Mondher Kilani

Multiculturalism, cosmopolitanism, and making heritage in Malaysia: a view from the historic cities of the Straits of Malacca.

Based on the ‘universal’ values of economic development, democratic governance and cultural diversity promoted by UNESCO, the official policy of the Federation of Malaysia, known as Wawasan 2020 (Vision 2020), promotes modernization with an emphasis on democracy, tolerance, culture and economic development, and asserts the multicultural character of Malaysian society while upholding the peaceful coexistence of its three largest communities (Malays, Chinese and Indians). The joint inscription of the two historic Straits cities of Melaka and George Town on UNESCO’s World Heritage List in 2008 was a reaffirmation of that policy. Our study illustrates the construction of this social model through the heritage process which was based on the tangible as well as the intangible heritage of the different ethnic groups that make up the Malaysian nation. Dubbed the ‘Rainbow Nation’ by the British during the colonial era, postcolonial Malaysia has reappropriated the label to construct its present and future identity. We focus on the agency of civil society activists, government officials and international experts in the process that mobilised, in turn, the values of nationalism and internationalism, communitarianism and multiculturalism, and universalism and cosmopolitanism.

Religious act, public space: reflections on some Geertzian concepts

This paper examines theoretical and methodological implications of Clifford Geertzs approach to religion as he formulated it in ‘Religion as a cultural system’ (Geertz 1966), where religion and culture seem to be defined as functional equivalents. The paper considers religious symbols in the public space, using two examples from contemporary reality – one being a certain expression spoken by the copilot of Egypt Air Flight 990, the other being the headscarf controversy in France – in order to explore how the anthropologist relates the microsituations he observes to an all-embracing context.