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シンポジウム “Affecting Spiritual Healing, Re-making (Alternative) Worlds”SYMPOSIUM　　＊＊＊NO ARCHIVES AVAILABLE＊＊＊ 
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Registration deadlines:

– “Discussing” part only: 2024/12/05

– “Discussing” and “Experiencing” parts: 2024/11/30

This symposium explores the relationships between anthropology, phenomenology, spiritual healing, and the transformative process of remaking worlds. The focus is on lived experiences of healing that go beyond medical interventions, emphasizing affects, feelings, and bodily perceptions.

Phenomenological research has highlighted the significance of “remaking a world” in healing processes. This concept, proposed by Das et al. (2001), refers to the transformative efforts by communities and individuals in response to traumatic and insidious violence, addressing suffering, enduring, working through, breaking apart, or transcending the impact of violence at various levels – local worlds, interpersonal relations, and individual lives.

While widely accepted, the concept has faced several criticisms. It has been critiqued for overemphasizing narrative, neglecting the lived, embodied experiences of healing and the structural constraints on individuals’ capacities to transform their realities. Other criticisms include that it overlooks the collective dimensions of healing and may be too rooted in Western individualism, failing to adequately account for non-Western perspectives.

This symposium aims to bridge these gaps by providing accounts of religious and spiritual healing across diverse ethnographic contexts. By focusing on affects, feelings, and bodily perceptions, it highlights the importance of intersubjective lived experiences in the making and remaking of new, different, alternative worlds. By analyzing these transformative processes, it aims to contribute to the understanding of how individuals and communities navigate and transcend their experiences of suffering, ultimately creating new worlds and ways of being in the world which connect to their wellbeing.

The symposium is divided into two parts: “discussing” and “experiencing.” In the “discussing” part, scholars academically explore the topic in a traditional symposium format. In the “experiencing” part, participants engage with the core themes of the symposium through their senses and perception. The goal is to achieve a more comprehensive understanding of the topic by integrating both halves.

Program

Saturday, December 7th

DISCUSSING

1:00 PM – 1:05 PM: Andrea De Antoni (Kyoto University)

Opening Remarks and Symposium Overview

1:05 PM – 2:30 PM: Keynote Lecture: Thomas Csordas (UC San Diego)

Alterity and Identity in Religious Healing: The Case of Roman Catholic Exorcism

2:30 PM – 2:40 PM: Coffee Break

2:40 PM – 3:20 PM: Ran Muratsu (Tokyo University of Foreign Studies)

Distancing from the Emerged “Thing”: Religious Healing and Biomedicines in Pentecostal-Charismatic Churches in Benin

3:20 PM – 4:00 PM: Daniela Calvo (JSPS, Kyoto University)

Remaking a World in Afro-Brazilian Religions. Meaning-Making, Affects and Spiritual Healing Among Brazilian Immigrants in Japan

4:00 PM – 4:10 PM: Coffee Break

4:10 PM – 4:50 PM: Junko Iida (Kawasaki University of Medical Welfare)

Cutting the Birth, Unbinding the Spirit: Exorcist Rituals in Northern Thailand

4:50 PM – 5:45 PM: General Discussion 1

EXPERIENCING

5:45 PM – 6:00 PM: Move to Seibu Hall

6:00 PM~: Networking Event (Catering, Buffet, Provider TBD)

6:30 PM – 7:00 PM: Thomas Csordas Live Performance

7:10 PM – 8:10 PM: ALKDO Live Performance

Sunday, December 8th

10:30 AM – 10:35 AM: Andrea De Antoni (Kyoto University)

Opening Remarks

10:35 AM – 11:15 AM: Miho Ishii (Kyoto University)

From Passion to Compassion: Healing Rituals in an Independent Church in Southern Ghana

11:15 AM – 11:55 AM: Fumihiko Tsumura (Meijo University)

Something Rises: The Materiality of Possession and Magical Powers in Northeastern Thailand

11:55 AM – 12:05 PM: Coffee Break

12:05 PM – 12:45 PM: Andrea De Antoni (Kyoto University)

All Around me are Familiar Faces, Worn-out Places: Feelings and Environments (Re-)Making the Spirit Worlds in Contemporary Okinawa

12:45 – 13:00: Thomas Csordas (UC San Diego)

General Comments

13:00 PM – 1:30 PM: General Discussion 2

Overview of the “Experiencing” Part

This live performance aims to enrich the symposium experience by offering cultural and emotional perspectives aligned with the workshop’s theme. Thomas Csordas is not only known for his groundbreaking research in anthropology and phenomenology and as the keynote speaker of this symposium, but he is also a talented singer-songwriter. He composes acoustic folk-rock music, focusing particularly on protest songs. His performance blends academic discourse, artistic expression, and insights on “remaking alternative worlds,” thereby enriching the symposium experience. The combination of performance and academic discussion allows the event to explore the theme not only intellectually but also through lived, sensory experiences.

Additionally, the invitation of the band “ALKDO” is particularly significant in relation to the symposium’s theme of “constructing alternative worlds.” Operating from the cultural center “Hashinoshita-ya,” which they run by renovating a traditional Japanese house in Toyota City, ALKDO has built strong ties with the local community. Their music fosters understanding and empathy across cultures, offering participants experiences that transcend daily routines. Formed around frontman Yoshiki Nagayama and percussionist Take Mai of the large ensemble band TURTLE ISLAND, ALKDO blends Asian sounds and beats into their unique style called “Acoustic Asian Trad Punk.” Through their activities at Hashinoshita-ya, they incorporate traditional Japanese cultural practices, creating a space where diverse people gather to explore music, art, and communal living. ALKDO’s music resonates deeply through emotions and physical perception, promoting empathy and understanding beyond individual senses.

