Syncretism and Ambiguity

The Rivers of Dharma in the Face of Religious Challenges: A Comparative Analysis of Three Japanese Buddhist Temples in Brazil

“…The groups were reincorporated, which even involved the dispute over a Gohonzon by Shimbokukai members (Nakamaki 2002 : 96-97). It is interesting to note that syncretism was probably understood as a deviant ambiguity by the dome of the school, demanding a resolution to recover what was understood as the orthodoxy of the doctrine, in line with the theoretical observations of Pye ( 1971 : 237-238). As will be discussed below, this presented implications for the temple in Londrina.…”

“…Contact refers to the stage at which one relatively well-structured and coherent religion would come into contact with certain aspects of another (Pye 1969 : 237), which is particularly important in the present paper about the impact of Buddhism brought to Brazil by Japanese immigrants from 1908 onwards. However, it is necessary to define what Pye ( 1971 : 93) calls a “coherent religious pattern,” as the issue generates theoretical controversy (Martim 1996 : 217).…”

“…Appropriations would be privileged channels to understand the second element of Pye's theory (Pye 1969 : 237, Pye 1971 : 90-91), that is, ambiguity. Once religion is transplanted among different historical contexts, as is the case of Japanese Buddhism in Brazil, its practitioners start to selectively appropriate certain aspects of the symbolic system present in Brazilian culture.…”

“…From a theoretical point of view, we use the propositions of the German phenomenologist Pye ( 1969 , 1971 ), the American anthropologist Geertz ( 2008 ), and the French historian Certeau ( 2014 ). The first proposes an important discussion about what he calls “transplantation of religion,” in view of the dynamics of the religious phenomenon, especially when there is a displacement from its historical context of “origin” towards another that has a predominantly different repertoire.…”

Conversion Reconsidered: Some Historical Aspects of Religious Conversion in Black Africa

“…It is through these that we can now explore black African Islam in such historical 49 Horton, 1971, p . 105. Christians attracted to separatism by their wish for 50 See, for example, Pye, 1971. H e suggests a more African style of religion, for a place to feel (pp.…”