Description:
"Buddhist Bamah living on the plains of the the Ayeyawadi River?s middle reaches
formed what can be called the ?Burmasphere” through cultural exchanges with other ethnic
or religious groups in the surrounding area. In the Burmasphere, people adhere to the
absolute superiority of Theravada Buddhism and conduct a variety of religious practices
such as spirit worship, Brahmanism, and witchcraft.
This paper considers the relationship between gender and religious practices, focusing
on spirit worship in the Burmasphere and cases from rural communities in Upper Burma.
Regarding spirit worship and gender, Brac de la Perrière showed how the feminine
dimensions of spirit mediumship involve not only Burmese gender construction, but also
the Burmese construction of difference and how it is encoded in the hierarchical system
[Brac de la Perrière 2007].
This article will focus on the spirit ritual for the ?Spirits of Tradition” (mizain hpazain
nat or miyohpala nat) held in a village in Upper Burma, which is not necessarily needed a
help of spirit mediums, as Spiro called a ?simple and essentially private ritual”..."
Source/publisher:
The Journal of Sophia Asian Studies, No. 32, 2014... 上智アジア学 第32 号2014 年 目次 ...Burma Studies in Japan: History, Culture and Religion
Date of Publication:
2014-12-27
Date of entry:
2015-09-23
Grouping:
- Individual Documents
Category:
Language:
English
Local URL:
Format:
pdf
Size:
1022.01 KB