Rivers, Oceans, and Spirits: Water Cosmologies, Gender, and Religious Change in Southeast Asia

Abstract

Water in many different forms and contexts is of central significance in Southeast Asia, and these differences are reflected in the vast range of spirits and deities. Despite wide variation, the most obvious distinction is between spirits associated with fresh and salt water. Those linked to water associated with fertility are typically regarded as female and sympathetic to human requests for assistance. By contrast, the spirits who inhabit turbulent river waters and patrol the shorelines may be male, female, or only vaguely gendered. Although they can be capricious and sometimes cruel, they are nonetheless amenable to individual or communal supplication. The same ambiguity is exemplified by the sea spirits, who extend rewards to those they favour but inflict harsh punishments when their anger is aroused. Yet regardless of their nature or the place with which they were associated, the 'power base' of indigenous spirits was always locally concentrated. The limitations in their reach help explain the appeal of cosmologies that extended across a much larger area, and even across the entire globe. The accompanying conceptualization of new and benevolent beings is especially evident in the maritime environment. Here human activity is male-dominated, and the male divinities and saints associated with supra-local belief systems might appear to be the natural guardians of mariners. Even so, culturally entrenched ideas of connections between water and maternal care facilitated the adoption of female deities as protectors of ocean-going voyagers.

Co-governance, Transregional Maritime Conventions, and Indigenous Customary Practices Among Subsistence Fishermen in Ende, Indonesia

“…With both dimensions linked in practice and traditions, the application of indigenous adat acknowledges this continuity and does not necessarily uphold a distinction in terms of jurisdiction (see Edjid, 1979, for rigidity of coastal adat in Ende). For example, like other Southeast Asian cultures, the violation of prescriptions in marine spaces carries serious consequences that follow the infractor to land or sea (Andaya, 2016(Andaya, , 2017. Therefore, if managers seek to identify specific principles that only apply to the marine world without considering land-ocean interdependences, they may conclude that few local rules, if any, are tailored to manage coastal or marine resources.…”

Spiritual Relationality in Swahili Ocean Worlds

“…Research has thus shown how different communities engage with the ocean spiritually. Whether treated as indigenous sea cosmologies (Pannell 2007), cosmologies of the maritime world (Watson Andaya 2016;, spiritscapes of seascapes (McNiven 2003), or a seascape of spirits (Zerner 2003), we find both commonalities and differences in spiritual engagements with the ocean in different parts of the world, along with changes over time. This cultural diversity could be approached in terms of spiritual beliefs and practices, embedded in local cosmologies or ontologies that ascertain a close relationship between humans and the natural environment.…”

The Virgin of the Vulnerable Lake: Catholic Engagement with Climate Change in the Philippines

“…Indigenous communities of the world have always considered caves, lakes, trees, and rivers as sacred. Throughout Southeast Asia, spirits associated with smaller bodies of water, such as springs, lakes, and streams, were usually personified as female, often helpful and supportive (Andaya 2016).…”