Religious Syncretism In Singapore: Phra Phrom Worship Among Chinese Singaporeans.
...Abstract:
Since the 1980s, there has been a growing popularity amongst Chinese Singaporeans who worship the Thai deity Phra Phrom (commonly known to them as the “Four Faced Buddha”) and making regular pilgrimages to temples in Thailand. (Hoon 2001) My research will seek to understand the historical, cultural and economic dynamics behind these practices. Such an exploration would enable a further understanding of Religious Syncretism as defined by Shaw and Stewart (1994).
By Foo Chek Wee
Matric number: U010010U
Introduction
The Encyclopedia of Social and Cultural Anthropology defines syncretism as the hybridization or amalgamation of two or more cultural traditions. According to Shaw and Stewart (1994), such a definition implies the “infiltration of a supposedly ‘pure’ tradition by symbols and meanings seen as belonging to other, incompatible traditions”. Shaw and Stewart (1994) exemplify this negative implication with the historical application of the word ‘syncretism’. They mentioned that the word ‘syncretism’ was used as an imperialist strategy in which “the Roman emperors, by appropriating the foreign cults of those they conquered, ‘would have all the varieties of mankind called in and restamped at the Caesarian mint’…Syncretism now becomes an assimilative weapon of that enemy.” Similarly, this pejorative understanding of the word ‘syncretism’ is used by scholars of comparative religion to condemn the adulteration of ‘pure’ religious traditions (e.g. Christianity). (Barnard & Spencer 1996:540)
Shaw and Stewart (1994) argued that despite the negative application of the word ‘syncretism’, ‘syncretism’ has been ascribed a neutral, and often positive, significance within anthropology. They asserted Herskovits’ (1941) earlier argument that the ‘culture-contact’ between two or more culturally distinct groups produces ‘cultural change’. Such...
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