Mongolian Buddhist Waste and the Recalcitrant Materiality of Blessings.

Project Information

RESIDUE

Grant agreement ID: 890728

DOI

10.3030/890728

Project closed

EC signature date 3 March 2020

Start date 1 June 2020

End date 31 May 2022

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Total cost

€ 219 312,00

EU contribution

€ 219 312,00

Coordinated by

KOBENHAVNS UNIVERSITET
Denmark

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - RESIDUE (Mongolian Buddhist Waste and the Recalcitrant Materiality of Blessings.)

Reporting period: 2020-06-01 to 2022-05-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

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.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

Along with eight invited lectures and talks, and nine additional talks given online, in person and through online recordings, the project resulted in four peer reviewed publications and three blog posts. The first of the publications was Toward an Anthropology of Plastics which argued that that, due to the material influence of plastics, their ubiquity, and the societal transformations that they have enabled, that anthropologists need to pay sustained attention to this material. It argued that anthropological methods and theories are crucial to understanding plastics at a vital moment in their (and our) history and suggested avenues for further research. The second part of the project produced a co-edited special issue from a workshop held in Copenhagen in 2021 entitled ‘Plastic Asia’. Along with co-editing this special issue, two co-authored articles were produced. The introduction (co-authored with Trine Brox) explored the cultural imaginaries and material ambiguities of plastics in Asia. The second article (co-authored with Björn Reichhardt) explored the changing material culture of Mongolian dairying and its relationships with microbial communities. In doing so the paper examined two emergent notions of purity: the first in which sterility is generated and contained and the second in which living dairy is harnessed and grown. A fourth article entitled Buddhism in the Life of Ulaanbaatar, explored the interactions between Buddhist institutions and the changing physicality of Mongolia’s capital city.

Three blog posts were written and posted on the Object Lessons blog. They investigated how the materiality of certain kinds of ritual items influence their treatment. What makes certain items generate a sense of mutual responsibility, whilst others can be thrown uncaringly into the trash? Why do some items engender obligation whilst others dissuade people from further interaction? What can the fuzzy boundaries between items that are considered vital and those that are thought to be inanimate tell us about waste practices more generally?

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

The experience during the fellowship in research and collaboration, coupled with extensive theoretical and ethnographic work, has formed the basis for future research and writing. I am currently working on two articles from fieldwork carried out during the fellowship. The first looks at how animals are seen as companions and communicators in contemporary Australian Buddhism. The article will elucidate how, in discourse with customary acknowledgements of the preciousness of the human birth, certain practices attempt to develop respect for other creatures, including the occasional tiger snake that seeks a warm spot under the blanket of an advanced meditator. The second will look at how Australian Buddhists reduce waste as a key part of their Buddhist practice. In addition to ongoing research, and inspired by research during the fellowship I am, in collaboration with Jovan Maud, arranging a workshop at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology in July 2022, bringing together scholars engaging the theme of ‘Buddhism in the Anthropocene’. From this workshop we will co-edit a special issue on the topic which will be published in the open access Journal of Global Buddhism.

My research over the coming years will continue to seek to make tangible the links between religion, ecological destruction and protection, and economic, social, and material disparities. During the fellowship I submitted an ERC Consolidator Grant which engages Buddhist experiences of the Anthropocene, the night sky, and the new space race in Asia and the United States. This research project will look at how Buddhism interfaces ecological changes in the Anthropocene epoch and is grounded in a radical comparative approach based on long-term qualitative research, local engagements, and embodied artistic explorations.

Polyester prayer scarves adorn a sacred rock cairn in Mongolia

A shrine at a Buddhist center in Western Australia