RESIDUE · Mongolian Buddhist Waste and the Recalcitrant Materiality of Blessings.
Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
- Duration
- 2020-06-01 → 2022-05-31
- EU contribution
- €219,312
- Participants
- 1
- Scheme
- MSCA-IF
Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.
Results in brief
Mongolian Buddhist Waste and the Recalcitrant Materiality of Blessings.
The objective of the RESIDUE project was to demonstrate how the recent shift towards imperishable materials is changing lives and ritual practices in the Anthropocene. The research highlighted the ways that plastics are transforming contemporary societies, with a particular focus on Buddhism and Asia. Ideas of economic success are often measured by a person’s or a nation’s capacity to consume goods, the end point of which is the production of waste. Developing our understandings of the ways that new materials are used and discarded has broad implications for people and the planet in the twenty-first century. As Buddhism is the dominant religion in many Asian countries and Asia is a major global producer of plastic waste, understanding Buddhist and Asian attitudes towards consumption and waste is an essential part of tackling the global waste crisis. Informed by theories from scholars looking at the Anthropocene, and those within Buddhist studies, Discard Studies, and the material turn in Anthropology, the project looked at how the materiality of ritual items, consumables, and even cities themselves is vital to understanding contemporary societies.
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
The objective of this project is to demonstrate how the imperishable materials, that Buddhist ritual items are now predominantly made of, are transforming Buddhist praxis in the contemporary period. Although Buddhism is often considered to be a religion defined by its lack of consumerist drive, this research will highlight the ways in which Buddhist ritual practices generate consumption, waste, and excess. Utilising the ethnographic methodology of ‘following the thing’, it will trace the social lives of Mongolian Buddhist ritual items from the doubts that surround their efficacy at purchase, to their troublesome persistence after use. This project will highlight the dynamic by which Buddhist purification rituals generate ecological and spiritual pollution. Utilizing theories from Anthropology, Buddhist Studies, Discard Studies and interdisciplinary studies exploring human life in the Anthropocene, this project will generate a robust theoretical framework to demonstrate how the material properties of ritual items, rather than being incidental to their use and conception, are integral to Mongolian Buddhist beliefs and practices. This project complements, and is complemented by, the changing research trajectory of the Buddhism, Business and Believers project at The University of Copenhagen’s Center for Contemporary Buddhist Studies, as it shifts its attention from Buddhist economic entanglements to the waste that is created by Buddhist economic exchanges. By exploring the seeming non-sequitur of ‘Buddhist waste’, this research will provide new insights into the generation and treatment of waste, drawing attention to the contemporary problems that industrial-scale consumption patterns are producing in Asia and around the world. The project will support my development as an expert within this critical field, as I work to address important issues facing Mongolians and EU citizens, both in the academy and within public discourse.
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
- KOBENHAVNS UNIVERSITET · KOBENHAVNCoordinatorDenmark
Links
Data: CORDIS, © European Union