How indigenous religious traditions relate to modern society and the ways in which scholars treat such traditions will be the focus of an international conference to be held at the University of California, Davis, March 28-31. Titled "Beyond 'Primitivism': Indigenous Religious Traditions and Modernity," the conference will bring together religious studies and anthropology scholars from the United States, Japan, Mexico, Europe, Africa and Australia. Conference sessions will be held in MU II of the Memorial Union the evening of Thursday, March 28; all day Friday, March 29; all day Saturday, March 30; and Sunday morning, March 31. The conference is free and open to the public. The researchers who speak at the conference will consider the nature and dynamics of indigenous religious traditions of the world as they relate to modern society and cultures, examine the treatment of such traditions in academic studies and explore the mutual enrichments and conflict produced by the encounter between indigenous religions and modern Western cultures, Christianity and other world religions. "Even though they are present on every continent of the world, indigenous religions have received only superficial attention by religious studies departments. The conference, it is hoped, will lead to a general understanding of the significance of indigenous traditions, which have been here in this country from time immemorial and for which there is no adequate interpretation of their history and development," says Jacob K. Olupona, conference convener and a UC Davis professor of African American and African studies. Olupona cites as examples of indigenous religious traditions in the United States the many Native American religious traditions, and notes conflicts such as that which led to a U.S. Supreme Court decision two years ago in favor of Florida's Church of the Lucumi Babalu Aye, known for its Santeria tradition in which animal sacrifices are performed. "Public reaction to these practices speaks to the need for a scholarly understanding of these traditions." UC Davis faculty members who will present papers at the conference include Inés Hernandez-Avila, whose talk is titled "La Mesa del Santo Nino de Atocha and the Conchero Dance Tradition in Mexico-Tenochtitlan;" Whalen Lai, whose talk is titled "The Earth Mother Sutra: A Revival of Primal Religion in Late 19th-Century China;" Aram Yengoyan, whose talk is titled "Mandaya Myth and the Heroic Religious Tradition: Between Islam and Christianity;" and Naomi Janowitz, whose talk is "Jews and Natives: Stanley Tambiah on Magic, Science and Religion." The 4:30 p.m. Thursday, March 28, opening ceremony for the conference will feature a performance by the Black Repertoire Dance Troupe, choreographed by UC Davis dance lecturer Bobbie Wynn Bolden. The conference is jointly sponsored by the UC Davis African American and African studies program, religious studies program, Davis Humanities Institute and the UC Humanities Research Institute. Additional conference funding has been provided by the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research, the Niwano Peace Foundation in Tokyo, and the Spalding Trust in Cambridge, England.