Meaning and Controversy within Chinese Ancestor Religion

Description

Chinese practices related to ancestors have long been the subject of conflicting interpretations. These practices are rooted in the lived experience of practitioners, and therefore need to be considered as embodied expressions of the quest for existential meaning. For practitioners, the achievement of existential meaning requires the inclusion, implication, and mediation of the ancestors. When gestures in ancestor rites are analyzed from this perspective it is possible to appreciate their essence as constitutive of “ancestor religion.” This book uses an inquisitive method that investigates the discrepancies between foreign and local explanations, and proposes another hermeneutic framework for ancestor related praxes. Front Matter ....Pages i-ix Introduction: Are Ancestors a Problem? (Paulin Batairwa Kubuya)....Pages 1-9 The Hermeneutic Challenge of Ancestor-Related Practices (Paulin Batairwa Kubuya)....Pages 11-54 The Conflict of Interpretation of Chinese Ancestor Rites (Paulin Batairwa Kubuya)....Pages 55-124 “Our” Perspective: The Indigenous Explanation of Ancestor Rites (Paulin Batairwa Kubuya)....Pages 125-166 Existential Practical Hermeneutics of Ancestor Religion (Paulin Batairwa Kubuya)....Pages 167-210 Conclusion (Paulin Batairwa Kubuya)....Pages 211-217 Back Matter ....Pages 219-232