Spirituality and Alternativity in Contemporary Japan - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook Spirituality and Alternativity in Contemporary Japan write by Ioannis Gaitanidis. This book was released on 2022-10-20. Spirituality and Alternativity in Contemporary Japan available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. This book critically analyses the creation and effects of spirituality as both discourse and practice in Japan. It shows how the value of spirituality has been sustained by scholars who have wished for a more civic role for religion; by the publishing industry whose exponential growth in the 1980s fashioned those who later identified as the representatives of this “new spirituality culture”; by “spiritual therapists” who have sought to eke out a livelihood in an increasingly professionalized and regulated therapeutic field; and by the cruel optimism of an increasingly precarious workforce placing its hopes in the imagined alternative that the supirichuaru represents. Ioannis Gaitanidis offers a new transdisciplinary conceptualisation of 'alternativity' that can be applied across and beyond the disciplines of religious studies, media studies, popular culture studies and the anthropology/sociology of medicine.
Spirituality in Contemporary Japan
Spirituality in Contemporary Japan - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook Spirituality in Contemporary Japan write by Ioannis Gaitanidis. This book was released on 2022. Spirituality in Contemporary Japan available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. "This monograph critically analyses the creation of spirituality as both discourse and practice in Japan, and its effects. It shows how the value of spirituality has been sustained by scholars who have wished for a more civic role for religion; by the publishing industry whose exponential growth in the 1980s fashioned a public later identified as the representatives of this "new spirituality culture"; by "spiritual therapists" who have sought to eke out a livelihood in an increasingly professionalized and regulated therapeutic field; and by the cruel optimism of an increasingly precarious workforce placing its hopes in the imagined alternative that the supirichuaru represents."--
Spirituality and Alternativity in Contemporary Japan
Spirituality and Alternativity in Contemporary Japan - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook Spirituality and Alternativity in Contemporary Japan write by Ioannis Gaitanidis. This book was released on 2022-10-20. Spirituality and Alternativity in Contemporary Japan available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. This book critically analyses the creation and effects of spirituality as both discourse and practice in Japan. It shows how the value of spirituality has been sustained by scholars who have wished for a more civic role for religion; by the publishing industry whose exponential growth in the 1980s fashioned those who later identified as the representatives of this “new spirituality culture”; by “spiritual therapists” who have sought to eke out a livelihood in an increasingly professionalized and regulated therapeutic field; and by the cruel optimism of an increasingly precarious workforce placing its hopes in the imagined alternative that the supirichuaru represents. Ioannis Gaitanidis offers a new transdisciplinary conceptualisation of 'alternativity' that can be applied across and beyond the disciplines of religious studies, media studies, popular culture studies and the anthropology/sociology of medicine.
Spirits and Animism in Contemporary Japan
Spirits and Animism in Contemporary Japan - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook Spirits and Animism in Contemporary Japan write by Fabio Rambelli. This book was released on 2019-06-13. Spirits and Animism in Contemporary Japan available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. This book draws attention to a striking aspect of contemporary Japanese culture: the prevalence of discussions and representations of “spirits” (tama or tamashii). Ancestor cults have played a central role in Japanese culture and religion for many centuries; in recent decades, however, other phenomena have expanded and diversified the realm of Japanese animism. For example, many manga, anime, TV shows, literature, and art works deal with spirits, ghosts, or with an invisible dimension of reality. International contributors ask to what extent these are cultural forms created by the media for consumption, rather than manifestations of “traditional” ancestral spirituality in their adaptations to contemporary society. Spirits and Animism in Contemporary Japan considers the modes of representations and the possible cultural meanings of spirits, as well as the metaphysical implications of contemporary Japanese ideas about spirits. The chapters offer analyses of specific cases of “animistic attitudes” in which the presence of spirits and spiritual forces is alleged, and attempt to trace cultural genealogies of those attitudes. In particular, they present various modes of representation of spirits (in contemporary art, architecture, visual culture, cinema, literature, diffuse spirituality) while at the same time addressing their underlying intellectual and religious assumptions.
Enduring Identities
Enduring Identities - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook Enduring Identities write by John K. Nelson. This book was released on 2000-03-01. Enduring Identities available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Enduring Identities is an attempt to understand the continuing relevance of Shinto to the cultural identity of contemporary Japanese. The enduring significance of this ancient yet innovative religion is evidenced each year by the millions of Japanese who visit its shrines. They might come merely seeking a park-like setting or to make a request of the shrine's deities, asking for a marriage partner, a baby, or success at school or work; or they might come to give thanks for benefits received through the intercession of deities or to legitimate and sacralize civic and political activities. Through an investigation of one of Japan's most important and venerated Shinto shrines, Kamo Wake Ikazuchi Jinja (more commonly Kamigamo Jinja), the book addresses what appears through Western and some Asian eyes to be an exotic and incongruous blend of superstition and reason as well as a photogenic juxtaposition of present and past. Combining theoretical sophistication with extensive fieldwork and a deep knowledge of Japan, John Nelson documents and interprets the ancient Kyoto shrine's yearly cycle of rituals and festivals, its sanctified landscapes, and the people who make it viable. At local and regional levels, Kamigamo Shrine's ritual traditions (such as the famous Hollyhock Festival) and the strategies for their perpetuation and implementation provide points of departure for issues that anthropologists, historians, and scholars of religion will recognize as central to their disciplines. These include the formation of social memory, the role of individual agency within institutional politics, religious practice and performance, the shaping of sacred space and place, ethnic versus cultural identity, and the politics of historical representation and cultural nationalism. Nelson links these themes through a detailed ethnography about a significant place and institution, which until now has been largely closed to both Japanese and foreign scholars. In contrast to conventional notions of ideology and institutions, he shows how a religious tradition's lack of centralized dogma, charismatic leaders, and sacred texts promotes rather than hinders a broad-based public participation with a variety of institutional agendas, most of which have very little to do with belief. He concludes that it is this structural flexibility, coupled with ample economic, human, and cultural resources, that nurtures a reworking of multiple identities--all of which resonate with the past, fully engage the present, and, with care, will endure well into the future.
