Periodic Reporting for period 4 - WhoP (Whales of Power: Aquatic Mammals, Devotional Practices, and Environmental Change in Maritime East Asia)
Berichtszeitraum: 2023-07-01 bis 2025-01-31
Whales of Power addresses theoretical and methodological problems in two academic fields: Asian area studies and religious studies. It has three corresponding objectives.
First, Whales of Power applies recent theoretical developments associated with the environmental humanities to the study of religion, bridging the gap between the two fields. It does so in two ways. First, WhoP contributes to overcoming anthropocentrism in religious studies by introducing multispecies theory to the field, taking non-human animals seriously not only as passive objects of veneration or human-made symbols, but as historical actors. Second, it challenges the “religion and ecology” subfield by arguing that we should move beyond the utilitarian question of how religions can contribute to “solving” the environmental crisis, instead looking at rituals as creative means to mediate and reshape human-nature relations and cope with ecological grief.
The second objective of Whales of Power is to reconsider the role of “local” worship practices in the Asian Secular Age, examining the changing meanings attributed to such practices today. This entails the question of how so-called “folk belief” and “popular religion” – those practices not or not fully subsumed under the institutional and ideological banner of “World Religions” such as Buddhism and Christianity – are acquiring new meanings as types of “secular sacred” intangible cultural heritage, often reconfigured as “national” traditions, throughout East and Southeast Asia. This “heritagisation of religion” is not a uniquely Asian phenomenon, but can also be observed in the West. Drawing on Asian case studies and insights, Whales of Power develops new theory on the formation of heritage and its impact on religious institutions and practices.
Finally, the third objective of Whales of Power is to challenge the persistent methodological nationalism in East Asian (especially Japanese and Chinese) Studies and contribute to a new comparative paradigm. Instead of taking nations for granted as natural categories, it studies processes of nation-building on the ground, examining how and why “local” and “indigenous” practices are reconfigured as “national” traditions. Whales of Power focuses on intra-Asian and intra-Pacific comparisons rather than classical East-West binary oppositions. Such a paradigm shift strengthens the study of Asian epistemologies not only as comparative Others that are useful for verifying or falsifying Western theories, but as fertile sites for the production of new, non-Eurocentric theories that can benefit other social science and humanities disciplines.
In the final reporting period (from July 2023 until January 2025), the PI and other Whales of Power team members have addressed the three overarching objectives through a combination of academic publications, teaching, and outreach activities. The first objective – building new bridges between the environmental humanities, the study of religion, and adjacent disciplines – has been a key concern not only of PI Rots but also of Durney, Palz, Åman, and Lu Rots, all of whom work within the field of environmental humanities. It is the main focus of several key project publications and has been central to public outreach. Second: studying transformations in local worship traditions in relation to heritage-making has been one of the main concerns of Rots, Nguyen, Haugan, and Durney, and is central to some of their publications. Third, through invited lectures, publications, and teaching practices, Rots has actively addressed the persistent problem of methodological nationalism within Japanese studies and offered an alternative approach that acknowledges both diversity within the country (including Indigenous perspectives) and commonalities across the wider East and Southeast Asian region. In sum, all three objectives have been achieved.
First, Whales of Power applies recent theoretical developments associated with the environmental humanities to the study of religion, bridging the gap between the two fields. It does so in two ways. First, WhoP contributes to overcoming anthropocentrism in religious studies by introducing multispecies theory to the field, taking non-human animals seriously not only as passive objects of veneration or human-made symbols, but as historical actors. Second, it challenges the “religion and ecology” subfield by arguing that we should move beyond the utilitarian question of how religions can contribute to “solving” the environmental crisis, instead looking at rituals as creative means to mediate and reshape human-nature relations and cope with ecological grief.
The second objective of Whales of Power is to reconsider the role of “local” worship practices in the Asian Secular Age, examining the changing meanings attributed to such practices today. This entails the question of how so-called “folk belief” and “popular religion” – those practices not or not fully subsumed under the institutional and ideological banner of “World Religions” such as Buddhism and Christianity – are acquiring new meanings as types of “secular sacred” intangible cultural heritage, often reconfigured as “national” traditions, throughout East and Southeast Asia. This “heritagisation of religion” is not a uniquely Asian phenomenon, but can also be observed in the West. Drawing on Asian case studies and insights, Whales of Power develops new theory on the formation of heritage and its impact on religious institutions and practices.
Finally, the third objective of Whales of Power is to challenge the persistent methodological nationalism in East Asian (especially Japanese and Chinese) Studies and contribute to a new comparative paradigm. Instead of taking nations for granted as natural categories, it studies processes of nation-building on the ground, examining how and why “local” and “indigenous” practices are reconfigured as “national” traditions. Whales of Power focuses on intra-Asian and intra-Pacific comparisons rather than classical East-West binary oppositions. Such a paradigm shift strengthens the study of Asian epistemologies not only as comparative Others that are useful for verifying or falsifying Western theories, but as fertile sites for the production of new, non-Eurocentric theories that can benefit other social science and humanities disciplines.
