Digital Religion and Religious Life in Southeast Asia

2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 33-51 ◽  
Author(s):  
Acep Muslim

This article describes an online Islamic community in Indonesia called One Day One Juz (odoj). This research shows howodojencourages its members to recite a section of the Quran every day, thus transforming some of its members’ religious practices and enabling a ‘new way of being religious’. Understandingodojas a ‘digital religion’, this article details the social and technological dimensions of the group’s disciplinary mechanisms as a new type of religious institution. These include the structure ofodoj’s online network, the reflective engagement of the members with its regulations, and the specific technological affordances of the applications and devices used.

2015 ◽  
Vol 52 (1) ◽  
pp. 85
Author(s):  
S. Suciati

<p>The drying of spirituality and weakening of cohesiveness in the midst of materialistic hedonistic modern world become major challenge for the adherents of official religions in Indonesia. The practice of religions is considered too much focusing on ritual aspects. Therefore, those teachings cannot give the real meaningfulness of religious life. Consequently, some adherents of official religions begin to see other spiritual/mysticism sects. This study describes the social cohesiveness among muslims who become members of Pangestu, a spiritual-mysticism sect widely spreading among Javanese society in Indonesia. This research shows that the Pangestu in Salatiga, Central Java, can fulfill social, economic, and spiritual needs of its members. Among the underlying factors that make Pangestu succeed to meet its members’ needs and expectations are the capability of the members to intensely communicate with each other through meetings and bawaraos (Jv, informal gathering), the great concern between members, good-example of leadership, the defense of Pangestu’s good name, and the satisfaction in experiencing meaningfulness of religious practices.</p><p>[Kekeringan spiritual dan lemahnya kebersamaan di tengah dunia modern yang serba hedonistik menjadi tantangan utama bagi para pemeluk agama di Indonesia. Praktik-praktik keagamaan terlalu banyak terfokus pada aspek ritual, sehingga ajaran agama tidak mampu menghadirkan praktek-praktek keagamaan yang benar-benar bermakna. Hal ini mendorong sebagian pemeluk agama untuk melirik aliran kepercayaan dan kebatinan. Artikel ini mendeskripsikan keguyuban sosial di antara orang-orang Islam yang menjadi anggota Pangestu, sebuah aliran kepercayaan di Indonesia yang banyak menyebar terutama di kalangan masyarakat Jawa. Penelitian ini menunjukkan bahwa Pangestu di Salatiga, Jawa Tegah, mampu memenuhi kebutuhan sosial, ekonomi, dan spiritual para anggotanya. Di antara faktor yang menentukan keberhasilan Pangestu dalam memenuhi harapan para anggotanya adalah adanya komunikasi intensif antar anggota melalui pertemuan dan bawaraos (Jv, kumpul-kumpul), perhatian yang besar terhadap anggota lainnya, teladan kepemimpinan yang bagus, pembelaan terhadap nama baik paguyuban Pangestu, dan kepuasan dalam menyelami kebermaknaan praktik-praktik keagamaan.]</p>


ALQALAM ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 83
Author(s):  
Maftuh Maftuh

For many observers, Banten is well known as an area where the population has a strict religious understanding onislamic law. Colonial officials and experts in Islamic studies such as Snouck Hurgronje and GF Pijper, testified that compared to other Muslims across Java , Muslim in Banten and Cirebon were stricter in practicing Islam . The phenomenon of the social life of the religious community in Banten is necessarily formed within a very long time span. This paper traces the root of the formation of public religious understanding ojMuslim in Banten. Using a socio-historical approach, this paper then leads to the conclusion that the sultan of Banten issued policies that had a greater emphasis to the adherence to the Shari'a rather than Sufism. Religious orientation on the fiqh-oriented can explain the Islamic militancy Banten community, as witnessed by the colonial officials, and even still can be seen up to this present moment.Key words: Jslamization, Sultanate, Banten


Author(s):  
Barbara K. Gold

This chapter discusses the rise, development, and Romanization of ancient Carthage in the early Christian period after the formation of the province of Africa Proconsularis in the Augustan period; the physical topography of the city of Carthage, including the Byrsa, the Antonine Baths, and the amphitheater; and it describes the tophet or outdoor sacrificial area and whether human sacrifice was practiced among the Carthaginians. It also covers the life, influence, and African roots of Septimius Severus, the Roman emperor during Perpetua’s life and death. Also discussed are the social, religious, and intellectual conditions for pagans in Roman Carthage, who their local gods were (Tanit, Saturn, Juno Caelestis, Baal Hammon), and the connections between civic and religious life.


