Rediscovering the ritual technology of the placebo effect in analytical psychology.

Science.gov (United States)

Goodwyn, Erik

2017-06-01

Technology, viewed more generally, is a collection of skills and methods that are used to accomplish an objective of some kind. Modernity has produced many kinds of ever-expanding new technologies, but it is also evident that technologies can be lost or fall out of use. A cross-cultural survey of ritual reveals a rather startling observation: that while developed nations often exceed other cultures in terms of material technology, they often pale by comparison in their use of ritual technology. In this essay we will see how ritual is a powerful sort of technology that developed nations have mostly allowed to drift out of regular, vigorous use, despite its numerous psychological and biological effects. This tendency has left one of the rituals we still have - psychotherapy itself - to be bereft of some of the typical tools for concretizing the symbolic in recurrent patterns around the world. Jung himself could be accused of being somewhat anti-ritual himself, enmeshed as he was in the post-Protestant, post-Enlightenment cultural environment that defines the West in many ways. But these under-utilized elements of ritual technology may be a natural fit for Jungian therapy due to its use of symbols. © 2017, The Society of Analytical Psychology.

School Rituals and Educational Practice Los Rituales Escolares y las Prácticas Educativas

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Magister Pablo Daniel Vain

2002-02-01

Full Text Available This study on school rituals, based on an socio-anthropology view, has arisen from the hypothesis of the anthropologist Roberto Da Matta. This hypothesis supports the theory that rituals are useful, particularly in a complex society, to promote its social identity and develop its character. Da Matta observes that it is as if the ritual domain were a privileged area from whence to enter the cultural kernel of a society, its main ideology, its system of values. This is the reason why we have put forward the proposal that to enquire about rituals at schools can result in a useful contribution to the analysis of this institution in its reproductive dimension or in the construction of a determined social structure. This research was carried out in three schools in the city of Posadas, Misiones, Argentina. In two of them, the research was pursued as a sustained, long-term and ethnographic observation: students, parents, teachers and the managing staff were interviewed. In the third school, just the teachers and the managing staff were interviewed by means of a probing survey; in both cases, strategies, sources and techniques were combined. En este estudio, (Nota 1 de carácter socioantropológico, sobre los rituales escolares se ha partido de la hipótesis del antropólogo Roberto Da Matta quién sostiene que “...los rituales sirven, sobre todo en la sociedad compleja, para promover la identidad social y construir su carácter”. (... “ Es como si el dominio del ritual fuese una región privilegiada para penetrar en el corazón cultural de una sociedad, en su ideología dominante, en su sistema de valores..” (Nota 2 Por ello nos hemos planteado que indagar acerca de los rituales en la escuela, puede resultar un aporte interesante para analizar esta institución en su dimensión reproductora o de construcción de una determinada estructura social. La investigación se realizó en tres escuelas de la Ciudad de Posadas (Misiones; Argentina. En dos

Taking Possession: Rituals, Space and Authority

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Jennifer Mara DeSilva

2016-12-01

Full Text Available In early modern Europe authority over communities, both people and spaces, was visualized through ritual gestures and processions. Communities gathered to witness ceremonial entries that drew on accepted forms of gestures and speech identifying individuals and articulating their place in the urban power relationship. Ceremonial entries by rulers, ambassadors, bishops, and other office-holders drew on ritual acts projecting messages of possession in order to establish reputations of prestige and authority. This introductory essay draws on cultural anthropology and recent historiography to build a framework for understanding rituals of possession that went beyond the tradition triumphal entry to incorporate substitutes, new modes of prestigious display, and attend to conflicts. By “taking possession” of communities, offices, and spaces using accepted ritual forms, early moderns initiated conversations about authority and power that were far more flexible in their scope, practice, and participants than expected.

Forced Migration and Muslim Rituals: An Area of Cultural Psychology?

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Nora Ahlberg

1993-01-01

Full Text Available The psychological foundation of rites de passage have long been debated within the history of religion and related areas. The significance of such rites in facilitating emotional readjustment to a new life situation have been particularly stressed. Emotional reactions on the individual level largely remain outside the competence of anthropologists, despite their awareness of the general influence of culture on this as on other areas of human endeavour. Focusing on traumatized female refugees from Iran, a critical question is whether the changing living conditions which have provoked traumatic experiences in the lives of these refugees have been in any way related to Muslim ritual requirements or rites de passage.

Medical Rituals and Media Rituals

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Zoltán Zsinkó-Szabó

2013-01-01

Full Text Available In the present article the author examines the ritual elements of theprofessionalization during medical studies, and its interference with media content of medical significance, comparing the role of medical and media rituals on the way of becoming a doctor. It is to be explored how these medical soap operas, medical dramas, medical thrillers or crime stories do exert influence on medical identity and role expectations. Do medical students and their relatives (withmedical expertise frequently identify themselves with these roles? Is their way of reception critical or naïve? How media rituals are organizing, modulating the students’ medical perception and expectations. Is there a mediated “shadow initiation” via media or it is excluded and denied? Does it perfuse the common social experience of becoming a doctor via peer communication and peer shapingof model behavior? We search the answers in the context of a theory of media rituals.

The taste transformation ritual in the specialty coffee market

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Ronan Torres Quintão

2017-10-01

Full Text Available Although the consumer culture field has addressed the role of ritual processes in consumption, no research has yet identified how connoisseur consumers, through ritual practices, establish and manipulate their distinction from other consumers. Drawing on key concepts from ritual theory, this research addresses the role played by ritual in connoisseurship consumption and consumers’ taste. In conducting an ethnographic study on connoisseurship consumption, the first author immersed himself in the North American specialty coffee context—Toronto, Montreal, Seattle, and New York—from August 2013 to July 2014. He used long interviews and participant observation to collect data, which was then interpreted using a hermeneutic approach. We introduce the taste transformation ritual, theorizing the process that converts regular consumers into connoisseur consumers by establishing and reinforcing differences between mass and connoisseurship consumption. We develop a broader theoretical account that builds on consumption ritual and taste formation.

Bereavement rituals in the Muscogee Creek tribe.

Science.gov (United States)

Walker, Andrea C; Balk, David E

2007-08-01

A qualitative, collective case study explores bereavement rituals in the Muscogee Creek tribe. Data from interviews with 27 participants, all adult members of the tribe, revealed consensus on participation in certain bereavement rituals. Common rituals included: (a) conducting a wake service the night before burial; (b) never leaving the body alone before burial; (c) enclosing personal items and food in the casket; (d) digging graves by hand; (e) each individual throwing a handful of dirt into the grave before covering, called giving a "farewell handshake"; (f) covering the grave completely by hand; (g) building a house over the grave; (h) waiting 4 days before burial; (i) using medicine/purification; and (j) adhering to socialized mourning period. Cultural values of family, community, religion, importance of the number 4, Indian medicine, and the meaning of death contributed to the development of these rituals.

The Women Ritual Processions "Lazarki" in Macedonia

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F. Petkovski

2014-06-01

Full Text Available This work reviews an interesting appearance of ritual processions on the Balkan Peninsula that has succeeded to maintain and keep the practice through vast period of transformations, changes and cultural developments. The women’s processions “Lazarki” (Лазарки in original or “Lazarici”, “Lazorki”, “Lazarinki”, “Lazarenki”, “Lazara” depending of the ethnic regions in Macedonia, appear as one of the most famous ritual practices in Macedonia that have maintained to survive their tradition even today. As a most adequate term, I will simply use the name “Lazarki”. These women’s ritual processions are famous in most of the countries on the Balkan such as Serbia, Bulgaria, Greece, Albania etc. performed by a group of girls that use a certain text or melody, as well as dancing or theatre elements as a basic and inextricable element (Maletic, 1986. The ritual is performed in motion while the girls are singing ritual songs or doing a ritual dance while traveling throughout the village or performing in the yard of a family that they have come to bless. The basic factor for this performance is the moment through which the ritual procession contributes towards the overall goods of the family, and as return, the group is rewarded with gifts such as food, clothing or money.

AHP 40: SOCIALIZING WITH GODS IN THE MONGGHUL BOG RITUAL

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Limusishiden (Li Dechun

2016-02-01

Full Text Available This article introduces a communal ritual, known as Bog, as practiced among the Mongghul, a linguistically and culturally distinct group of people of the northeast Tibetan Plateau. The main activity of the Bog ritual involves deities and ancestral souls being invited to a sumptuous "banquet" where religious practitioners, called fashi, chant scriptures, sing, dance, joke, and burn incense to delight the "guests." This essay provides a thick description of the ritual. To provide context for this description, we introduce the community on which our description focuses, and also discuss the role of fashi. A chronological account of the ritual follows that includes not only descriptions of the ritual activities, but also interpretations of the meaning of these events from the perspective of the ritual practitioners. We also provide an analysis of the performances given during the ritual and how they contribute to creating a spectacle that delights both human and non-human participants.

Ritual and reconciliation in Mozambique: Culture as a mediator in wartime experiences

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Ilundi Cabral

2009-10-01

Full Text Available Based on Mozambique’s post-independence armed conflict (1976-1992, this paper examines several issues linked with culture’s role as a mediator in the experience of war and post-war, paying particular attention to spiritual purification rituals. The author argues that these rituals played an important role in the process of the rehabilitation, reintegration and social reconciliation of combatants returning from the war, as well as for Mozambique’s societies in general. The paper also explores the potentials and limitations of these rituals.

AHP 40: SOCIALIZING WITH GODS IN THE MONGGHUL BOG RITUAL

OpenAIRE

Limusishiden (Li Dechun); Gerald Roche

2016-01-01

This article introduces a communal ritual, known as Bog, as practiced among the Mongghul, a linguistically and culturally distinct group of people of the northeast Tibetan Plateau. The main activity of the Bog ritual involves deities and ancestral souls being invited to a sumptuous "banquet" where religious practitioners, called fashi, chant scriptures, sing, dance, joke, and burn incense to delight the "guests." This essay provides a thick description of the ritual. To provide context for th...

Ritual Hari Raya Agama: Histeria Konsumsi Massa Dan Khotbah Industri Budaya

OpenAIRE

Lukmantoro, Triyono

2004-01-01

The purposes of religion ritual are embodying conscience collective in society to gain sacred values. But, Â ronically, in consumer society the religion ritual has been transformed to be means for excessive shopping on hysteria stage. More dramatically, television stations as motors of the culture industry to present religion spectacles use this momentum. It means that television pretends to celebrate the ritual, but in fact television only makes the largest profits.

Ritual Hari Raya Agama: Histeria Konsumsi Massa dan Khotbah Industri Budaya

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Triyono Lukmantoro

2013-11-01

Full Text Available The purposes of religion ritual are embodying conscience collective in society to gain sacred values. But,  ronically, in consumer society the religion ritual has been transformed to be means for excessive shopping on hysteria stage. More dramatically, television stations as motors of the culture industry to present religion spectacles use this momentum. It means that television pretends to celebrate the ritual, but in fact television only makes the largest profits.

Ritual in Unity Dow's Far And Beyon | Kgafela-Mokoka | Marang ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

This reinforces the article's argument that the violation of sexual mores leads to HIV and AIDS, and to death. The article also examines Dow's prejudice against rituals and the idea that adherence to cultural and religious sexual mores, and not ritual performance, is the solution to the problem of early deaths in the novel.

Extreme Rituals as Social Technologies

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Fischer, Ronald; Xygalatas, Dimitris

2014-01-01

We often think of pain as intrinsically bad, and the avoidance of pain is a fundamental evolutionary drive of all species. How can we then explain widespread cultural prac- tices like certain rituals that involve the voluntary infliction of physical pain? In this paper, we argue that inflicting...

Divina Moneta. Coins in Religion and Ritual

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

2017-01-01

This edited collection analyses the phenomenon of coin use for religious and ritual purposes in different cultures and across different periods of time. It proposes an engagement with the theory and interpretation of the ‘material turn’ with numismatic evidence, and an evidence-based series......, interdisciplinary discussions are organised around three themes: coin deposit and ritual practice, the coin as economic object and divine mediator, and the value and meaning of coin offering. Although focusing on the medieval period in Western Europe, the book includes instructive cases from the Roman period until...

Quantifying collective effervescence: Heart-rate dynamics at a fire-walking ritual

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Xygalatas, Dimitris; Konvalinka, Ivana; Roepstorff, Andreas

2011-01-01

Collective rituals are ubiquitous and resilient features of all known human cultures. They are also functionally opaque, costly, and sometimes dangerous. Social scientists have speculated that collective rituals generate benefits in excess of their costs by reinforcing social bonding and group...... solidarity, yet quantitative evidence for these conjectures is scarce. Our recent study measured the physiological effects of a highly arousing Spanish fire-walking ritual, revealing shared patterns in heart-rate dynamics between participants and related spectators. We briefly describe our results...

Medical Rituals and Media Rituals

OpenAIRE

Zoltán Zsinkó-Szabó

2013-01-01

In the present article the author examines the ritual elements of theprofessionalization during medical studies, and its interference with media content of medical significance, comparing the role of medical and media rituals on the way of becoming a doctor. It is to be explored how these medical soap operas, medical dramas, medical thrillers or crime stories do exert influence on medical identity and role expectations. Do medical students and their relatives (withmedical expertise frequently...

Failure of Ritual Reinvention?

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Rudolph, Michael

2007-01-01

or disability of different ethnic elites to channel these ambivalences in accordance with their specific goals and power intentions. This contribution therefore argues that it is not necessarily the violation of prescribed ritual rules that causes the rejection of a ritual as wrong or heterodox in the course...... of ritual criticism, but may also be the result of counter-elites' endeavours to establish group identities different from those envisaged by the ritual conveners. Strategic framing of ambivalent ritual symbols as well as the introduction of alternative rituals seem to be key features in this process...

Replication of the "Social Rituals and Mental Health: A Novel Approach to Early Intervention in Mental Illness" Project in an Iranian Setting

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Azadeh Malekian

2014-09-01

Full Text Available Background: The present study is a replication of a study designed by the University of Western Australia (UWA. The hypothesis examined is that the deteriorating mental functioning which occurs during early stages of mental illness are recognizable in the form of altered sensitivity to expected rituals and an altered ability to perform the rituals appropriately. The present study aimed to evaluate the cultural applicability and feasibility of the Social Rituals Interview Schedule (SRIS within the Iranian culture, and to assemble a culture-specific repertoire of social rituals in Iran. In addition, it aimed to examine the extent to which disturbances in everyday expected social rituals can be used for the early identification of individuals, families, and communities who have, or are at risk of soon developing, poor mental health. Methods: The SRIS domains of social rituals were discussed in an expert focus group discussion and during key informant interviews with mental health patients and their care-givers. Results: The concept of social rituals was acknowledged as being applicable and relevant in detecting early alterations in one's mental health condition. All domains of the SRIS were also confirmed as culturally applicable in the Iranian setting. A new domain named “Religious Rituals" was added to the domains already identified by UWA researchers as a significant and culturally sensitive domain of the social rituals in Iran. A culturally modified Farsi version of the SRIS -applicable and valid for use within the Iranian culture- was produced. Conclusion: Both the social rituals concept and the produced Farsi version of its Interview schedule were regarded as culturally applicable to provide a foundation for planning prospective tools for early recognition of mental health deterioration in Iranian settings.

A comparison of some gigantic characters in Iroquois and Saami traditions

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Thomas McElwain

1987-01-01

Full Text Available A comparison of similar narrative figures in presumably unrelated cultures may contribute to the discovery of blind spots and new areas of reflection in ethnographical description and thus indirectly contribute to a better basis for comparative studies. The lack of money and precious metals in the Iroquoian repertoire shows contrasting concerns between Saami and Iroquoian tradition, suggesting new directions of reflection on the Iroquoian material, namely in terms of hunting and warfare luck in the context of guardian and helping spirits. The stereotyped simplicity of the Iroquoian material in contrast with the variety of the Saami material suggests 1 the superimposition of a heavier load of concerns and values on the Saami figures and opens for reflection the possibility of an archaic Stallo who more purely represents the interaction between the human and the natural world in terms of guardian and helper spirits; and 2 the possibility of approaching the Saami material from the point of view of local repertoire and concern in order to reduce false problems of complexity. The Saami material serves to clarify the particular configuration of the Stone Coat tradition through a comparison of similarities and contrasts. Also, the Iroquois material may stimulate some clarification of some aspects of the Stallo tradition.§

The Ritual Use of Jhakro in Magar Community

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Prakash Prasad Sapkota

2011-04-01

Full Text Available Human- plant relation is tightly attached on life of human beings. From the beginning of civilization, people used many plants and their products for different purpose to adopt with their environment. The essential and valuable materials including plant species are gathered, used, saved and always remain hunger for knowledge yet now. They developed different kinds of ceremonies and rituals and include valuable materials and plants within it to protect and remains as indigenous knowledge in particular communities and groups. In this context, I want to raise the issue of material culture to search why people used plants in their rituals with reference to a plant species the Jhakro the Magars inhabitant of Baglung district, western Nepal. The research was carried out by using descriptive and exploratory research design. Observation, interview and group discussion were used in the field for primary data collection. The Magars are rich in their rituals among them death and kul pujane rituals are significant for cohesive and solidarity of the group; within these rituals a shrub plant species with special type of smell remains in central position for purity and soul. They believed that in death ritual all the polluted activities are purified and in kul pujane Jhakro acts as purity as well as help to join their ancestors with them. Unfortunately, they are unknown of the materialistic meaning of it due to lack of transferring knowledge. In etic aspect, this plant has important medicinal properties and the Magar preserved by keeping it in important rituals within their community. Keywords: Ritual; Jhakro; the Magars; ethno-botany; ancestors DOI: 10.3126/dsaj.v4i0.4522 Dhaulagiri Journal of Sociology and Anthropology Vol.4 2010 pp.223-234

Kulpuja: A Ritual and Behavior of Magar

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Prakash Prasad Sapkota

2012-06-01

Full Text Available Human beings take themselves superior for having the capacity of development of culture to their environment for survival. From the beginning of civilization, people prepared, accumulated the knowledge and preserved it as a form of culture. Culture is the body of thought and knowledge both theoretical and practical, which only man can possess. It is the sum total of achievements which develops traits by traits. Among them kulpuja ritual is one of the central traits. In this paper, I explore why rituals like kulpuja are celebrated and what relation they have with the behavior of the indigenous people—the Magars of Langaun of Baglung district, western Nepal. The research was carried out by using descriptive and explanatory research design. Participant observation, group discussion and key informant interview were carried out to collect the primary data. The Magars are rich in their ritual activities; among them kulpuja is the most important one. Like other castes and many ethnic groups of the world, the Magars of Langaun also sacrifice and offer chicken and black pig’s heart for their ancestral god. They believe on supreme power which is able for the termination of the evil eyes as well as other obstacles and illness by the happiness of their ancestral god. The offering of a live heart is a unique feature which is carried out emotionally. The rate of generation gap is clearly seen between the members of Magars. The elders are worried about the increasing rate of dependency in their offspring and feel how the children are able to survive within their environment. The importance of this ritual bind among the members of the community is deteriorating continuously in the name of modernization in younger members of the community.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/dsaj.v5i0.6366 Dhaulagiri Journal of Sociology and Anthropology Vol. 5, 2011: 235-46 

The implications of ritual practices and ritual plant uses on nature conservation: a case study among the Naxi in Yunnan Province, Southwest China.

Science.gov (United States)

Geng, Yanfei; Hu, Guoxiong; Ranjitkar, Sailesh; Shi, Yinxian; Zhang, Yu; Wang, Yuhua

2017-10-25

Conservation of biodiversity is primary important of today's critically vulnerable environment. Efficient conservation can be possible only with the long-term participation and understanding of the communities. Ritual beliefs of the indigenous people are one of the important tools to understand the local communities and aid the nature conservation. In this paper, we documented contemporary ritual practices and ritual plant uses among the Naxi people and discussed the importance of traditional knowledge on ritual practice in the conservation of plants in the mountains presenting a case study of the Dongba culture. This study was carried out from July in 2013 to July in 2014. To document and analyze the present state of the ritual plant used by the Naxi people we conducted an ethnobotanical survey. We interviewed local people including Dongba priests using the semi-structured questionnaire. During the field study, we participated in the local religious activities to witness the use of different plants in ritual activities of the Naxi people. We interviewed twenty-two key informants and eleven of them were male. All the specimens of documented species were collected and deposited at the herbarium of Kunming Institute of Botany. The survey results revealed the Naxi people possessed sound knowledge of the traditional ritual plants and great diversity of plants used in many of Naxi rituals and festivals. From the survey, we documented 32 ritual plant species belonging to 24 genera of 17 families used in various ritual activities. The ritual plants were grouped into two categories, namely those burned as incense, and those used for decoration. The incense plants like Olea europaea subsp. cuspidata and Pistacia weinmanniifolia were probably promising natural aromatic resource. Plants of genus Quercus were the most frequently used species. The places for ritual activities were diverse, such as the incense burners inside and outside the house and sacred trees at the

Ritual Decapitation in Mesoamerica

OpenAIRE

Baudiš, Adam

2016-01-01

This master's thesis deals with sacrifice by decapitation. Its goal is to describe systematicaly this phenomenon which was widely practiced in the Mesoamerican area. To accomplish this there were firstly introduced the main interpretation lines of human sacrifice. The importance of maize for the Mesoamerican culture was described in the next chapter. The third part of this thesis introduces some Aztec festivities which are connected with ritual decapitation in Sahagún's Historia general. Then...

Ritual Identity

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van der Beek, Suzanne

2017-01-01

Rituals are often used as opportunities for self-reflection and identity construction. The Camino to Santiago de Compostela, which has become a singularly popular pilgrimage since the late 1980s, is an example of a ritual that is explicitly used to gain a deeper understanding of one’s identity

The meaning of rituals after a stillbirth: A qualitative study of mothers with a stillborn baby.

Science.gov (United States)

Tseng, Ying-Fen; Hsu, Min-Tao; Hsieh, Yueh-Tzu; Cheng, Hsiu-Rong

2018-03-01

To explore the meaning of rituals that women and their families perform after a stillbirth. A cultural taboo in Taiwan prohibits discussing death; thus, parents of stillborn babies have no established public mourning or burial ceremonies to perform for their stillborn children. Stillbirths are often treated as if they had never happened. Qualitative descriptive study. In-depth interviews, which were transcribed and content analysed, were conducted with a purposive sample of 16 women discharged from two teaching hospitals in Taiwan after they had a stillbirth. Families engaged in rituals for two underlying reasons: to benefit the deceased child and the immediate family. The meanings of the rituals for the child are presented through three themes: (i) sending the baby's spirit to a safe place, (ii) protecting it from suffering and (iii) preparing it for a better reincarnation. The meanings of rituals for the families are presented through four themes: (i) releasing parental guilt by doing their best for the deceased child, (ii) cutting bonds with the child, (iii) avoiding additional misfortune should they mishandle the funeral and (iv) praying for a successful subsequent pregnancy. Death-related rituals are highly culturally diverse. This study fills a gap about Asian cultures. Participating in rituals permits a mother to do something for her deceased child, helps relieve her guilt and lets her cope with the stillbirth. Rituals after a stillbirth can help a woman recover from grieving and allow her to hope for a successful subsequent pregnancy. Health professionals should discuss with bereaved parents what rituals they would like to perform and then respect their decisions. A continuum of care and support that exists from the prenatal diagnosis through the stillbirth and beyond is recommended for parents and families during this difficult time. © 2017 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

RELIGION, CULTURE AND LOCAL WISDOM IN THE DEATH RITUAL OF PONTIANAK MALAY SOCIETY

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Sumarman Muhammad Djar’ie

2016-02-01

Full Text Available Death is inevitable and will occur to every living creature, including humans no mater what religion or belief they have; however, no one knows for sure when it happens. Humans can only predict death based on indicators that can be seen before it occurs. Still until now, there are many people who attempt to oppose death, even though in the end they have to admit that Allah is the Almighty. Therefore, no wonder if the death is still considered a tragedy rather than the culmination of happiness when humans finally harvest of deeds they have done all their life. In this light, death rituals are often accompanied by the tears of the family of the deceased, even some cry hard to express their pain as someone they love is gone, coupled with the arrival of relatives and acquaintances who mourn, and condolences as well as the phrase “inna lillâh wa inna ilaihi raji’ȗn”. A day of joy has turned into a day of sorrow, although it always ends with kendurian (gathering for remembering the dead, whose excitement is like that of selamatan (communal feast and syukuran (celebration of thankfulness. This paper tries to present the infiltration of religion and culture in the death ritual in Pontianak Malay community as an object of discussion of local wisdom by using mafhȗm mukhâlafah approach, to provide a new understanding of the meaning of death.

Derepression of the Iroquois Homeodomain Transcription Factor Gene IRX3 Confers Differentiation Block in Acute Leukemia

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Tim D.D. Somerville

2018-01-01

Full Text Available The Iroquois homeodomain transcription factor gene IRX3 is expressed in the developing nervous system, limb buds, and heart, and transcript levels specify obesity risk in humans. We now report a functional role for IRX3 in human acute leukemia. Although transcript levels are very low in normal human bone marrow cells, high IRX3 expression is found in ∼30% of patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML, ∼50% with T-acute lymphoblastic leukemia, and ∼20% with B-acute lymphoblastic leukemia, frequently in association with high-level HOXA gene expression. Expression of IRX3 alone was sufficient to immortalize hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPCs in myeloid culture and induce lymphoid leukemias in vivo. IRX3 knockdown induced terminal differentiation of AML cells. Combined IRX3 and Hoxa9 expression in murine HSPCs impeded normal T-progenitor differentiation in lymphoid culture and substantially enhanced the morphologic and phenotypic differentiation block of AML in myeloid leukemia transplantation experiments through suppression of a terminal myelomonocytic program. Likewise, in cases of primary human AML, high IRX3 expression is strongly associated with reduced myelomonocytic differentiation. Thus, tissue-inappropriate derepression of IRX3 contributes significantly to the block in differentiation, which is the pathognomonic feature of human acute leukemias.

the cultural and historical significance of malopo ritual: a pedi

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Produced by SUN MeDIA Bloemfontein. M.E.K. Lebaka ... rituals are aimed at enriching the personal and social life of the Pedi community. 1. INTRODUCTION ... generations by means of oral tradition, by word of mouth. Music experts often ...

