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Antropologi Indonesia

Abstract

As being religious is often seen in religious societies as a precondition for having values, atheists often face prejudice as they are seen as people without values. However, as they conceptualize and construct their values with and against the religious other, they are part of society as an arena in which what counts as values is constantly negotiated. Drawing on David Graeber’s concept of society as an arena for the realization of value production, this article sheds light on the values of atheists in religious plural societies in Southeast Asia, namely Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines. It analyzes how atheism functions as the negative other of religious society, and how atheists negotiate and express their values within this social-political framework. It concludes that while atheists are often depicted as being outside of society and its values, they are indeed part of society in two senses: firstly, they comprise its internal other that serves as a counterfoil to the hegemonic religious notion of these societies. Secondly, atheists construct values that allow them to engage with other parts of society as they identify nexuses between their values and the values of religious people. In other words, atheists construct their values both with and against the backdrop of their religious others.

References

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