Such a post-symposium event is expected to complement discussions on cultural diversity and hopes for a sustainable future, providing participants with deep insights and inspiration beyond scholarly discussions.

PERFOMERS’ PROFILES

Thomas Csordas

Thomas Csordas is known for groundbreaking research in anthropology and phenomenology, and he is the keynote speaker of this symposium. Additionally, he is a talented singer-songwriter who composes acoustic folk-rock music, particularly focusing on music production that emphasizes protest and resistance.

ALKDO（https://www.tunecore.co.jp/artists/ALKDO）

ALKDO is a minimal formation consisting of Yoshiki Nagayama (Vo, G), the frontman of the large ensemble band “TURTLE ISLAND,” which operates domestically and internationally based in Toyota City, Mikawa, Aichi Prefecture, and Take Mai (Vo, Taiko), forming an acoustic Asian trad punk duo. They express a world of music and songs that ride on Asian rhythms and beats, embodying a spirit that is simple yet distinctive. While their core is two members, they continuously tour nationwide, adapting their lineup with various members from different places over time. Since 2012, they have co-hosted the Hashinoshita World Music Festival with the microAction label and operate the traditional house-renovated cultural center “Hashinoshita-ya” near Toyota City Station. Beyond music, they actively create a communication space where various expressions and diverse people gather locally on a daily basis. The band name “ALKDO/アルコド” derives from Yoshiki’s roots on the Korean Peninsula; “al” in Hangul means “naked,” and “kdo” stands for “TURTLE ISLAND,” collectively translating to “Naked Turtle Island” or in essence, “Acoustic Turtle Island.”

From day selection to weather forecasting, divination was widely used in Edo-period society, as evidenced by the variety of printed books and manuscripts produced on the subject. Many of these works include diagrams as well as images depicting the possible fates awaiting clients and readers. This lecture will sketch the history of such images, explore their distinctive features, and consider the role they may have played in shaping and disseminating social norms.

Matthias Hayek is Professor at the École Pratique des Hautes Études–PSL. His research focuses on the reception, adaptation, and uses of Chinese correlative cosmology in Japan. He is the author of Les Mutations du Yin et du Yang : divination, société et représentations au Japon, du vie au xixe siècle (Collège de France, 2021).

This hybrid lecture will be held on site (registration required in advance from here) and via Zoom.

Zoom Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84157148024

Meeting ID: 841 5714 8024

9 luglio 2025    16:30-19:00 JST  (9.30-12.00 CEST)

Concept

Nel centenario della nascita di Italo Calvino, l’ISEAS intende offrire un contributo alla conoscenza del fecondo rapporto intrattenuto dallo scrittore con la cultura del Giappone. La scelta della sede ISEAS, situata a Kyoto, città dove Calvino ha soggiornato e che gli ha ispirato alcuni scritti memorabili, riveste un significato simbolico particolare.

Il workshop si terrà in italiano e in modalità ibrida (in presenza e online). 

Zoom Meeting ID: 827 2865 6382

Zoom Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82728656382

Luogo: 29 Kitashirakawa Bettō-chō, Sakyō-ku, Kyoto 606-8276

Japan’s modern legal system originated with the transplant of Western law in the Meiji period. Within three decades Japan was transformed into a centralised country with a constitution, codes, and a structured system of courts staffed by professional jurists.

This lecture traces the birth and development of Japanese comparative law studies and institutions, showing how comparative law not only paved the way for the reception of Western law, but was also instrumental in the emergence of an original Japanese jurisprudence.

Andrea Ortolani is an Associate Professor of Law at the University of Tsukuba. His research focuses on legal transplants, legal evolution, and on Japanese law and its interactions with foreign jurisprudence.

This hybrid lecture will be held on site (registration required in advance from here) and via Zoom.

Zoom Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84487130281

Meeting ID: 844 8713 0281

Mizoguchi Kenji (1898-1956) always had problems with censors. This presentation analyzes The Naimushō (Ministry of Internal Affairs)’s censorship, 1925-1945, taking Mizoguchi’s Gion no kyodai (Sisters of the Gion, 1936), one of the most critically acclaimed films of the 1930s Japanese cinema, as a case study. Censorship is recast as a process involving criticism, reception, and negotiation. The analysis reconstructs the censors’ logic, goal, and professional consciousness based on their published memos, interviews, the censored script, and the surviving film text.

Chika Kinoshita is a professor of Film Studies at the Graduate School of Human and Environmental Studies at Kyoto University. She has published the award-winning book Mizoguchi Kenji: Aesthetics and Politics of the Film Medium (Hosei University Press, 2016), and essays and chapters on cinema, gender, and sexuality in English and Japanese.

This hybrid lecture will be held on site (registration required in advance from here) and via Zoom.

Zoom Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81327602950

Meeting ID: 813 2760 2950

Although qigong is widely regarded as a traditional Chinese body practice, scholars have argued that it was “invented” as a therapeutic practice in the 1950s. Yet, despite its relatively recent origins, qigong continues to be practiced and “reinvented” through bodily techniques and embodied experiences across diverse cultural settings. Drawing on ethnographic research, this lecture explores how practitioners engage with the sensory and affective dimensions of qigong, revealing its transformation from an “invented tradition” into an “embodied tradition”.

Huang Xinzhe is a senior researcher at the Kinugasa Research Organization, Ritsumeikan University. His research explores qigong and spiritual practices in China and Japan. He recently published a book in Japanese (The Anthropology of Qi: Embodied experience in Qigong Practices, Sekai Shisōsha 2025) based on his PhD dissertation.

This hybrid lecture will be held on site (registration required in advance from here) and via Zoom.

Zoom Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84974847315

Meeting ID: 849 7484 7315