Tony Yengeni's ritual slaughter: Animal anti-cruelty vs. Culture ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

I address the question: 'Are acts of the ritual slaughter of animals, of the kind recently engaged in by the Yengeni family, morally justifiable?' Using the. Yengeni incident as a springboard for my discussion, I focus on the moral question of the relative weight of two competing ethical claims. I weigh the claim that we have an ...

Reigniting tobacco ritual: waterpipe tobacco smoking establishment culture in the United States.

Science.gov (United States)

Carroll, Mary V; Chang, Judy; Sidani, Jaime E; Barnett, Tracey E; Soule, Eric; Balbach, Edith; Primack, Brian A

2014-12-01

Waterpipe tobacco smoking (WTS) is an increasingly prevalent form of tobacco use in the United States. Its appeal may stem from its social, ritualistic, and aesthetic nature. Our aim in this study was to understand WTS as a social ritual with the goal of informing prevention efforts. We conducted a covert observational study consisting of 38 observation sessions in 11 WTS establishments in 3 U.S. cities. Data collection was based on an established conceptual framework describing ritualistic elements of tobacco use. Iterative codebook development and qualitative thematic synthesis were used to analyze data. Atmospheres ranged from quiet coffee shop to boisterous bar party environments. While some children and older adults were present, the majority of clientele were young adults. Men and women were evenly represented. However, there were 19 occurrences of a male smoking by himself, but no women smoked alone. The vast majority (94%) of the clientele were actively smoking waterpipes. All 83 observed groups manifested at least 1 of the ritual elements of our conceptual framework, while 41 of the 83 observed groups (49%) demonstrated all 4 ritual elements. Despite its heterogeneity, WTS is often characterized by 1 or more established elements of a tobacco-related social ritual. It may be valuable for clinical and public health interventions to acknowledge and address the ritualistic elements and social function of WTS. © The Author 2014. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

AHP 5: A Tibetan Girl's Hair Changing Ritual

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Tshe dpal rdo rje ཚེ་དཔལ་རྡོ་རྗེ།

2017-06-01

Full Text Available This is a remarkably careful study of a little known Tibetan coming-of-age ritual as still practiced in rural Amdo, Qinghai Province, China. Structural analysis is complemented by a case study based on observations, interviews, recordings, and authentic folklore material in the original language. Pictures, tables, and a glossary complete the work. This is field anthropology at its best. Juha Janhunen, Professor of East Asian Languages and Cultures, University of Helsinki The achievements of this book are many: it is analytically rigorous, rich in contextualized detail, and fascinating in subject matter. The authors' diverse backgrounds and strengths are manifested throughout this truly collaborative work which follows a major rite of passage in the life of a thirteen year-old Tibetan girl. For all scholars of Tibetan culture and society, and for any student of ethnography interested in learning how to thoroughly document a ritual, this book will be of great interest and lasting use. Mark Turin Director, Digital Himalaya Project & World Oral Literature Project, University of Cambridge This is an important contribution to Tibetan ethnography. The study is based on careful fieldwork, analysis, introduction, and translation of relevant myths and literary compositions, and comprehensive description of core components of Tibetan community life. The value of the work is that the study of a distinctively Tibetan women's ritual is accurately and fully presented in its own context. It is a unique record of an endangered tradition. Paul K Nietupski, John Carroll University This study has great value in examining in detail the coming-of-age ritual of girls in a single Tibetan village, thus providing a window through which to better view and understand community-based life, which is soon to change in the face of China-wide modernization. Huadan Zhaxi, Humbolt University

Afro-Venezuelan Music Rituals for Health and Community Wel

African Journals Online (AJOL)

2016-12-16

Dec 16, 2016 ... music, and ritual as a part of social and cultural identity in each town where the festivals of ... dance, illness, and social health, Saint John and Corpus Christi are two examples of complex ...... Caracas: Universidad Católica.

BOOK REVIEW. FUNCTION AND MEANING OF NGUSABA GEDE LANANG KAPAT RITUALS IN TRUNYAN VILLAGE

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Nopita Trihastutie

2015-06-01

Full Text Available This book is the result of a historical, sociological and cultural study on the Ngusaba Gede Lanang Kapat ritual promoted by the Preservation Office of Balinese Cultural Values. In his forwards, the chairman states that this book is an effort to save the endangered cultural work and to load the local content in the areas where this work culture is alive and thriving (p. xi. Conducted in Trunyan, a village in which the daily life of the people governed by customary law, the result of the study presented in this book, as noted in the authors’ remarks (p. xii, provides a comprehensive understanding of Trunyan local genius as expressed in their customary rules, arts, rituals, and folklores.

LINGUA-SEMIOTICS OF POWER RITUAL

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Astafurova Tatyana Nikolaevna

2015-06-01

Full Text Available The article deals with lingua-semiotic representation of the power ritual as one of the symbolic forms of behavior that over time ceases to be spontaneous and becomes regular and repeated. Under discussion is the rite of coronation, which was becoming more complicated and acquired a final form throughout the history of Anglo-Saxon statehood. The process of defining parameters and characteristics of the power ritual is performed by chrono-, topo-, sound and language components of the ritual; it is established that in ritual communication the verbalization of the event is gradually becoming more complicated, clarifying its linguistic component, which largely ensures the success of the ritual; the non-verbal signs acquire additional meaning becoming dominant over simplified verbal signs. It is proved that within the ritual space of the Anglo-Saxon statehood an extensive and rigidly fixed system of signs and symbols has been formed, nominating the process of interaction between the sovereign and his subjects – three groups of signs characterizing the Anglo-Saxon power ritual communication: regulating, processing and classifying signs. Their content distinction is analyzed. Authority widely applies these signs as tools to influence the society through social stereotypes and ethnic psychological associations. Artifacts, as symbols of state power, and oaths, as discursive element of the coronation, are stated as the central elements of the ritual.

Power and prestige in argar culture societies. The commensal consumption of bovids and ovicaprids during funerary rituals

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Aranda Jiménez, Gonzalo

2007-12-01

Full Text Available The regular appearance of meat offerings in Argaric pmbs enables us to point out that the slaughter and consumption of cattle and sheep or goat took place as a part of rituals of commensality. A portion of meat of theses animals, always belonging to a leg, was introduced as grave goods involving the symbolic performance of the death in the ritual itself. The type of meat consumed in these rituals was linked to the social status of Argaric people. Cattle would be slaughtered during the commensal practices associated with the highest social groups in contrast to the performance developed in the lowest social levels that include goat or sheep but never cattle. The ritual of commensality in Argaric societies would contribute to maintaining the social solidarity at the same time that it legitimated and naturalised a clear situation of social asymmetry. Cohesion and social distance play an important role in the commensal practices of Argaric funerary rituals.

La fuerte normalización de los ajuares cárnicos en las sepulturas argáricas permite plantear que, como parte de ritual funerario, se procedió al sacrificio de bóvidos y ovicápridos que serían consumidos en rituales de comensalidad. Un trozo de carne de estas especies animales, siempre correspondiente a una de las extremidades, formaría parte del ajuar funerario, lo que supondría la participación simbólica del muerto en el propio ritual. La adscripción social de los individuos determinaría el tipo de carne consumida. Los bóvidos serían sacrificados sólo como parte de la ceremonia de comensalidad de los sectores sociales más elevados, frente a aquellos individuos de un nivel social inferior y con menor capacidad de amortización cuyo ritual incluirían el sacrificio y consumo de ovicápridos. En las sociedades argáricas el ritual de comensalidad contribuiría a la creación de un sentido de comunidad al tiempo que legitima y naturaliza una situación de clara asimetr

Contribution to the study of the narrative code of calendar verbal rituals, on the basis of verbal code of ritual and customary complex "vodici" in Macedonia

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Joanna Rękas

2016-02-01

Full Text Available The primary objective of the study is to find and describe the narrative code of calendar verbal rituals, defined as an unalienable word of the living present. The term narrative code determines a system of rules that has a crucial impact on defining the principles of selecting and combining the elements of the story, i.e. heroes, space, time and plot. The sources for the analysis are verbal rituals excerpted from the ritual and customary practice Vodice (epiphany in Macedonia. The analysis demonstrated a strong dependence of intratextual narration (i.e. the story creating a work of verbal folklore on extratextual narration (social and religious. Using the following theories: 1. the memory of religious groups (Maurice Halbawchs, 2. collective and cultural memory (Assmann Jan, Astrid Erll and 3. commemorative ceremonies (Paul Connerton, has shown how the foundational scenes of extratextual social (change in status and religious (defined role in the festivities narration are present in the ritual and customary practice of the Feast of Epiphany.

Ritual, Power and Historical Perspective: Baptism and Name-giving in Lithuania and Latvia

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Rasa Paukštytė-Šaknienė

2011-03-01

Full Text Available Power in our life can certainly be expressed in a variety of ways. One of them is power transmission through life cycle rituals. Soviet rule denied “religious traditions” and tried to form a new atheistic communist culture (and traditions. The new rituals were expected to replace older religious rites because communist morality and socialist internationalism was expected to overpower bourgeois nationalism. As indicated by scholars investigating into Soviet rituals and by my fieldwork data collected in 1999 in Northeast Lithuania and in 1998 in Southeast Latvia, the mission of creating communist traditions has not always been successful. I shall try to examine this process in my article by analysing the cases of “traditional” baptism as well as the phenomenon of the so-called “modern” name-giving ritual in Latvia and Lithuania.

Ritual, Power and Historical Perspective: Baptism and Name-giving in Lithuania and Latvia

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rasa Paukštytė-Šaknienė

2007-12-01

Full Text Available Power in our life can certainly be expressed in a variety of ways. One of them is power transmission through life cycle rituals. Soviet rule denied “religious traditions” and tried to form a new atheistic communist culture (and traditions. The new rituals were expected to replace older religious rites because communist morality and socialist internationalism was expected to overpower bourgeois nationalism. As indicated by scholars investigating into Soviet rituals and by my fieldwork data collected in 1999 in Northeast Lithuania and in 1998 in Southeast Latvia, the mission of creating communist traditions has not always been successful. I shall try to examine this process in my article by analysing the cases of “traditional” baptism as well as the phenomenon of the so-called “modern” name-giving ritual in Latvia and Lithuania.

INLAND-COASTAL PHILIPPINE HYBRIDITY: HETEROGLOSSIA IN AGUSAN MANOBO MUSIC AND RITUAL

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José S. Buenconsejo

2010-06-01

Full Text Available This article deals with the hybridity of contemporary Agusan Manobo music as evident in its repertory and in the heteroglossia of possession ritual performances, where various archaic and modern speech styles (including song and ritual dance music co-exist. This hybridity is consequent to the history of Agusan Manobo relations with outsiders, especially Visayan-speaking settlers whose markers of group identity have been incorporated into Manobo rites. Such incorporation indicates the Manobo presence to a social world that is characterized by a mix between inland Manobo and coastal Visayan cultures.

Using Rituals to Strengthen Your Medical Practice Team.

Science.gov (United States)

Hills, Laura

2015-01-01

Rituals can cement the identity of and strengthen the bonds between any people, including the members of the medical practice team. This article presents the idea that the medical practice manager is in the ideal position to create and use rituals for team building. It defines the term ritual, and explores how rituals differ from customs or traditions. As well, it describes six benefits of rituals and the hallmarks of the most effective team rituals; describes seven creative and interesting corporate rituals that medical practice managers can study for inspiration; suggests 20 excellent opportunities within the medical practice calendar year for medical practice team rituals; and identifies six kinds of rituals that are used in organizations. Finally, this article provides a four-step action plan for ritualizing your medical practice team's morning huddles.

Paruman Tapakan Barong dalam Ritual Tapak Pertiwi

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I Wayan Dana

2013-11-01

Full Text Available Paruman Tapakan Barong on Tapak Pertiwi Ritual. Ritual tapak pertiwi siklus pelaksanaan ritual tahunandalam perhitungan kalender Bali, diselenggarakan terpusat dalam Paruman Tapakan Barong di Pura Natar SariApuan. Pelaksanaan ritual ini dihadiri oleh berbagai bentuk tapakan barong yang datang dari berbagai daerah sewilayah Bali Tengah yang memperoleh kekuatan pasupati di Pura Natar Sari Apuan. Aktivitas ritual ini bermaknamenyatunya kekuatan dewa sebagai simbol (purusa dengan dewi pertiwi simbol (pradana. Pertemuan keduaunsur kekuatan suci itu melahirkan gerak kehidupan, menyucikan alam semesta dari segala pengaruh negatif yangmengancam hidup dan kehidupan umat manusia di alam semesta ini. Oleh karena itu, masyarakat Hindu di Balimenghadirkan berbagai bentuk ritual keagamaan untuk menghormati menyatunya energi alam positif dan negatifdalam beragam wujud, termasuk ritual tapak pertiwi.

Ritual Infrastructure

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Sjørslev, Inger

2017-01-01

within urban life. There is a certain parallel between these different locations and the difference in ritual roads to certainty in the two religions. The article draws out connections between different levels of infrastructure – material, spatial and ritual. The comparison between the two religions......This article compares the ways in which two different religions in Brazil generate roads to certainty through objectification, one through gods, the other through banknotes. The Afro-Brazilian religion Candomblé provides a road to certainty based on cosmological ideas about gods whose presence...

Rite de transition : a design choreographic exploration of cultural value exchange, through development of intercultural ritual artefacts

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Kint, J.M.L.; Klooster, S.; Levy, P.D.; Levy, P.D.; Schütte, S.; Yamanaka, T.

2014-01-01

This research project is called Rite de transition. By means of DesignChoreography; an approach developed by Sietske Klooster; we explore the rituals revolving around traditional Turkish marriage. In due course; inspired by an emotional and auto-ethnographic interpretation of the explored rituals;

The differential diagnosis of ritual abuse allegations.

Science.gov (United States)

Bernet, W; Chang, D K

1997-01-01

Because psychiatrists do not have a consistent way to classify and define the forms of child abuse that may be mistaken for ritual abuse, the objective of this paper is to create a comprehensive differential diagnosis of allegations of ritual abuse. The authors reviewed 60 articles, chapters, and books that contained allegations of ritual abuse or behaviors that might be mistaken for ritual abuse, that were made by patients or caretakers. This paper clarifies the behaviors that represent or may be mistaken for ritual abuse: Cult-based ritual abuse, pseudoritualistic abuse, activities by organized satanic groups, repetitive psychopathological abuse, sexual abuse by pedophiles, child pornography portraying ritual abuse, distorted memory, false memory, false report due to a severe mental disorder, pseudologia phantastica, adolescent behavior simulating ritual abuse, epidemic hysteria, deliberate lying, and hoaxes. The differential diagnosis of allegations of ritual abuse is important in both clinical and forensic psychiatry. In some cases, it will not be possible to tell whether a particular allegation is factual or what the underlying mental processes are. It is important to separate the role of the mental health professional as therapist from the role as an expert witness in court.

Ancient Item Spoilage Ritual Used in Nomadic Burial Rite

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Beisenov Arman Z.

2017-07-01

Full Text Available The article considers the findings of items in ancient burials which were intentionally spoiled prior to deposition in graves. This tradition was widely spread both in terms of chronology and geography, and therefore cannot be attributed to any individual cultures or regions. The authors present new information on the ritual obtained during an investigation of Borsyk burial mound of the Middle Sarmatian period located in West Kazakhstan. The central grave of barrow 6 contained a heavily damaged bronze cauldron. The grave was looted in antiquity. Individual scattered bones of a human skeleton and minor gold foil adornments from the ceremonial dress of a nobleman were discovered in the grave. The authors suggest that the cauldron was intentionally deformed by the participants of an ancient mortuary and memorial ritual. According to the principal hypothesis concerning the essence of this ritual, spoilage of the items was related to the idea of assign the items with “different” and “transcendent” properties, which resulted from the necessity of burying the owner. Cauldrons played an important role in the life of steppe leaders. The authors assume a sacral nature of the use of cauldrons in the culture of steppe peoples associated with feasts, battles, and sacred hunting. Perhaps, there was a tradition of burying cauldrons together with their owners after spoiling the items in view of the concept of the other world and the role of a heroic leader therein.

Ritual as a source of conflict

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Langer, R.; Quartier, T.; Simon, U.; Snoek, J.; Wiegers, G.; Grimes, R.L.; Hüsken, U.; Simon, U.; Venbrux, E.

2011-01-01

This chapter assembles four cases and asks: under what conditions do publicly mediatized rituals and ritualized practices become a source of conflict? In the first case, the authors show that when Freemasons, using pamphlets as their medium, exposed imprecations in a ritual oath, conflict emerged,

Ritualizing and Materializing Citizenship

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Damsholt, Tine

2009-01-01

  This paper focuses on the possible transformation of the self in citizenship ceremonies in Western countries. It is argued that the transformation in these life defining moments is not only a question of ritual objectification or intentionality. The rituals are often experienced as emotional...

Ritual de casamento e planejamento do primeiro filho Wedding ritual and first-child planning

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Rita de Cássia Sobreira Lopes

2006-04-01

Full Text Available Este estudo investigou a existência ou não de ritual de casamento e sua relação com o planejamento do primeiro filho. Participaram quarenta e sete casais que esperavam seu primeiro filho, entrevistados conjuntamente no último trimestre da gravidez. Os resultados, analisados através de análise de conteúdo, mostraram que a maior parte dos casais (53% relatou ter tido ritual de casamento e ter planejado a primeira gravidez, enquanto 25% dos casais não relataram nenhuma das duas situações. Desta maneira, constatou-se uma associação estatisticamente significativa entre a presença de ritual de casamento e o planejamento da gravidez do primeiro filho. Os resultados apóiam a expectativa inicial de que o modo como ocorre a transição para o casamento desempenha um papel importante no planejamento da primeira gravidez. O ritual de casamento claramente demarca o início de um novo núcleo familiar, a passagem para a adultez e a potencial transição para a parentalidade.This study investigated the existence of a marriage ritual and the planning of a first-child. Forty-seven couples, who were expecting their first child were interviewed jointly in the last trimester of pregnancy. The results, obtained from content analysis, showed that most couples (53% reported that they had had a marriage ritual and that they had planned the first pregnancy, while 25% of the couples did not report any of the two situations. Therefore a statistically significant association was found between the presence of a marriage ritual and the first-child planning. The results gave support to the initial expectation that the way the transition to marriage takes place, has an important role in the first-child planning. Marriage rituals clearly demarcate the beginning of a new family, the transition to adulthood and the potential transition to parenthood.

The Hmong 'Dab Pog Couple' Story and its Significance in Arriving at an Understanding of Hmong Ritual

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Dia Cha

2003-01-01

Full Text Available Many Hmong continue to believe in the efficacy, and commission the practice by shamans of, some of the more important traditional rituals, such as marriage rites (kab tshoob kev kos, "soul calling" (hu plig, healing rites (ua neeb or khaw koob, worshipping the "house spirit" (teev xwm kab, and funeral rites (kev ploj tuag. Certainly, however, there are those Hmong, especially among younger generations, who either choose not to participate in such rituals, or who participate in them without any clear comprehension of the deeper meaning or details; indeed, without any strongly held beliefs regarding the cosmological system which is the ritual's foundation, underpinning and supporting the call for the many actions, gestures, offerings and recitations which, in the final analysis, constitute the bulk of any such performance. This philosophical ambivalence on the part of modern celebrants renders the position of ritual in Hmong society somewhat problematic. In addition, the various Hmong clans have, in the past, of necessity resided in divergent geographical locales, and, as a result of this and other factors, have often espoused divergent, philosophically and culturally heterogeneous, beliefs. This, taken together with the fact that Hmong customs have been orally transmitted down the generations, has had the result that there may be several versions of the meaning, and method of performance, of any given ritual.The presentation that follows will discuss the "Dab Pog Couple" story as it bears upon the origins of Hmong cultural tradition and embedded social values. Such a consideration will, at the same time, serve to introduce and elucidate many of the meanings behind, and values attached to, Hmong rituals in general and will thus provide a contribution to the understanding of these rituals and their relation to Dab Neeg (Folk Legends within the Hmong cultural studies scholarly literature.Briefly stated, the Hmong believe that the "Dab Pog" couple

Creative ritual in a hospice.

Science.gov (United States)

Roche, J

1994-12-01

St. Peter's Hospice, Albany, NY, is dedicated to meeting the emotional needs of patients, families, and staff. Creative ritual, hospice leaders have found, is a powerful tool that can: Provide an "arena" for healing, affirmation, reconciliation, and celebration Serve as a reminder of the sacred Evoke heartfelt emotion Effect renewal and inspiration Offer an opportunity to cleanse the soul of grief, anger, frustration, or guilt Provide tangible experiences of bonding and interdependence Prevent staff burnout St. Peter's staff show a good deal of imagination and variety in creating rituals. Possible themes include patients' birthdays or wedding anniversaries, religious celebrations, national holidays, and changes of seasons. A lighted candle, bouquet of flowers, or incense burner may be used to give the ritual a focus. Music is often played to help set the tone. Rituals involve a major shift in consciousness. They often allow participants to express feelings it would otherwise be difficult for them to put into words. At St. Peter's, participants may begin to communicate by sharing favorite prayers, poems, photos, or works of art. Or they may make music--the hospice provides the instruments--or pass around a Native American "talking stick." Such methods facilitate the bonding of patients and their families. Particularly important are those rituals which allow patients and estranged family members to reconcile. Others enable patients to acknowledge God-given gifts. Still other rituals are held for staff members, who thereby deal with the anger and sadness their work inevitably brings. For all at St. Peter's Hospice ritual is a source of healing, affirmation, renewal, inspiration, and grace.

204 Prevalence of Ritual Images in Yoruba Nollywood Films and the ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

films; Okanran (2014), Alani Pamolekun (2015) and Ija Yemoja. (2016) on the .... African nationalism and cultural identity.” In support of this ... ritual themes in Yoruba movies is a subject for research. In view of .... In order to make the new place ...

The question of ritual: a cognitive approach

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Jesper Sørensen

2003-01-01

Full Text Available Why does ritual continue to be an issue in religious studies and in anthropology? In this paper the author proposes a cognitive approach to rituals, focusing those aspects of rituals that are distinct from other types of actions, together with what cognitive responses these differences provoke. It will be argued that rituals violate basic causal assumptions and by doing so, trigger off cognitive processes in order to ascribe purpose and meaning to the action. In conclusion, this will be related to findings in ethology and evolutionary theory, arguing that ritual as a behavioural category plays an important role in the formation of symbolic thinking.

Ritual, Imitation and Education in R. S. Peters

Science.gov (United States)

Warnick, Bryan R.

2009-01-01

This article reconstructs R. S. Peters' underlying theory of ritual in education, highlighting his proposed link between ritual and the imitation of teachers. Rituals set the stage for the imitation of teachers and they invite students to experience practices whose value is not easily discernable from the outside. For Peters, rituals facilitate…

The ritual of baptism as status-transformation

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Pieter van Staden

2001-12-01

Full Text Available The ritual of baptism as status-transformation. Rituals are social mechanisms that have the very important function of effecting transitions in social and/or religious roles and status. Such transitions can be both internal and external in nature. Rituals should be differentiated from ceremonies. The latter function to confirm the roles and issues of status in the institutions of family, politics, education, religion, and economics. Ritual is the mechanism by which role and status are changed in a valid way in order to ensure spiritual growth and strengthen the bond with the church. The purpose of the article is to comment on the apparent loss of experiential meaning associated with the ritual of baptism in the Nederduitsch Hervormde Kerk, but probably also in most protestant churches that practice the ritual of infant baptism. The thesis is that infant baptism functions like a ceremony rather than a ritual the infant, not present at its own baptism in any real sense except physically, is never able to experience the affective and cognitive transition originally wrought by the ritual. Therefore, if the church does not introduce some measure to effect the bonding, the individual will always have trouble in identifying with the church.

Ritual encounters of the queer kind: a political analysis of jewish lesbian ritual innovation.

Science.gov (United States)

Brettschneider, Marla

2003-01-01

SUMMARY Jewish feminist and queer engagement in Jewish life and Judaism are transforming the practices and foundational orientations of traditional modes. Jewish feminist, queer ritual innovation in particular is inspired by an array of secular and radical critical theories as much as it is by the historic concrete experiences of a diversity of Jews in different Jewish communities. It is important to hold all of us who are involved in religious ritual innovation responsible to the knowledges we have developed and learned in critical theory or we risk, even with the best of intentions and creativity, re-inscribing some of the very problems of traditional ontological norms that we might have originally sought to disrupt and subvert. This article looks specifically at examples of new "coming out" rituals for Jewish queers explored over time in the Jewish Queer Think Tank: honoring them as well as offering tools from secular critical theory to assist our work in keeping them accountable to our aspirations to both love and fundamentally transform Jewishness. Here I redefine the function of religious ritual itself in political terms as an identity-producing performance. As such I utilize social constructionist queer theories (i.e., Shane Phelan and Judith Butler), anarchists (i.e., Emma Goldman), and those involved in radical theatre (i.e., Augusto Boal) to articulate the revolutionary potential of ritual innovation.

Initiations in the Burmese Ritual Landscape

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Bénédicte Brac de la Perrière

2017-06-01

Full Text Available In Buddhist Burma, a variety of ritual has been found pertaining to quite differentiated aspects of religion. This rich ritual landscape remains under-examined due partly to the Buddhist-studies bias of most of the scholars looking at religion in Burma. In this paper, I develop comparative analysis of a class of ritual, namely that of initiation, in three components of Burmese religion: Buddhist monasticism, Buddhist esotericism, and spirit worship. At least from the present analytic perspective, the three components considered could be taken as encompassing the entire Buddhist religious sphere in Burma. Looking at initiation rituals in these three ‘paths’ is a means of understanding how they frame contrasting kinds of differently valued religious practice, and of showing that, although not often discussed, rituals do matter in Burma because they help distinguish categories of action according to their relative religiosity. By doing so, I aim to give a sense of the real diversity of the Burmese ritual landscape, which until recently was rarely taken into account, and to contribute to the on-going debate in the field of Buddhist studies on what could be encapsulated as the question of Buddhism and spirit cults in Southeast Asian Theravada.

