The Link with Nature and Divine Meditations in Asia

Peasant societies in many parts of the world regulate their relationship with the natural environment through earth gods who anchor a group of families not in genealogical terms, as in the case of ancestors, but in ecological terms. The articles in this volume illustrate the role of, and the cultural activities surrounding, the earth gods in rural communities in Asian societies. More specifically, they show that, within the Asian context, it is possible to differentiate between two modes representing the earth gods and the relationship with nature, i.e., one that corresponds to state societies and the other to tribal ones.

Bernard Formoso is Lecturer in Ethnology at the University of Paris X where he is responsible for the Asian Crossroads project within the Laboratoire d’Ethnologie et de Sociologie Comparative (CNRS/Paris X).