This superbly edited, theoretically progressive volume, consisting of ten empirically-based and meticulously researched case studies, is focused ostensibly on instances of spirit possession within Burmese, Thai, Khmer and Vietnamese Buddhist religious cultures. Its richly detailed and provocative analyses reflect how modernity, in its dynamic guises of globalizing neoliberal capitalism, increasing urbanization, the proliferation of digital media platforms, and the politics of ethnic and national identities, is producing, through a variegation of ritual articulations, new efflorescent forms of enchantment for vernacular religion concerned primarily with worldly well-being. As such, this sophisticated series of essays, book-ended by a masterful introduction by the editors and an incisive afterward by Erick White, not only upends Weber’s well-worn secularization thesis, but also indexes how the “marginal” and “magical” are becoming increasingly mainstream, and consequently, how non-monastic everyday religious practice in Buddhist cultures is being transformed throughout Southeast Asia. This is clearly a landmark contribution, one that invites the serious attention of scholars in anthropology, the history of religions, and especially Buddhist Studies
This superbly edited, theoretically progressive volume, consisting of ten empirically-based and meticulously researched case studies, is focused ostensibly on instances of spirit possession within Burmese, Thai, Khmer and Vietnamese Buddhist religious cultures. Its richly detailed and provocative analyses reflect how modernity, in its dynamic guises of globalizing neoliberal capitalism, increasing urbanization, the proliferation of digital media platforms, and the politics of ethnic and national identities, is producing, through a variegation of ritual articulations, new efflorescent forms of enchantment for vernacular religion concerned primarily with worldly well-being. As such, this sophisticated series of essays, book-ended by a masterful introduction by the editors and an incisive afterward by Erick White, not only upends Weber’s well-worn secularization thesis, but also indexes how the “marginal” and “magical” are becoming increasingly mainstream, and consequently, how non-monastic everyday religious practice in Buddhist cultures is being transformed throughout Southeast Asia. This is clearly a landmark contribution, one that invites the serious attention of scholars in anthropology, the history of religions, and especially Buddhist Studies
