The paper argues that the distinction between religious and secular
realms of society is not as clear-cut in modern societies as it appears in theories of
functional and institutional differentiation. The data used are mainly from China
with a short excursion to the United States. The starting point is ancestor worship,
which is a central element of traditional Chinese religion. The significance of
ancestor worship in Chinese history and culture is briefly explained to illustrate
on the one hand its central importance as a ritual practice and on the other hand
the ambiguities of interpretation. On this basis, some theoretical considerations
about the existence of ancestors are presented. This is followed by a report on
contemporary temple festivals focusing on the worship of Fuxi, a mythic figure
considered to be the first ancestor of the Chinese people. The next step is the
description of official state rituals devoted to the worship of the very same
mythological hero in contemporary China. Against this backdrop, the last part of
the paper discusses the theoretical questions of classification and distinguishing
between the religious and the secular.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:DRESDEN/oai:qucosa:de:qucosa:83294 |
| Date | 02 February 2023 |
| Creators | Seiwert, Hubert |
| Publisher | De Gruyter |
| Source Sets | Hochschulschriftenserver (HSSS) der SLUB Dresden |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion, doc-type:article, info:eu-repo/semantics/article, doc-type:Text |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
| Relation | 0943-8610 |
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