Dylan Renca

In Europe and North America, we celebrate group identities and heritage through acts of multicultural recognition. This is true in parts of Asia, Africa, and Latin America as well where multiculturalism is central to the political imaginary of many postcolonial nations. Recognition is assumed to be empowering, but what happens when those on the receiving end of recognition react with ambivalence? In rural Java, Indonesia, small communities called paguyuban have, for generations, been part of the social fabric of village life. In these communities, Javanese Indonesians cultivate and embody values, knowledge, and spiritual practices passed down from ancestors. Until very recently, they received little attention nationally. In 2017, however, Indonesia moved to extend them formal religious recognition for the first time in the nation’s history. Although government officials and civil society groups have celebrated the move, the response from paguyuban members has been mixed. Some have embraced recognition and, with it, the state’s rhetoric regarding their religious identity and traditions. Others, however, have refused to do so. Building on scholarly conversations about multiculturalism, religion, identity, and belonging, my dissertation theorizes both the new affordances recognition opens up for communities as well as the kinds of exclusions it can generate.