
4. Manuscripts and Shifting Geographies: The Dvādaśajyotirlingastotra from the Deccan College as Case Study Benjamin J. Fleming
5. Representations of Religion in The Tibet Mirror: The Newspaper as Religious Object and Patterns of Continuity and Rupture in Tibetan Material Culture Amy Holmes-Tagchungdarpa
Part II: Amulets, Talismans, and Religious Economies
6. An Ingestible Scripture: Qur'ānic Erasure and the Limits of “Popular” Religion Travis Zadeh
7. Buddhism on the Battlefield: The Cult of the "Substitute Body" Talisman in Imperial Japan (1890-1945) Kevin Bond
8. The Material Turn: An Introduction to Thai Sources for the Study of Buddhist Amulets Justin McDaniel Part III: Image in Context
9. Ninshô, Ryôhen, and the Twenty-Five Bodhisattvas of Hakone Hank Glassman
10. Encountering Ascetics On and Beyond the Indian Temple Wall Tamara I. Sears
11. Goddesses in Text and Stone: Temples of the Yoginīs in Light of Tantric and Purānic Literature Shaman Hatley
Part IV: Trade, Travel, and Hybridity
12. Material Culture and Ruler Ideology in South Asia: The Case of Huviska’s Skanda-Kumāra with Viśākha Coinage Richard D. Mann
13. Literary and Visual Narratives in Gandhāran Buddhist Manuscripts and Material Cultures: Localizations of Jātakas, Avadānas, and Previous-birth Stories Jason Neelis
14. Reimagining the "East": Eurasian Trade, Asian Religions, and Christian Identities Annette Yoshiko Reed
15. Seeing the Religious Image in the Historical Account: Icons and Idols in the Islamic Past Jamal J. Elias
· · · · · · (收起)

用户评价

初读绪论部分，我立刻被作者那种极其细致入微的观察能力所折服。他似乎有一种魔力，能让那些我们习以为常的日常物品瞬间变得陌生而充满张力。比如，他对某一地区特有的木雕神像的描述，不仅仅停留在雕刻技艺的赞美上，而是深入挖掘了所用木材的来源、雕刻师的家族传承，乃至神像被安放于特定方位背后的宇宙观。这种层层剥开的叙事方式，极大地拓宽了我对“宗教实践”的理解范围。在我过去的认知里，宗教实践可能更多地与喃喃的祷词或盛大的仪式挂钩，但这本书却提醒我，一个精心编制的垫子、一碗供奉的食物、甚至是一件特定的头饰，都可能承载着比口头语言更复杂、更持久的信仰信息。尤其让我印象深刻的是，作者在讨论仪式用品的“流通性”时，他没有将目光局限在宗教场所内部，而是探讨了市场、手工业作坊乃至远距离贸易网络如何共同塑造了这些物品的最终形态和意义。这让整个研究的视野一下子开阔了，从微观的个人信仰延伸到了宏观的社会经济结构。这种跨学科的整合能力，是这本书最令人称道之处，它不再是孤立的考古报告，而是将人类活动的所有面向都纳入了对信仰的考察之中。

我对这本书中对“功能性衰退与意义的固化”这一现象的探讨，感到格外着迷。作者提出了一种观点，即当某些宗教物品——比如不再用于实际祭祀的古老法器，或者被博物馆收藏起来的朝圣纪念品——脱离了其原始的物质使用场景后，它们的宗教意义反而可能变得更加纯粹、更加被神圣化。这种“去功能化”的过程，并非是意义的消亡，而是意义的升华与固化。为了论证这一点，作者深入剖析了文物保护与宗教传承之间的微妙张力。他没有给出简单的答案，而是细致地描绘了保护者（通常是世俗的机构）与信徒（仍在进行活态传承的群体）之间，对于同一件物品的不同解读和争夺。这种对“意义场域”的动态分析，展现了作者深厚的社会学功底。它迫使读者去思考：一件物品的“神圣性”，究竟是依附于其物质本体，还是依附于它所处的语境和使用者的意图？这种哲学层面的思辨，让这本书的深度远远超越了一般的文化史描述，它成为了一个探讨符号学、人类学和宗教哲学的绝佳文本。

