Building Noah’s Ark for Migrants, Refugees, and Religious Communities

294 Pages·2015·6.55 MB·English

by  Alexander Horstmann

CONTEMPORARY ANTHROPOLOGY OF RELIGION
A series published with the Society for the Anthropology of Religion
Donald Seeman and Tulasi Srinivas, Series Editors
Published by Palgrave Macmillan:
Body / Meaning / Healing
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The Weight of the Past: Living with History in Mahajanga, Madagascar
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After the Rescue: Jewish Identity and Community in
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Empowering the Past, Confronting the Future
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Islam Obscured: The Rhetoric of Anthropological Representation
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Islam, Memory, and Morality in Yemen: Ruling Families in Transition
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A Peaceful Jihad: Negotiating Identity and Modernity in Muslim Java
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The Road to Clarity: Seventh-Day Adventism in Madagascar
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Yoruba in Diaspora: An African Church in London
By Hermione Harris
Islamic Narrative and Authority in Southeast Asia:
From the 16th to the 21st Century
By Thomas Gibson
Evangelicalism and Conflict in Northern Ireland
By Gladys Ganiel
Christianity in the Local Context: Southern Baptists in the Philippines
By Brian M. Howell
Missions and Conversions: Creating the Montagnard-Dega
Refugee Community
By Thomas Pearson
Gender, Catholicism, and Morality in Brazil:
Virtuous Husbands, Powerful Wives
By Maya Mayblin
Direct Sales and Direct Faith in Latin America
By Peter S. Cahn
Shamans, Spirituality, and Cultural Revitalization:
Explorations in Siberia and Beyond
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Spirits without Borders: Vietnamese Spirit Mediums in a Transnational Age
By Karen Fjelstad and Nguyễn Thị Hiền
The Halal Frontier: Muslim Consumers in a Globalized Market
By Johan Fischer
Faith in Objects: American Missionary Expositions in
the Early Twentieth Century
By Erin L. Hasinoff
The Christianity of Culture: Conversion, Ethnic Citizenship,
and the Matter of Religion in Malaysian Borneo
By Liana Chua
Communitas: The Anthropology of Collective Joy
By Edith Turner
Questioning French Secularism: Gender Politics and
Islam in a Parisian Suburb
By Jennifer A. Selby
Language, Charisma, and Creativity: Ritual Life in the Catholic
Charismatic Renewal
By Thomas J. Csordas
Spirits and Slaves in Central Sudan: The Red Wind of Sennar
By Susan M. Kenyon
The Anthropology of Protestantism: Faith and
Crisis among Scottish Fishermen
By Jospeh Webster
The Anthropology of Religious Charisma: Ecstasies and Institutions
Edited by Charles Lindholm
Buddhism, International Relief Work, and Civil Society
By Hiroko Kawanami and Geoffrey Samuel
Hierarchy and Pluralism: Living Religious Difference in Catholic Poland
By Agnieszka Pasieka
Building Noah’s Ark for Migrants, Refugees, and Religious Communities
Edited by Alexander Horstmann and Jin-Heon Jung
Building Noah’s Ark for Migrants,

Refugees, and Religious
Communities
Edited by
Alexander Horstmann
and Jin-Heon Jung
BUILDING NOAH’S ARK FOR MIGRANTS, REFUGEES, AND RELIGIOUS COMMUNITIES
Copyright © Alexander Horstmann and Jin-Heon Jung, 2015.
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2015 978-1-137-50153-0
All rights reserved.
First published in 2015 by
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN®
in the United States— a division of St. Martin’s Press LLC,
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this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited,
registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills,
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Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies
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ISBN 978-1-349-69914-8 ISBN 978-1-137-49630-0 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-137-49630-0
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Building Noah’s Ark for migrants, refugees, and religious
communities / edited by Alexander Horstmann and Jin-Heon Jung.
pages cm. — (Contemporary Anthropology of Religion)
Includes index.