Mal tiempo, tiempo maligno, tiempo de subversión ritual. La temposensitividad agrofestiva invernal

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Del Campo Tejedor, Alberto

2006-06-01

Full Text Available In the light of a number of festive, ritual, poetico-musical and literary expresions, from Andalusia and elsewhere, the author discusses time as lived by agrarian cultures: a syncretic time, resulting from the superposition of civico-political, religious and peasant calendars; a cyclic time, given the effects of astronomico-meteorological time on nature and the subsequent cultural response on both the instrumental dimension (the work in the fields and the expresive dimension (the rituals and the festivals; and, finally, an ages-old bipolar time, experienced as the succession of two alternating seasons —wintertime and summertime—which also underlies a dichotomous agrofestive time-sensitiveness analyzed here under the following hypothesis: during the months of «good weather,» especially May and June, the rituals have a propitiatory and positively extolling sense; they mimetically dramatize the union between earth, vegetation, animals and humans by means of prototypes and archetypes that symbolically recreate the natural order of things. By contrast, the wintertime rituals and festivals—from 1st November till Carnival, and particularly around Christmas—all have in common a grotesque character and a sense of inverted order, symbolically signifying, with a logic at once serio-comic and ambiguous, the dark side of existence, while ritually conjuring up the fears of bad weather, of fateful and pernicious time, the time of cold nights, hunger and death.

A la luz de algunas expresiones festivas, rituales, poético-musicales y literarias, de Andalucía y otros contextos, el artículo aborda el tiempo vivido por las culturas agroganaderas: un tiempo sincrético, como consecuencia de la superposición de los calendarios civil-político, religioso y campesino; un tiempo cíclico, fruto de la incidencia del tiempo astronómico-meteorológico en la naturaleza y la consiguiente respuesta cultural en el plano instrumental (los trabajos agr

Evaluating Ritual Efficacy: Evidence from the Supernatural

Science.gov (United States)

Legare, Cristine H.; Souza, Andre L.

2012-01-01

Rituals pose a cognitive paradox: although widely used to treat problems, rituals are causally opaque (i.e., they lack a causal explanation for their effects). How is the efficacy of ritual action evaluated in the absence of causal information? To examine this question using ecologically valid content, three studies (N=162) were conducted in…

Seren Taun Guru Bumi Harmony of Islam and Pasundan Culture

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Abdurrahman Misno BP

2016-06-01

Full Text Available The advent of Islam in Tatar Sunda (West Java lent a new color to the culture that had previously existed there. The nature of Islam which was friendly to the local culture, made it easy to be accepted by the Sundanese people without bloodshed. The results are a variety of cultural rituals rooted in Sundanese culture yet rich with Islamic culture. Seren Taun Guru Bumi is one of the rituals of the Sundanese people deeply-rooted in the belief of Nyi Pohaci (Dewi Sri as the goddess of fertility. The involvement of the researcher in this ritual made the data a primary source which is the implementation of Seren Taun Guru Bumi in Sindang Barang Cultural Village, Bogor, West Java. This research shows that the ritual of Seren Taun Guru Bumi is a form of Islamic harmony with the Sundanese culture. Islamic culture assimilates in the frame of Sundanese traditions in Tatar Sunda, in which both are brought together in the ritual as a form of gratitude to God Almighty.

O vermelho e o negro: um experimento para pensar o ritual

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Houseman Michael

2003-01-01

Full Text Available Este artigo trata da performance de um rito de iniciação inventado pelo autor, realizado como um experimento para pensar certos traços recorrentes da ação ritual e, em particular, da iniciação (masculina. O ritual em questão, O Vermelho e o Negro, foi planejado para consistir essencialmente, se não exclusivamente, em um padrão específico de interação: O Vermelho e o Negro não pertence a nenhuma tradição cultural reconhecível, não envolve quase nenhum simbolismo explícito, suas "crenças" subjacentes são abertamente despropositadas, suas qualidades cênicas mínimas e não se pode atribuir a ele praticamente nenhuma função social. Um dos objetivos do exercício é explorar e fundamentar uma abordagem relacional da análise do ritual na qual este é visto como atuação de relações específicas. Entre os temas discutidos estão os do enquadramento, da simulação, do sigilo, da imposição de sofrimento, da eficácia cerimonial, da condensação ritual e do complexo jogo de perspectivas internas e externas ao grupo.

Ritual Authenticity as Social Criticism

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van der Beek, Suzanne; Post, Paul; Sparks, Logan

2015-01-01

Rituals are often used as opportunities for self-reflection and identity construction. The Camino to Santiago de Compostela, which has become a singularly popular pilgrimage since the late ‘80s of the last century, is an example of a ritual that is explicitly used to gain a deeper understanding of

The ambivalence of ritual in violence: Orthodox Christian perspectives

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Marian G. Simion

2017-04-01

Full Text Available This article demonstrates that ritual plays an ambivalent role in the interaction betweenreligion and violence. Ritual triggers and gives meaning to violence, or it enforces peace andcoexistence. The first part of the article defines the ambivalence of ritual in the context ofviolence. The second part surveys standard rituals of peace and violence from Hinduism,Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity and Islam. The third part focuses on the ambivalent natureof Orthodox Christian rituals.

Ritual and embodied cognition

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Geertz, Armin W.; Klocová, Eva Kundtová

2017-01-01

Dette kapitel introducerer et embodied cognition tilgang til studiet af religiøse ritualer. Da tilgangen rummer forskellige elementer fra forskellige discipliner bliver disse opsummeret i "4E approach", nemlig kognition som embodied, embedded, extended og enactive.......Dette kapitel introducerer et embodied cognition tilgang til studiet af religiøse ritualer. Da tilgangen rummer forskellige elementer fra forskellige discipliner bliver disse opsummeret i "4E approach", nemlig kognition som embodied, embedded, extended og enactive....

Ritual as a method of social memory content transfer

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Utkina Anna N.

2016-01-01

Full Text Available The paper deals with a ritual as a method of social memory content transfer. To reveal dialectics of ritual phenomenon formation and development, hermeneutical, dialectical and general scientific approaches as well as analysis and synthesis are applied. Social memory is considered as a complex of essential information for a society rooted in a social medium mentality and transferred from one generation to another. In terms of analyzed theoretical approaches to ritual and social memory the authors conclude that a ritual is capable of transferring social memory from one social stratum to another retaining its content. By means of a ritual, the process of conversation between different individuals is implemented, and the unity of memories is formed. Ritual instability allows changing its form dialectically retaining its content unvaried. Ritual preserves, presents and keeps its content current taking into account changing forms of manifestation that define the dynamics of society development. Reflecting the inner content of a social memory ritual contributes to its literal perception in the modern world and, as a consequence, to the reduction of social conscience manipulation. The development of society is in great necessity in such methods of social memory transfer that are capable of responding to social changes retaining important information for society ungarbled. The authors consider a ritual as one of such methods.

Buddhist Ritual from Syntax to Cognition: Insight Meditation and Homa

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Richard K. Payne

2016-08-01

Full Text Available The concept of “ritual syntax” is developed by relating it to cognitive studies of ritual, providing a fuller theoretical basis. Developing theoretical grounding requires differentiating between the members of five pairs of concepts: production is not the same as analysis, syntax is not the same as semantics, ritual is not the same as the mental, cognition is not the same as the mental, and syntax is not the same as language. These distinctions help avoid overly strong interpretations of the analogy between ritual and language. A discussion of “ritual” suggests that it is best conceptualized in terms of multiple scalar characteristics with degrees of ritualization. Two Buddhist practices, insight meditation and homa, are introduced as instances for the cognitive study of ritual. Syntax involves not simply ordering of elements, but also hierarchical organization of those elements. While syntax allows sentential elements to move within a sentence, ritual tends toward invariance. Invariance seems to contradict the claim that ritual is syntactically organized. However, rituals are often modeled on ordinary activities, producing a kind of “semantic” motivation for invariance.

Death in the Modern Greek Culture

OpenAIRE

Pentaris, Panagiotis

2012-01-01

Each culture recognizes and identifies death, dying and bereavement in unique ways. Commonly, a culture may be seen through the lens of death rituals; how those are shaped, interpreted and used by the society. This paper aims to look at the Modern Greek culture and depict its ‘visualization’ of death, as well as capture the rituals that mostly identify this specific culture. The Greek culture in overall is strongly influenced by the Greek Orthodox Church. Hence, the experiences of death, dyin...

Rituales de hetzmek¹ en Yucatán

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Nancy Beatriz Villanueva Villanueva

2009-01-01

Full Text Available En este trabajo hacemos una revisión, sistematización y análisis de los estudios que se han realizado sobre los rituales de hetzmek en Yucatán, para que sirva como punto de partida a investigaciones etnográficas posteriores sobre las celebraciones actuales. Nos interesa conocer cómo han sido analizados e interpretados dichos rituales. Para ello, nos centramos en los siguientes aspectos: a las presunciones que se han hecho sobre su origen, b las problemáticas o temáticas teóricas dentro de las cuales se ha abordado, c las funciones y los propósitos que los estudiosos le asignan y d la manera en que realizan sus interpretaciones. Previamente, para que el lector conozca en qué consiste este ritual, presentamos una descripción basada en los rasgos más comunes e ideales. Finalmente, hacemos algunas reflexiones y recomendaciones metodológicas para futuros análisis de este ritual.In this paper we review, systematize and analyze the studies that have been done on rituals of hetzmek in Yucatán, as a starting point for subsequent ethnographic research on this topic. We are interested in examining how these rituals have been analyzed and interpreted. Our focus is on: a the assumptions that have been made about the ritual's origin, b the theoretical problems within which it has been studies, c the functions and purposes scholars have assigned to it, and d how they have interpreted it. We start by presenting a description based on its ideal form and common characteristics in order for the reader to understand what the ritual consists of. Finally, we discuss some methodological points and make recommendations for future analyses of this ritual.

Introduction: Enquiries into Contemporary Ritual Landscapes

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Pirjo Kristiina Virtanen

2017-06-01

Full Text Available ‘Landscape’ and ‘ritual’ have been largely discussed in the social and human sciences, although their inter-relatedness has gained li le scholarly a ention. Drawing on earlier studies of ritual and landscape, as well as the authors’ own ethnographic works, ‘ritual landscape’ is suggested here as a useful analytical tool with which to understand how landscapes are produced, and how they, in their turn, produce certain types of being. ‘Ritual landscape’ recognises di erent modalities of agency, power-relation, knowledge, emotion, and movement. The article shows how the subjectivity of other-than-human beings such as ancestors, earth formations, land, animals, plants and, in general, materiality of ritual contexts, shape landscapes. We argue that ways of perceiving landscape includes a number of material and immaterial aspects indicated by ways of moving through landscapes and interacting with di erent human and non-human subjects that come to inhabit the world, creating relations and producing agentive ensembles and complexes.

The Psychological Benefits of Superstitious Rituals in Top Sport

NARCIS (Netherlands)

M.C. Schippers (Michaéla); P.A.M. van Lange (Paul)

2005-01-01

textabstractThe current research addresses the psychological benefits of superstitious rituals in top sport, examining the circumstances under which top-class sportsmen are especially committed to enacting rituals prior to a game (ritual commitment). Consistent with hypotheses, findings revealed

Autobiographical Memory in a Fire-Walking Ritual

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Xygalatas, Dimitris; Schjoedt, Uffe; Bulbulia, Joseph

2013-01-01

confidence and high accuracy. Two months later we found more inaccurate memories and higher confidence. Whereas cognitive theories of ritual have predicted flashbulb memories for highly arousing rituals, we found that memories were strongly suppressed immediately after the event and only later evolved......Abstract Anthropological theories have discussed the effects of participation in high-arousal rituals in the formation of autobiographical memory; however, precise measurements for such effects are lacking. In this study, we examined episodic recall among participants in a highly arousing fire......-walking ritual. To assess arousal, we used heart rate measurements. To assess the dynamics of episodic memories, we obtained reports immediately after the event and two months later. We evaluated memory accuracy from video footage. Immediately after the event, participants’ reports revealed limited recall, low...

Designing personal grief rituals: An analysis of symbolic objects and actions.

Science.gov (United States)

Sas, Corina; Coman, Alina

2016-10-01

Personal grief rituals are beneficial in dealing with complicated grief, but challenging to design, as they require symbolic objects and actions meeting clients' emotional needs. The authors reported interviews with 10 therapists with expertise in both grief therapy and grief rituals. Findings indicate three types of rituals supporting honoring, letting go, and self transformation, with the latter being particularly complex. Outcomes also point to a taxonomy of ritual objects for framing and remembering ritual experience, and for capturing and processing grief. Besides symbolic possessions, the authors identified other types of ritual objects including transformational and future-oriented ones. Symbolic actions include creative craft of ritual objects, respectful handling, disposal, and symbolic play. They conclude with theoretical implications of these findings, and a reflection on their value for tailored, creative co-design of grief rituals. In particular, several implications for designing grief rituals were identified that include accounting for the client's need, selecting (or creating) the most appropriate objects and actions from the identified types, integrating principles of both grief and art/drama therapy, exploring clients' affinity for the ancient elements as medium of disposal in letting go rituals, and the value of technology for recording and reflecting on ritual experience.

A Spiritual Contact Zone: Re-Inventing Ritual Space in The Netherlands' Afrika Museum

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Kleuskens, E.; School, F.; Thijs, S.; Westendorp, M.F.; Venbrux, H.J.M.

2010-01-01

The research project Holy Ground, led by Paul Post and Arie Molendijk, has drawn attention to the process of 're-inventing ritual space in modern Western culture' by examining various places, such as 'rooms of silence and memorial shrines for victims of disease and violence'. Here we want to address

AJAPÜJAWA (DREAM SPIRIT IN THE WAYUU DEATH AND VENGEANCE RITUALS

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Fanny Longa Romero

2010-12-01

Full Text Available The wayuu are an Indian people of the Arawak linguistic family which lives in the Guajira Peninsula, in Northeast Colombia, on the Caribbean Sea, and the Western border of Venezuela. This paper studies the relation between existing and expressed ajapüjawa (dream spirit and other beings (plants, dead people, with intent, that will guide and influence the daily practices of the wayuu. The purpose here is to explore the agency from these existing rituals of death and revenge. I claim that these rituals provide information about the construction of the notion of person by the wayuu people through a symbolic economy of alterity. The wayuu people build, experience, and signify their cultural dynamics through the interference of active spiritual entities that impinge both upon life and death as two continuous, though separate, realms of social life.

Impact of the ritual on individual time

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A. A. Nivnya

2016-06-01

The author studies ritual rhythm as a powerful tool of ritual language, establishing its ability to bring the individual to the higher levels of consciousness. Music is interpreted as a powerful tool of worship representing a synthesis of sound and rhythm. The article investigates mediating and harmonizing functions of music in the mythological consciousness, revealing the impact of music on the listener’s physiology. It establishes transformation of current ideological attitudes in the musical texts, with the further ritualization of the latter as well as their inclusion in the calendar cycle.

Recuerdo y comunicación: sociohermenéutica de rituales de memoria

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Schnettler, Bernt

2013-06-01

Full Text Available The analysis of memory rituals represents a methodological challenge for an interpretative social science. Ritual interactions are inscribed in a broader context, which is determined by symbolic traditions and the institutional agreements that configure the general framework of ceremonies. The study of rituals held on International Holocaust Remembrance Day on January 27th is an opportunity to highlight the linkages between these different levels in the analysis. Our data is based on a videographic research project that probes into the thesis of a “global” memory culture, according to which particular memories coexist and at the same time converge and interact with transnational forms of remembrance. For the analysis we follow methodological approaches rooted in the sociology of knowledge and the sociology of communicative genres.El análisis de rituales performativos de memoria supone un reto metodológico para la investigación social interpretativa, ya que las interacciones rituales están inscritas en un contexto más amplio, que está determinado por las tradiciones simbólicas y por los acuerdos institucionales que configuran el marco de las ceremonias. A partir del estudio de ceremonias conmemorativas del Día Internacional de Recuerdo del Holocausto se mostrará la interconexión en el análisis de estos distintos niveles. Para ello nos basamos en datos videográficos de un proyecto de investigación en curso sobre ceremonias de memoria del Holocausto en Espana y Alemania, que examina la tesis sobre una incipiente “cultura de la memoria global”. En el análisis de los materiales seguimos enfoques metodológicos que provienen de la sociología del conocimiento hermenéutica y la sociología de géneros comunicativos.

Sadistic ritual abuse. An overview in detection and management.

Science.gov (United States)

Young, W C

1993-06-01

Sadistic ritual abuse, including satanic cult abuse, is emerging as a syndrome among people with severe dissociative disorders, including multiple personality disorder. This article discusses the essential features that compose the clinical picture of sadistic ritual abuse in adults, adolescents, and children. Particular attention is paid to the differences between adolescents who may have been victimized by adults in sadistic and ritualized ways and disenfranchised "teenage dabblers" who may temporarily adopt a ritualized lifestyle as a way of expressing or acting out. The article also covers guidelines for appropriate medical, pharmacologic, and referral interventions. The controversy surrounding sadistic ritual abuse is discussed thoroughly, and primary care physicians are advised of the current status of understanding and validation in this area.

The Sugi sakit Ritual storytelling in a Saribas Iban rite of healing

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Clifford Sather

2016-07-01

Full Text Available This paper describes a Saribas Iban rite of healing called the Sugi sakit. What distinguished this rite from other forms of Saribas Iban healing was that it incorporated within its performance a long narrative epic concerned with the adventures and love affairs of an Iban culture hero named Bujang Sugi. Here I explore the language used by Iban priest bards both in telling the Sugi epic and in performing the larger ritual drama in which it was set, and look, in particular, at how the Sugi epic, which was otherwise told for entertainment, was integrated into this drama and recast by the priest bards as they performed the ritual, so that it not only entertained their listeners, but also served as a serious instrument of healing.

Deep healing: ritual healing in the teshuvah movement.

Science.gov (United States)

Sharabi, Asaf

2014-12-01

Based on an ethnographic analysis of religious healing rituals in Israel, this paper addresses the question of how healer-client relations are structured on these rituals. An examination of what takes place at the rallies held by Rabbi Amnon Yitzhak indicates that, apart from the regular blessings, which can be referred to as ordinary healing, there are some ritual events that can be referred to as 'deep healing'. The current paper demonstrates how deep healing rituals are generally conducted in severe cases through give-and-take between the rabbi and the person upon whom the blessing is bestowed, and that they are linked to relationships between people and the ethic of mutual support.

Ritualized Space and Objects of Sacrosanctity

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

2010-01-01

: such areas, buildings, places, and objects, stand out as ritualized physical structures. In the West, historically, such traditions have included hierarchies of sacred places (e.g. Jerusalem, Mecca, Rome), defined by mythical events and religious memory; sacred bodies (dead or alive) as manifested......The idea that formalized performative acts may manifest sacrosanctity spatially or in specific physical objects is often brought out in descriptions of ritual practices. Rituals of sanctification or dedication of sacred areas, temples, churches, and objects of veneration provide well-known examples...... by different kinds of ordination or initiation (e.g. saints, kings, priests, ordinary Christians); sacred buildings, places, and objects (churches and monasteries with their precincts including graveyards; various kinds of vessels, reliquaries, altars, crucifixes, books, thrones, statues, pictures, etc). Each...

Cultures of education and rituals of transition from home to the infant toddler center. Observing interactions and professional development

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Chiara Bove

2014-04-01

Full Text Available At the infant-toddler center, the rituals of transition that mark children’s arrival and going home times offer interesting kaleidoscopes for the study of interactive dynamics with the associated meanings and implicit educational models. Numerous pedagogical studies have investigated the meanings of these events, for the most part drawing on the monocultural model of classical attachment theory to analyze interactions between adults and children. Far less research has approached these rituals using triadic, systemic and intercultural categories of analysis in order to explore not only educators’ actions but also what is going on in their minds. In this paper, we discuss examples from a recent study on rituals of transition in the multicultural context of an infant toddler center, combining description of the timing, behaviors and interactive styles of children and adults, with analysis of the thoughts and representations of the educators.

Kontribusi Pelaksanaan Ritual Hindu Terhadap Kesempatan Kerja Dan Kesejahteraan Masyarakat Di Kabupaten Badung Provinsi Bali (Studi Kasus Mlaspas Dan Ngenteg Linggih Di Pura Pasek Preteka Desa Abiansemal

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Ni Nyoman Sunariani

2015-11-01

Full Text Available The aim of this research is to know the benefits of rituals Hinduism religion from the social, cultural, and economic perspective, the magnitude of multiplier effects; increasing income and the influence of rituals on the community welfare either directly or indirectly through employment opportunities in Bali. Research case study the ritual Mlaspas and Ngenteg Linggih in the village of Abiansemal is to refute the phenomenon that develops in society that of rituals Hinduism in Bali that ineffective and inefficient. Sample is the family head temple and suppliers material ritual. Collecting cross-sectional primary data through in-depth interviews with key and expert informants and triangulation. Descriptive analysis method of analysis and techniques used in this research is goodness-of-fit criteria which used in the analysis of structural equation a modelling (SEM and a causal relation between of variable latent tested by using significant test in statistika. Next the result showed that the implementation of ritual besides well-functioned religious also a positive impact on social, culture, and the economy. Ritualistic Hinduism has a multiplier effect of 2.37, thus increasing the additional revenue of suppliers amounting to 72.06 percent. And Implementation of rituals had positive and significant impact on the welfare of the people, either directly or indirectly through employment opportunities as a stimulus and acceleration of economic growth to improve the welfare of people Abiansemal sub-district in particular, and Bali in general.

Ritual Black Drink consumption at Cahokia

Science.gov (United States)

Crown, Patricia L.; Emerson, Thomas E.; Gu, Jiyan; Hurst, W. Jeffrey; Pauketat, Timothy R.; Ward, Timothy

2012-01-01

Chemical analyses of organic residues in fragments of pottery from the large site of Cahokia and surrounding smaller sites in Illinois reveal theobromine, caffeine, and ursolic acid, biomarkers for species of Ilex (holly) used to prepare the ritually important Black Drink. As recorded during the historic period, men consumed Black Drink in portions of the American Southeast for ritual purification. This first demonstrated discovery of biomarkers for Ilex occurs in beaker vessels dating between A.D. 1050 and 1250 from Cahokia, located far north of the known range of the holly species used to prepare Black Drink during historic times. The association of Ilex and beaker vessels indicates a sustained ritual consumption of a caffeine-laced drink made from the leaves of plants grown in the southern United States. PMID:22869743

Using rituals to bid farewell. A qualitative study of the meaning of rituals for those who lost a loved one

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Sangild Stølen, Karen Marie

. A hermeneutic phenomenological method is employed. Five qualitative interviews are conducted with the next-of-kin to deceased persons. There are three general themes: using rituals to bid farewell; the importance of having sufficient time; and knowing that help is there. The themes are discussed in the light...... of Stifoss- Hanssen’s theory concerning the significance of rituals and Travelbee’s existential perspective on nursing, and other relevant scientific studies and theories. It is concluded that the next-of-kin make use of traditional and personal rituals. Social, Psychological and spiritual significance...

Rhythmic Rituals and Emergent Listening: Intra-Activity, Sonic Sounds and Digital Composing with Young Children

Science.gov (United States)

Wargo, Jon M.

2017-01-01

(Re)Entering data from a networked collaborative project exploring how sound operates as a mechanism for attuning towards cultural difference and community literacies, this article examines one primary grade classroom's participation to investigate the rhythmic rituals of 'emergent listening' in early childhood literacy. Thinking with sound…

Ritual Adat Tanaile sebuah Ekspresi Identitas Suku Wemale Di Negeri Nuduasiwa untuk Merawat Hormoni Sosial

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Agust Ufie

2018-01-01

Full Text Available Various social phenomena that continue to occur in the midst of our lives, is a side effect of modernization which is characterized by the development of science and technology. Modernization on one side is advantageous but on the other hand detrimental. The disadvantage is actually a blow or a threat to the sustainability of various traditions and cultures of the local community. Various efforts must continue to be blamed in order to strengthen the perspectives of society about the culture and tradition, the effort is also undermined in order to maintain the old paradigm that prioritizes togetherness, harmony, silahturahmi, help. Tanaile's customary ritual is an expression of the identity of the local community, amidst the continuing stretch of modernization. The expression of the identity of the local community is evident through the social and moral values of the Tanaile ritual tradition that must be preserved from generation to generation.

MATTHEAN ATONEMENT RITUALS

African Journals Online (AJOL)

It gives an operational definition of a ritual and identifies ... this difficulty, this article will follow the example of Platvoet (1995:25) who ... words, it has a formulistic nature). ... Have this behaviour's qualities been altered to focus the attention of.

1 THE DYN MICS OF CULTURE IN HOPE EGH GH 'S Godfrey .O ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Tracie1

The Dynamics of Culture in Hope Eghagha's Death not a Redeemer. 2 culture is further revealed in ... definition of ritual sums up the views of Schechner and Turner. For him, ritual is culturally ..... a relativist perspective. This is because the play ...

Ritual Art: a Key to the Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead

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Jørgen Podemann Sørensen

1996-01-01

Full Text Available The Bambara sculpture is a ritual object, in fact one of the dramatis personae of a ritual drama. The Civara, as it is called, is carried on the head during the ritual dance as a token of the presence of the mythical antilope which brought agriculture to the Bambara. Besides the male Civara there is also a female one, and in their dance, the two of them dramatize the fertilizing interaction of sun and soil. Without further exploring Bambara ritual, we may notice that a piece of pictorial art is here an integral part of a ritual. It is a mask, carried during the dance and designating its bearer as the mythical antilope. Also belonging to a ritual are the space and the surroundings in which it is carried out. It is well known how ritual places and temple rooms are often structured and decorated to make out the background and the framework of ritual acts. The place of ritual may be designed as an imago mundi, or it may be chosen or named according to mythical prototypes. Temple rooms may be decorated with mythological and cosmological motifs to identify the ritual acts that take place in them as mythical deeds and cosmologically significant events, exactly as the civara-mask identifies the ritual dance in its mythological and cosmological significance.

Jurors' Reactions to Satanic Ritual Abuse Allegations.

Science.gov (United States)

Bottoms, Bette L.; Diviak, Kathleen R.; Davis, Suzanne L.

