|
|
|
|
 Indonesian Pluralities is a film series project on cultural and religious diversity, democracy, and civic co-existence in contemporary Indonesia, made in collaboration between CRCS UGM, the Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University, and the WatchdoC Documentary, with the generous support from the Henry Luce Foundation, New York.
|
|
 In the Name of Belief (Atas Nama Percaya) is the first of six films produced for the Indonesian Pluralities series. It looks at the experiences of two indigenous communities, namely Marapu in East Nusa Tenggara and Perjalanan in West Java, in their struggle to obtain full recognition from both the state and their surrounding society. Launched last week, it will be screened again this weekend.
|
|
 Studying the ‘sound’ of religion has long been the domain of ethnomusicologists and anthropologists, but not so much the discipline of Religious Studies itself. Yet religion is never solely experienced visually; it involves singing, chanting, bell ringing, and the vibrations that come with such sounds. This essay looks at the Matua community's religious practices centred on sound.
|
|
 A group of Indonesian Muslims often says that polygamy is “part of the sharia”, “a prophetic tradition”, “a solution for adultery and prostitution”, and “will always be religiously permissible (halal) as long as there is fairness”. However, is there fairness? A look into dozens of polygamy cases in West Java suggests there have been abuses in practice. (Indonesian)
|
|
 From Spivak we can know that the abolishment of sati in 19th century’s India was narrated as “white men saving brown women from brown men”. However, this British’ “civilizing mission” further gave legitimization to their colonization of India, exemplifying the postcolonial idea that knowledge always has a hidden interest. (Indonesian)
|
|
 Many in religious studies disregard Marx due to his statement that religion is “the opium of the masses”, that religion has no use except for the bourgeoisie to distract the proletariat from the real, economic problems. The late CRCS co-founder John Raines invites us to reconsider Marx in order to digest the political economy elements of religious phenomena. (Indonesian)
|
|
 In Ilawe, a small village in East Nusa Tenggara, Christians help Muslims build mosques and Muslims help Christians build churches. This culture of interreligious harmony and pro-existence has been made possible by Ilawe’s long-held customary oath called bela, which states that all member of the village, regardless of their religions, are siblings. (Indonesian)
|
|
 Modern religious people tend to read scripture as if it's a kind of law or constitution. This way of reading, in turn, results in an atomistic view of verses, which contribute to the rise of what we call today fundamentalism. People in the past, however, tend to read scripture in a holistic way, and verses were read more like poetry to activate imagination instead of cognition. (Indonesian)
|
|
 Harari said religion is a myth based on his idea about language, which came from Sapiens’ cognitive revolution 70,000 thousand years ago. Because of language, Sapiens can talk about concepts that didn’t exist materially, hence the myth of God. But what if Harari’s assessment was mistaken? Is the material world the only world that exists? (Indonesian)
|
|
 As part of the World Religions class, CRCS students visited three places of worship around Yogyakarta: Gereja Santo Antonius, the Catholic Church in Kotabaru; the Hindu Pura Vaikuntha Vyomantara in Pangkalan TNI AU Adisutjipto; and the Buddhist Vihara Karangdjati on Jl Monjali. An overview of what was experienced at the three sites.
|
|
 As this semester's Wednesday Forum has finished, we would like to convey our gratitude to those who have been involved in making it possible: all the speakers, the CRCS' and ICRS' faculty, staff members, students, and those who attended and participated. Watch the video of each on CRCS UGM's Facebook page. The Forum will resume next semester, early February.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
