Ethnicities and Religions – The entanglements of exclusivity and inclusivity (April 2025-March 2028)

Theme Category: Ethnicities and Religions

Project Leader: NARA Masashi

Project Period: April 2025 – March 2028

Purpose and content of the project

This project aims to critically reexamine the concept of ethnicity, which has tended to emphasize ethnicity as an exclusive category that distinguishes between the self and others, by focusing on the moment when ethnicity is inclusive, in relation to religious practices.

Religion has been recognized as a crucial factor in the construction of identity within discussions surrounding ethnicity. In addition, ethnicity has been a key factor in the context of understanding religious practices, within the field of anthropological studies on religion. This relationship between ethnicity and religion has been discussed particularly in migration studies. This is because religion not only plays a vital role in enabling migrants to construct their ethnic identities following migration and relocation, but also facilitates the formation of relationships with people of different ethnic backgrounds. The relationship between ethnicity and religion has come to the forefront alongside the growing transnational mobility of populations. Within this context, ethnicity emerges in relation to religion both as an exclusive category and as one that has the capacity to embrace the Other.

However, such cross-ethnic connections taking place through religious practice do not necessarily result in the construction of exclusive networks united solely by shared faith. As highlighted in discussions surrounding post-secularism, recent years have seen a marked tendency for religious groups to generate public benefits that extend beyond their own adherents, for instance, through the expansion of charitable activities. This trend reflects not only the global resurgence of religion since the 1980s but also the influence of neoliberalism. Within neoliberal policies, state regulation and protection have come to be replaced by greater degrees of individual freedom as well as strengthened market policies, leading to encouragement of free competition. Furthermore, national welfare and public services have been downsized, expanding the capacity available for religion to fulfill societal roles. If, as mentioned above, ethnicity and religion are closely intertwined, the generation of public benefits that is brought about by religion but that transcends specific religions may become a catalyst that allows for the new formation of ethnicities.

However, care should be taken to reflect how ethnicity and religion do not exist merely conceptually, but also through tangible objects. In understanding ethnic and religious communities, one cannot overlook the role of buildings—such as houses and places of worship—that enable social cohesion, nor the objects that are gifted, exchanged, or redistributed amongst people. In addition, migration and religious resurgence are not only facilitated by the movements of people but also by that of objects across the globe, while being mediated by infrastructure.

Against this background, this project aims to reposition the concept of ethnicity—which has tended to be framed within the politics of difference—as a more open and flexible concept, through the perspective of mobilities that encompass both people and objects, public benefit that such mobilities can generate across ethnic and religious boundaries, as well as the materiality that makes these processes possible.

Anticipated results

The expected outcomes of this project are threefold.

First, it aims to ethnographically illustrate how the category of ethnicity has been reconfigured under contemporary conditions, in which the movements of people and objects across national borders have intensified alongside globalization. This will be done with a focus on religion and in accordance with the contexts of different regions, ethnic groups, and religious traditions.

Second, by comparing the relationships between ethnicity and religion observed in these diverse regional, ethnic, and religious cases, the project seeks to propose a concept of ethnicity that is attuned to contemporary conditions. In doing so, it will critically examine existing discussions on ethnicity, which have tended to focus on the politics of difference, and contribute to the theoretical development of the field.

Third, the project aims to disseminate its findings to society through symposia and academic publications, thereby contributing to the realization of a society where diverse individuals may continue to coexist alongside diversity, under conditions where conflicts over ethnic and religious differences are intensifying.