The Christianity of Culture: Conversion, Ethnic Citizenship, and the Matter of Religion in Malaysian Borneo

by L. Chua

Overview

In this richly contextualized study, Liana Chua explores how a largely Christian Bidayuh community has been reconfiguring its relationship to its old animist rituals through the trope and politics of "culture." Placing her ethnography in dialogue with developments in the nascent anthropology of Christianity, Chua argues that such efforts at "continuity speaking" are the product not only of Malaysian cultural politics, but also of conversion and Christianity itself. This book invites scholars to rethink the nature and scope of conversion, as well as the multifarious, yet distinctive, forms that Christianity can take.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780230120464
Publisher:	Palgrave Macmillan US
Publication date:	12/15/2011
Series:	Contemporary Anthropology of Religion
Edition description:	2012
Pages:	258
Product dimensions:	5.60(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Liana Chuais a lecturer in Anthropology at Brunel University.

Table of Contents

Looking Like a Culture: Moden-ity and Multiculturalism in a Malaysian Village Following the Rice Year: Adat Gawai, Past and Present The Making of a 'Not Yet Pure Christian' Village Why Bidayuhs Don't Want to Become Muslim: Ethnicity, Christianity, and the Politics of Religion Speaking of (Dis)Continuity: Cultures of Christianity and the Christianization of 'Culture' 'We are One in Jesus'? Sociality, Salvation, and Moral Dilemmas Thinking through Adat Gawai: 'Culture,' Transformation, and the Matter of Religiosity

Editorial Reviews

"An excellent portrait of a mode of Christianity as minoritization and flight from state attempts to fix identity, ethnicity, and culture.This book is well worth attending to even for those working outside of either Christianity or Southeast Asia as a region." - Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute

'The task Liana Chua sets herself in this carefully argued and ethnographically rich study is that of giving and account of Benuk religion and culture that does justice to all of these aspects (and more) of the life of the village . . . Full of careful arguments, and open-ended in its commitment to honoring the complexity of the world, it is a book anthropologists interested in any topic it covers will find they can read with great profit.' - Anthropology News

From the Publisher