GENDERED READINGS OF RITUAL: EXPLORING NARRATIVES OF CHINESE RELIGION THROUGH NINETEENTH CENTURY CHRISTIAN MISSIONARY WRITINGS
Date
2017-07-04
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
ORCID
0000-0003-0626-1642
Type
Thesis
Degree Level
Masters
Abstract
This thesis presents gendered narratives of Chinese religion as revealed through the writings of late Nineteenth Century Christian missionaries. Through a recontextualized, material and practical approach to these sources I uncover examples of non-elite ritual practice. I utilize the personal experiences and philological work of Protestant men and women to explore instances of religion at two well-known sites of Chinese Buddhism, Putuoshan and Wutaishan. I reveal how religious adherents, both lay and ordained are classified and depicted though a Western Protestant lens. This exploration highlights how personal and non-elite narratives of Chinese religion produced by missionary women have been continually undervalued within the academic study of Chinese religion. I propose a means to overcome embedded Protestant biases within our own scholarly tradition through acknowledging the authority of ritual, of human action, within Chinese religion and within secondary missionary sources.
Description
Keywords
China, Chinese Religion, Buddhism, Missionary, Gender, Ritual
Citation
Degree
Master of Arts (M.A.)
Department
Linguistics and Religious Studies
Program
Religion and Culture