1997-01-01

Mock jurors (N=243) rendered judgment about a case involving childhood sexual abuse allegations made with or without allegations of satanic ritual abuse. Although jurors, especially nonreligious jurors, were less likely to believe the satanic ritual allegations than other case details, they were as likely to vote guilty and believe the victim in…

Altered States of Consciousness during an Extreme Ritual

Science.gov (United States)

Loewald, Tonio; Comber, Evelyn M.; Hanson, Sarah A.; Pruitt, Bria

2016-01-01

Extreme rituals (body-piercing, fire-walking, etc.) are anecdotally associated with altered states of consciousness—subjective alterations of ordinary mental functioning (Ward, 1984)—but empirical evidence of altered states using both direct and indirect measures during extreme rituals in naturalistic settings is limited. Participants in the “Dance of Souls”, a 3.5-hour event during which participants received temporary piercings with hooks or weights attached to the piercings and danced to music provided by drummers, responded to measures of two altered states of consciousness. Participants also completed measures of positive and negative affect, salivary cortisol (a hormone associated with stress), self-reported stress, sexual arousal, and intimacy. Both pierced participants (pierced dancers) and non-pierced participants (piercers, piercing assistants, observers, drummers, and event leaders) showed evidence of altered states aligned with transient hypofrontality (Dietrich, 2003; measured with a Stroop test) and flow (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990; Csikszentmihalyi & Csikszentmihalyi, 1990; measured with the Flow State Scale). Both pierced and non-pierced participants also reported decreases in negative affect and psychological stress and increases in intimacy from before to after the ritual. Pierced and non-pierced participants showed different physiological reactions, however, with pierced participants showing increases in cortisol and non-pierced participants showing decreases from before to during the ritual. Overall, the ritual appeared to induce different physiological effects but similar psychological effects in focal ritual participants (i.e., pierced dancers) and in participants adopting other roles. PMID:27175897

Altered States of Consciousness during an Extreme Ritual.

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Ellen M Lee

Full Text Available Extreme rituals (body-piercing, fire-walking, etc. are anecdotally associated with altered states of consciousness-subjective alterations of ordinary mental functioning (Ward, 1984-but empirical evidence of altered states using both direct and indirect measures during extreme rituals in naturalistic settings is limited. Participants in the "Dance of Souls", a 3.5-hour event during which participants received temporary piercings with hooks or weights attached to the piercings and danced to music provided by drummers, responded to measures of two altered states of consciousness. Participants also completed measures of positive and negative affect, salivary cortisol (a hormone associated with stress, self-reported stress, sexual arousal, and intimacy. Both pierced participants (pierced dancers and non-pierced participants (piercers, piercing assistants, observers, drummers, and event leaders showed evidence of altered states aligned with transient hypofrontality (Dietrich, 2003; measured with a Stroop test and flow (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990; Csikszentmihalyi & Csikszentmihalyi, 1990; measured with the Flow State Scale. Both pierced and non-pierced participants also reported decreases in negative affect and psychological stress and increases in intimacy from before to after the ritual. Pierced and non-pierced participants showed different physiological reactions, however, with pierced participants showing increases in cortisol and non-pierced participants showing decreases from before to during the ritual. Overall, the ritual appeared to induce different physiological effects but similar psychological effects in focal ritual participants (i.e., pierced dancers and in participants adopting other roles.

Parties, rituals and symbolisms in schools

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Ana Cecilia Valencia Aguirre

2015-07-01

Full Text Available This paper aims at analyzing school parties from interaction spaces and principals’ narratives in six schools in the state of Jalisco. A party is a ritual where participants share symbols related to imaginary –hence the importance of conducting an analysis for understanding institutions as a symbolic framework. A core argument is that established actors are configured from symbolic practices in the institutional space (schools. The repetition of these practices awash with symbolism leads to daily rituals or micro rituals that are ratified in institutions. Methodologically, interviews and non-participant observation in school interaction spaces were used. Based on the findings, it may be stated that the nuclear family, rooted in the Christian image in which authority is a central point, becomes a fundamental factor in shaping institutional life as well as the imaginary linked to school parties.

Rituals decrease the neural response to performance failure

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Nicholas M. Hobson

2017-05-01

Full Text Available Rituals are found in all types of performance domains, from high-stakes athletics and military to the daily morning preparations of the working family. Yet despite their ubiquity and widespread importance for humans, we know very little of ritual’s causal basis and how (if at all they facilitate goal-directed performance. Here, in a fully pre-registered pre/post experimental design, we examine a candidate proximal mechanism, the error-related negativity (ERN, in testing the prediction that ritual modulates neural performance-monitoring. Participants completed an arbitrary ritual—novel actions repeated at home over one week—followed by an executive function task in the lab during electroencephalographic (EEG recording. Results revealed that relative to pre rounds, participants showed a reduced ERN in the post rounds, after completing the ritual in the lab. Despite a muted ERN, there was no evidence that the reduction in neural monitoring led to performance deficit (nor a performance improvement. Generally, the findings are consistent with the longstanding view that ritual buffers against uncertainty and anxiety. Our results indicate that ritual guides goal-directed performance by regulating the brain’s response to personal failure.

Opposition and Complicity in Tribal/Ritual Forms

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José Castillo Fernández

2010-06-01

Full Text Available Human activities are developed by common rituals, it means, there is a daily sequence that is been repeated, caused by sociocultural roots or personal convenience. Rites and rituals are always under exploration and systematization, which is a big contradiction because it demonstrates that they are not statics; and their dynamics change into new ways of decoding and remaking daily sequences. This research explores this daily sequences, single and collective, that are shown in urban rituals of youth. The objective is to describe and understand the activities of young people, comparing with other activities related with religion, politics and family. This study gives some categories that frame social behavior, and build social networks.

AUTOMATION BASED LIBRARY MANAGEMENT IN DEPOK PUBLIC LIBRARY IN THE CONTEXT OF RITUAL PERFORMANCE

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Rafiqa Maulidia

2017-06-01

Full Text Available Library management using manual system is no longer adequate to handle the workload in the library routines, librarians must use application of library automation. To provide a good working performance, librarians use strategy, competences and certain habits, which are referred to as a ritual performance. The performance of the ritual is the demonstration of competence spontaneously by individuals in dealing with individuals, groups and organizations, which contains elements of personal ritual, the work ritual, social ritual, and organization ritual. The research focuses in the automation based library management in the context of the performance of the ritual. This study used a qualitative approach with case study method. The findings suggest that the personal ritual shows the personal habits of librarians to do their tasks, ritual librarian's work show responsibility towards their duties, social rituals strengthen the emotional connection between librarians and leaders, as well as ritual organizations suggest the involvement of librarians in giving their contribution in decision making. Conclusions of this study shows that the performance of rituals librarian at Depok Public Library gives librarians the skills to implement automation systems in the library management, and reflect the values of responsibility, mutual trust, and mutual respect.   Key words : Library Management, Library Automation, Ritual Performance, Ritual Performance Value

On-line rituals: a new field of research: neo-pagan and Muslim cyber rituals

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Göran Larsson

2003-01-01

Full Text Available Although secularisation and institutional specialisation have reduced the importance and influence of churchoriented religion, people still have a need for religion and transcendence. By looking at two so-called on-line rituals — a neo-pagan blot and a Muslim dhikr, the author examines and illustrates how religiosity may be articulated on the Internet. Although Internet research is often discussed in relation to methodological and theoretical problems, rituals performed on-line should be included in the academic study of religion. Common problems associated with Internet research (questions of representation, source criticism, etc. in themselves stimulate the development of new methods and theories for studying on-line religiosity.

Phyllomedusa bicolor skin secretion and the Kambô ritual.

Science.gov (United States)

den Brave, Paul S; Bruins, Eugéne; Bronkhorst, Maarten W G A

2014-01-01

The ritual of Kambô or Sapo is a type of voluntary envenomation. During this purification ritual a shaman healer, from various South American countries, deliberately burns the right shoulder with a glowing stick from a fireplace. Excretions of Phyllomedusa bicolor (or Giant Leaf Frog, Kambô or Sapo) are then applied to these fresh wounds. This ritual is used as a means of purification of the body, supposedly brings luck to hunters, increases stamina and enhances physical and sexual strength. All the peripheral and most of the central effects of the secretion can be ascribed to the exceptionally high content of active peptides, easily absorbed through burned skin. This article describes the ritual and the bio-active peptides from the secretion.

RITUAL, KEPERCAYAAN LOKAL DAN IDENTITAS BUDAYA MASYARAKAT CIOMAS BANTEN

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Ayatullah Humaeni

2016-02-01

Full Text Available This article discusses the local beliefs, the characteristics and cultural identity as well as the socio-religious rituals of Ciomas society. It is a field research using ethnographical method based on anthropological perspective. To analyze the data, the researcher uses structural-functional approach. The finding shows the champion character of jawara is frequently identified with negative labels by several authors such as Willams and Kartodirdjo. The fame of Golok Ciomas that has historical and cultural values for Bantenese society in general is also often referred to champion figures who are rude, valiant, and act like a criminal. As a matter of fact, for majority of Bantenese society, such distinctive characteristics have more positive meanings that were inherited by their ancestors and they still possess religious values maintained up to the present.

The fire-walker's high: affect and physiological responses in an extreme collective ritual.

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Ronald Fischer

Full Text Available How do people feel during extreme collective rituals? Despite longstanding speculation, few studies have attempted to quantify ritual experiences. Using a novel pre/post design, we quantified physiological fluctuations (heart rates and self-reported affective states from a collective fire-walking ritual in a Mauritian Hindu community. Specifically, we compared changes in levels of happiness, fatigue, and heart rate reactivity among high-ordeal participants (fire-walkers, low-ordeal participants (non-fire-walking participants with familial bonds to fire-walkers and spectators (unrelated/unknown to the fire-walkers. We observed that fire-walkers experienced the highest increase in heart rate and reported greater happiness post-ritual compared to low-ordeal participants and spectators. Low-ordeal participants reported increased fatigue after the ritual compared to both fire-walkers and spectators, suggesting empathetic identification effects. Thus, witnessing the ritualistic suffering of loved ones may be more exhausting than experiencing suffering oneself. The findings demonstrate that the level of ritual involvement is important for shaping affective responses to collective rituals. Enduring a ritual ordeal is associated with greater happiness, whereas observing a loved-one endure a ritual ordeal is associated with greater fatigue post-ritual.

Interaction Rituals and Jumbled Emotions Among “Relative Strangers”

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Alison Fixsen

2015-07-01

Full Text Available Learning games such as role-play (which we refer to as “simulated interaction rituals” are commonly used as social tools to develop trainee health practitioners. However, the effect of such rituals on individual and group participant emotions has not been carefully studied. Using a heuristic approach, we explore the experiences of complementary therapy practitioner trainees (and their trainers participating in a personal development course. Ten trainees and two tutors were interviewed, observational notes taken, and a secondary qualitative analysis undertaken. Participants and tutors described a medley of disparate emotional and moral responses to group rituals, conceptualized in this article as “jumbled emotions.” Such emotions required disentangling, and both trainees and staff perceived participating in unfamiliar rituals “with relative strangers” as challenging. Front of stage effects are frequently processed “backstage,” as rituals threaten social embarrassment and confusion. Concerns around emotional triggers, authenticity, and outcomes of rituals arise at the time, yet trainees can find ways to work through these issues in time.

The plants, rituals and spells that 'cured' helminthiasis in Sicily

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Napoli, Mariangela

2008-01-01

Background The author reports on the plants, rituals and spells used against worms and the so-called scantu (fright) in some areas of Sicily. The work is based on ethnobotanical research carried out, prevalently, between 2002-2006, in some areas of Eastern, South-Eastern, North-Central and South-Central Sicily. Methods This research is based on dialogue. Senior 'healers' were contacted; furthermore, doctors, teachers, farmers and in general 'experts' with herbs and 'magic' rituals. Information was collected about the way the plants of folk medicine are prepared. The interviewees were also invited to recite prayers and spells against helminthiasis. Results The author has highlighted the importance of how, in some parts of Sicily, some ailments like helminthiasis and other correlated pathologies like scantu are 'treated' and, especially within the rural social classes, by folk medicine remedies, herbal practises, particular prayers, rituals and spells. Conclusion As regards health/illness, it should be noted that in the last ten years conventional medicine has provided very satisfactory results even resolving potentially mortal pathologies. However, in certain social classes, there is no real collaboration between conventional and folk medicine; so for some senior citizens, the 'healer' with his rituals and empirical and magical herbs is still the person to turn to for the 'cure' of particular ailments. Interest in these practises from ancestral heritage in an advanced country like Italy, is only relevant if the aim is to recoup a cultural identity which is already in decline. It is significant to report a piece: on 14 October 2007 the news on a well-known national Italian TV channel reported an interview with a 94 year-old man from Arbatax (Sardinia) referred to as a 'healer' because both his townspeople and others from all over the world go to him for his cures. He is not paid except in kind and has been known to cure St. Anthony's fire, burns, scalding and marine

National Theatre of China's Romeo and Juliet and Its Rituals

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Benny Lim

2014-04-01

Full Text Available This paper explores the “Chinese-ness” of this brand new production of Romeo and Juliet by the National Theatre of China, from a ritual perspective. Three main areas were discussed. Firstly, this play has got several religious connotations. The absence of religion in this play’s setting is relevant to China’s current high percentage of atheists. Despite that, several religions, such as Buddhism, Daoism and Christianity, are mentioned in this play. Secondly, the play has also incorporated several Chinese culture and traditions. The use of bicycles as one of the main props can be linked to the cultural significance of bicycles in China. The play also incorporated other cultural and traditional elements such as wedding customaries in China, Xinjiang dance, as well as the Chinese tongue twisters. Finally, the play has incorporated multiple Brechtian moments. Perhaps the Brechtian moments can lead audience to think about the current religious and cultural developments in modern China.

Toward a Ritual Poetics: Dream of the Rood as a Case Study

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Heather Maring

2011-10-01

Full Text Available The notion of “ritual poetics” explored in this essay weds the findings of John Miles Foley’s immanent art to ritual theories of signification in order to show that some features of early medieval verse may carry a metonymic force linking the spoken or oral-related written word to the vivid, multilayered experience of ritualized situations. The hypothesis that ritual features, when integrated into oral-related poems, preserve their association with lived, emergent ritual processes is examined through close analysis of _Dream of the Rood_.

Phyllomedusa bicolor skin secretion and the Kambô ritual

OpenAIRE

den Brave, Paul S; Bruins, Eugéne; Bronkhorst, Maarten W G A

2014-01-01

The ritual of Kambô or Sapo is a type of voluntary envenomation. During this purification ritual a shaman healer, from various South American countries, deliberately burns the right shoulder with a glowing stick from a fireplace. Excretions of Phyllomedusa bicolor (or Giant Leaf Frog, Kambô or Sapo) are then applied to these fresh wounds. This ritual is used as a means of purification of the body, supposedly brings luck to hunters, increases stamina and enhances physical and sexual strength. ...

Ritual mutilation between tradition and law: juridical aspects

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Germana Carobene

2016-08-01

Full Text Available The mgf expression refers to ritual practices, such as lesions of the body, found mainly in Africa, related to the interpretations of cultural/religious principles which have based their own legal and social legitimacy. It has became an official word, in international documents, just starting from 1990, with a negative meaning strongly supported by Western culture. At first those has been considered as dangerous methods according to a medical-sanitary opinion, then as a serious violation of women’s and girls’ rights. In Italy the specific offense has been granted by a law in 2006 and there is just one case law processed by the Court of Verona in 2010. This matter focuses on the most significant issues of the current policies in a multicultural society with reference to the value that the legal system must give to cultural conditioning on people for criminal conducts due to membership. It must underline that these cases involve the most serious crime of permanent and irreversible injury against children, made by their legal guardians, in the name of alleged cultural-religious principles, which should have no place in a secular state.

Automation Based Library Management in Depok Public Library In The Context of Ritual Performance

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Rafiqa Maulidia

2018-01-01

Full Text Available Library management using manual system is no longer adequate to handle the workload in the library routines, librarians must use application of library automation. To provide a good working performance, librarians use strategy, competences and certain habits, which are referred to as a ritual performance. The performance of the ritual is the demonstration of competence spontaneously by individuals in dealing with individuals, groups and organizations, which contains elements of personal ritual, the work ritual, social ritual, and organization ritual. The research focuses in the automation based library management in the context of the performance of the ritual. This study used a qualitative approach with case study method. The findings suggest that the personal ritual shows the personal habits of librarians to do their tasks, ritual librarian's work show responsibility towards their duties, social rituals strengthen the emotional connection between librarians and leaders, as well as ritual organizations suggest the involvement of librarians in giving their contribution in decision making. Conclusions of this study shows that the performance of rituals librarian at Depok Public Library gives librarians the skills to implement automation systems in the library management, and reflect the values of responsibility, mutual trust, and mutual respect.

The Character Adaptation of Masked Puppet Figures in Ruwatan Ritual

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Robby Hidajat

2016-12-01

Full Text Available One myth that is believed by people living in Duwet village is distress that threatens human beings from when they are born till the day they die. As one way to overcome the distress, people, especially those who are living in Duwet village, hold ritual called as tolak bala. One step in the ritual is self-cleaning oneself from distress or sukerta. In addition to the ritual is a masked puppet as a means of the ritual execution. Thus, this study aims at finding out the functions of the Ruwatan masked puppet. Functional-structural perspective was adopted in the study by implementing observation, interview, and documentation study techniques. Results show that masked puppet has a special function which is to serve as a means of Ruwatan that is specifically to obtain society participation in order to give spiritual support to the process of ritual as a whole tolak bala or distress expulsion process.

“Tonight’s Secret Ingredient Is...”: Iron Chef America as Media Ritual

OpenAIRE

Christopher Bell

2010-01-01

The Food Network program Iron Chef America creates a media ritual space in which public displays of virtuosity and the engendering of parasocial relationships combine to present both the media ritual itself (the cooking competition) and the media ritual it engenders (the viewing of and parasocial interaction with the cooking competition). These rituals though separate and distinct are inextricably tied together. Couched in the ritual tropes and memes of sporting events, Iron Chef America is a...

Affected by Ritual : Predictors of Agreement with Church Marriage Rites in The Netherlands

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Robinson, Remco; Hermans, Chris; Scheepers, Peer; Schilderman, Hans

2007-01-01

Why do couples opt for a church wedding ritual living in a modern secularized society. Based on the ritual form hypothesis of Lawson and McCauley, the authors identify the specific church wedding rites as special agent rituals and the rites that form the ritual framework of every eucharist or prayer

[Ethics and ritual circumcision].

Science.gov (United States)

Castagnola, C; Faix, A

2014-12-01

Circumcision dates back to ancient times, nowadays, this ritual is practiced mainly in the context of Jewish and Muslim religions. The purpose of this article is to give urologists elements of reflection on the act according to the ethical principles of autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence and justice. According to a Kantian vision, priority should be given to the respect and wishes of the individuals. In contrast, for the utilitarian theory, circumcision can be justified by a contribution to the happiness of the majority of community members at the expense of a given few. In the event of a request for ritual circumcision, urologists find themselves in the middle, uncomfortable for some, questioning the ethics of its meaning. The main pitfall for the surgeon remains in respecting the child's autonomy. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

Anxiety and ritualization: Can attention discriminate compulsion from routine?

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Krátký, Jan; Martin, Lang; Shaver, John

2016-01-01

Despite the wide occurrence of ritual behavior in humans and animals, much of its causal underpinnings, as well as evolutionary functions, remain unknown. A prominent line of research focuses on ritualization as a response to anxiogenic stimuli. By manipulating anxiety levels, and subsequently...... assessing their motor behavior dynamics, our recent study investigated this causal link in a controlled way. As an extension to our original argument, we here discuss 2 theoretical explanations of rituals—Ritualized Behavior and Automated Behavior—and their link to anxiety. We propose that investigating...

CROSS-CULTURAL COMMUNICATION AND DRAMATIC RITUAL.

Science.gov (United States)

SALISBURY, LEE H.

THE AUTHOR'S PROGRAM, COLLEGE ORIENTATION PROGRAM FOR ALASKAN NATIVES (COPAN), WAS DEVELOPED TO PROVIDE A SMOOTH TRANSITION FOR NATIVE ALASKAN STUDENTS INTO THE AREA OF WESTERN CULTURE, IN COLLEGE. THE FINE ARTS WERE UTILIZED AS A COMMUNICATION BRIDGE BETWEEN THE ESKIMO AND WESTERN CULTURES. THE MEDIA OF THE DANCE AND DRAMA WERE THE BASES FOR…

Ritual Significance in Mycenaean Hairstyles

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Hsu, Florence Sheng-chieh

2012-04-01

Full Text Available Although the frescoes excavated from Bronze Age sites on the Greek mainland provide evidence for female figures in the Mycenaean society, the hairstyles of these figures have not been studied in detail. As in many other ancient cultures, hairstyles were not only an exhibition of beauty and fashion, but they also represented certain age groups or a person’s social status. The Mycenaeans inherited many of their hairstyles from their Minoan predecessors, although differences existed as well. It is also possible there may have been a shift in meaning for seemingly similar looking hairstyles from the Minoan to the Mycenaean periods. Female figures, which compose most of the Mycenaean figures in frescoes known to date, are fine examples for discussing the artistic representation and potential significance of Mycenaean hairstyles. By comparing with Minoan hairstyles, discussions of Mycenaean examples lead to conclusions in the relationship between hairstyles and ritual activities in the Mycenaean society.

Religious ritual contested: anti-religious activities and women’s ritual practice in rural Soviet Karelia

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Marja-Liisa Keinänen

2003-01-01

Full Text Available After the October Revolution, the Bolsheviks sought to establish a new atheistic order which would eradicate from the public consciousness all vestiges of "religious prejudices", which were regarded as a residue from the imperial era and an instrument used to exploit the masses. Even though it was generally held that religion would automatically disappear from socialist society when its material precondition, the class society, was abolished, the regime made concentrated efforts to speed up the process by means of virulent anti-religious propaganda. The ultimate goal was to wipe out the persistent remains of the bourgeois system of values. No force was to be used since it was feared this would merely offend the religious sentiments of the people and strengthen their adherence to religion. Theoretically, the ultimate goal was to be achieved through education and information, but in practice, anti-religious activities were at times quite brutal. These attacks were successful in curtailing the activities of religious institutions in Karelia, but did not bring to an end the religious practices of lay people, which were continued, in one form or another, throughout the entire Soviet period. One fundamental reason for the survival of religious rituals, both Christian and indigenous, was the fact that they were so deeply embedded in people's consciousness and intimately integrated with their everyday lives. Every important phase and turn in human life was sanctified by rituals. The goal of the present paper is to examine what forms anti-religious attacks took in Soviet Karelia and how people reacted to them. The focus is on the attacks against the very fundaments of the ritual complex of the church and, by extension, on the effects of these attacks on the indigenous ritual complex, which co-existed in parallel with that of the "official" religious institutions.

From Wasteland to Flower Bed: Ritual in the Website Communication of Urban Activist Gardeners

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Heike Graf

2014-04-01

Full Text Available The goal of this article is to explore the website communication of urban activist gardeners by focusing on the concept of ritual as a heuristic category. In contrast to the majority of those doing research on ritual, I use a systems-theoretical approach in applying the concept of ritual to communication processes. I explore the role played by ritual in communication in order to answer questions such as, "What is specifically unique about the ritual mode of communicating?" and, following from this, "What function do these rituals serve in communication?" My subject, urban garden activism, is thus addressed from the perspective of media- and communication research. First, I briefly describe urban activist gardening and how communication is usually structured on their websites. Second, I present an outline of some theories and concepts of communication and ritual within media studies, and give a brief account of the systems-theoretical approach that I use. Third, I define some areas of ritual - that is, ritualized patterns of communication found in the urban activist gardeners' empirical material - so as to provide answers regarding the means and function of ritual in communication.

When an adult female seeks ritual genital alteration: ethics, law, and the parameters of participation.

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Cantor, Julie D

2006-04-01

Ritual genital cutting for women, a common practice in Africa and elsewhere around the world, remains dangerous and controversial. In recent years, a 14-year-old girl living in Sierra Leone exsanguinated and died following a ritualistic genital cutting. Hoping to avoid that fate, women with backgrounds that accept ritual genital cutting may, when they reach majority age, ask plastic surgeons to perform genital alterations for cultural reasons. Although plastic surgeons routinely perform cosmetic procedures, unique ethical and legal concerns arise when an adult female patient asks a surgeon to spare her the tribal elder's knife and alter her genitalia according to tradition and custom. Misinformation and confusion about this issue exist. This article explores the ethical and legal issues relevant to this situation and explains how the thoughtful surgeon should proceed.

Music listening in families and peer groups: benefits for young people's social cohesion and emotional well-being across four cultures.

Science.gov (United States)

Boer, Diana; Abubakar, Amina

2014-01-01

Families are central to the social and emotional development of youth, and most families engage in musical activities together, such as listening to music or talking about their favorite songs. However, empirical evidence of the positive effects of musical family rituals on social cohesion and emotional well-being is scarce. Furthermore, the role of culture in the shaping of musical family rituals and their psychological benefits has been neglected entirely. This paper investigates musical rituals in families and in peer groups (as an important secondary socialization context) in two traditional/collectivistic and two secular/individualistic cultures, and across two developmental stages (adolescence vs. young adulthood). Based on cross-sectional data from 760 young people in Kenya, the Philippines, New Zealand, and Germany, our study revealed that across cultures music listening in families and in peer groups contributes to family and peer cohesion, respectively. Furthermore, the direct contribution of music in peer groups on well-being appears across cultural contexts, whereas musical family rituals affect emotional well-being in more traditional/collectivistic contexts. Developmental analyses show that musical family rituals are consistently and strongly related to family cohesion across developmental stages, whereas musical rituals in peer groups appear more dependent on the developmental stage (in interaction with culture). Contributing to developmental as well as cross-cultural psychology, this research elucidated musical rituals and their positive effects on the emotional and social development of young people across cultures. The implications for future research and family interventions are discussed.

For one ritual before and after hundred years

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Georgiev Galin

2009-01-01

Full Text Available The aim of this text is to present the role of one calendar rite first of all as factor for the development and the position of local Bulgarian communities in the conditions of dynamic social-economic and cultural-historic changes in the beginning of XXI c. The different feast-ritual forms can be examined as part of the strategies of the small ethnic groups for survival and preserving of their ethnocultural identity. The ethnographic researches in the village of Chushmeley (Krinichnoe, Bolgrad region, the district of Odessa, are made in connection with a project of The Ethnographic Institute with Museum-BAS for studding of the Bulgarians in the region of Bessarabia.

