Paper short abstract:

This paper uses Talal Asad and Kenneth Dean’s approaches as an interpretive turn following Clifford Geertz’s method to examine religious practices in today’s Taiwan. These cases show religion as a persuasive force, embarking on new orders from other forces of plurality within dynamic movements.

Paper long abstract:

For Clifford Geertz, religion is a system of symbols that establishes seemingly realistic moods, motivations and conceptions with "an aura of factuality". As religion stands beyond concrete social reality, it is an anthropologist's task to decipher such a symbolic system through thick description. Though, within the drastic global struggles among multiple levels generated by religions, we cannot help but wonder: is religion merely an abstract sphere, isolated from social complexity? Talal Asad argues that these concepts are not an extrinsic existence. Instead, they allow for "elaboration, modification, testing and so forth", stimulating social changes, which, when triggered by contingent power relations, become part of a historical process. Hence, an universal definition of religion is not possible since social relations and discursive processes differ based on time and space. Indeed, in his studies on ritualistic transformation, Kenneth Dean claims that religions in Southeastern China act as "disruptive communities" and "hybrid sites". Through religion, "otherness" permeates through multilayered domains and reaches a global level. Based on Dean's approach, this paper examines religious practices in contemporary Taiwan, particularly the author's observation of the abortion ritual. These examples show that religion interacts within the State's ideology, social movements, communal morality, family values,technology and consumerism. Hence, each religion case study acts as a piece of the puzzle and enriches the anthropological methodology. By scrutinizing religion and other forces used to contextualize, construct and convert knowledge and actions into concrete entities, anthropology is not only practical for understanding people's struggles, but even intrinsic to them.