Workshop „Spirits in Modern Asia – Challenges for Societies and Scientists“ September 18 - 19th, at the Lichtenberg-Kolleg, Göttingen, Germany.

Spirits play a major role in the religious and social life of Southeast Asia. Recent processes of modernization do not weaken this development but consolidate it. Modernity as a philosophical concept and a sociological category is based on the idea of a gradual progress of education and science, accompanied by a growing transparency in politics, economics and belief systems as well. Seen from such perspective modernity doesn’t leave room for ghosts and spirits, which are linked to obscuring forces of a pre-modern past.

Despite to this well-known perception of Modernity as rationalization the popularity of spirits is increasing. Casanova even speaks of the “re-enchantment” of the western world, referring to the secularization thesis by Weber. These processes challenge modern Asian governments and religions. The ‘irrational’ belief in spirits is refused by strong institutions in China, Vietnam and Korea and a similar exclusion is known about Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia. Rituals involving spirits are seen as archaic practice. Ethnographic researchers, however, have shown that spirits are not only contacted by some marginalized people, but by the majority of people in Southeast Asian societies. In times of modern changes, moral and ethic issues have to be negotiated and reconsidered. The dead or the ancestors are usually consulted about these issues. Spirits become more important to many people because for them, spirits are active parts of society.

Popular media play a major role in the spread of belief in spirits. Cinema and TV channels shape spirit conception in Asia. Therefore, the study of popular media seems to be appropriate to measure the impact of media to the recent increase of spirit belief. The movies and visual media alter and establish various concepts of spirits.

For scholars who do research in this field, spirits are difficult to conceptualize. Recent studies on spirits show that they can be seen as indicators for social processes. Spirits articulate excluded issues and traumas; they negotiate social conflicts and make political decisions. In scientific reception, they are seen as a pathologic phenomenon, as political actors, as objects, as informants, as actants or mythical creatures. Although there is a lack of standardized categories, researchers of spirits might have more methodological freedom.

• Spirits as a challenge for modern societies
• Spirits in recent media discourses
• Spirits as a methodological challenge for scholars

The workshop contains papers by different researchers in the field of spirit studies. We offer an evening program including a screening of a film and maybe see in an excursion how spirit phenomena can be found in Göttingen, too.