Syncretism
Jerry H. Bentley addresses the phenomenon of the establishment of contacts between peoples of different civilizations in pre-modern times and how that phenomenon resulted in the cultural transformation of entire societies. Bentley specifically sets out to answer the following question: “ to what extent was it possible for beliefs and values to cross cultural boundary lines, win the allegiance of peoples from different civilizations, and attract converts from alien cultural traditions?” (6).
While providing an answer to this question, Bentley successfully argues against the popular Eurocentric belief that effective cross-cultural encounters at a long-distance scale only began with Christopher Columbus. To do so, the author supports his theory with a detailed analysis of the multiple cross-cultural encounters that took place between the different time periods ranging from the ancient silk roads (440 B.C.E – 200 C.E.) and the years prior to the New World discovery in 1492 C.E.
In order to explain how these pre-modern cross-cultural encounters came about Bentley focuses on the spread of world religions as cultural vehicles and introduces the key concepts of ‘social conversion’ and ‘syncretism’. The first concept relates to the process through which people either adopted or adapted foreign culture and traditions to their own. For this, Bentley distinguishes three different categories of conversion: (i) conversion through voluntary association, (ii) conversion induced by political, social or economic pressures, and (iii) conversion by assimilation. Although apparently simple and self-explanatory, these categories and their definitions can often be confusing and misleading throughout the book.
According to Bentley, conversion by assimilation not only occurs in cases of cultural drift or alienation, such as the case of Manicheans and Nestorian Christians (14), but also when minorities seek to take better advantage of political, social, or economic opportunities
While providing an answer to this question, Bentley successfully argues against the popular Eurocentric belief that effective cross-cultural encounters at a long-distance scale only began with Christopher Columbus. To do so, the author supports his theory with a detailed analysis of the multiple cross-cultural encounters that took place between the different time periods ranging from the ancient silk roads (440 B.C.E – 200 C.E.) and the years prior to the New World discovery in 1492 C.E.
In order to explain how these pre-modern cross-cultural encounters came about Bentley focuses on the spread of world religions as cultural vehicles and introduces the key concepts of ‘social conversion’ and ‘syncretism’. The first concept relates to the process through which people either adopted or adapted foreign culture and traditions to their own. For this, Bentley distinguishes three different categories of conversion: (i) conversion through voluntary association, (ii) conversion induced by political, social or economic pressures, and (iii) conversion by assimilation. Although apparently simple and self-explanatory, these categories and their definitions can often be confusing and misleading throughout the book.
According to Bentley, conversion by assimilation not only occurs in cases of cultural drift or alienation, such as the case of Manicheans and Nestorian Christians (14), but also when minorities seek to take better advantage of political, social, or economic opportunities