Date: February 25-26, 2013 Venue: Large Conference Room, Inamori Foundation Building Ritual and its importance in Southeast Asian cultures has long been a source of comment, stretching from the accounts of early Arab, Chinese and European travelers, to colonial officials and anthropologists. Academic discussions of ritual in the twentieth century were, however, often framed as a manifestation of local idiosyncrasy and of historical legacies that were fading in the face of accelerating modernization. Such views were often implicitly or explicitly informed by the particular historical experiences of post-Reformation Western Christianity, and this perspective served to turn much of the research focus on religion in Southeast Asia toward broader social movements […]