On Generalized Exchange and the Domestication of the Sangha

Abstract

By many reckonings, the Theravāda Buddhist sangha , or community of monks, enjoys the greatest longevity of any existing voluntary human society. Yet, the sociological understanding of the sangha , including its relations with the Buddhist laity, has remained relatively undeveloped compared to other fields of religious sociology. Part of this may be the result of an undue respect for the formative thoughts of scholarly ‘ancestors’ in the field. Max Weber was among the first to apply systematic sociological perspectives to the study of the sangha . In doing so, however, he set the terms of the debate in ways which may have limited rather than expanded inquiry. Even scholars who have written their own chapters in the sociology of Theravāda still perpetuate some of the same unexamined perspectives first introduced by Weber and others. It is time to examine some of these classical assumptions which have guided our scholarship about the Buddhist sangha . These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.

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