Syncretic Objects

Abstract

This article is concerned with the material support and expression of religious syncretism. A wooden carving, ‘The Paiwan Cross’, in an aboriginal Catholic Church of Taiwan, is the focus of my analysis. This carving, characteristic of the mixture of traditional imagery and Christian imagery, is a historical product of local Catholics’ path towards syncretism. I thus consider it as a ‘syncretic object’. By examining the historical and social process of the production of this cross and other syncretic objects, I investigate their significance in the emergence and reproduction of local Catholics’ identity. The social agency of syncretic objects in mediating and reconciling traditional religion and Catholicism will be discussed. I argue that their agency should be understood in terms of ‘participation’ rather than Gell’s concept of ‘captivation’ as can be seen in his Art and Agency (1998).