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Paper short abstract

This paper explores divine agency in Taiwan’s Mazu pilgrimages. If cosmopolitics operates not just across species boundaries but also different modes of engaging the world(s) (e.g. landscapes and technologies), where do these different perspectives come together to form a single arena for politics?

Paper long abstract

Starting from my interlocutors’ human-centric view, my exploration begins with the goddess Mazu herself who focuses all human, metahuman, and non-human action during the pilgrimage. Building on Alfred Gell’s (1998) notion of distributed agency, I trace how the goddess orders pilgrimage cosmopolitics. Mazu’s distributed agency shows in technologies of divination, which create inroads for divine intervention and directing the stream of pilgrims, as well as digital tools, like the algorithm of a smartphone app showing her live location. The app’s purpose is less about seizing control of the narrative than capturing the pilgrims’ attention. Taiwanese politicians have long tried to exploit Mazu pilgrimages in their favor but always ended up submitting to Mazu’s distributed agency. The pilgrimage imaginary thus escapes singular control because even the goddess is multiple and one at the same time.

A similar dynamic unfolds with respect to landscape. Many pilgrims walk with the goddess in hopes of gaining an experiential sense of belonging, of “getting to know” Taiwan. Mazu leads her followers through the land, which in the process unfolds and concretizes in front of them: It molds into a solid conception of a Taiwanese homeland. As part of this experienced landscape, Mazu further entices an entire network of other actors, such as volunteers who distribute food and drink free of charge to pilgrims and contribute to a sense of social connectedness via Mazu’s agency. This latter example demonstrates where Mazu’s cosmopolitics exceed the strict boundaries of the pilgrimage circuit, leaving imprints on society at large.