Healing Gods, Heroes and Rituals in the Graeco-Roman World

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Panayotis Pachis

2016-05-01

Full Text Available This editorial introduces the articles published within the OLH Special Collection, ‘Healing Gods, Heroes and Rituals in the Graeco-Roman World’. The first two articles in this collection interrogate the figures of specific healing gods. Olympia Panagiotidou’s article ‘Asclepius’ Myths and Healing Narratives: Counter-Intuitive Concepts and Cultural Expectations’ focuses on the curative features that defined the image of Asclepius, the most famous of the healing gods. The next article in the collection, ‘The Fate of a Healing Goddess: Ocular Pathologies, the Antonine Plague, and the Ancient Roman Cult of Bona Dea’ by Leonardo Ambasciano, interrogates the religious figure of another healing agent: the Italian goddess Bona Dea who was particularly venerated in Rome and in the region of Latium and whose cult reveals the way in which ancient Roman androcentric control over women was institutionalised through religious figures.  The third article in the collection, Audrey Ferlut’s ‘Goddesses as Consorts of the Healing Gods in 'Gallia Belgica' and the 'Germaniae': Forms of Cult and Ritual Practices’ considers the impact that cults dedicated to gods and goddesses had on populations in the wider area of the Roman Empire, focusing on the Northern provinces of the Western Roman Empire ('Gallia Belgica' and the 'Germaniae'. The collection’s final article, ‘From Textual Reception to Textual Codification: Thessalos and the Quest for Authenticity’ by Spyros Piperakis, moves the discussion from the question of cult practices to ‘alternative’ healing therapies in antiquity. Piperakis deals with astrological medicine, one of many alternative therapeutic methods that became popular during the Hellenistic and Roman period.  Taken together, the articles in ‘Healing Gods, Heroes and Rituals in the Graeco-Roman World’ demonstrate that we need to approach the study of ancient myths and cults within their socio-cultural context

Modelisation de l'erosion et des sources de pollution dans le bassin versant Iroquois/Blanchette dans un contexte de changements climatiques

Science.gov (United States)

Coulibaly, Issa

Principale source d'approvisionnement en eau potable de la municipalite d'Edmundston, le bassin versant Iroquois/Blanchette est un enjeu capital pour cette derniere, d'ou les efforts constants deployes pour assurer la preservation de la qualite de son eau. A cet effet, plusieurs etudes y ont ete menees. Les plus recentes ont identifie des menaces de pollution de diverses origines dont celles associees aux changements climatiques (e.g. Maaref 2012). Au regard des impacts des modifications climatiques annonces a l'echelle du Nouveau-Brunswick, le bassin versant Iroquois/Blanchette pourrait etre fortement affecte, et cela de diverses facons. Plusieurs scenarios d'impacts sont envisageables, notamment les risques d'inondation, d'erosion et de pollution a travers une augmentation des precipitations et du ruissellement. Face a toutes ces menaces eventuelles, l'objectif de cette etude est d'evaluer les impacts potentiels des changements climatiques sur les risques d'erosion et de pollution a l'echelle du bassin versant Iroquois/Blanchette. Pour ce faire, la version canadienne de l'equation universelle revisee des pertes en sol RUSLE-CAN et le modele hydrologique SWAT ( Soil and Water Assessment Tool) ont ete utilises pour modeliser les risques d'erosion et de pollution au niveau dans la zone d'etude. Les donnees utilisees pour realiser ce travail proviennent de sources diverses et variees (teledetections, pedologiques, topographiques, meteorologiques, etc.). Les simulations ont ete realisees en deux etapes distinctes, d'abord dans les conditions actuelles ou l'annee 2013 a ete choisie comme annee de reference, ensuite en 2025 et 2050. Les resultats obtenus montrent une tendance a la hausse de la production de sediments dans les prochaines annees. La production maximale annuelle augmente de 8,34 % et 8,08 % respectivement en 2025 et 2050 selon notre scenario le plus optimiste, et de 29,99 % en 2025 et 29,72 % en 2050 selon le scenario le plus pessimiste par rapport a celle

AHP 6: The Brag 'go Wolf Begging Ritual

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Mgon po tshe ring

2010-06-01

Full Text Available A ritual performed in 1999 in Dge rtse (Genzhi 更知 Township, Brag 'go (Luhuo 炉霍 County, Dkar mdzes (Ganzi 甘孜 Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan (四川 Province is described. The ritual involved a man, his son, and his nephew taking a wolf skin, visiting nine villages, and asking for donations to appease the 'owner of the wolves'.

Ritual and cohesion. What is the place of euphoric arousal?

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Xygalatas, Dimitris

2014-01-01

Commentary on H. Whitehouse & J. A. Lanman, “The Ties that Bind Us: Ritual, Fusion, and Identification”,......Commentary on H. Whitehouse & J. A. Lanman, “The Ties that Bind Us: Ritual, Fusion, and Identification”,...

PREREQUISITES FOR CALENDAR RITUALISM INTEGRATION TO THE PROCESS OF SPIRITUAL DEVELOPMENT OF STUDENTS OF MODERN SCHOOL OF MOUNTAIN REGIONS

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Violetta Lappo

2015-04-01

Full Text Available The profit of involving calendar holidays in the process of school children bringing up is proved in the article. The author confirms that there are many good customs and rituals with deep bringing up content. Ethnic Hutsul traditions had symbolic meaning and contributed their moral bringing up. The number of examples about children's upbringing in Hutsul families is given here, which helps in training them to religious and secular traditions. It is also said about holiday rituals, where small Hutsul children were involved. A lot of Hutsul customs and rituals have already been forgotten. But the author appeals to their renascence. The author is sure of it because customs and rituals form upbringing tradition, which proved its effectiveness during many centuries. Partly, it is important to meet children to new traditions of modern mountain schools of Hutsulshchyna (Hutsulland to form true valuable orientation. Only this is the basis of the personality spiritual world. The author proposes to reveal the celebrations of ancient traditions such holidays as: Christmas, Easter, Trinity. During these holidays Hutsul people tried to do a lot of charity things, helping sick people, visiting ill, and making mention of the departed. That's why it is important that the modern pupils of mountain schools not only new, but followed public calendar traditions. It has to be not only following certain ritual actions, but it has to be the ability to the spiritual perception of Hutsul cultural heritage.

“Tonight’s Secret Ingredient Is...”: Iron Chef America as Media Ritual

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Christopher Bell

2010-01-01

Full Text Available The Food Network program Iron Chef America creates a media ritual space in which public displays of virtuosity and the engendering of parasocial relationships combine to present both the media ritual itself (the cooking competition and the media ritual it engenders (the viewing of and parasocial interaction with the cooking competition. These rituals though separate and distinct are inextricably tied together. Couched in the ritual tropes and memes of sporting events, Iron Chef America is an attempt to mediate mundane activity by transforming it into competitive action. As a result, the program ritualises the ‘deep play’ aspect of cooking as spectator sport, and in the process, reinforces the ritual structures of American society, celebrating the triumph of skill, determination, and hard work so valued in contemporary USA.

Learning to Overcome Cultural Conflict through Engaging with Intelligent Agents in Synthetic Culture

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Hall, L.; Tazzyman, S.; Hume, C.; Endrass, B.; Lim, M.Y.; Hofstede, G.J.; Paiva, A.; Andre, E.; Kappas, A.; Aylett, R.

2015-01-01

Providing opportunities for children to engage with intercultural learning has frequently focused on exposure to the ritual, celebrations and festivals of cultures, with the view that such experiences will result in greater acceptance of cultural differences. Intercultural conflict is often avoided,

Music listening in families and peer groups: Benefits for young people's social cohesion and emotional well-being across four cultures

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Diana eBoer

2014-05-01

Full Text Available Families are central to the social and emotional development of youth, and most families engage in musical activities together, such as listening to music or talking about their favorite songs. However, empirical evidence of the positive effects of musical family rituals on social cohesion and emotional well-being is scarce. Furthermore, the role of culture in the shaping of musical family rituals and their psychological benefits has been neglected entirely. This paper investigates musical rituals in families and in peer groups (as an important secondary socialization context in two traditional/collectivistic and two secular/individualistic cultures, and across two developmental stages (adolescence vs. young adulthood. Based on cross-sectional data from 760 young people in Kenya, the Philippines, New Zealand and Germany, our study revealed that across cultures music listening in families and in peer groups contributes to family and peer cohesion respectively. Furthermore, the direct contribution of music in peer groups on well-being appears across cultural contexts, whereas musical family rituals affect emotional well-being in more traditional/collectivistic contexts. Developmental analyses show that musical family rituals are consistently and strongly related to family cohesion across developmental stages, whereas musical rituals in peer groups appear more dependent on the developmental stage (in interaction with culture. Contributing to developmental as well as cross-cultural psychology, this research elucidated musical rituals and their positive effects on the emotional and social development of young people across cultures. The implications for future research and family interventions are discussed.

Music listening in families and peer groups: benefits for young people's social cohesion and emotional well-being across four cultures

Science.gov (United States)

Boer, Diana; Abubakar, Amina

2014-01-01

Families are central to the social and emotional development of youth, and most families engage in musical activities together, such as listening to music or talking about their favorite songs. However, empirical evidence of the positive effects of musical family rituals on social cohesion and emotional well-being is scarce. Furthermore, the role of culture in the shaping of musical family rituals and their psychological benefits has been neglected entirely. This paper investigates musical rituals in families and in peer groups (as an important secondary socialization context) in two traditional/collectivistic and two secular/individualistic cultures, and across two developmental stages (adolescence vs. young adulthood). Based on cross-sectional data from 760 young people in Kenya, the Philippines, New Zealand, and Germany, our study revealed that across cultures music listening in families and in peer groups contributes to family and peer cohesion, respectively. Furthermore, the direct contribution of music in peer groups on well-being appears across cultural contexts, whereas musical family rituals affect emotional well-being in more traditional/collectivistic contexts. Developmental analyses show that musical family rituals are consistently and strongly related to family cohesion across developmental stages, whereas musical rituals in peer groups appear more dependent on the developmental stage (in interaction with culture). Contributing to developmental as well as cross-cultural psychology, this research elucidated musical rituals and their positive effects on the emotional and social development of young people across cultures. The implications for future research and family interventions are discussed. PMID:24847296

Magijos ritualas Senekos Medėjoje | Magic Ritual in Seneca’s Medea

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Jovita Dikmonienė

2013-12-01

Full Text Available Magic Ritual in Seneca’s Medea Jovita Dikmonienė Summary The present article deals with the magic ritual in Seneca’s Medea. Seneca, following Ovid’s Metamorphoses, created in the tragedy a witchcraft scene which describes magic numbers, herbs, and rituals dedicated to Hecate. Unlike Ovid, Seneca focuses on rituals involving snakes, conjuring up the dead, and supernatural performative utterances, and emphasises the feeling of anger, which inspired Medea to practise infernal magic. In magic, Romans gave particular importance to the number “three” and the numbers that can be divided by three. Seneca also mentions these numbers. During the performance of the ritual by Medea, Hecate barks three times, a dragon with a trident tongue appears, and tripods play during the ritual. Medea sends to Creusa not two, as in Euripides’ tragedy, but three poisoned gifts: a robe, a necklace, and a crown. Seneca’s Medea makes a wreath to Hecate from nine snakes. Magical, hallucinogenic herbs play an important role in magic. Seneca, like Ovid in his Metamorphoses, describes Medea’s ritual whereby she prepares a magical blend of herbs to poison Creusa. Prometheus’ grass used by Medea is probably mandrake. However, Seneca, like Ovid, does not provide the exact names of the herbs used in magic. Some researchers argue that Seneca described the magic ritual in order to highlight Medea’s desire to control the environment. According to the author of the present article, this claim is only partially true. Magic was necessary for Medea not only to control the environment, but also to control herself. The magic ritual helped her to prepare herself for revenge by transforming her consciousness. With the help of magic her sorrow and pity were transformed into aggression, she overcame her fear and prepared herself to kill her children. Medea’s ritual can be described as the magic of the fight, because it allowed her to transform her consciousness into the

Family routines and rituals following separation: continuity and change

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Bakker, W.; Karsten, L.; Mulder, C.H.

2015-01-01

Separation always changes family life. The aim of this study is to gain insight into the everyday practices of ‘doing family’ after separation. We focus on two central elements of family life: routines and rituals. While in most families both parents are involved in family routines and rituals, this

Searching for control: priming randomness increases the evaluation of ritual efficacy.

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Legare, Cristine H; Souza, André L

2014-01-01

Reestablishing feelings of control after experiencing uncertainty has long been considered a fundamental motive for human behavior. We propose that rituals (i.e., socially stipulated, causally opaque practices) provide a means for coping with the aversive feelings associated with randomness due to the perception of a connection between ritual action and a desired outcome. Two experiments were conducted (one in Brazil [n = 40] and another in the United States [n = 94]) to evaluate how the perceived efficacy of rituals is affected by feelings of randomness. In a between-subjects design, the Scramble Sentence Task was used as a priming procedure in three conditions (i.e., randomness, negativity, and neutral) and participants were then asked to rate the efficacy of rituals used for problem-solving purposes. The results demonstrate that priming randomness increased participants' perception of ritual efficacy relative to negativity and neutral conditions. Implications for increasing our understanding of the relationship between perceived control and ritualistic behavior are discussed. Copyright © 2013 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.

The ontogenetic ritualization of bonobo gestures.

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Halina, Marta; Rossano, Federico; Tomasello, Michael

2013-07-01

Great apes communicate with gestures in flexible ways. Based on several lines of evidence, Tomasello and colleagues have posited that many of these gestures are learned via ontogenetic ritualization-a process of mutual anticipation in which particular social behaviors come to function as intentional communicative signals. Recently, Byrne and colleagues have argued that all great ape gestures are basically innate. In the current study, for the first time, we attempted to observe the process of ontogenetic ritualization as it unfolds over time. We focused on one communicative function between bonobo mothers and infants: initiation of "carries" for joint travel. We observed 1,173 carries in ten mother-infant dyads. These were initiated by nine different gesture types, with mothers and infants using many different gestures in ways that reflected their different roles in the carry interaction. There was also a fair amount of variability among the different dyads, including one idiosyncratic gesture used by one infant. This gestural variation could not be attributed to sampling effects alone. These findings suggest that ontogenetic ritualization plays an important role in the origin of at least some great ape gestures.

Nostalgia, irony and collectivity in late-modern culture

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Schiermer, Bjørn; Carlsen, Hjalmar Bang

2017-01-01

The paper seeks to promote a sociological understanding of the current wave of nostalgic expressions haunting late-modern Western culture and to re-evaluate the predominantly negative assessment of nostalgia. Filling two gaps in the existing research on nostalgia, the authors wish (1) to reintegr...... to ritual, we seek to erect a theoretical framework apt for articulating mediated forms of nostalgic ritual. Fourth, we use our theoretical framework to analyse a well-known instance of nostalgic ritual in Scandinavia: The Disney Christmas Show....

Remembering myth and ritual in the everyday tectonics of hospitals

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Tvedebrink, Tenna Doktor Olsen

2015-01-01

When discussing tectonics, the book Studies in tectonic culture by Kenneth Frampton (2001) is often mentioned for linking the ethics of architecture with a focus on structural genius. Another reference is the paper The tell-the-tale detail by Marco Frascari (1984), which in addition to Frampton put...... emphasis on both the physical construction and mental construing of architecture. With this dual perspective Frascari established a discourse in tectonic thinking which brings the tectonic expression beyond structural genius into socio-cultural realms of storytelling, myth and ritual. However, in everyday...... architecture like hospitals this perspective of construing is often neglected. In this paper, I explore if it is possible through a re-reading of Frascari’s words to inspire for a re-construction of everyday tectonics? Based on project MORE at Aalborg Hospital, I argue that the perspective of construing...

The phenomenon of prehistoric ritual pits: Several examples from the central Balkans

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Bulatović Aleksandar P.

2015-01-01

Full Text Available In recent years, the phenomenon of pits with special deposits, i.e. ritual pits, seems to have, once again, attracted attention both in Europe and in the Balkans. In the central Balkans, scientific literature related to this topic is still deficient, hence one of the objectives of this paper is to change the current state and rekindle interest in the study of this form of manifestation of the spiritual culture of prehistoric man. It appears that one of the oldest reasons for sacrificial offerings is primal, instinctive fear. The fear of the transience of life or of death compelled our ancient ancestors to make some sort of “agreement” with the surrounding forces, bestowing particular sacrifices onto them. Sacrifice represents one of the rituals of prehistoric communities which could have been performed in a number of ways and in different circumstances. One of these are offerings placed in pits, in the form of specific objects, food, drink or living beings sacrificed to higher powers and accompanied by certain symbolic actions, for the purpose of gaining their favour or help. When interpreting pits, what should further be considered is that the fundamental difference between a discarded object and an object used for a ritual purpose lies in the fact that the object of ritual character is still meaningful to man, performing a symbolic function, unlike the former, whose role is lost after being disposed of. Aritual object, an item or a living being sacrificed in a pit, is no longer of common, worldly significance (food, drink, tools, etc., but rather possesses a symbolic, sacral meaning, intended for higher powers, to propitiate and appease them, that is to create some form of the oldest religious communication. Not only is it difficult to identify the pits used for ritual purposes in the course of fieldwork, but it is even more challenging to interpret them and practically impossible to accurately reconstruct the actions performed during the

Rituals between religion and politics: the case of VHP’s 2001-2002 Ayodhya-campaign

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Erik Reenberg Sand

2003-01-01

Full Text Available The present paper deals with rituals in a political discourse, namely the rituals employed by the right wing, Hindu nationalist movement, Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP, in its campaign for a Rama temple in the north Indian town of Ayodhya. As is probably well-known, VHP is part of a group of organizations known as the Sangh Parivar, or sangh family, which also includes the presently ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP, and the ultranationalistic organization Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, or RSS. The rituals of VHP are instruments of the construction of an ideal Hindu society and part of an encounter between Hindu-nationalist tenets and the secular, political establishment. However, the rituals employed by VHP can not be said to represent a separate ritual genre, since they are not different from similar, traditional Hindu rituals. What makes them different is their context and their motives, the fact that they do not serve ordinary material, eschatological, or soteriological aims, but rather political aims, as well as the fact that the ritual agents in this case do not seem to have a satisfactory juridical legitimacy to perform the rituals.

School Ritual as Performance: A Reconstruction of Durkheim's and Turner's Uses of Ritual.

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Quantz, Richard A.

1999-01-01

Addresses the assumption that ritual performances are not as important in modern, secular, bureaucratic schools as they were in communal, sacred, tribal societies, reviving a concept forged in structuralism and redefining it as a performative text, thus taking advantage of certain poststructural insights while maintaining much of the power of its…

The Consumption of Democracy. The Ritual Politics of the Meal

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Buch-Hansen, Gitte

2014-01-01

of rituals, suggesting that Butler’s Arendt-inspired idea of the “space of appearance” as the new political assembly should be replaced by the experience of intercorporeality. The fourth paper “The Politics of Ritual Memorial Design” questions the process of creating an anti-authoritarian place of collective...... and ceremonial alternatives, this paper will interrogate the framing notions in this contested memorial process with Butler, Mouffe, and Latour, and discuss how memorial sites may possibly serve as a frame and initiator for democratic ritual, and for whom. The fifth paper presents the findings of ethnographic...

Ritual Aspects of popular Politics in England (c. 1700-1830)

OpenAIRE

O'Gorman, F. (Frank)

2000-01-01

En este artículo el autor trata sobre de las discusiones teóricas actuales sobre el ritual político popular antes de emprender una breve revisión de su campo de estudio. Esto incluye un examen y una explicación de aquellos aspectos de las política popular, a las que las actividades rituales llegan a estar asociadas. Esto conduce hacia una discusión sobre el estado de la historiografía del ritual. Además este artículo analiza el contexto, tanto del calendario, como geográfico, e...

Culture as anchor or culture as impediment? The plight of child care ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

The authors document the nature of the conflict, highlighting how the care workers adopted 'mothering roles' based on African cultural parenting practices, resulting in the need to perform culturally prescribed rituals, and how this brought about challenges within the workplace. The need for integrating traditional methods of ...

A multidisciplinary overview of intoxicating snuff rituals in the western hemisphere.

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de Smet, P A

1985-03-01

Part one of the paper discusses ethnobotanical, chemical and general pharmacological aspects of intoxicating snuff rituals in the western hemisphere. Four categories of ritual snuff ingredients arise from this multidisciplinary approach: It is well established that the plant contains one or more psychoactive principles and the Indian use of the plant as a ritual snuff ingredient is confirmed or quite probable: Anadenanthera, Erythroxylum, Nicotiana, Virola; It is well established that the plant contains one or more psychoactive principles, but the Indian use of the plant as a ritual snuff ingredient is not well recorded or even unlikely: Banisteriopsis, Cannabis, Datura, Ilex guayusa; The Indian use of the plant as a ritual snuff ingredient is confirmed or quite probable, but it is not well established that the plant contains one or more psychoactive principles: Justicia pectoralis, Pagamea macrophylla, Tanaecium nocturnum; The Indian use of the plant as a ritual snuff ingredient is not well recorded, and it is not well established that the plant contains one or more psychoactive principles: Acorus calamus, Capsicum, Macquira sclerophylla, Piper interitum. Part two of the paper discusses the nasal pharmacokinetics and efficacy of possible ritual snuff constituents. The literature yields convincing clinical evidence that atropine, cocaine, nicotine and scopolamine are effective following nasal application, but experimental confirmation of the efficacy of nasal tryptamine alkaloids is still awaited. In self-experiments, 6.4 mg/kg of caffeine produced substantial plasma levels via the nasal route, but 0.5 mg/kg of harmine did not produce measurable plasma levels, when taken as a nasal powder. Without additional experiments, it is difficult to give a definite explanation for this negative result.

Catachresis in Côte d’Ivoire: Female Genital Power in Religious Ritual and Political Resistance

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Laura S. Grillo

2013-05-01

Full Text Available Ivoirian women vehemently protest the violence and calamity of civil war by deploying an embodied rhetoric of ritual, appealing to the traditional religious concept of “Female Genital Power”. I propose that their imagistic resistance to the postcolonial state represents a catachresis, with a few interesting twists. Most salient is that what women reinscribe onto the political scene is not as a feature of the imperial culture but the concept-metaphors of indigenous religion, and especially the image of Woman as the source of moral and spiritual power from which proceeds all political, religious, and juridical authority. Whereas the logocentrism of the academy, and postcolonial theory in particular, leads to aporia, ritual remands scholars into the situation of the actual world, where women are actively engaged in self-representation that both defies projected depictions of them and rejects their absence from state conceptions of power.

Evidence of ritual entombment and architectural renovation in a plaza at Huaca Pucllana

OpenAIRE

Ríos Palomino, Nilton

2017-01-01

Archaeological excavations in the northeast sector of the archaeological site of Pucllana exposed an accumulation of cultural debris lying on the surface of a door. The context of these findings and the analysis of the building sequencedemonstrate that these materials came from the upper part of a sunken plaza. The analysis of the artifacts shows that they were remnants of large-scale food consumption and the result of a complex sequence of ritual performances.According to this evidence, we p...

WAHHABISM, IDENTITY AND SECULAR RITUAL: Graduation at an Indonesian High School

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Inayah Rohmaniyah

2012-01-01

Full Text Available This paper concerns the social and ritual construction of social identities at Pondok Pesantren Madrasah Wathoniyah Islamiyah (PPMWI, a theologically Wahhabi oriented pesantren (traditional Islamic school in Central Java, Indonesia. We focus on the inter-play of religious and secular symbols in the school’s graduation ceremonies (wisuda for secondary school students and the ways it contributes to the construction of individual and social identities. Our analysis builds on Turner’s studies of the processual logic of rites of passage, Moore and Meyerhoff’s distinction between religious and secular ritual and Tambiah’s application of the Piercian concept of indexical symbols to the analysis of ritual. Theoretically we will be concerned with ritual, cognitive and social processes involved in the construction of religious identities. Empirically, we critique the common assumption that Salafi, and more specifically, Wahhabi, religious teachings contribute to the construction of exclusivist identities, social conflict and violence. In the case we are concerned with, religious tolerance and non-violence are among the defining features of Wahhabi identity.[Tulisan membahas konstruksi identitas ritual dan sosial pada sebuah pesantren yang berorientasi teologi Wahhabi, yaitu Pondok Pesantren Madrasah Wathoniyah Islamiyah (PPMWI. Diskusi akan difokuskan pada saling silang simbol-simbol agama dan sekuler dalam peringatan wisuda siswa menengah pertama serta signifikansinya dalam konstruksi identitas sosial dan individual. Analisis tulisan ini berdasarkan studi Turner mengenai logika proses dalam daur ritus (the processual logic of rites of passage, pembagian ritual agama dan sekuler oleh Moore dan Meyerhoff serta konsep Piercian mengenai indek simbolis dalam ritual oleh Tambiah. Secara teoritis, artikel ini akan mendiskusikan ritual, kognisi, dan proses sosial yang menjadi bagian dalam konstruksi identitas agama. Selain itu, penulis juga melakukan

Media and identification processes: a ritual and dramatic construction

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Salomé Sola-Morales

2016-07-01

Full Text Available The present theoretical paper analyzes the way mediatic communication construct identifications. The thesis proposed is that the media configure ritually and dramatically identifications made by individuals and groups. First of all, we show the limitations of the concept of “identity” and we propose to use “identification” instead. Second, we explore the extent of social drama theory and role theory and we open it to new theoretical challenges and perspectives. Thirdly, it is shown that the concept of "ritual" is very useful to understand and interpret the identity construction through the media. All this leads us to conclude that both the theatricality and rituality are key to understanding the processes of identification that individuals and groups make in relation to the media.

Menstrual taboos among Havik Brahmin women: a study of ritual change.