2014 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 283-298 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abdul Ghani Imad

The problematic addressed in this article is the challenge initiated by the Arab revolutions to reform the Arab political system in such a way as to facilitate the incorporation of ‘democracy’ at the core of its structure. Given the profound repercussions, this issue has become the most serious matter facing the forces of change in the Arab world today; meanwhile, it forms the most prominent challenge and the most difficult test confronting Islamists. The Islamist phenomenon is not an alien implant that descended upon us from another planet beyond the social context or manifestations of history. Thus it cannot but be an expression of political, cultural, and social needs and crises. Over the years this phenomenon has presented, through its discourse, an ideological logic that falls within the context of ‘advocacy’; however, today Islamists find themselves in office, and in a new context that requires them to produce a new type of discourse that pertains to the context of a ‘state’. Political participation ‘tames’ ideology and pushes political actors to rationalize their discourse in the face of daily political realities and the necessity of achievement. The logic of advocacy differs from that of the state: in the case of advocacy, ideology represents an enriching asset, whereas in the case of the state, it constitutes a heavy burden. This is one reason why so much discourse exists within religious jurisprudence related to interest or necessity or balancing outcomes. This article forms an epilogue to the series of articles on religion and the state published in previous issues of this journal. It adopts the methodologies of ‘discourse analysis’ and ‘case studies’ in an attempt to examine the arguments presented by Islamists under pressure from the opposition. It analyses the experiences, and the constraints, that inhibit the production of a ‘model’, and monitors the development of the discourse, its structure, and transformations between advocacy, revolution and the state.


1992 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 131-146
Author(s):  
Artemis Leontis

Reflection on the history of the novel usually begins with consideration of the social, political, and economic transformations within society that favored the “rise” of a new type of narrative. This remains true even with the numerous and important studies appearing during the past ten years, which relate the novel to an everbroadening spectrum of ideological issues—gender, class, race, and, most recently, nationalism. Yet a history of the genre might reflect not just on the novel’s national, but also its transnational, trajectory, its spread across the globe, away from its original points of emergence. Such a history would take into account the expansion of western markets—the growing exportation of goods and ideas, as well as of social, political, and cultural forms from the West—that promoted the novel’s importation by nonwestern societies. Furthermore, it could lead one to examine the very interesting inverse relationship between two kinds of migration, both of which are tied to the First World’s uneven “development” of the Third. In a world system that draws out natural resources in exchange for technologically mediated goods, the emigration of laborers and intellectuals from peripheral societies to the centers of power of the West and the immigration of a western literary genre into these same societies must be viewed as related phenomena.


2021 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 5-10
Author(s):  
S. FURS ◽  
◽  
A. FEDOSEEV ◽  

The article is devoted to the consideration of such an object of interdisciplinary research as the elite, namely, the latest trends in its study. It is shown that the consideration of this phenomenon has been going on for a long time, but now there is a sharp change in the focus of research – a new methodology is being developed. This is due to the fact that the axiom taken is the provision of a significant influence of the elite not only on the distribution of resources (economic, political, administrative) but also on the development (or recession) of the nation as a whole. The article presents a detailed analysis of the methodology for measuring the elite quality index which formed the basis for an international study conducted in 2020.


2007 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-54
Author(s):  
Antonio P. Contreras

This paper inquires into the implications of the different discursive imaginations on civil societies and the state from the perspective of the social sciences, particularly political science and international relations. It focuses on some interfaces and tensions that exist between civil society on one hand, and the state and its bureaucratic instrumentalities on the other, particularly in the domain of environment and natural resources governance in the context of new regionalisms and of alternative concepts of human security. There is now a new context for regionalism in Southeast Asia, not only among state structures, such as the ASEAN and the various Mekong bodies, but also among local civil societies coming from the region. It is in this context that issues confronting local communities are given a new sphere for interaction, as well as a new platform for engaging state structures and processes. This paper illustrates how dynamic are the possibilities for non-state domains for transnational interactions, particularly in the context of the emerging environmental regionalism. This occurs despite the dominance of neo-realist political theorizing, and the state-centric nature of international interactions.


