Known as one of the "world religions", Buddhism has been, and still is today, the dominant religious tradition in a part of the world that is home to almost one half of its population. While Buddhism experiences a decline in some Asian countries, in the late- or post-socialist states and in Western societies it appears to be booming. On the basis of selected anthropological studies, the seminar will give an introduction to the basics of Buddhist doctrine and explore how it is articulated in local practices and via translocal connections.
Contrary to the strong textual bias of academic Buddhist studies, anthropologists have often been interested in how Buddhist norms and values are lived in actual practice, exploring in particular the interplay between the "great tradition" of monks and elite institutions and the religious life-worlds of lay believers, which often include interactions with people, ideas and objects from outside the local Buddhist milieu as well as with non-canonical entities such as the spirit world. Case studies will be taken from Theravada, Vajrayana, and Mahayana Buddhist traditions. We will read short ethnographic texts and students will be required to prepare presentations and/or written assignments based on them. As the seminar involves the researchers of the MPI research group "Buddhist Temple Economies in Urban Asia", economic questions in a religion of self-proclaimed world-renouncers (who nonetheless are often affluent and influential) will play a special role. Since translocal institutions, practices and ideologies are key to many topics in the anthropology of Buddhism, the course will be suitable for students interested not only in how religions are lived in contemporary societies, but also in how the interconnectedness of the world today has affected local practices and their interpretations; and how global phenomena are localised and reinterpreted.
Literaturempfehlung: Gellner, David N. 2001. What is the anthropology of Buddhism about. In: David N. Gellner (ed.). The anthropology of Buddhism and Hinduism: Weberian themes, New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 45-60.
Anmelderegeln
Diese Veranstaltung gehört zum Anmeldeset "Anmeldung mit Passwort: Anthropology of Buddhism: Local practice and global connections".
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