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Ullrich, H E

1992-01-01

Field work among the Havik Brahmins in a 1 village in the Malnad area of Karnataka State, South India provides some understanding of menstrual practices in 1964, 1985, and 1987. Changes in the pollution and purity rituals which were part of their belief system lead to the replacement of religious ritual with hygiene. Women's status reflected in the change from a subordinate one with a menstrual taboos to a more urbanized one with educational opportunities and economic independence. Ethnographic background is provide on social organization, education, women's professions, ritual organization, and the reasons for change. Menstrual beliefs and practices, reproductive beliefs, menarche, and the significance of rituals are also described for 1966 and 1987. The Havik Brahmin have a patrilocal, patrilineal, and patriarchal society with joint family practices. The ideal of a nuclear family was still not predominately attained even in 1987 with 14 nuclear families out of 32 families or in 1964 with 12 out of 28. Women in 1964 supported their husbands, were not included in decision making and had little contact with the outside world. Higher education is still secondary to marriage, and frequently women spend time in college while kin seek a suitable groom. Women 40 years had primarily a 7th grade education, while only 3 40 years did not have at least a high school education. Employment now enhances a woman's marital options. Fathers still view security for their daughters in marriage. Women's religious involvement is restricted to 1 service and they are prohibited from learning sacred Vedic prayers. The village structure is based on castes, residential sites, and ritual statuses. Havik Brahmins are the highest status and their men have a ritual status of purity (maDi) or neutrality, while women during menses become polluted (muTTuceTtu). The rationale for change is the opinion that decreased ritual observance is essential to economic viability, and there are cheating rules

A Theory of Ritual

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Sørensen, Jørgen Podemann

2008-01-01

Et forsøg på at forene teorier om myte og ritual, teorier om offer og teorier om liminalitet i en overordnet teori. Dens anvendelighed søges demonstreret med særligt henblik på antikkens religionshistorie. Bl.a. behandles Attismyten og Kybelekulten, det græske slagtoffer (Vernant), det delfiske o...

Transformative Rituals in Construction Megaprojects

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van den Ende, A.L.; van Marrewijk, A.H.

2014-01-01

To manage the project life cycle and facilitate transitions, Project Management (PM) research often points to temporal models and structuring devices. However, the social and symbolic facet of transitions in projects remains understudied. Therefore, this research focuses on the ritualization of

Health-related religious rituals of the Greek Orthodox Church: their uptake and meanings.

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Fouka, Georgia; Plakas, Sotirios; Taket, Ann; Boudioni, Markella; Dandoulakis, Michael

2012-12-01

To examine the uptake of religious rituals of the Greek Orthodox Church by relatives of patients in critical condition in Greece and to explore their symbolic representations and spiritual meanings. Patients and their relatives want to be treated with respect and be supported for their beliefs, practices, customs and rituals. However nurses may not be ready to meet the spiritual needs of relatives of patients, while the health-related religious beliefs, practices and rituals of the Greek Orthodox Christian denomination have not been explored. This study was part of a large study encompassing 19 interviews with 25 informants, relatives of patients in intensive care units of three large hospitals in Athens, Greece, between 2000 and 2005. In this paper data were derived from personal accounts of religious rituals given by six participants. Relatives used a series of religious rituals, namely blessed oil and holy water, use of relics of saints, holy icons, offering names for pleas and pilgrimage. Through the rituals, relatives experience a sense of connectedness with the divine and use the sacred powers to promote healing of their patients. Nurse managers should recognize, respect and facilitate the expression of spirituality through the practice of religious rituals by patients and their relatives. © 2012 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Ritual, tiempo y espacio sagrado en el budismo zen argentino

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Catón Eduardo Carini

2010-07-01

Full Text Available El budismo zen es una religión oriental que desde hace varias décadas se ha esparcido en numerosos países occidentales, incluido la Argentina. Una característica notable de su vida comunitaria es la compleja ritualización de sus prácticas cotidianas. En nuestra aproximación a la dimensión ritual del zen indagaremos la forma en que ésta contribuye a crear un tiempo y un espacio sagrado y observaremos cómo estas prácticas son consideradas por los propios miembros del grupo como un recurso pedagógico que posibilita entrenarse en una diferente manera de estar en el mundo, de vivirse y percibirse tanto a ellos mismos como a los demás. De modo que algunos elementos del complejo ritual zen juegan un rol de primera importancia como una tecnología del ser.Zen Buddhism is an oriental religion that since several decades has expanded in various western countries, Argentina being one of them. The complex ritualization of its everyday practices is a considerable characteristic of Zen Buddhist community life. In our exploration of the ritual dimension of Zen, first we will investigate how this contributes to the creation of a sacred time and place. After this, we will show how ritual practices are considered a pedagogic recourse by group members; a means to make possible their training of a different way of being in the world, of experimenting, living and perceiving both themselves and others in a different way. Some elements of the often complex Zen ritual play a highly important part as technologies of the self.

Climate Change, Millet and Ritual Relationship with the Magars of Argal, Baglung, Nepal

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Man Bahadur Khattri

2013-08-01

Full Text Available This paper focuses on cultural analysis and how people are coping with new situation created by climate change in production of millet. Changes relating to climate change are observed; perceived and understood on a local level. This is an important area of study for anthropologists and it is interest of climate scientists as well. This paper is based on anthropological analysis on climate change effects on finger millet production in Argal VDC of Baglung district, West of Nepal. Millet is a staple food of people of Argal and most of Hill people of Nepal. Millet is not only staple food and associated with nutrition of people. It's also associated with rituals during production and as well as during consumption. Increasing temperature, changing rainfall patterns, extreme weather events are linked with climate change which has direct effect on life of all people but also millet production and ritual activities. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/dsaj.v6i0.8481 Dhaulagiri Journal of Sociology and Anthropology Vol. 6, 2012 107-124

Género y Ritual entre los Otomíes de Guanajuato Género y Ritual entre los Otomíes de Guanajuato

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Jorge Uzeta Iturbide

2012-02-01

Full Text Available Este trabajo propone que el sistema ritual indígena regula el impacto de los cambios sociales que vive actualmente la Congregación otomí de San Ildefonso de Cieneguilla, municipio de Tierra Blanca, Guanajuato. Mediante los símbolos y rituales del sistema señalado se presenta la imagen de un orden social ideal, una mitificación de las relaciones sociales en la que mujeres y hombres encuentran posiciones definidas. Con ello se genera un sentido de continuidad por sobre las diferencias creadas en el mercado laboral, contribuyendo así a perfilar el carácter de la Congregación como actor político.This work proposes, that the indigenous ritual system regulates the social impact changes lived nowdays on the Otomi Congregation, from San Ildefonso de Cieneguilla Tierra Blanca municipality in Guanajuato, Mexico. Through symbols and rituals of the previously mentioned system, the image of an ideal social order is presented, a mythification of the social relations in which women and men find defined positions. This generates a sense of continuity over the differences created on the labor market, contributing to profile the Congregation’s character as a political actor.

The comparative and functional analysis of myth and ritual as constituent parts of a mythoritual religious

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Ivan Davydov

2013-02-01

Full Text Available The author treats the problem of ritual studies as relevant to the study of religion. Mytho-ritual is a relatively new concept, unfamiliar to many specialists. The author tries to define this concept, trace its origin and essential characteristics, and finally, on the basis of all this, posit a link uniting myth and ritual. Importance is given to the functional analysis of ritual, highlighting the essential role of ritual and rite. The theories of the Bielefeld and Moscow schools, the theory of V. N. Toporov regarding religious ritual, and those regarding ritual and rite proposed by A. K. Baiburin and K. S. Saringulyan are examined. The author then proceeds to an analysis of the functions of myth and examines the theories of M. Eliade and the Cambridge School. Finally the author compares the various functions of myth and ritual and fi nds that the number of actual functions of myth proposed by Russian and foreign experts, sociologists, ethnologists and folklorists, is rather small and closer in number to that of the functions of religion rather than of ritual. The author enumerates 36 functions of ritual as compared to only 12 functions of myth and 24 functions of religion

Ritual uses of palms in traditional medicine in sub-Saharan Africa: a review

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Gruca, Marta; van Andel, Tinde; Balslev, Henrik

2014-01-01

Palms (Arecaceae) are prominent elements in African traditional medicines. It is, however, a challenge to find detailed information on the ritual use of palms, which are an inextricable part of African medicinal and spiritual systems. This work reviews ritual uses of palms within African ethnomed......Palms (Arecaceae) are prominent elements in African traditional medicines. It is, however, a challenge to find detailed information on the ritual use of palms, which are an inextricable part of African medicinal and spiritual systems. This work reviews ritual uses of palms within African...... guineensis, Hyphaene coriacea, H. petersiana, Phoenix reclinata, Raphia farinifera, R. hookeri, and R. vinifera. In some rituals, palms play a central role as sacred objects, for example the seeds accompany oracles and palm leaves are used in offerings. In other cases, palms are added as a support to other...

On the impacts of traditional Chinese culture on organ donation.

Science.gov (United States)

Cai, Yu

2013-04-01

This article examines the impact of traditional Chinese culture on organ donation from the perspective of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism. In each of these cultural systems, it appears that there are some particular sayings or remarks that are often taken in modern Chinese society to be contrary to organ donation, especially cadaveric organ donation. However, this article argues that the central concerns of Buddhism, Confucianism, and Taoism are "great love," "ren," and "dao," which can be reasonably interpreted to support organ donation. The author understands that each cultural system, in order to play its cultural function, must have its central concerns as well as relevant ritual practices (li) that incarnate its religious and ethical commitments. That is, each plays a general cultural role, which influences organ donation in particular not merely through abstract or general ethical principles and teachings, but through a combination of ethical teachings and the forming of particular ritual practices. This article contends that the primary reason Chinese individuals fail to donate sufficient cadaveric organs for transplantation is not because particular remarks or sayings from each of these systems appear to conflict with donation. Neither is it that the central concerns of these systems cannot support cadaveric donation. Rather, it is that modern Chinese individuals have failed to develop and secure relevant ritual practices that support the central concerns of organ transplantation. The article concludes that in order to promote more donations, there is a need to form relevant ritual practices supporting organ donation in conformity with the central concerns of these cultural systems.

The Body Divine: Tantric Śaivite Ritual Practices in the Svacchandatantra and Its Commentary

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Simone McCarter

2014-08-01

Full Text Available This work examines ritual, cosmology, and divinization as articulated in select passages of the Svacchandatantra and its commentary by the late tenth century non-dual theologian, Kṣemarāja. Both the Svacchandatantra and its commentary prescribe the worship of the deity Svacchandabhairava, a form of Śiva, and his consort Aghoreśvarī. Drawing on Gavin Flood’s notion of entextualization, I examine how the rituals described seek to inscribe the corporeal body so that the practitioner is made part of the larger Tantric body and tradition. This present study serves to illustrate the formulation of a Tantric body in the rituals prescribed in the Svacchandatantra and commentary and to extend the theory of entextualization to include the ritual environment. I argue that a Tantric Śaivite religious identity is formulated through rituals which seek to create linkages between the cosmos, the body, and by extension, the ritual environment.

Ritual Change in a Turkish Alevi Village

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Thomas McElwain

1993-01-01

Full Text Available This study is a documentation and analysis of change in ritual in the village of Sarilar, on the west bank of the Euphrates River near Yavuseli, Gaziantep. The research problem posed was identification of ritual change within the consultants' memory and some tentative ways of situating such change within the socio-economic context. The mysticism of the dervish lodge remains as a certain life attitude along with the new views of modernization that have been so well inculcated. Although modernization, at least in the Turkish Alevi context, tends to conflict with the mystical experience of the Bektashi dervish in some areas, a democratized inner core remains.

Shift report: a ritual play on a residential adolescent psychiatric unit.

Science.gov (United States)

Yonge, O

2008-01-01

The author conducted an ethnographic study of an adolescent residential psychiatric unit which revealed a category of behaviour--the shift report. A questionnaire was administered to staff to reveal further meanings. Reporting was found to schematize knowledge according to common referents, promote and validate insider roles through language, offer a means of personal reintegration and catharsis, and provide a forum for the symbolic enactment of democratic values which permeated every aspect of culture on the unit. Staff members were categorically in favour of their verbal and private shift report. There was little partitioning of informal and formal aspects of report in the interest of saving time. Instead, socializing and 'catching up' were important aspects of shift report and constituted a large part of team building. The informal nature of report, particularly in the use of language allowed staff to come to terms with frustrations rather than constituting patient stereotyping. As a ritual, the shift report fostered behavioural synchrony, individual empowerment and a democratic 'all-channel network' of communication. It is hoped that this account will encourage more practising nurses and managers to view their shift report as something more than a simple 'handover'; that is, a ritual play of core values, roles and relationships.

A week of Danjiki (Buddhist fasting ritual) on cardiometabolic health: a case report.

Science.gov (United States)

Tanaka, Hirofumi; Tomoto, Tsubasa; Sugawara, Jun

2016-09-01

Danjiki is an ascetic traditional fasting ritual in the Japanese Buddhism training. Here we present a case of a 48-year-old man who underwent a 1-week-long Danjiki fasting ritual in a remote Buddhist temple. The daily ritual consisted of waking up at 3:30 am, hiking strenuously in the steep mountains followed by meditations on the rocks, focused calligraphy of religious drawings and documents, recital of Buddhist prayer chanting, and standing under waterfalls while reciting prayers. He was allowed to drink water ad libitum and a cup of carrot juice a day. After a week of the Danjiki ritual, his body weight decreased by 5 kg. Resting metabolic rate did not change. Fasting blood glucose did not change but plasma triglyceride decreased 35 %. There were no changes in blood pressure. Arterial stiffness increased 15-25 % and endothelium-dependent vasodilation decreased 5 %. These results indicate that the Danjiki ritual produced significant weight loss but unexpectedly reduced vascular functions.

Ritual y poder en los centros budistas zen argentinos

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Catón Eduardo Carini

2009-05-01

Full Text Available Resumen El presente artículo es un estudio de los grupos budistas zen argentinos desde la perspectiva de la antropología política. El objetivo es, en primer lugar, explorar las distintas posiciones sociales que los miembros pueden ocupar al interior de un grupo zen y los sistemas nativos de clasificación social, es decir, las categorías que nombran y crean distinciones rituales. En segundo lugar, analizar la estructura de autoridad y de poder al interior de una comunidad zen, indagando los vínculos entre el sistema ritual de posiciones sociales y la distribución del poder y la autoridad. La investigación etnográfica se efectuó siguiendo una metodología cualitativa, que incluyó la observación participante en los encuentros que los centros zen organizan periódicamente y la realización de entrevistas semi-estructuradas e historias de vida a sus miembros. Las conclusiones giran en torno a la importancia del ritual para la vida política de la comunidad, y la centralización del poder en la figura del maestro zen mediante la particular dinámica que evidencia la estructura de autoridad. Palabras clave: Argentina; Budismo zen; Política; Poder. Abstract The present anthropological study takes a political approach to the Argentinean Zen Buddhism groups. The first objective is to explore the variety of native social classification systems, that is to say the categories naming and creating rituals. Secondly, we try to analyze the authority and power system within a Zen community, investigating the relation between the ritual system of social positions and the distribution of power and authority. This article is based on qualitative research, which included periodic participant observation in gatherings organized by the Zen Buddhism centres and semistructured interviews with and life histories of their members. The conclusions focus on the importance of ritual for the community’s political life, and the centralization of power in the

Oath Ceremonies in Spain and New Spain in the 18th century: A Comparative Study of Rituals and Iconography

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Inmaculada Rodríguez Moya

2017-10-01

Full Text Available This paper will focus on a comparative study of the royal oath ceremonies in Spain and New Spain starting with the 16th century, when the ritual was established, to later consider some examples from the 18th century. A process of consolidating a Latin American and Hispanic identity began in the 17th century and was reflected in religious and political festivals everywhere. The royal oath ceremony was a renewal of vows of loyalty to the Crown, which was especially important in a monarchy composed a variety of different kingdoms. This ritual was very important in the Viceroyalty of New Spain, where a king ruled from afar over subjects scattered throughout a vast territory that was ethnically and culturally very diverse. The ceremony was therefore used in the 18th century to assert matters of identity through ritual gestures and the images that adorned the ephemeral architecture created for it. Accounts of festivities and prints depicting the event as it took place in places like Lisbon, Barcelona, Valencia, Majorca, Mexico and Lima will be studied from a comparative point of view.

Fostering Social Relationships through Food Rituals in a New Zealand School

Science.gov (United States)

Neely, Eva; Walton, Mat; Stephens, Christine

2016-01-01

Purpose: Food practices, including associated routines, rituals, and habits, are an unexplored area in school health promotion. The purpose of this paper is to fill this gap through exploring how food rituals act as vehicles for young people to establish, maintain, and strengthen social relationships. Design/methodology/approach: Through an…

Affectivity and Liminality in Ritualized Protest

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Thomassen, Bjørn; Scott Georgsen, Mie

2017-01-01

This article takes departure from recent events in Kiev, Ukraine. The empirical material builds on interviews and informal talks with young protesters, made online or on location during spring 2014. We argue that the uprisings – some call it a revolution – involve all essential features of limina......This article takes departure from recent events in Kiev, Ukraine. The empirical material builds on interviews and informal talks with young protesters, made online or on location during spring 2014. We argue that the uprisings – some call it a revolution – involve all essential features...... in ritualized action, unified by confronting the same essential dangers. Engaging this social drama we further wish to discuss how affectivity plays a central role in the ritualization of protest – and that subjectivity and affectivity, as relatively unformed potentials, bring qualities of heightened...

The complementary nature of poetic and musical systems in ritual visits to households

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Zakić Mirjana

2009-01-01

Full Text Available Analysis of poetic texts of the ritual - processions (koledari, lazarice kraljice in Southeastern Serbia has proved that poetical systems facilitate the differentiation at all levels of semantic relations connected to ritual practice: from denotatum (the current, real objects to which the individual ritual acts refers, specific designatum (mutual concept of given ritual marked with existing denotata, to universal designata (general concept of all rituals, marked with specific designata and content denotata. However with the frequent absence of indexic references (refrains, specific frames and lexemes, poetic texts have become universal in the denotation area of the general idea of fertility among all rituals, and the possibility of fragmentation/ analysis and reality segmentation, which derive from the high communication potential of the verbal system, which contributes towards making key connections with denotata on the syntagmatic plan of the ritual process. In contrast with that, musical texts (as articulated entities or music 'gestalts' are always contextualized and ritually recognizable on a paradigmatic level. In this article the differentiation of poetic and music informative values are stressed: semantic (under which meaning, the presence of objects in the text as a sign, is considered and numeric (which assigns a numerical quantity of innovation in the text. In a semantic sense, the musical message (in relation to the idea of the ritual and poetic message (according to a concrete object and possibly the idea of the given ritual are highly informative. In a numerical sense, again, the values of this message are different. The musical message, at the level of the initial model (starting pattern holds a highly informative value relating to extramusical concept (designatum. However, its numerical informative value is rapidly reduced by model repetition in further melostrophic appearances. A different principle is at stake when it comes to

Student Evaluations as Social Ritual.

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Whittington, Harold

The practice of student evaluation of college faculty is discussed in terms of the literature on social ritual. The following arguments that critics have raised are considered: student ratings of professors are neither scientific nor objective; feedback needed by professors to improve the quality of their work and data needed by administrators to…

The ritualization of rehabilitation

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Tjørnhøj-Thomsen, Tine; Hansen, Helle Ploug

2013-01-01

There is widespread and increasing political interest in devising plans to support people who have or have had cancer to recover and recommence 'normal' lives. Educating cancer patients for this purpose is a central element in cancer rehabilitation in both Europe and the United States. One of the...... highlight the significance of the ritual site, its aesthetics, its exaggerations, and the social and temporal organization of the program....

New Challenges for Islamic Ritual Slaughter: A European Perspective

OpenAIRE

Bergeaud-Blackler, Florence

2007-01-01

International audience; The production and consumption of halal meat products, i.e. deriving from Islamic ritual slaughter, has have grown steadily over the last 15 years. Today the global halal market is estimated at US $150 billion per year. In this paper, I describe the main steps in the integration of ‘“Muslim ritual slaughter” ' into the national legislation of Western European countries, and I present an analysis of the economic and political issues involved. Once the subject of dispute...

Bioethics and the rituals of media.

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Simonson, Peter

2002-01-01

Popular media may make short shrift of complex ideas and moral deliberations, but it can also serve bioethics well. Bioethics should embrace the ritual function of the media in bringing issues to public attention and in reinforcing bioethics as a field.

Generative Ritual among Nonmetropolitan Lesbians and Gay Men: Promoting Social Inclusion

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Oswald, Ramona Faith; Masciadrelli, Brian P.

2008-01-01

Generativity is typically studied as a normative adult inclination expressed through social roles (D.P. McAdams & E. de St. Aubin, 1992). We extend this research by examining generativity through the lenses of social marginality and ritual. Toward this end, we utilize in-depth interview and observational data about family rituals from 49…

The Devolution of a Sonic Community Ritual

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Robin Daniel Z. Rivera

2014-12-01

Full Text Available This paper will deal with the changing soundscape of a particular community in the University of the Philippines Diliman Campus, focusing on the weekly Monday morning flag raising ceremony. The paper will compare how it was celebrated in the past, using earwitness accounts, to how it has been rendered more recently based on a soundscape recording taken in February of 2013. As ritual, flag-raising has devolved over the years. This can be traced to the increase in the level of keynote sounds in and around the campus, the malfunctioning and lack of coordination in the use of the sound devices deployed in the original ritual, and the changes in the soundscapes that index the campus community.

Elixir of Empire: The English Public Schools, Ritualism, Freemasonry, and Imperialism.

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Rich, P. J.

In order to understand the British Empire, one must understand the British public school and its rituals. The 19th century saw an expansion in the public schools, which seized the opportunity to prepare boys for service in the Empire. The schools developed an elaborate systems of totems and talismans. Their rituals were reenacted all over the…

The Satanic Ritual Abuse Controversy.

Science.gov (United States)

Putnam, Frank W.

1991-01-01

The issues raised by Jonker and Jonker-Bakker and Young et al (EC 601 187-188) illustrate a major controversy dividing the child abuse community, the alleged existence of a conspiracy of satanic, ritual, sexual abuse of children. No evidence is found to support claims that large numbers of babies and children are being sacrificed or abused in…

Ritual failure in Romans 6

African Journals Online (AJOL)

2016-08-05

Aug 5, 2016 ... ISSN: (Online) 2072-8050, (Print) 0259-9422. Page 1 of ... understanding of Romans 6:1–14,2 where Paul develops his argument from an initial thesis statement ..... See Yarbro Collins (1989:42): 'Romans 6:1–14 the ritual of baptism is explicitly ..... his gospel of grace as antinomianism (Ferguson 2009:156;.

Female genital interventions: Between the plastic surgeon’s scalpel and the ritual knife

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La Barbera, MariaCaterina

2010-12-01

Full Text Available While enormous and growing sums of money are spent each year in genital cosmetic surgeries, ritual female genital interventions increasingly meet strong political and social opposition. Which interpretative models have been adopted to define some interventions as “cosmetic” and the others as “criminal”? Is there a colonialist attitude implicit in banning ritual female genital interventions? This appear to be the case after a joint examination of the health risks associated with the breast implant, the symbolic meanings of the ritual interventions, the strategic reinvention of traditional practices, and the use of the binomy health/pathology as a “controlling process”. This paper challenges the assumption that who is exposed to the plastic surgeon’s scalpel enjoys freedom and autonomy in an oppression-free society, while who is subjected to the ritual knife is a passive victim of traditional patriarchal societies.

Mientras se gastan cifras enormes y cada año crecientes en intervenciones quirúrgicas que modifican los órganos sexuales, las intervenciones rituales sobre los genitales femeninos encuentran una oposición política y social cada vez más fuerte. ¿Cuáles son los modelos interpretativos adoptados para definir como estéticas a unas y criminales a las otras? ¿Existe una actitud colonialista implícita en la condena de las intervenciones rituales sobre los genitales femeninos? Este parece ser el caso cuando se examinan conjuntamente los daños para la salud derivados del implante mamario, los significados simbólicos de las intervenciones rituales, la reinvención estratégica de las prácticas tradicionales y el uso del binomio salud/patología como “proceso de control”. Este artículo propone cuestionar la idea de que quien se somete al bisturí del cirujano plástico disfruta de libertad y autonomía en una sociedad libre de opresión, mientras que quien se expone al cuchillo ritual es víctima pasiva de

Belief Based Rituals And Their Relevance Towards Comprehensive Epilepsy Management

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Dhanaraj M

2004-01-01

Full Text Available One hundred consecutive adults with epilepsy attending the outpatient clinic for the first time were interviewed to find out the various belief-based rituals practiced by them for the control of epilepsy. They were compared with a control group consisting an equal number of patients with chronic daily headache. The various rituals practiced by them were 1. Exorcism to expel the demon in 22% of the study and 4% of the control group (p value < 0.00015. 2. Tying "Thayathu" around neck, loin or arm in 29% of the study and 10% of the control group(p value <0.00069, 3. wearing "Kappu" (a metal ring around wrist in 13% of the study group and none in the control group and 4. Tying "Holi thread" around wrist, neck or loin in 22% of the study group and 10% of the control group(p value>0.021. Any one of the above rituals was performed by 51% of the study group and 17% of the control group (p value <0.0001. Most of the patients who practiced the rituals were from suburban towns and rural areas. The mean delay in seeking medical treatment for epilepsy was 26 months among those who performed rituals and 19 months in the rest. During the ictal phase of the seizure, iron made objects such as key, chain, a rod or pipe was thrust into the hand of 80% of patients by a bystander or a relative for the control of convulsion, without providing first aid. The importance of epilepsy awareness programmes for the rural and suburban community as well as health professionals is stressed.

"Borrowing" Activities from Another Culture: A Native American's Perspective.

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Oles, Gordon W. A.

1992-01-01

Criticizes the practice in adventure education of using Native American rituals and practices without the proper cultural context. Suggests that western society uses rites and ceremonies initiated in its own culture for experiential education. (KS)

Rituales dionisiacos: asaltos a la negación.

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María Cecilia Salas.

