How do humans cope with a lack of control? This question is one of many addressed in the March 17 lecture “Of Humans, Whales and Goddesses; Rethinking Ritual Action in Times of Environmental Precarity” hosted by Professor Aike P. Rots. The lecture described how people in Vietnam and Japan relate to their natural environment through ritual action.
Rots is a professor of East Asian religions at the University of Oslo, specializing in religion, culture, and nature in Asia, primarily focusing on Japan and Vietnam. Rots has also authored and edited several books and studies such as his monograph “Shinto, Nature and Ideology in Contemporary Japan: Making Sacred Forests,” his upcoming publication “Animating Action: Changing the World with Anime, Rituals, and Robots” as well as the project he is currently developing, “Stranded Gods: Whales, Rituals, and Environmental Change in Japan and Vietnam.” He also introduced his upcoming European Research Council (ERC) project: “Maritime Goddesses: Transnational Connections, Blue Environments, and Ritual Care in East- and Southeast Asia” (2026-2031), which aims to develop a new theory of ritual action, or the ceremonial behavior towards gods or spirits by humans, in the Anthropocene — a popular term for the period in which human activity has had a dominant influence over the environment.
Rots’ research project examines how humans, gods, and spirits relate to and interact with the natural world, as well as how this relationship has changed both in the past and the present. He also hopes to find answers as to how culture takes shape through ritual action or how elusive powers such as ghosts or the state influence communities without being present.
To address these questions, Rots examined his fieldwork in Vietnam and Japan, conducted as part of the ERC-funded project “Whales of Power” (2019-2025), which studied human-animal relations in Asian popular religion.
The first case study Rots presented takes place in the large coastal village of Cửa Đại in south-central Vietnam. Cửa Đại was initially founded near the coast, though due to frequent tropical storms negatively affecting the environment, the village eventually moved further north toward shallow water. In the early 2000s, developers began building resorts in the area. This change created a significant source of income for the locals but, as Rots pointed out, led to the large removal of lumber from the area, and locals reported subsequent hauntings by vengeful tree spirits. This is an idea Rots revisited in the lecture to establish the connection between environmental detriment and reports of unexplained events.
Eventually, the increased erosion and pollution began to impact the economy that had sprouted through the commodification of the environment. To combat these conditions, the citizens there built erosion barriers. However, that attempt, as well as several others to exert control over nature, proved unsuccessful. With rapid fluctuations both in the environment and in the livelihoods of citizens, many turned to the divine for an explanation. These turbulent conditions resulted in a desperation for control within residents, thus inspiring worship and devotion towards personifications of nature in the form of gods and spirits.
Several Asian cultures, including some in Vietnam, practice whale worship. For example, in the Cham culture along the south-central coast of Vietnam, whales are seen as the embodiment of the goddess Cha Aih Va, protector of the sea. According to Rots, manifestations of whale worshiping practices are found in fish mausoleums on the Cửa Đại coast, where divinities are worshiped from an altar of sacred items such as rice wine, clean water, whale bones, jewelry, flowers and more — all in an attempt to secure the community’s longevity. Rots then highlighted several ocean-related deities such as the Vietnamese Ông Nam Hải, also known as Cá Ông, who shapeshifts into a whale or dolphin and helps distressed swimmers.
Rots pointed out the relationship between negative environmental exposure, increased ritual actions of the people and government action. For example, in the Cửa Đại region, whales often washed ashore. Due to the widespread perception of these animals as sacred, the government was persuaded to pass legislation requiring beachfront residents to properly consecrate any whale remains that washed upon their land.
He then addressed instances of sacred figures going in and out of patronage depending on the time period, some of which are recognized by the government, while others remain only unofficially recognized as folk beliefs. This variance in recognition, and the fact that the government acknowledged these deities at all, begs an interesting question regarding whether the political certification and identification of deities was determined by a desire to persuade the public or rooted in the government’s belief in divine influence. In other words, would a governing body recognize a given spirit as a way to justify environmental policies, or as a way of validating believers? This is just a fraction of the mystery Rots seeks to uncover.
The second case study Rots presented takes place in Kayoi, Japan. Here, whaling as an industry rose to popularity during the 17th century. During this period, whale blubber and oil rapidly became essential components in Japan’s economy. Even before this popularity, the region’s spiritual practices were strongly rooted in Buddhist beliefs of placating and appeasing whale spirits.
However, that spirituality became convoluted when the sacred laws of the natural world contradicted survival and sources of income. At this time in Japan, while killing whales was profitable, worshiping them and praying for their mercy (for the dependability of the environment) had been practiced generationally. These divisions were most directly addressed by a government policy of killing only adult whales for profit, sparing pregnant whales and calves.
To contrast these early stage conceptions of whales as sacred figures, Rots referenced the whale festivals held in Japan as early as the 1950s. During these festivals — which are considered culturally significant — traditional singing, storytelling, reenactment and dancing are all performed in celebration of the magnificent spirit of the whale and the sustenance it provides Japan. Additionally, Rots touched on topics of environmental detriment resulting from the whaling industry and Japanese interpretations of human exceptionalism. In other words, he examined the autonomy of these personified whale spirits without only considering their relation to human beings.
In presenting these studies, Rots provided examples of whale worship to suggest that ritual action is a byproduct of human uncertainty. He contrasted how worship is carried out in two regions which view whales as capable of immense power. Whether this power manifests as protection or a harvest of its materials, they serve to signify the key differences in the purpose of human ritual.
Rots posits that in Asian cultures, the constant presence of whales in the spiritual-ecological sphere of superstition is a culturally inherited phenomenon. Both Vietnamese and Japanese societies assign significance to the consistent presence of whales in and on their coasts, specifically to their death. By assigning this transition of death to existing conceptions of the afterlife, people can make sense of the death.
Examining these studies provides insight into how communities deal with unstable transitions. In this respect, Rots suggests that scholars studying global culture or history, religion, and the natural world should more closely consider the intersectionality of these subjects. Rots suggested we rethink cultural boundaries according more closely to these categories, study more scrutinously the contrasts in Asian anthropology and primarily seek diversity in geographical conditions.
Rots closed out his research suggesting religion-focused change can be examined through four concepts. The concepts are: ritual attempt to domesticate/pacify space, personhood assigned to people and the environment by the government (i.e., baptism, deification, citizenship, ordination), activism as a ritual to enact change, and ways of coping with ecological hopelessness.
I found this topic to be exceedingly interesting to consider the depth of intersectionality in the study of anthropology. The concepts introduced are globally applicable, though analyzing a particular place and time allows for specific connections of human experience. By observing the study of religion, geography, politics, and environmentalism together, Rots was able to highlight the physical and psychological effects a community experiences in the face of precarity.
Author
About the Author
