with Pierre PETIT, Floramante PONCE, Aaron PONCE, Mimy KEOMANICHANH & NGUYEN Van Minh (EASt-LAMC)

Organized by Pierre Petit and Floramante Ponce, as a joint EASt/LAMC event

All over the world, whether in World Religions or in localized religious contexts, miniature devotional or talismanic artefacts protect or empower their owners. Taking into consideration their striking similarities as well as their differences, the workshop provides a platform for scholars working in Southeast Asia and beyond, who will take up the challenges of comparative ethnography.

This workshop serves as a brainstorming session, providing a platform for scholars who are engaged in or beginning research on miniature objects intended to protect or empower their owners. Whether these objects are related to world religions (notably Buddhism and Catholicism), to the local religious system, or to syncretic practices, they reveal surprising similarities as well as key differences. Their apparent familiarity invites comparative ethnography that is sensitive to social contexts and historical settings, and always cautious of oversimplified comparison.

How does one approach these objects from an emic perspective? How do their owners learn about them and engage progressively with practice? How do we analyze their textual, visual, affective, and sensuous components, based on archives, observation, and the way people communicate about them? How are they designed, crafted, empowered, circulated and sometimes discarded? How have digital technologies reshaped their circulation and use? What kind of power do they support, and under which conditions can it be used? How does one approach them in terms of human/non-human agency? How do they mediate and trigger social relations between relatives or friends, the population and the elites, across genders and generations? How do they connect religious authorities and the faithful, institutional religion and intimate practice? How about various campaigns aimed at denouncing or eradicating them, in the name of modernity or orthodoxy, or to struggle against their supposed power? How do they embody propaganda and proselytism, revivalist movements, or syncretic processes?

Dealing with this extensive list of questions as a starting point, the workshop aims to refine a comparative stance that goes beyond case-studies and bring out key challenges in this field of research. It intends to consider future joint projects, conferences, and publication opportunities. It is open to anyone working on or interested in the topic, whether in Southeast Asia or elsewhere. In the future, the geographical limits of comparison may be expanded to include regions such as China, Europe, and/or the Islamic world.

Provisional program:
Pierre Petit: Devotional medals and amulets: the challenge of comparative ethnography (15’)
Floramante Ponce: Amuletic and devotional objects as cosmoeconomic companions in Laos. Feedback from a 10-month fieldwork (60’)
Aaron Ponce: Agimat, the syncretic amulets of the Philippines (15’)
Nguyen Van Minh: Catholic devotional imagery in Vietnam (15’)
Mimy Keomanichanh: Buddhist amulets in Southern Laos (15’)

This research was supported by a Marie Curie Research and Innovation Staff Exchange scheme within the H2020 Programme (grant acronym: LABOUR)

Tuesday 25th February 2025, from 9.30am until 1pm

Room Doucy
Building S - Room S.12.124
Institut de sociologie de l’ULB
avenue Jeanne 44
1050 Brussels

To register please contact: pierre.petit@ulb.be