1999-01-01

Full Text Available La relación ambigua que se da en Occidente entre la razón y el ritual se inaugura desde el antiguo mundo griego. Los rituales dionisiacos, el de las Tesmoforias y las fiestas de Adonis, constituyen tres maneras de saltar de los símbolos de la negación propios del naciente logos. Se trata de festividades en las que acontecen enormes dimensiones que en la cotidianidad están cubiertas por el manto oscuro de la razón. Hoy diríamos que algo de la enunciación y del ser se ponen en juego en la marginalidad de estos ritos. Queda suspendida a través de este texto la pregunta por el fenómeno de la prostitución como asunto solidario de tales formas rituales de enunciación: la prostituta tal vez como una pálida verdad que recorre los márgenes de los símbolos de la negación, como una instancia donde el culto orgiástico dionisiaco deviene en una mueca triste y cansada o como una mujer que vende una fallida orgía.

Ethno linguistic material regarding Christmas rituals among the Serbs in Bela Krajina

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Petrović Tanja

2002-01-01

Full Text Available The paper aims at presenting the current ethno linguistic situation in four Orthodox Serbian villages in the Bela Krajina region of Slovenia. Ethno linguistic material collected in these villages enables the synchronic state of traditional culture to be established. Special attention is payed to the way the interviewees describe Christmas rituals and interpret and evaluate then-present state; apart from description of Christmas interviewees' statements (here named ethno linguistic texts also carry precious information about attitudes of carriers of a certain culture towards its values, and indicate in- and out-group relations, establishing oppositions such as then vs. now, me vs. them, us vs. them. These subjective comments provided by the interviewees help obtain a complete, multilevel picture of a traditional culture, with all interactions that characterize it, both within the ethno linguistic community and in relation to other communities. It is especially important that these interactions be taken into account for isolated ethnic and linguistic groups such as the Orthodox Serbs in Bela Krajina.

IBADAH RITUAL DALAM MENANAMKAN AKHLAK REMAJA

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Kastolani Kastolani

2016-12-01

Full Text Available This article explained what was viewed as ritual worship; pray  and fasting to embed noble character. The purpose of worship in Islam are: (a to strengthen belief and dedication to Allah; (b to strengthen character, disciplining personality and his role as the agent trusted by  Allah on  earth;  (c to strengthen  friend ship  and affection among  Muslim;  (d to train spiritual and moral. Character occupies crucial role in human’s life, as individual as well as society member. It is because the fall and raise of the nation depends on how its society character.  The  whole  of  worship  system  in  Islam  has  close  relation  with  character founding  and  the  performance  of  ritual  worship  influences  noble  character,  because  good worship performance without having noble character will not useful.

Os rituais de passagem segundo adolescentes Los rituales de pasaje según adolescentes Passage rituals according to adolescents

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José Roberto da Silva Brêtas

2008-01-01

Full Text Available OBJETIVO: Identificar as impressões de adolescentes acerca do que poderia representar um ritual de passagem. MÉTODOS: Estudo descritivo realizado junto a 751 adolescentes de ambos os sexos, entre 12 e 20 anos, que freqüentavam três escolas públicas do ensino fundamental e médio da região de Santo Eduardo do município de Embu, São Paulo. RESULTADOS: Após análise de conteúdo desvelamos as categorias: mudanças físicas; mudanças psicológicas (subcategorias: responsabilidade, experiências, conflitos; mudanças sociais (subcategorias: identidade social, corpo social, inter-relacionamentos; comportamento sexual (subcategorias: interesse sexual, intercurso sexual; fatos traumáticos (subcategorias: sentimento de perda, luto pela infância perdida; independência. CONCLUSÃO: Os rituais de passagem relacionam-se diretamente com a mudança corporal, produto do adolescer, sendo ocorrências marcantes e significativas na vida do individuo.OBJETIVO: Identificar las impresiones de adolescentes respecto a lo que podría representar un ritual de pasaje. MÉTODOS: Estudio descriptivo realizado con 751 adolescentes de ambos sexos, entre 12 y 20 años, que frecuentaban tres escuelas públicas de enseñanza primaria y secundaria de la región de San Eduardo del municipio de Embu, Sao Paulo. RESULTADOS: Después del análisis de contenido develamos las categorías: cambios físicos; cambios psicológicos (subcategorías: responsabilidad, experiencias, conflictos; cambios sociales (subcategorías: identidad social, cuerpo social, interrelaciones; comportamiento sexual (subcategorías: interés sexual, intercurso sexual; hechos traumáticos (subcategorías: sentimiento de pérdida, duelo por la infancia perdida; independencia. CONCLUSIÓN: Los rituales de pasaje se relacionan directamente con el cambio corporal, producto del adolecer, siendo ocurrencias que dejan huellas y que son significativas en la vida del individuo.OBJECTIVE: To identify

The effectiveness of embodied symbols. The case of a Danish healing ritual

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ostenfeld-Rosenthal, Ann

2010-01-01

images of body and self work to transform the patient during a healing ritual; to develop an understanding of the process of a bodily founded symbolic ‘re-editing’ of body- and self-image, which it is argued is a fundamental art in any healing ritual. Furthermore, I will argue that a charismatic shaman...

RITUAL AND IDENTITY CONSTRUCTION IN NIGERIAN IGBO ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

NGOZI

Against this background, video films that showcase the language and social attitudes of the Igbo people are seen ... Ritual and Identity Construction in Nigerian Igbo Video Films: A Call for policy .... emphasis on certain themes, the mass media.

Film Remakes as Ritual and Disguise

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Zanger, Anat

2006-01-01

The first book-length account of the symbolic chains that link remakes and explain their disguises, Film Remakes as Rituals and Disguise is also the first book to explore how and why these stories are told. Anat Zanger focuses on contemporary retellings of three particular tales-Joan of Arc, Carmen,

The Gorani Wedding Ritual – Between Individual and Collective Memory

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Jadranka Đorđević Crnobrnja

2014-11-01

Full Text Available In this paper I will attempt to determine which contents are present in individual memories of weddings and underline the contents which contribute to the formation of commonplace memories within personal memories. By studying individual personal memories of a ritual practice, I will attempt to answer questions about the relationship between individual and collective memory. In the paper I will also consider the issue of the influence of individual memories on the construction of ethnic identity. The paper is based on an analysis of narrative discourse which has been adapted for ethnographic research. The Gorani wedding ritual represents a social practice which encompasses not only the influence of collective on personal remembrance and memory, but also the reverse. The Gorani wedding ritual is an example of a social holiday which, on a personal level creates a feeling of connection between individuals and their community, while on a collective level it creates conditions for the continuity of the Gorani community.

Tsunami and ghost stories in Thailand: exploring the psychology of ghosts and religious rituals within the context of Thai Buddhism.

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Sorajjakool, Siroj

2007-01-01

The post-tsunami ghost phenomena in Thailand may be understood, in Jungian terms, as an expression of the autonomous complex of the collective psyche resulting from traumatic loss. Religious rituals, as in the context of Thai Buddhism, provide an alternative method of dealing with grief, and hence they affirm the place of religious practices in the overall psychological well-being of people from various cultural backgrounds.

Rituals and the participation of urban form : informal and formal image making processes

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Krishnamurthy, S.

2016-01-01

The author through this paper hypothesis that the role urban form plays in the act of rituals contributes to an urban imagery that is embedded in various formal and informal socio-spatial processes and practises. By studying the yearly Karaga jatre (ritual) in Bangalore, India ethnographically and

Ayahuasca's entwined efficacy: An ethnographic study of ritual healing from 'addiction'.

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Talin, Piera; Sanabria, Emilia

2017-06-01

A range of studies has demonstrated the efficacy of the psychoactive Amazonian brew ayahuasca in addressing substance addiction. These have revealed that physiological and psychological mechanisms are deeply enmeshed. This article focuses on how interactive ritual contexts support the healing effort. The study of psychedelic-assisted treatments for addiction has much to gain from ethnographic analyses of healing experiences within the particular ecologies of use and care, where these interventions are rendered efficacious. This is an ethnographically grounded, qualitative analysis of addiction-recovery experiences within ayahuasca rituals. It draws on long-term fieldwork and participant observation in ayahuasca communities, and in-depth, semi-structured interviews of participants with histories of substance misuse. Ayahuasca's efficacy in the treatment of addiction blends somatic, symbolic and collective dimensions. The layering of these effects, and the direction given to them through ritual, circumscribes the experience and provides tools to render it meaningful. Prevailing modes of evaluation are ill suited to account for the particular material and semiotic efficacy of complex interventions such as ayahuasca healing for addiction. The article argues that practices of care characteristic of the ritual spaces in which ayahuasca is collectively consumed, play a key therapeutic role. The ritual use of ayahuasca stands in strong contrast to hegemonic understandings of addiction, paving new ground between the overstated difference between community and pharmacological interventions. The article concludes that fluid, adaptable forms of caregiving play a key role in the success of addiction recovery and that feeling part of a community has an important therapeutic potential. Copyright © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

[Medieval scenes of ritual circumcision as a reflection of sociopolitical circumstances].

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Pust, R A; Drost, C; Willerding, H; Bschleipfer, T

2005-03-01

Ritual circumcision in males is regarded as one of the oldest surgical procedures. Whereas their medieval illustrations are mostly interpreted within a religious context, this study tries to prove the influence of the political and social situation of the above-mentioned period.Selected iconography of ritual male circumcision in the Middle Ages from Germany, France, Italy, and the Byzantine Empire was critically examined. Special attention was paid to the stained glass windows recently returned to St. Mary's Church in Frankfurt/Oder, where circumcision of the so-called Antichrist is also shown. Up to now we could not find any medical historical information about this subject. Clerical fine art of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries shows more frequently than before illustrations of ritual circumcision, which evidently demonstrate the political, economic, and social tensions and controversies of that period. In many cases this iconography indicates a rejection of this old Jewish tradition and its confessors. Also the stained glass image of the Antichrist posthetomy could be interpreted as criticism or aversion.This study expands our approach to medieval illustrations of ritual circumcision that have hitherto mostly been interpreted in religious terms. The influence of changing political and social situations in the Middle Ages is evident.

Television, Rituals, Struggle for Public Memory in Serbia during 1990s

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Ildiko Erdei

2016-03-01

Full Text Available The aim of the paper is to point to the the role of television (mainly state owned and controlled and ritual actions, in creating and distributing messages concerning important social and political events during the 1990s. The main argument is that the urban street political protest actions that were performed by the political and social opponents of the ruling regime, mainly in Belgrade streets and squares, were a logical outcome of the regime’s media policy, and closely dependent on it. The aim of that policy was to silence the opposing voices and make them invisible, but also to avoid speaking about events that might threaten the image of the ruling regime as tolerant, peaceful and patriotic, the examples of which were information on war crimes, and devastations of Vukovar, Dubrovnik and Sarajevo. Political protests and ritual actions have created a place where these issues could safely be spoken out, thus creating an emerging public counter sphere. Instead of considering media and rituals as separated ways of communication, it will be showed how in particular social and political context in Serbia during 1990s, television and rituals have reached a point of mutual constitution and articulation.

Rituals of environmental expertise

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Petersen, Lars Kjerulf

2008-01-01

Use of experts in media reports about the environment is not confined to its information function. Voices of expertise also serve a ritual function in societal communication by enacting collective sentiments and common world views cast around consensus as well as conflict. This article presents...... theoretical discussions and examples from a case study of Danish television news coverage of the environment supporting such an understanding of expertise in broadcast media. And adds to the discussion of expertise a discussion of the opposing category of lay knowledge....

On the elementary neural forms of interaction rituals

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Heinskou, Marie Bruvik; Liebst, Lasse Suonperä

Randall Collins’ interaction ritual (IR) theory suggests solidarity as neurologically hardwired in the capacity for rhythmic entrainment. Yet, this article suggests that IR theory may benefit from being tied more firmly to recent neurological research, specifically Stephen W. Porges......’ neurophysiological polyvagal theory. IR theory does not sufficiently acknowledge the autonomic nervous system as a system involving a phylogenetically ordered response hierarchy, of which only one subsystem supports prosocial behavior. The ritual ingredients of shared attention and mood may be clarified as part...... of a social engagement system, neurally regulating attention and arousal via brain-face-heart circuits. This allows rhythmic entrainment to be specified as a neural epiphenomenon of the social engagement system. The polyvagal perspective, moreover, challenges IR theory to reconsider the importance...

Sandhyopaasan:The Hindu Ritual as a Foundation of Vedic Education

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Rajendra Raj Timilsina

2015-12-01

Full Text Available Yoga, meditation and Hasta Mudra Chikitsa (medication through the exercise or gesture of hands known as spiritual activities in the past have been emerged as bases to maintain  one’s health, peace and tranquility. Some people follow yoga, some focus on meditation and others apply “Hasta Chikitsa” or “Mudra”. They are separate traditional exercises. They require to spend 10 to 30 minutes once or twice a day for their optional exercise/s. It is proved that such practice has productive effect in different health treatments. This paper has applied the methods of observation, interview and literature review as qualitative paradigm in exploring their original roots of Vedic Sandhyopaasan. Twice born castes (Brahman, Chhetri and Baishya of Nepali Hindu society has been found practicing all components of the exercises as a unified ritual of Sandhyopaasan. Upanayan (Bratabandha ritual teaches Sandhyopaasan procedures for self control and self healing of the performers. Brahman is not eligible as Brahman without doing the ritual daily. However, this study has found that some Dalits have also been practicing Sandhyopaasan daily and feeling relaxed. Findings of this study show that Sandhyopaasan is a compact package of yoga, meditations and Hasta Chikitsa. Students and gurus of Vedas have been regularly following the compact package for inner peace and self control. Root of yoga, meditation and “Mudra” is Sandhyopaasan and this is the base of Hindu education system. The paper analyzes the ritual through Hindu educational perspective.

Conventions of Courtship: Gender and Race Differences in the Significance of Dating Rituals

Science.gov (United States)

Jackson, Pamela Braboy; Kleiner, Sibyl; Geist, Claudia; Cebulko, Kara

2011-01-01

Dating rituals include dating--courtship methods that are regularly enacted. This study explores gender and race differences in the relative importance placed on certain symbolic activities previously identified by the dating literature as constituting such rituals. Using information collected from a racially diverse sample of college students (N…

Cultural Lessons for Clinical Mental Health Practice: The Puyallup Tribal Community.

Science.gov (United States)

Guilmet, George M.; Whited, David L.

1987-01-01

Discusses the integration of American Indian cultural perspectives within counseling and mental health services. Outlines several issues illustrating cultural lessons for clinical practices: family and social structure, ritual, cultural values and conflict, sense of time and self, communication styles, anger, and traditionalism. Contains 47…

The Dancing Picture - The Ritual Dance of Native Australians

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Monica Engelhart

1996-01-01

Full Text Available What kind of message does -or did — the dance convey to the Native Australians? Several types of communication can be distinguished in ritual dance. There is the narrative aspect, i.e., the dramatization of a myth, or of certain social relations, there is an aspect of explanation, i.e., the visual performance of significant conditions, an expressive aspect of worship, and even an aspect of transmission, as when the body of the dancer is thought to mediate divine power to the audience. When a dancer is considered possessed, the boundaries between his human identity and the divine are wiped out. This last aspect leads us to the second item of interest regarding the ritual dance in Australia, an issue that has been discussed at length regarding masked dancers in other societies, i.e., the question of whether the dancer is identified with the being represented, or merely performs as an actor in a play. In this discussion, the very technique of dancing may have some explanatory faculty, at least as long as we are dealing with Native Australian ritual dance.

Synchronized arousal between performers and related spectators in a fire-walking ritual

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Konvalinka, Ivana; Xygalatas, Dimitris; Bulbulia, Joseph

2011-01-01

during the 30-min ritual between fire-walkers and related spectators but not unrelated spectators. This indicates that the mediating mechanism may be informational, because participants and related observers had very different bodily behavior. This study demonstrates that a collective ritual may evoke......Collective rituals are present in all known societies, but their function is a matter of long-standing debates. Field observations suggest that they may enhance social cohesion and that their effects are not limited to those actively performing but affect the audience as well. Here we show...... synchronized arousal over time between active participants and bystanders. It links field observations to a physiological basis and offers a unique approach for the quantification of social effects on human physiology during real-world interactions....

Invisible wounds: corporal punishment in British schools as a form of ritual.

Science.gov (United States)

Benthall, J

1991-01-01

This article examines a presumed historical association between corporal punishment and the British "ruling class," taking as data the elaborate forms of beating practiced at a well-known English fee-paying boarding school in the 1950s and here documented in detail. Analogies with other forms of ritual studied by anthropologists are considered, as well as the psychosexual dynamics of beating for both officiants and victims. The paper argues that ritual corporal punishment must be seen in retrospect as a clear case of child abuse that is both physical and sexual. Such rituals of authority, though virtually abolished in Britain, may well exist in a different form in present day residential institutions for children in some Third World countries that have borrowed from now outdated European practices.

What is the importance of executing rituals ‘correctly’ and why do people continue to engage in them?

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Hennie Viviers

2012-01-01

Full Text Available Rituals, borne out of our embodied practical reason, are deeds that are counterintuitive in terms of cause and effect. From a cognitive point of view, two kinds of religious rituals can be identified: special agent rituals, where superhuman agents act on human patients (onceoff, highly emotional; e.g. initiations, weddings and special instrument and patient rituals, where human agents act on superhuman patients (repeated, less emotional; e.g. sacrifices, Holy Communion. The idea of ‘correctness’ applies more stringently to the first kind than the second, for instance: Jacob’s blessing of Ephraim and Manasseh in Genesis 48. Rituals stabilise, reconstitute and replicate our ‘cosmos’ or imaginative worlds as they realign our intersubjective relations. They are tenacious and persistent, because they evoke, usually in an emotional and motivational way, our sense of urgency, our deeply felt need to maintain sound social relations and our intuitive ability to form notions of a counterintuitive world. The aim of this article was therefore to highlight and illustrate the role our evolved mental tools play when conducting rituals, especially when conducting some rituals ‘correctly’ and others less stringently so. Furthermore, the psychological appeal that rituals have on the human mind was also explained.

Comunidade sateré-mawé Y'Apyrehyt: ritual e saúde na periferia urbana de Manaus The Sateré-Mawé community of Y'Apyrehyt: ritual and health on the urban outskirts of Manaus

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João Bosco Botelho

2011-09-01

Full Text Available A comunidade Y'Apyrehyt, uma das três comunidades da etnia Sateré-mawé, na periferia de Manaus, está assentada no antigo Parque das Seringueiras. A comunidade é composta por 67 pessoas, entre adultos e crianças, que sobrevivem dos rendimentos advindos dos turistas que pagam para ver o Ritual da Tucandeira e da venda de artesanato. Mesmo com o puratin ou poratig, o Remo Mágico fincado na entrada da comunidade, somente o Ritual da Tucandeira mantém-se vivo. O processo de ressignificação desse ritual assumiu também caráter estético de coreografia artística e objeto para troca econômica.The Y'Apyrehyt community, one of three belonging to the Sateré-Mawé indigenous people found on the outskirts of Manaus, is located in a former nature reserve, the Parque das Seringueiras. The community comprises 67 people, adults and children, who live from the income obtained from tourists paying to see the Tucandeira Ant Ritual and from the sale of craftwork. Even with the Magic Oar - the puratin or poratig - displayed at the entrance to the community, only the Tucandeira Ant Ritual remains alive today. The process of attributing new meanings to this ritual has involved both an aesthetic dimension, evinced in its artistic choreography, and its commercialization.

Contexts of offerings and ritual maize in the pictographic record in Central Mexico

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Natalia Moragas Segura

2015-01-01

Full Text Available The objective of this article is an initial enquiry into the evidence and classification of the offerings of maize in Central Mexico from the Classic period to early colonial times. In order to achieve this goal, we will analyse the presence of maize in Central Mexico according to the evidence found in mural paintings and some pictographic codices. Two Mesoamerican cultures will be considered to achieve our analysis: the Teotihuacan and Mexico-Tenochtitlan. Maize was instrumental in the performance of daily rituals and in the diet of these ancient Mesoamerican cultures and the cereal also had sacred connotations in pre-Hispanic, colonial and contemporary narratives. We suggest this by reading the iconographic and symbolic representations of corn in the form of seeds and pods, or as an ingredient in cooked foods which are represented in the mural paintings of Teotihuacan as well as some codices of the post-Classic Nahua tradition. These methodological enquiries reveal evidence of a cultural continuity in Central Mexico as a contrasting perspective on the archaeological and ethno-historical period.

A semiotics of comedy: Moving figures and shifting grounds of Chapayeka ritual clown performance

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Keisalo, Marianna Päivikki

2016-01-01

This article develops an analytic approach to comedic performance by examining the performance of the Chapayeka ritual clowns as a series of semiotic shifts and reversals: the Chapayekas play with images and contexts, introducing unpredictable figures to effectively shift the grounding conditions...... to function as both symbolic figures in the ritual and self-contained contextual grounds, which enables them to produce further signs and manipulate figure-ground relations within and beyond the ritual. The analytic view developed here is informed by the complex and multilayered semiotics of comedic...

The Fire-Walker’s High: Affect and Physiological Responses in an Extreme Collective Ritual

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Fischer, Ronald; Xygalatas, Dimitris; Mitkidis, Panagiotis

2014-01-01

-walking ritual in a Mauritian Hindu community. Specifically, we compared changes in levels of happiness, fatigue, and heart rate reactivity among high-ordeal participants (fire-walkers), low-ordeal participants (non-fire-walking participants with familial bonds to fire-walkers) and spectators (unrelated....../unknown to the fire-walkers). We observed that fire-walkers experienced the highest increase in heart rate and reported greater happiness post-ritual compared to low-ordeal participants and spectators. Low-ordeal participants reported increased fatigue after the ritual compared to both fire-walkers and spectators...

The use of (perfumed) oil in Hittite rituals with particular emphasis on funerary practices

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Vigo, Matteo

2014-01-01

of the rituals we can infer that oil was used for several purposes. In this article attention is placed on the use of ‘perfumed oil’ in rituals with particular emphasis on funerary practices. In addition, selected possible comparisons with other funerary contexts are briefly presented....... terms or their equivalents - usually concealed behind logograms - helps philologists to identify oil products. The use of oil obtained from different plants is richly attested in different genres. In this respect, the description of ritual scenarios seems to be very productive. From procedures...

When culture clashes with individual human rights: A practical theological reflection on the dignity of widows

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Gift T. Baloyi

2017-01-01

Full Text Available This article discusses the nature of human beings (men and women as an egalitarian one even beyond cultural expectations. It argues against some cultural practices on women, especially widows, which claim supremacy and bind the widows to its ritual processes among the Tsonga people. It stresses the importance of human individual that overtakes everything from God�s creation, including cultural rituals which are created by human beings. It claims that the existence of culture depends solely on the existence or presence of human beings and their communities. Therefore, culture cannot use humans to shape itself and to transform the community. It is humans themselves who use culture to identify themselves and ultimately change their communities. Although the paper is theological in its approach, it argues for individual human rights to be respected and weighed above all cultural practices. It further concludes that such cultural practices are not static and that they can be removed from the rest of culture.Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: This article, from a practical theological view, challenges the African cultural rituals that claim authority over women�s rights and dignity. The interdisciplinary nature of this article indicates the sanctity of human individuals especially widows and thereby calls for paradigm shift to deconstruct certain oppressive teachings and practices against widows among African women. This article concludes thus, cultural deconstruction is possible.

Relationships among Sensory Responsiveness, Anxiety, and Ritual Behaviors in Children with and without Atypical Sensory Responsiveness.

Science.gov (United States)

Bart, Orit; Bar-Shalita, Tami; Mansour, Hanin; Dar, Reuven

2017-08-01

To explore relationships between sensory responsiveness, anxiety, and ritual behaviors in boys with typical and atypical sensory responsiveness. Forty-eight boys, ages 5-9 participated in the study (28 boys with atypical sensory responsiveness and 20 controls). Atypical sensory responsiveness was defined as a score of ≤154 on the Short Sensory Profile. Parents completed the Sensory Profile, the Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders, and the Childhood Routines Inventory. Children with atypical sensory responsiveness had significantly higher levels of anxiety and a higher frequency of ritual behaviors than controls. Atypical sensory responsiveness was significantly related to both anxiety and ritual behaviors, with anxiety mediating the relationship between sensory modulation and ritual behaviors. The findings elucidate the potential consequences of atypical sensory responsiveness and could support the notion that ritual behaviors develop as a coping mechanism in response to anxiety stemming from primary difficulty in modulating sensory input.

Advertising styles in different cultures

OpenAIRE

Krasulja Nevena

2003-01-01

Modern consumer is inhabitant of a "Global Village" as well as of its own national culture which largely influences his creation of a system of values, beliefs and style of life in general. According to adopted values and styles, consumers from different cultures have different buying behavior, different needs and preferences related to a product and they have their favorite advertising styles. As advertising reflects culture, symbols and rituals which are used are even more emphasized and st...

Tradition and Agency. Tracing cultural continuity and invention

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Tradition helps ensure continuity and stability in human affairs, signifying both the handing down of cultural heritage from one generation to the next, and the particular customs, beliefs and rituals being handed down. In the social sciences, tradition has been a central concept from the very st...... address the larger questions of cultural continuity, agency and the use of cultural resources. In the postscript, Terence Ranger offers a complementary perspective by tracing the effects of nationalism, imperialism and globalised exchange on tradition.......Tradition helps ensure continuity and stability in human affairs, signifying both the handing down of cultural heritage from one generation to the next, and the particular customs, beliefs and rituals being handed down. In the social sciences, tradition has been a central concept from the very...... revolutionize the understanding of tradition in anthropology, history and sociology, stimulating an enormous amount of research on invented and imagined traditions. However, most of this research has focussed on the cultural dynamics of specific local innovations and reactions to global developments...

Media and Culture-building

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Mohammad Reza Dehshiri

2010-01-01

Full Text Available First of all, the present study would explain 6-layer dimensions of culture –including beliefs, values, and norms (as the core of culture, and symbols, rituals, and customs, technologies, skills, and innovations (as the culture surface. Then, applying communication theories besides exploring the concept of “culture-building” involving culture-admission (affecting both core and surface of culture and culture-orientation (affecting culture’s surface; it would analyze the cultural affects media has in thoughts, normalizing, symbolizing, socialization, modeling, and innovation. The assessed hypothesis emphasizes that in the core of culture, media play an educational and stabilizing role in culture-admission process, while in the surface of culture –the culture-orientation process- they could transform behaviors and social models.