The same roles adopted by people involved in mass media enterprises, such as producers or distributors of feature films, are involved in practices surrounding personal memory artefacts such as photographs, home videos or diary entries. When the social context of such practices changes, these roles are renegotiated in relation to the people with whom we communicate and the tools we use to help us. A pilot study combined an analysis of sets of photographs taken by different participants at the same event – a wedding – with interviews that explored the phenomenological experience of engaging in memory practices connected to these photo sets. Focusing on personal photography, seven media roles were selected as a framework for examining changes in artefact-related memory practices due to shifting socio-cultural contexts and technological affordances. These roles – Creator, Director, Archivist, Gatekeeper, Distributor, Consumer and Critic – were found to be useful in highlighting individual differences in capturing, organising, reviewing and sharing photographs amongst people with varying technological engagement in varying social groupings. Preliminary findings suggest that technological affordances and constraints can change the social and cultural context of communication as well as personal goals of media production and consumption. Different media tools create subjective triggers and barriers for the adoption of roles, making some processes of media production or consumption easier or more accessible to certain types of people while other processes may become more complex or culturally inappropriate. These triggers and barriers, in combination with a continuous reconfiguration of related cultural norms, affect the adoption of roles and these roles directly affect engagement with memory artefacts. This paper forms part of a larger project that aims to explore how our changing engagement with technology is affecting our individual and collective memory practices.

2012 ◽  
pp. 27-40

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 104
Author(s):  
Abdul Manan

<strong>Abstract:</strong> Majelis Pengkajian Tauhid Tasawuf (MPTT)-The Council for the Study of <em>Taw<span style="text-decoration: underline;">h</span>îd</em> and <em>Tashawwuf</em>- is a religious institution which in principally related the aspects of<em> taw<span style="text-decoration: underline;">h</span>îd</em> and <em>tashawwuf</em> initiated by <em>sûfî</em> Shaykh Haji Amran Wali al-Khalidy. The primary aim of this institution is to preach the teachings of monotheism and Sufism in the midst of society. Even though its teaching is not accepted by all segment of societies, MPTT continues to diffuse its teachings, even to several countries in Southeast Asia. This research is a qualitative study to critically examine the existence of the MPTT in terms of<em> taw<span style="text-decoration: underline;">h</span>îd </em>and <em>tashawwuf</em> in Aceh. The data was collected through observation, interviews and documentation which then analyzed using Analysis Interactive Model. The results showed that MPTT plays an important role in bringing positive changes to Acehnese society both in the fields of worship and morals. MPTT is able to propagate Sufism teachings by balancing the world’s issues and the hereafter.<br /> <br /><strong>Keywords:</strong> MPTT roles, preaching, teaching of <em>taw<span style="text-decoration: underline;">h</span>îd</em> and <em>tashawwuf</em>, Aceh


2009 ◽  
Vol 37 (1/2) ◽  
pp. 43-81
Author(s):  
Patrizia Calefato

This paper focuses on the semiotic foundations of sociolinguistics. Starting from the definition of “sociolinguistics” given by the philosopher Adam Schaff, the paper examines in particular the notion of “critical sociolinguistics” as theorized by the Italian semiotician Ferruccio Rossi-Landi. The basis of the social dimension of language are to be found in what Rossi-Landi calls “social reproduction” which regards both verbal and non-verbal signs. Saussure’s notion of langue can be considered in this way, with reference not only to his Course of General Linguistics, but also to his Harvard Manuscripts.The paper goes on trying also to understand Roland Barthes’s provocative definition of semiology as a part of linguistics (and not vice-versa) as well as developing the notion of communication-production in this perspective. Some articles of Roman Jakobson of the sixties allow us to reflect in a manner which we now call “socio-semiotic” on the processes of transformation of the “organic” signs into signs of a new type, which articulate the relationship between organic and instrumental. In this sense, socio-linguistics is intended as being sociosemiotics, without prejudice to the fact that the reference area must be human, since semiotics also has the prerogative of referring to the world of non-human vital signs.Socio-linguistics as socio-semiotics assumes the role of a “frontier” science, in the dual sense that it is not only on the border between science of language and the anthropological and social sciences, but also that it can be constructed in a movement of continual “crossing frontiers” and of “contamination” between languages and disciplinary environments.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document