The art of rice : spirit and sustenance in Asia / Roy W. Hamilton with contributions by Aurora Ammayao [and others].

Includes bibliographical references (pages 531-538) and index.

Introduction /  Roy W. Hamilton --  PART 1: LABOR, RITUAL, AND THE CYCLE OF TIME --  Labor, ritual, and the cycle of time /  Roy W. Hamilton --  Rice festivals in Northeast Thailand /  Suriya Smutkupt,  Pattana Kitiarsa --  Body art and cyclic time: rice dancing among the Tharu of Nepal /  Gisèle Krauskopff --  Rice culture in Manipur, India /  Mutua Bahadur --  The purification of rice fields in Java with an apotropaic plank /  Stephen C. Headley -- Rice harvest rituals in two highland Tai communities in Vietnam /  Vi Văn An,  Eric Crystal -- PART 2: THE GRANARY: A HOME FOR THE RICE SPIRITS --  The granary: a home for the rice spirits /  Roy W. Hamilton -- The granary of the Tharu of Nepal / Kurt W. Meyer, Pamela Deuel --  PART 3: RICE FESTIVALS: COMMUNITY AND CELEBRATION --  Rice festivals: community and celebration ;  The Pahiyas Festival of Lucban, Philippines /  Roy W. Hamilton --  The gods walk on rice in Selat, Bali /  David J. Stuart-Fox --  Offering the new rice to the Buddha in Mae Chaem, Northern Thailand /  Roy W. Hamilton,  Thitipol Kanteewong --  The Ghost Festival of Dan Sai, Loei Province, Thailand /  Ruth Gerson --  The Ma'Bua' Pare Ceremony of the Sa'dan Toraja of Sulawesi, Indonesia /  Eric Crystal --  Trò Trám Festival and the veneration of Ngô Thị Thanh in a Vietnamese village /  Vũ Hông Thuât,  Roy W. Hamilton --  Of mites and men: the Shōrei Festival at Mount Haguro, Japan /  Toshiyuki Sano, Roy W. Hamilton -- PART 4: THE GODDESS OF RICE --  The Goddess of Rice / Roy W. Hamilton -- Ponniyamman, a Tamil rice goddess from South India /  Nanditha Krishna -- Sri and Sedana at Pura Besakih, Bali /  David J. Stuart-Fox --  PART 5: SACRED FOOD -- Sacred food /  Roy W. Hamilton --  Lakshmi of the house: rituals, realities, and representations of womanhood in modern Bengal /  Sohini Ray --  The art of rice in Balinese offerings /  Francine Brinkgreve -- Sake in Japanese art and culture / Mariko Fujita --  PART 6: STRAW MATTERS --  Straw matters /  Roy W. Hamilton --  PART 7: RICE, SELF, AND STATE -- Rice, self, and state / Roy W. Hamilton --  Rice in the human life cycle: traditions from Tamil Nadu, India /  Nanditha Krishna --  Wrapping the body with images of rice: kimono patterns from the Edo Period /  Toshiyuki Sano --  Images of rice in imperial Chinese culture / Francesca Bray --  PART 8: THE FUTURE OF RICE --  The future of rice /  Roy W. Hamilton --  Let's hope the bile is good / Aurora Ammayao,  Gene Hettel -- Mbok Sri dethroned: changing rice rituals in rural East Java / Rens Heringa -- The descent of good fortune and material wealth: a contemporary Javanese shadow puppet play / Roy W. Hamilton with Kik Soleh Adi Pramono -- Social and agricultural change in Korea's rice farming communities / Kwang-Kyu Lee -- Rice in South Korean life: the transformation of agricultural icons / Michael Reinschmidt.

The discourse on the Marxist study of religion in the new era in the PRC: an outsider’s perspective / Katja Wengenmayr

Religions 16 (2025)

 Local access dig.pdf.[Wengenmayr-The discourse on the Marxist study.pdf]

Abstract: This paper contributes to the intercultural understanding of religious studies in East Asia by examining their discursive framework within the Chinese context. It analyzes the academic discourse on religious studies in the PRC, particularly debates on atheism and the Marxist study of religion. In 2021, President Xi Jinping emphasized the impor‑ tance of aligning religious studies with Marxist principles, sparking renewed debate on the field’s orientation. This paper examines the responses of religious studies scholars to state directives. It illustrates how the reframing of the discipline and reinterpretations of the Marxist view on religion serve as strategies employed by scholars to answer “the call” of the official discourse. The significant representation of scholars promoting atheism in the political sphere further aligns religious studies with official discourse, narrowing the discursive space for other theoretical approaches toward religion.