The idea of “ritual as technology” emerged from several critical moves in anthropology, but recently historians of technology have also studied the ritual aspects of everything from automobiles to super-colliders. Little, however, has been done to push these metaphors and see what, if anything, they really have to offer historians. For scholars of interested in forms of natural knowledge and human ingenuity in East Asia who constantly grapple with assumptions about the tradition and modernity, pushing this is especially valuable.

Ritual and Technology in East Asia asks two main questions: 1) What can the study of ritual and the study of technology offer one another?
2) To what degree and in what ways are the metaphors of “ritual as technology” and “technology as ritual” useful for historical research, especially in the history of science, technology, and medicine?

The workshop will start by considering “motifs” in ritual and technology, such as play, violence, secrecy, wonder, sincerity, and failure. Then we will consider participants’ empirical papers to see how ritual and technology speak to one another in specific historical contexts across East Asia. We will end by taking up categories of analysis (e.g., authority, control, belief, (re)production, discipline, aesthetics, etc.) that emerge through the motif and paper sessions. Throughout we will engage questions that link ritual and technology in productive ways, such as “What does it mean for a ritual/technology to ‘work’?”, “How does innovation figure into ritual/technology?”, “What kinds of truth claims underlie ritual/technology and how are these authorized, communicated, and stabilized?”

We invite scholars across the fields of East Asian history, science and technology studies, anthropology, religious studies, archaeology, etc. to think about technology through ritual and ritual through technology. Proposal submissions should include brief CV and an abstract (500 words) for an original paper that deals with ritual, technology, or their intersection in East Asia. You should also suggest a motif, with an explanation of why this is an interesting way to consider your own research and developments in your field. Categories of analysis are expected to emerge from the workshop itself, but examples that cross the study of ritual and technology are highly welcome. Materials should be sent to ritualandtechnology@googlemail.com by Monday November 26, 2010. Authors will be notified of acceptance by December 15.