1. Refugees—Religious life—Case studies. 2. Humanitarianism—
Religious aspects—Case studies. 3. Church work with refugees—
Case studies. 4. Emigration and immigration—Religious aspects—
Case studies. I. Horstmann, Alexander.
JV6346.B85 2015
277.30086(cid:25)914—dc23 2014046425
A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library.
Design by Newgen Knowledge Works (P) Ltd., Chennai, India.
First edition: June 2015
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents

List of Figures vii
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction
Refugees and Religion 1
Alexander Horstmann and Jin-Heon Jung
Part I
Chapter 1
What Is a Refugee Religion? Exile, Exodus, and
Emigration in the Vietnamese Diaspora 23
Janet Alison Hoskins
Chapter 2
Religious Imaginary as an Alternative Social and
Moral Order—Karen Buddhism across the Thai-Burma Border 45
Mikael Gravers
Chapter 3
Refugee and Religious Narratives: The Conversion of
North Koreans from Refugees to God’s Warriors 77
Jin-Heon Jung
Chapter 4
Ritual Practice, Material Culture, and Well-Being in
Displacement: Ka-thow-bòw in a Karenni Refugee Camp
in Thailand 101
Sandra H. Dudley
vi CONTENTS
Part II
Chapter 5
Secular and Religious Sanctuaries: Interfaces of
Humanitarianism and Self-Government of
Karen Refugee-Migrants in Thai-Burmese Border Spaces 129
Alexander Horstmann
Chapter 6
Conflicting Missions? The Politics of Evangelical
Humanitarianism in the Sahrawi and Palestinian
Protracted Refugee Situations 157
Elena Fiddian-Qasmiyeh
Chapter 7
Humanitarian Ad-Hocracy, Transnational New
Apostolic Missions, and Evangelical Anti-dependency
in a Haitian Refugee Camp 181
Elizabeth McAlister
Part III
Chapter 8
Palestinian Steadfastness as a Mission 209
Leonardo Schiocchet
Chapter 9
Conversion and Community among Iu Mien
Refugee Immigrants in the United States 235
Hjorleifur Jonsson
Chapter 10
Faith in Ethnicity: The Homeland Ties and
Diasporic Formation of Vietnamese Caodaists in the
United States and Cambodia 257
Thien-Huong Ninh
Notes on Contributors 281
Index 285
Figures

1.1 Kiếm dancing while possessed by the spirit of the child
prince (Cậu Bé) in front of the altar in his home in
Orange County, California 28
1.2 An older female spirit medium possessed by the
“Lady in Green” (Chầu Lục) handing out wax candles
as blessed gifts to members of the audience 39
2.1 The monk U Thuzana dressed as an ascetic monk
wandering in the forest (poster in Myaing Gyi Ngu) 46
4.1 Ka-thow-bòw poles in a village in Kayah State, Burma,
April 2014 105
5.1 Map of Burma (Myanmar) with Karen State 139
5.2 Together for a better future? Religious and community
leaders in Karen State 145
6.1 The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
(UNHCR) map of Western Sahara, indicating the
location of the four main Sahrawi refugee camps in
southwestern Algeria 160
7.1 Devastation in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, after the 2010
earthquake 185
7.2 The congregation camps under sheets and tarps in the
weeks after the earthquake 190
9.1 High-level Iu Mien spirit mediums at the King Pan
Buddha Light Palace festival in 2011, Oakland,
California 249
10.1 Caodai temple in Phnom Penh 261
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Acknowledgments

T
his volume is a product of the international workshop the editors
organized at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and
Ethnic Diversity (MPI MMG) in Göttingen, Germany, on October
6–7, 2011. In addition to the authors of this volume, the partici-
pants included Michel Agier, Ju Hui Judy Han, Vibha Joshi, Jacob
Hickman, and Elina Hankela. The editors appreciate all workshop
attendees for their enthusiastic participation, and especially thank
Peter van der Veer, director of the MPI MMG, for supporting this
workshop. This volume received particular attention from the editors
of the Contemporary Anthropology of Religion series at Palgrave.
The former series editor, Laurel Kendall, first provided us insight-
ful comments and suggestions. Subsequently, two new editors, Don
Seeman and Tulasi Srinivas, have helped us greatly in the last leg of
the volume’s preparation. Special thanks are due to the meticilious,
but always encouraging critique of Don Seaman in particular. We also
want to express our gratitude to the anonymous external reviewer
whose positive feedback is greatly appreciated.