In the final reporting period (from July 2023 until January 2025), the PI and other Whales of Power team members have addressed the three overarching objectives through a combination of academic publications, teaching, and outreach activities. The first objective – building new bridges between the environmental humanities, the study of religion, and adjacent disciplines – has been a key concern not only of PI Rots but also of Durney, Palz, Åman, and Lu Rots, all of whom work within the field of environmental humanities. It is the main focus of several key project publications and has been central to public outreach. Second: studying transformations in local worship traditions in relation to heritage-making has been one of the main concerns of Rots, Nguyen, Haugan, and Durney, and is central to some of their publications. Third, through invited lectures, publications, and teaching practices, Rots has actively addressed the persistent problem of methodological nationalism within Japanese studies and offered an alternative approach that acknowledges both diversity within the country (including Indigenous perspectives) and commonalities across the wider East and Southeast Asian region. In sum, all three objectives have been achieved.
The period 2023-'25 saw the publication of several new journal articles, book chapters, PhD dissertations, book reviews, and popular-scientific articles. Rots, Durney, and Haugan contributed to the special issue "Festivals in Asia" of the journal Religion. Rots was co-editor, co-authored the introduction, and wrote an article (with Haugan). Durney also contributed with an article. In 2024, she published a second journal article. Palz and Åman both defended their PhD dissertations successfully in 2023. They also published one journal article and one book chapter each. In 2023, Rots and Lu Rots published an article in the journal Environmental Humanities. Furthermore, Rots wrote four other journal articles (two published; two more accepted for publication and currently in press) and published two peer-reviewed book chapters. Finally, Nguyen is currently revising his PhD dissertation and intends to submit it later this year.
All team members have more publications in the pipeline. Our book "Water Powers: Sacred Aquatic Animals of the Asia-Pacific" (eds. Rots, Durney, Åman, and Lindsey DeWitt Prat) is currently in the final copy-editing stage and will be published by the University of Hawai'i Press (UHP) soon (open access). This volume is a collective achievement and constitutes one of our main project results. Also forthcoming is a co-authored book by Rots (with Yulia Frumer and Jolyon Thomas) that discusses practices of animation in film, ritual, and robotics; the manuscript is currently under review by UHP. Rots is also working on his monograph, "Stranded Gods: Whales, Rituals, and Environmental Change in Vietnam and Japan." The manuscript will be finished in 2026; Cornell UP has expressed interest.
In 2022-'23, Japanese artist Sakura Koretsune spent a year in Oslo as a guest researcher, which led to new collaborations and outreach activities - including a shared exhibition at the University of Oslo library in 2023 and some events. 2024 saw more academic and public events, including an interdisciplinary workshop on human-whale relations followed by a successful public symposium. Other outreach activities in 2024 include news articles, a podcast interview, and guest lectures.
All team members have more publications in the pipeline. Our book "Water Powers: Sacred Aquatic Animals of the Asia-Pacific" (eds. Rots, Durney, Åman, and Lindsey DeWitt Prat) is currently in the final copy-editing stage and will be published by the University of Hawai'i Press (UHP) soon (open access). This volume is a collective achievement and constitutes one of our main project results. Also forthcoming is a co-authored book by Rots (with Yulia Frumer and Jolyon Thomas) that discusses practices of animation in film, ritual, and robotics; the manuscript is currently under review by UHP. Rots is also working on his monograph, "Stranded Gods: Whales, Rituals, and Environmental Change in Vietnam and Japan." The manuscript will be finished in 2026; Cornell UP has expressed interest.
In 2022-'23, Japanese artist Sakura Koretsune spent a year in Oslo as a guest researcher, which led to new collaborations and outreach activities - including a shared exhibition at the University of Oslo library in 2023 and some events. 2024 saw more academic and public events, including an interdisciplinary workshop on human-whale relations followed by a successful public symposium. Other outreach activities in 2024 include news articles, a podcast interview, and guest lectures.
As mentioned, we have achieved our three main objectives. Some publications have been delayed - Rots' monograph, Nguyen's dissertation, and some articles and book chapters - but we expect them to come out in 2025-'26. The project has also produced some unexpected results. The collaboration with the "Festivals in Asia" project was not planned originally, but helped us achieve our second objective, while Rots' collaboration with Frumer and Thomas will lead to the publication of a book that was not mentioned in the original project description, but will contribute significantly to achieving the first and third objectives. Likewise, the collaboration with a Japanese artist was not part of the original plan, but turned out to be very rewarding, allowing us to develop new outreach activities.
The international visibility of our project has exceeded our expectations. Rots has received numerous invitations for guest lectures; in the period 2023-'25, he presented Whales of Power at the universities of Ca'Foscari (Venice), Linnaeus (Växjö), Århus, SOAS, Waseda, Nanzan, Can Tho, USC (LA), Oxford Brookes, and Tübingen. We have also received two prizes: in 2019, Rots was one of the winners of the Toshiba International Foundation Essay Contest, and in 2024, Rots and Lu Rots won the Best Article Prize of the journal Environmental Humanities.
The international visibility of our project has exceeded our expectations. Rots has received numerous invitations for guest lectures; in the period 2023-'25, he presented Whales of Power at the universities of Ca'Foscari (Venice), Linnaeus (Växjö), Århus, SOAS, Waseda, Nanzan, Can Tho, USC (LA), Oxford Brookes, and Tübingen. We have also received two prizes: in 2019, Rots was one of the winners of the Toshiba International Foundation Essay Contest, and in 2024, Rots and Lu Rots won the Best Article Prize of the journal Environmental Humanities.