Syncretism
Opdracht week 3 Religious Pluralism
The question whether syncretism is a useful concept is a difficult one to answer. The term is, according to Van der Veer (1994: 18,19) already in use since 1519 and since 1645 in relation with religion. But what is syncretism? Is it an "infiltration of a supposedly 'pure' tradition by symbols and meanings seen as belonging to other incompatible traditions" (Shaw and Steward 1994: 1). Or is it "an 'attempt to sink differences and effect union between" religions or cultures (Veer 1994: 18).
The question whether syncretism is a useful concept is a difficult one to answer. The term is, according to Van der Veer (1994: 18,19) already in use since 1519 and since 1645 in relation with religion. But what is syncretism? Is it an "infiltration of a supposedly 'pure' tradition by symbols and meanings seen as belonging to other incompatible traditions" (Shaw and Steward 1994: 1). Or is it "an 'attempt to sink differences and effect union between" religions or cultures (Veer 1994: 18).
These two definitions have in common that syncretism is a process in which parts of an other culture or religion are adopted by people from a culture or religion that has come in contact with this other culture or religion. The question is whether is actually a very normal process and doesn't need a special name or whether this is, seen more specifically, not such a normal process and therefore could use this special name in order to be able to examine these particular processes and situations. Van der Veer (1994) explains this in his article.
The difference between the definitions is that in the first definition syncretism is seen as a process in which one culture or religion takes from another. In the second definition syncretism is seen as a process in which two religions or cultures both adopt elements from the other in order to come to some sort of a union. This difference I think is very big, because it each implies a way of looking at the processes and at the way of undergoing these processes. Because what does syncretism mean to people. Do they see it as positive or negative, do they see it happen at all? Yalcin-Heckmann (1994) says that the Muslim immigrants in Germany see syncretism in their culture as something that happens. But at the same time syncretism in religion is seen as very negative.
I think, in the first place, it's very difficult to see syncretism without religion or culture. But these syncretisms are two different things and should not be examined as one and the same. This also implies we have to exactly know what culture is and what religion, where is the boundary between the two and is there a boundary? And how can explain syncretism at the boundary?
I think it's still to difficult to look at syncretism in general. So we have to be very careful in making statements about syncretism in general. At this point I agree with Van der Veer that we should look at syncretism in particular cases. The interesting in this will be the particular reactions of people on syncretism. As to the use of the word and concept I think we cannot throw it away, because it was and still is used very much. To be able to understand older texts about syncretism we must not loose the word and its used meanings.
Bibliography
Baumann, Gerd
1995 The Lamps Are Many but the Light Is One? Processes of Syncretization in a Multi-ethnic Suburb of London. In: Göran Aijmer (ed.) Syncretism and the Commerce of Symbols. Gothenburg: IASSA. Pp 104-120.
Shaw, Rosalind and Charles Stewart
1994 Introduction: problematizing syncretism. In: C. Stewart and R. Shaw (eds.) Syncretism/ Antisyncretism; The politics of religious synthesis. London and New York: Routledge. Pp 1-26.
Veer, Peter van der
1994 Syncretism, multiculturalism and the discourse of tolerance. In: C. Stewart and R. Shaw (eds.) Syncretism/ Antisyncretism; The politics of religious synthesis. London and New York: Routledge. Pp 197-211.
Yalcin-Heckmann, Lale
1994 Are fireworks Islamic? Towards an understanding of Turkish migrants and Islam in Germany. In: C. Stewart and R. Shaw (eds.) Syncretism/ Antisyncretism; The politics of religious synthesis. London and New York: Routledge. Pp 178-195.