这本书的封面设计本身就透露着一种古朴而又神秘的气息，深沉的蓝绿色调配上烫金的字体，让人联想到那些尘封已久的历史文献或是珍贵的文物。装帧的质感非常好，拿在手里沉甸甸的，仿佛承载着厚重的文化积淀。我之所以选择它，是因为我对亚洲，特别是东南亚和东亚地区的传统信仰与物质生活的交织深感兴趣。我一直好奇，那些信徒日常使用的物件，比如香炉、佛像、甚至是日常的衣饰，是如何在功能性之外，被赋予了深刻的宗教意义，并成为信仰体系中不可或缺的一部分。这本书的引言部分，虽然没有直接深入到具体的案例分析，但它对“物质文化”这一概念的界定，以及它在宗教研究中的重要性，进行了非常精辟的梳理。作者似乎在强调，要真正理解一种信仰，不能仅仅停留在教义和文本层面，而必须深入到人们触摸、使用、甚至呼吸的那些物质实体之中。这种研究视角，对我来说无疑是一股清流，它挑战了传统的人文学科中那种重义轻物的倾向，展现出一种更具象、更可感的研究路径。我非常期待接下来的章节能够如何具体地展现这一理论框架，比如，它会如何探讨祭祀用品的生产链条，或者神圣空间的空间布局与信众行为之间的互动关系。这种对具体“物”的关注，让人对接下来即将展开的文化之旅充满了期待。

这本书的学术规范性无可挑剔，注释系统详实得令人赞叹，每当文本中出现一个看似不起眼的物件或仪式名称时，脚注总能提供出详尽的背景信息或相关的学术争论。但更难能可贵的是，尽管学术性极强，作者在行文风格上却保持了一种近乎散文诗般的流畅感。他善于运用比喻和感性的笔触来描述那些冰冷的考古发现，让读者在理解复杂理论结构的同时，也能感受到对所研究对象的深切关怀和尊重。例如，在描述一件出土的陶器时，他不仅分析了其烧制温度和化学成分，更想象了千年前双手触摸它、赋予它神圣寓意的瞬间。这种“有温度的学术”，正是许多枯燥的学术专著所欠缺的。阅读体验极为舒适，它像一位学识渊博的长者，耐心地引导你穿越历史的迷雾，去亲手触摸那些被时间磨平棱角的信仰碎片。总而言之，这是一部既能满足严谨学者对细节的苛求，又能愉悦普通爱好者对故事的渴求的典范之作。

这本书在叙事节奏的把握上，展现出一种老练的沉稳感，读起来丝毫没有那种为填补篇幅而堆砌辞藻的空洞感。它像一部精心剪辑的纪录片，在关键时刻，会用一张细节极其丰富的黑白照片（在这里，就是一段详尽的文本描述）来锚定读者的注意力。我尤其欣赏作者在处理不同地域文化差异时的审慎态度。亚洲的宗教景观是如此多元且相互渗透，想要在单一的框架下进行归纳，很容易陷入以偏概全的陷阱。然而，这本书通过一系列对比鲜明的案例研究，比如将南亚佛教造像的地域性审美与东亚儒释道融合的民间信仰物证进行对比，清晰地展示了即便面对相似的宗教母题，物质载体的演变路径也大相径庭。这种“在共性中见差异，在差异中求连接”的写作手法，极大地提升了论述的严谨性。它避免了那种将所有东方宗教简单打包的危险倾向，而是尊重了每一个特定文化场域下物质的“在地性”和独特性。读到这些章节时，我感觉自己像是在参与一场全球性的文化地理考察，每翻过一页，都是一次地域的切换和视角的刷新。