Stanley Jeyaraja Tambiah

Magic, science, religion, and the scope of rationality

List of plates Foreword Alfred Harris Acknowledgements 1. Magic, science and religion in Western thought: anthropologys intellectual legacy 2. Anthropologys intellectual legacy (continued) 3. Sir Edward Tylor versus Bronislaw Malinowski: is magic false science or meaningful performance? 4. Malinowskis demarcations and his exposition of the magical art 5. Multiple orderings of reality: the debate initiated by Levy-Bruhl 6. Rationality, relativism, the translation and commensurability of cultures 7. Modern science and its extensions Notes Bibliography Index.

THE GALACTIC POLITY: THE STRUCTURE OF TRADITIONAL KINGDOMS IN SOUTHEAST ASIA*

I have coined the label galactic polity to represent the design of traditional Southeast Asian kingdoms, a design that coded in a composite way cosmological, topographical, and politico-economic features. The label itself is derived from the concept of mandala, which according to a common Indo-Tibetan tradition is composed of two elements-a core (rnanda) and a container or enclosing element (la). Mandala designs, both simple and complex of satellites arranged around a center, occur with such insistence at various levels of Hindu-Buddhist thought and practice that we are invited to probe their representational efficacy. Thus, cosmological schemes of various sorts in Tantric Hinduism and Buddhism have been referred to as mandala, e.g., the cosmos as constituted of Mount Meru in the center surrounded by oceans and mountain ranges. At a philosophical and doctrinal level, the Buddhist Sarvastivadin school represented the relation between consciousness (citta) and its associated mental phenomena (caitta) in terms of the law of satellites (wherein consciousness placed in the center is surrounded by 10 caitta, each of which again is surrounded by 4 laksanu (satellites)).6733 The design and arrangement of the magnificent architectural monuments like Borobodur and Angkor Vat have been called mandala.22.23 At quite a different level Kautilya in his .Arthashastra used mandala as a geopolitical concept to discuss the spatial configuration of friendly and enemy states from the perspective of a particular kingd~rn.~’ The human body is likened to a mandala,36 a description that finds its resonances in ritual and medical practices. Finally, mandala designs are imprinted on textiles or are reproduced in the transitory designs drawn with powdered colors on numerous occasions. Our primary interest in this paper is the traditional Southeast Asian kingdoms that are described as conforming to the mandala scheme in their arrangement at various levels. But we should first take note of the fact that the mandala as geometrical, topographical, cosmological, and societal blueprints are not a distinctive feature of complex kingdoms and polities only. The evidence is quite clear that simpler mandala designs appear in tribal lineage-based segmentary societies practising slash-and-bum agriculture, and that the most elaborate designs are manifest in the more complex centralized polities of valley-based sedentary rice cultivators (e.g., see de Jong,’ S ~ h r i e k e , ~ ~ Mus,” Heine-Geldern,” Shorto,’’ Moertono,” and Wheatley4‘). But this is a simplification. There are indeed expressions both simple and complex found in phenomena standing in-between these poles-at the level of tribal polities and local communities. An excellent case in point are the Atoni of Timor. They have named patrilineal descent groups, they live in villages, grow maize and rice by shifting agriculture on mountainous terrain, and at the same time belong to princedoms. Their village houses are made to a complex center-oriented design wherein concepts of inner and outer, right and left, 4 major mother posts, and 12 peripheral chicken posts,

Buddhism and This-worldly Activity

Let me say at the outset that although I am an admirer of Weber, yet in my view the relation between kinds of religious ethic and economic (and political) activity is more open than Weber made it out to be. It is also my view that it is time we went beyond Weber because we have exhausted his ideas, and because we now have more and better evidence than he had.

The galactic polity in Southeast Asia

I have coined the label galactic polity to represent the design of traditional Southeast Asian kingdoms, a design that coded in a composite way cosmological, topographical, and politico-economic features. The label itself is derived from the concept of mandala, which according to a common Indo-Tibetan tradition is composed of two elements—a core (manda) and a container or enclosing element (la). Mandala designs, both simple and complex of satellites arranged around a center, occur with such insistence at various levels of Hindu-Buddhist thought and practice that one is invited to probe their representational efficacy.

Urban Riots and Cricket in South Asia: A Postscript to 'Leveling Crowds'

My book Leveling Crowds1 was published in 1996, and around the same time and in succeeding years there was a spate of books on much the same topic, but primarily focused on India. This essay discusses the implications of some of these studies for my chief submissions, and also responds to the comments of some reviews of my book. It is hoped that this postscript will amplify and enrich our investigation of the dynamics of ethnonationalist conflicts in South Asia.

Form and meaning of magical acts: A point of view

This article is a reprint of an essay originally published as “Form and meaning of magical acts: A point of view,” in Horton, Robin and Ruth Finnegan, eds. (1973) Modes of thought: Essays on thinking in Western and non-Western societies. London: Faber & Faber.

Buddhism Betrayed? Religion, Politics and Violence in Sri Lanka.

This volume seeks to answer the question of how the Buddhist monks in todays Sri Lanka--given Buddhisms traditionally nonviolent philosophy--are able to participate in the fierce political violence of the Sinhalese against the Tamils.