Allerton, Catherine 
ORCID: 0000-0002-1463-4157
(2009)
Static crosses and working spirits: anti-syncretism and agricultural animism in Catholic West Flores.
Anthropological Forum, 19 (3).
pp. 271-287.
ISSN 0066-4677
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Abstract
In southern Manggarai, in the west of the Indonesian island of Flores, Catholicism has a long history and people assert the importance of their identity as Catholics. Nevertheless, they also continue to engage, both pragmatically and in ritual contexts, with a landscape that they experience and describe as full of spirits and energies. As an example of this, I consider a ritual to renew the fertility of a river feeding into wet-rice fields. Despite attempts by the Catholic Church to 'inculturate' the faith in Manggarai, many people adopt an attitude best described as anti-syncretism, in which they reject the possibility of a fully Catholic landscape. I argue that the resilience of this anti-syncretic spiritual landscape can be explained both by the particular nature of the Catholic mission on Flores and local adherence to a strict separation of 'religion' (agama) from the 'custom' (adat) associated with the land. Drawing on recent literature reviving the concept of animism, I suggest that Manggarai people's engagements with their spiritual landscape are a form of 'agricultural animism'. However, like all animisms, this has a specific history, including responses to shifts in spiritual potency occasioned by state-sponsored resettlement.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Official URL: | http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/titles/00664677.as... |
| Additional Information: | © 2009 Discipline of Anthropology and Sociology, The University of Western Australia |
| Divisions: | Anthropology |
| Subjects: | D History General and Old World > DS Asia B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BL Religion G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation > GN Anthropology |
| Date Deposited: | 20 Jan 2010 14:46 |
| Last Modified: | 11 Sep 2025 07:35 |
| URI: | http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/26783 |
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