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Sixth Conference of the
European Society for Oceanists (ESfO)
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Pacific Challenges: Questioning concepts, rethinking conflicts
Marseille (France), 6-8 July 2005
Paper abstracts
Show a list of all papers
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01: Colonial grievances info | papers
02: Reshaping Indigenous worlds info | papers
03: Dynamics of Pacific Religiosity info | papers
04: Mapping Oceania info | papers
05: Rethinking political conflicts, beyond ethnicity info | papers
06: Cultural festivals info | papers
07: Enchantments of technology info | papers
08: Ownership in effect info | papers
09: Spiritual material info | papers
10: Endangered Languages info | papers
11: Transculturation info | papers
12: New Caledonia in Oceania info | papers
13: Keynotes info | papers
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| id: | 3 | | Title: | Dynamics of Pacific Religiosity: Processes of Christianisation, Changing Forms and New Figures of Spirituality | | Number of papers: | 14 | | Organizers: | Douaire-Marsaudon, Françoise
(CNRS-Credo, Marseilles, France)
Weichart, Gabriele
(Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology, University of Vienna, Austria & IRSEA, Marseille, France) | | Abstract: | The various forms of Christianity in Oceania are the products of continuing processes shaped over time and space. This is not surprising when we consider the great diversity among Pacific societies in socio-cultural, political, economic and ecological terms, as well as in relation to their historical experiences. Furthermore, the emergence of Christian proselytarian movements, their expressions of religiosity and religious productions are interesting contemporary developments. When we look back at 19th century evangelised societies, Christianisation appears as an incomplete process, despite the assumption that Christian values had been accepted as basis of their cultures, and this inachievement is perceptible, for instance, in the indigenous perceptions of the local landscape as a sanctuary of local non-Christian spirits. In the more recent varieties of evangelical Christianity and charismatic movements, institutional legitimacy sometimes gave way to the personal authority of the prophet-priest. Within these new evangelical movements as well as in the more traditional churches, women and youth use to group themselves, expressing collective concerns which extend far beyond usual religious preoccupations. Even when new forms of religious expression proved the intentions of local populations to create and control their own spiritual life, we ought to investigate whether the much-used concept of indigenisation can be applied to each particular case.
In this workshop, we are concerned with Christianisation as a variety of ongoing processes: we will aim at grasping and understanding the different forms of logic behind these processes as well as the new forms of religiosity that have emerged as parallel developments while, at the same time, we should question the validity of certain anthropological concepts (such as indigenisation, syncretism etc.). |
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