Varieties of Javanese Religion
An Anthropological Account

This is the most comprehensive book on Javanese religion since Geertz's famous study of 1960.

Andrew Beatty (Author)

9780521624732, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 8 April 1999

292 pages, 6 b/w illus.
22.9 x 15.3 x 1.9 cm, 0.475 kg

' … fascinating study of religious diversity in Java's easternmost region of Banyuwangi …' Benjamin Zimmer, In Brief Anthropology

Java is famous for its combination of diverse cultural forms and religious beliefs. Andrew Beatty considers Javanese solutions to the problem of cultural difference, and explores the ways in which Javanese villages make sense of their complex and multi-layered culture. Pantheist mystics, supernaturalists, orthodox Muslims and Hindu converts at once construct contrasting faiths and create a common ground through syncretist ritual. Vividly evoking the religious life of Javanese villagers, its controversies and reconciliations, its humour and irony, its philosophical seriousness, and its formal beauty, Dr Beatty probes beyond the finished surfaces of ritual and cosmology to show the debate and compromise inherent in practical religion. This is the most comprehensive study of Javanese religion since Clifford Geertz's classic study of 1960.

1. Introduction
2. The Slametan: agreeing to differ
3. The sanctuary
4. A Javanese cult
5. Practical Islam
6. Javanism
7. Sangkan paran: a Javanist sect
8. Javanese Hinus
9. Conclusion.

Subject Areas: Social & cultural anthropology, ethnography [JHMC]