Giving Voice to the Voiceless: A Peaceable Research Paradigm for Psychology in China

Whereas Western religion emphasizes internal and transcendent mental states of the individual, indigenous religions place emphasis on communal, external, and participatory rituals. The indigenous religions in China are characterized by their intersectionality of cultural practices and identities that feature groundedness, embeddedness, diffusion, and holism, which were often overlooked by the institutionalized approach to religion in mainstream psychology. This chapter attempts to construct a different epistemology and methodology for the study of indigenous religion. Using our study with Yi ethnic tradition as an example, we advocate for theories such as the Ecological Rationality framework and semiotic analysis that may account for the macro and micro levels of religious differences. Finally, we hope to move toward a global psychology of religion that strives to understand diverse religious practices with open-mindedness and egalitarianism.