Rituals as Dance and Dance as Rituals. The Drama of Kok Nji and Other Festivals in the Religious Experience of the Ngas, Mupun and Mwaghavul in Nigeria

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Umar Habila Dadem Danfulani

1996-01-01

Full Text Available Chadic-speakers perform annual festivals of the ancestors, kok nji; cropping kop; harvesting, dyip and hunting kwat, which are usually accompanied by dancing, singing and other numerous rites and rituals. These ritual dramas symbolically and overtly express the religious experience, feelings and emotions that are deeply buried in the religious consciousness of the people. This article intends to provide a vivid description of some of these festivals, particularly those of the Ngas, Mupun and Mwaghavul.

Ritual plants of Muslim graveyards in northern Israel

Science.gov (United States)

Dafni, Amots; Lev, Efraim; Beckmann, Sabine; Eichberger, Christian

2006-01-01

This article surveys the botanical composition of 40 Muslim graveyards in northern Israel, accompanied by an ethnobotanical study of the folkloristic traditions of the use of these plants in cemeteries. Three groups of plants were found to be repeated systematically and were also recognized for their ritual importance: aromatics herbs (especially Salvia fruticosa and Rosmarinus officinalis), white flowered plants (mainly Narcissus tazetta, Urginea maritima, Iris spp. and Pancratium spp.) and Cupressus sempervirens as the leading cemetery tree. As endemic use we can indicate the essential role of S. fruticosa as the main plant used in all human rites of passage symbolizing the human life cycle. The rosemary is of European origin while the use of basil is of Indian influence. The use of white flowers as cemeteries plants reflects an old European influence and almost the same species are used or their congeners. Most of the trees and shrubs that are planted in Muslim cemeteries in Israel have the same use in ancient as well in modern European cultures. In conclusion, our findings on the occurrence of plants in graveyards reflect the geographic situation of Israel as a crossroads in the cultural arena between Asia and Europe. Most of the traditions are common to the whole Middle East showing high relatedness to the classical world as well as to the present-day Europe. PMID:16961931

A theory of modern cultural shifts and meltdowns.

OpenAIRE

Hochberg, Michael E

2004-01-01

Many cultural attributes such as adornment, language slang, mannerisms and rituals are thought to have little or no influence on individual survival and reproduction, functioning rather as markers of cultural identity that promote group cohesion. Here, I show that if cultural markers are under weak selection and subject to loss or substitution, then the breakdown of cultural cohesiveness may proceed without stabilizing reactions until many or most of a culture's identifiers are forever lost. ...

El juicio de residencia como ritual político en la colonia (Gobernación de Tucumán, siglo XVIII: A political ritual. Tucumán 18th Century Impeachment proceeding in Colonial times

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Silvina Smietniansky

2007-12-01

Full Text Available Este artículo se propone analizar un juicio de residencia, llevado a cabo en los años 1775 y 1776 en la gobernación de Tucumán, como un ritual político. Entendemos que, al teatralizar una forma ideal de funcionamiento de las instituciones y comportamiento de los funcionarios, el juicio de residencia como ritual político actuaba fortaleciendo el poder monárquico en las colonias, transmitiendo un conjunto de valores y congregando y cohesionando a la comunidad local. Partiendo de esta perspectiva ritual, abordamos el problema de la tensión existente entre las normas y objetivos que ordenaban la institución de la residencia y las implicancias y consecuencias que, en la práctica, acarreaba su celebración.This article analyzes an impeachment proceeding that took place in 1775-1776 in colonial Tucumán, in terms of a political ritual. We understand that by performing the ideal way of government institution's operation and officials' behaviour, the impeachment proceeding acted as a political ritual, reinforcing monarchical power in the colonies, transmitting a set of social values and congregating the local community. From this ritual perspective, we approach the problem of the tension between the norms and aims of the impeachment procedure, and the consequences and implications of its practice.

Culture and Death: A multicultural perspective

OpenAIRE

Pentaris, Panagiotis

2011-01-01

The factor of culture plays a critical role on how people perceive and deal with death, dying and bereavement. Each culture is unique and holds different and authentic beliefs and customs. This literature review will provide information from different cultural backgrounds among the population of Hawaìi regarding death, dying and bereavement (beliefs, customs, rituals, expectations, processes, etc.). The information aims to provide social workers and other helping professionals with appropriat...

Orge e orgiasmo rituale nel mondo antico. Alcune note

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Chiara O. Tommasi Moreschini

2007-01-01

Full Text Available This paper deals with the issue of the etymology and semantic developments of the word orgia in Greek and Roman language and ritual practice, with particular reference to Dionysiac religion. Relying on the definition of orgy currently accepted in the study of religion (transgressive collective behaviour meant to sanction a festive period and to reinforce the vital energies of cosmos and human groups by indulging to rave music, frantic dances and promiscuous sexual intercourses it describes orgiastic practices occurring in various ancient Mediterranean mystery cults, with reference to reversal rituals and to similar accounts reported by Christian haeresiologists for Gnostic conventicles.

the trajectories of christianity and african ritual practices

African Journals Online (AJOL)

the beliefs and views of various Christian groups on African rituals, focusing mainly on black members of .... they condemned played a significant role in the maintenance of the tribal society. .... highest being - Zulu), Modimo (God - Sesuthu).

Dinner rituals that correlate with child and adult BMI.

Science.gov (United States)

Wansink, Brian; van Kleef, Ellen

2014-05-01

What predicts whether a child will be at risk for obesity? Whereas past research has focused on foods, eating habits, feeding styles, and family meal patterns, this study departs from a food-centric approach to examine how various dinner rituals might influence the BMIs of children and adults. In this study of 190 parents (BMI = 29.1 ± 7.2) and 148 children (BMI = 20.3 ± 4.4), the relationship between their BMIs and everyday family dinner rituals was examined using both correlation and regression analysis (controlled for educational level of parents). Families who frequently ate dinner in the kitchen or dining room had significantly lower BMIs for both adults (r = -0.31) and children (r = -0.24) compared to families who ate elsewhere. Additionally, helping cook dinner was associated with higher BMI for girls (r = 0.26), and remaining at the table until everyone is finished with eating was associated with lower BMI for boys (r = -0.31). Dinner tables may be one place where social support and family involvement meet-both of which relate to the BMI of children as well as parents. Family meals and their rituals might be an underappreciated battleground to fight obesity. Copyright © 2013 The Obesity Society.

Understanding Korean food culture from Korean paintings

OpenAIRE

Hae Kyung Chung; Kyung Rhan Chung; Hung Ju Kim

2016-01-01

Background: In Korea, there are many traditional foods that have developed along with the country's rich history. In addition, various food cultures have developed through agricultural traditions, ritual ceremonies, and the sharing of affection. Paintings, works of calligraphy, and music demonstrate some of these cultural characteristics of Korean foods. Further research and analysis of Korean food culture using these data sources is currently underway. Methods: This paper focuses on the c...

Ritual, Myth and Tragedy: Origins of Theatre in Dionysian Rites

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Nadja Berberovic

2015-07-01

Full Text Available In the deep, dark forests and in the lush green valleys, worshippers of Dionysus celebrated the eternal cycles of death and rebirth, symbolized in the sacred mask of the wild god. Drunk and intoxicated, wearing the mask of Dionysus, the actor is at once the shaman and the priest. Channeling the presence of the fearsome divinity, he drinks the sacred wine and eats the raw flesh of his prey. In this eternal moment, he becomes one with the god and the beast residing inside of him. Within Ancient Greek culture, the sacred rites of Dionysus have been appropriated and transformed to theatre performances. The shaman became the actor, the participants became the audience, the sacred altar became the stage. From myth as a ritual performance emerged the theatre of tragedy, in which the undying spirit of Dionysus, majestic and terrifying, speaks to us even today.

Realisme, teatralitet, ritual

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Petersen, Anne Ring

2008-01-01

, and that they are characterised by a heightened awareness as to the physical, subjective and temporal aspects of the viewer's experience.  Moreover, it argues that the elements mentioned in the title "Realism, theatricality, ritual" are key characteristics of this genre. It demonstrates this by using a range of different works......The ambition of this article is to define what characterises installation art in general: It proposes that basically installations organise the work of art as a space and activate this space, that they extend the work temporally so that it acquires a situational aspect...... by Mike Kelley, Guillaume Bijl, Anette Messager, Carsten Höller and other artists as examples. The book is published in two editions, one in Danish and one in English....

Realism, theatricality, ritual

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Petersen, Anne Ring

2008-01-01

, and that they are characterised by a heightened awareness as to the physical, subjective and temporal aspects of the viewer's experience.  Moreover, it argues that the elements mentioned in the title "Realism, theatricality, ritual" are key characteristics of this genre. It demonstrates this by using a range of different works......The ambition of this article is to define what characterises installation art in general: It proposes that basically installations organise the work of art as a space and activate this space, that they extend the work temporally so that it acquires a situational aspect...... by Mike Kelley, Guillaume Bijl, Anette Messager, Carsten Höller and other artists as examples. The book is published in two editions, one in English and one in Danish....

Pluralist Democracy or Scientistic Monocracy? Debating Ritual Slaughter

NARCIS (Netherlands)

M. Valenta (Markha)

2012-01-01

markdownabstract__Abstract__ Many participants in the recent fierce debate on ritual slaughter in the Netherlands have understood this to be a conflict between religious and secular values, pitting religious freedom against animal welfare. The great variety in viewpoints among all groups

Music in Korean shaman ritual.

OpenAIRE

Mills, Simon R.S.

2012-01-01

It is hard to sum up Korean Shamanism in a few sentences but, in short, it could be described as the traditional syncretic folk religion of Korea. It mixes together ritual practices, beliefs, symbols and myths from Buddhism, Taoism, and folklore and adds elements commonly associated with nature religions and shamanism – including the use of techniques such as divination, trance, and mediumship. As with many other syncretic folk religions around the globe, there is very little in the way o...

Time in rituals of Javanese-Saivism as preserved in Bali

Science.gov (United States)

Suamba, I. B. P.; Mudana, I. G.

2018-01-01

Religion in practice is often associated with ritual in its various modes. Ritual can only be practised after proper time has been set up in advanced. This paper attempts to study times as a system in rituals of Javanse-Saivism tradition as practised in Bali. Library research was conducted to get required data through observing a number of texts belong to Wariga literature. It is found that there is a system of times known as Saka-Bali as applied in calendar system combining Indian solar-lunar system with local Javanese Wuku system. The combination of two systems cause the system becomes complex since the days are not only divided into 12 months in a year and pananggal and panglong of both full moon and new moon in a month, but also into wewaran, ingkel, dauh, etc. in a six month period. The concept “alah dening” shows gradual importance from solar-lunar to wewaran divisions of days, and the method applied in determining proper times. In practice, solar-lunar system is more dominant than the other; however both are complementary in practice. Time is equated with the Ultimate Reality, and hence it is eternal.

Objects of Power, People of Prestige: The biographical temporality of Xinguano rituals and the Wauja cosmopolitics

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Aristoteles Barcelos Neto

2012-09-01

Full Text Available Normal 0 21 false false false ES-CO JA X-NONE From puberty to old age, a Xinguano aristocrat will participate in, help perform and sponsor dozens of intra and inter-village rituals. These rituals, in turn, lie at the root of the production and maintenance of a singular type of political status (amunaw whose source of power is both external (pathogenic/shamanic spirits-monsters and internal (family networks of ritual work. The relation between these sources results in the production of ritual objects that also work to boost the prestige of the amunaw. However, it is only in their funerary rituals that the glory of the amunaw can be fully celebrated. After his death, what remains of the personified power of an amunaw are the names to which he conferred fame. In this article I attempt to show how this ritual system can maximize or minimize the amunaw’s power and its transmission to his descendants. /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Tabla normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";}

Rituals in Death and Dying: Modern Medical Technologies Enter the Fray

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Michael Gordon

2015-01-01

Full Text Available In the absence of immortality, the human species has over the millennia developed rites and rituals to help in the passing of life to honor the person who is dying or has died or in some way demonstrate their “courage” and perseverance as well as duty even in the face of almost certain death. The centuries-old traditions of the gathering of loved ones, the chanting of prayers, the ritual religious blessings are in the process of being replaced by the “miracles” of modern medical technology.

Dissecting Disbelief: Possible Reasons for the Denial of the Existence of Ritual Abuse in the United Kingdom

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Kate Richardson

2015-07-01

Full Text Available When allegations of ritual abuse first came to light in the UK, they were met primarily with a ‘discourse of disbelief’ that left little room for the possibility accounts could be based in genuine experience. Despite convictions, recent criminological, sociological and psychological literature appears fixed on debunking ritual abuse’s existence through highly debated concepts such as ‘false memory’. This paper proposes three broad ‘reasons’ for the creation and maintenance of disbelief around ritual abuse, highlighting the importance of key cases in shaping press coverage of the issue during the 1980s and 1990s, and the role survivor advocates have played in distancing ritual abuse from established knowledge within both psychology and child protection. I argue that the tangibility of death and abject horror within survivor accounts, as well as the perceived religious motivations of perpetrators, make ritual abuse both experientially and conceptually alien to most members of late-modern societies. 

[A psychosocial view of a number of Jewish mourning rituals during normal and pathological grief].

Science.gov (United States)

Maoz, Benyamin; Lauden, Ari; Ben-Zion, Itzhak

2004-04-01

This article describes the three stages of normal and pathological mourning, emphasizing the constellation embodied in Judaism for this process. These stages are: shock, acute mourning, working through and reconciliation. We present the important question: "How to define pathological mourning?" It is certainly not only a matter of extending beyond the accepted time limits of the mourning process, but also a question of the intensity of mourning in ones daily life, the degree of being preoccupied with it, and the degree of priority that this mourning process has in an individual's life. A number of forms of pathological mourning, during the three mentioned stages, are described, with special attention to Jewish mourning rituals, especially: The "rending of the garments" (Kriyah), the Kaddish, the Shiva, and the termination of mourning after a fixed period of time. One of the possible interpretations of these rituals is that they prevent and neutralize manifestations of aggression and violence. This is an analogue to the function of biological (genetic) rituals which according to the theory of Konrad Lorenz, also minimize the dangerous aggression between the species in nature. The religious ritual converts an aggressive behavior to a minimal and symbolic action, often re-directed, so that an originally dangerous behavior becomes a ritual with an important communicative function.

Eloquent bodies: conflict and ritual in northern Sri Lanka.

Science.gov (United States)

Derges, Jane

2009-04-01

It is increasingly apparent that hostilities continue in the aftermath of war and conflict, where presuppositions of peace and safety are rarely reflected on the ground. In Sri Lanka, the 2002 ceasefire agreement between the Sri Lankan government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) has recently collapsed. This collapse developed slowly over a period of several years, beginning with cautious optimism before descending into deep pessimism with increasingly high levels of violence brought about by the absence of any real progress. Efforts to rebuild and reintegrate both rural and urban communities in the north of the country have had to take place within an atmosphere of silence, suspicion and a marked escalation towards the renewed outbreak of war. This article, following sixteen months of fieldwork in the northern Jaffna peninsula, examines how Tamil youths - many of whom were imprisoned and tortured during the war - have transformed a well-known ritual that has seen a dramatic increase since occupation of the far north by government troops in 1996. The ritual, previously an act of devotion to a popular Tamil god, Murugan, has transformed into a demonstration of strength and youthful challenge. This article examines how toleration of ritual pain can be contrasted with the pain and suffering of war, and articulated not only for the self, but also for the entire community.

Assessing Presidential Character: Degradation Rituals in Political Campaigns.

Science.gov (United States)

Bennett, W. Lance

1981-01-01

Considers the consequences of taking political blunders seriously as central objects of electoral discourse. Explores gaffes as possible degradation rituals and as contributions to the definition of the electoral process and to the information needs of voters who must make decisions within that process. (PD)

An indigenous religious ritual selects for resistance to a toxicant in a livebearing fish.

Science.gov (United States)

Tobler, M; Culumber, Z W; Plath, M; Winemiller, K O; Rosenthal, G G

2011-04-23

Human-induced environmental change can affect the evolutionary trajectory of populations. In Mexico, indigenous Zoque people annually introduce barbasco, a fish toxicant, into the Cueva del Azufre to harvest fish during a religious ceremony. Here, we investigated tolerance to barbasco in fish from sites exposed and unexposed to the ritual. We found that barbasco tolerance increases with body size and differs between the sexes. Furthermore, fish from sites exposed to the ceremony had a significantly higher tolerance. Consequently, the annual ceremony may not only affect population structure and gene flow among habitat types, but the increased tolerance in exposed fish may indicate adaptation to human cultural practices in a natural population on a very small spatial scale.

On the Elementary Neural Forms of Micro-Interactional Rituals

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Heinskou, Marie Bruvik; Liebst, Lasse Suonperä

2016-01-01

of the neural basis for rhythmic entrainment. The polyvagal theory furthermore challenges IR theory to reconsider the importance of individual biological differences ritual success may not merely be ascribed to interactional effects, but also to reciprocal causality between situations and neurobiological......Randall Collins’s interaction ritual (IR) theory suggests social solidarity as hardwired in the human neurological capacity for rhythmic entrainment. Yet, this article suggests that IR theory may benefit from being tied more firmly to recent neurobiological research, specifically Stephen W. Porges......’s polyvagal theory that proposes autonomic nervous system functioning as a basis for emotions and social behavior. In this perspective, IR theory does not sufficiently acknowledge the human nervous system as a system involving a phylogenetically ordered response hierarchy, of which only one subsystem supports...

Kariburu: digresión ritual y posicionamiento político en el trabajo de curación entre los embera

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Pablo Jaramillo

2007-06-01

Full Text Available El análisis de los rituales como herramientas y medios de posicionamiento político, ha sido una labor difícil ya que la misma categoría de ritual ha oscurecido aspectos fundamentales de la función de los rituales. A través de la categoría de digresión ritual, el presente artículo examina cómo un ritual practicado entre los emberas se constituye en dispositivo para el posicionamiento político tomando el ritual como un trabajo discursivo y performativo para producir identidades políticas donde es conflictivo definirlas. El presente artículo se basa en observaciones efectuadas en medio de un trabajo de campo etnográfico realizado de manera intermitente del año 2000 al 2004 en el resguardo La Albania, Risaralda y San José de Caldas,Caldas, Colombia.

Governing martial traditions: Post-conflict ritual sites in Iron Age Northern Europe (200 BC–AD 200)

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Løvschal, Mette; Holst, Mads Kähler

2018-01-01

-scale conflicts, assembled groups, and high-arousal group behavior. They thus differ from governing structures at community or family group level. This approach gives post-conflict rituals a new and more central role in the development and upholding of ritual traditions across Iron Age Northern Europe.......-conflict ritual sanctuaries of Northern Gaul and the war bogs of Scandinavia, both of which display the remains of violent conflicts with exceptional amounts of (often mutilated) weapon paraphernalia and/or human remains. The purpose of this paper is to examine the linkage between these two traditions...... is explained by the existence of a partly shared symbolic reservoir of symbols and practices. Dependent on differing ritual governance structures, different patterns come about in the archaeological record. In this respect, post-conflict sites represent largely self-organized settings associated with large...

Human rights: eye for cultural diversity

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Donders, Y.M.

2012-01-01

The relationship and interaction between international human rights law and cultural diversity is a current topic, as is shown by the recent debates in The Netherlands on, for instance, the proposed ban on wearing facial coverage, or burqas, and the proposed ban on ritual slaughter without

Cultural perspectives of death, grief, and bereavement.

Science.gov (United States)

Clements, Paul T; Vigil, Gloria J; Manno, Martin S; Henry, Gloria C; Wilks, Jonathan; Das Sarthak; Kellywood, Rosie; Foster, Wil

2003-07-01

The cultural makeup of the United States continues to change rapidly, and as minority groups continue to grow, these groups' beliefs and customs must be taken into account when examining death, grief, and bereavement. This article discusses the beliefs, customs, and rituals of Latino, African American, Navajo, Jewish, and Hindu groups to raise awareness of the differences health care professionals may encounter among their grieving clients. Discussion of this small sample of minority groups in the United States is not intended to cover all of the degrees of acculturation within each group. Cultural groups are not homogeneous, and individual variation must always be considered in situations of death, grief, and bereavement. However, because the customs, rituals, and beliefs of the groups to which they belong affect individuals' experiences of death, grief, and bereavement, health care professionals need to be open to learning about them to better understand and help.

Families experiencing housing instability: the effects of housing programs on family routines and rituals.

Science.gov (United States)

Mayberry, Lindsay Satterwhite; Shinn, Marybeth; Benton, Jessica Gibbons; Wise, Jasmine

2014-01-01

Maintenance of family processes can protect parents, children, and families from the detrimental effects of extreme stressors, such as homelessness. When families cannot maintain routines and rituals, the stressors of poverty and homelessness can be compounded for both caregivers and children. However, characteristics of living situations common among families experiencing homelessness present barriers to the maintenance of family routines and rituals. We analyzed 80 in-depth interviews with parents who were experiencing or had recently experienced an instance of homelessness. We compared their assessments of challenges to family schedules, routines, and rituals across various living situations, including shelter, transitional housing programs, doubled-up (i.e., living temporarily with family or friends), and independent housing. Rules common across shelters and transitional housing programs impeded family processes, and parents felt surveilled and threatened with child protective service involvement in these settings. In doubled-up living situations, parents reported adapting their routines to those of the household and having parenting interrupted by opinions of friends and family members. Families used several strategies to maintain family routines and rituals in these living situations and ensure consistency and stability for their children during an otherwise unstable time. (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved.

Late-Life Divorce: Its Impact on Family Rituals.

Science.gov (United States)

Pett, Marjorie A.; And Others

1992-01-01

Examined perceived changes in specific family celebrations, traditions, important life cycle events, and day-to-day family contact that occurred for 115 adult children whose parents had divorced after long-term marriage. Found strong positive correlation between perceived disruptiveness of parental divorce and changes in family rituals,…

Pelaksanaan Ritual Usahatani Padi Sawah pada Subak Kawasan Perkotaan dan Kawasan Perdesaan Kasus: Subak Ayung, Desa Buduk, Kecamatan Mengwi dan Subak Sulangai, Desa Sulangai, Kecamatan Petang, Kabupaten Badung

OpenAIRE

ARTAJAYA, DEWA PUTU; SUTJIPTA, I NYOMAN; SUARDI, I DEWA PUTU OKA

2016-01-01

Implementation of Rice Farming Ritual at Subak of Urban and Rural Areas Case: Subak Ayung at BudukVillage Mengwi District and Subak Sulangai at Sulangai Village District of Petang Badung RegencyCultural diversity provides vivid colors in every area as a tradition that characterizes each tribe in Indonesia. Bali historically has had a tradition, culture, and religious commitment in the form of an organization called Subak. The belief of Subak members in conceiving land as Mother Nature, water ...

Religion, Ritual, and Healing among Urban Black South Africans.

Science.gov (United States)

du Toit, Brian M.

1980-01-01

Research carried out among urban residents in a satellite city in South Africa shows that while nearly all the subjects were members of Christian churches and attended church services, traditional supernatural beliefs and ritual practices were common. (Author/GC)

Ritual, rage and revenge in 2 Maccabees 6 and 7

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Pierre J. Jordaan

2012-10-01

Full Text Available The martyrs in 2 Maccabees 6 and 7 have been explored in various ways. In their commentaries on 2 Maccabees, Jan Willem van Henten and Daniel Schwartz proposed that the deaths of the martyrs should be seen as human sacrifices to please the deity. This idea has either been challenged or supported by scholars. This article supported the idea of human sacrifice, and applied the view of Richard DeMaris of the martyr’s deaths as exit rite to the above-mentioned texts. In essence this amounts to ritual critique. The results were surprising, and proved the model of DeMaris as a useful tool to examine rituals. The conclusion was reached that 2 Maccabees 6 and 7 is indeed an exit rite.

Eye contact and Cross-cultural Communication

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

刘西娟

2009-01-01

It is commonly agreed by contemporary schohrs that it is important to understand the role of culture and its characteristics and potential impact on individuals engaged in cross-cultural communication.Nonverbal Communication often reveals basic culture traits.Eye contact,as a mediunq to convey emodon.attitudes and intention.phys an undeniably vital role in communication.The concentration of this paper is to discuss the functions of eye contact in communication,different information conveyed by eve contact on the basis of different cultures and the importance of understanding and respecting the rituals of eye contact in cross-culmral communication.

Sacrifice in Modernity: Community, Ritual, Identity : From Nationalism and Nonviolence to Health Care and Harry Potter

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Duyndam, J.; Korte, A.-M.; Poorthuis, Marcel

2016-01-01

Sacrifice seems to belong to a religious context of the past. In Sacrifice in Modernity: Community, Ritual, Identity it is demonstrated how sacrificial themes remain an essential element in our post-modern society. The shaping of community, performing rituals and the search for identity, three main

Tarasca: ritual monster of Spain.

Science.gov (United States)

Gilmore, David D

2008-09-01

children (Konner 2002, 222). The Pentecostal beastie combines equine, reptilian, and bird-like features with a giraffe's neck, an elephant's bulk, an impossible number of legs, the usual human malevolence, and the satyr's insatiable lust. The monster also combines cognitive antitheses in a way that reinforces cultural biases while at the same time undermining them--a typical paradox of the Monstrous in ritual and art (Andriano 1999). In the Hacinas festival the integrated themes are those of bodily mutilation, sexual abuse, cannibalism, death, and decay. All these themes come together in certain compelling Iberian traditions: misogyny, costumed parading, religious revitalization, ritual displacement of aggression onto external objects, spontaneous street theatre. All forms of aggression are visually embodied in the image of the mystic beast, as happens every day in the classic Spanish bullfight pitting man against raw nature (Mitchell 1991). Peremptory male sexuality both parodied and glorified, women both raped and rescued, children both terrified and liberated. As Bloch has argued in the aptly titled Prey into Hunter (1992), the narrative of the Tarasca rite, turning victim into victimizer, enables the community to "absorb the vitality" of the external threat and thereby to regenerate itself and to transcend everyday reality. We may make a third, psychoanalytic, observation. As with all such fabulous and scary images, the Tarasca provokes regressive responses that probably go back to the primary organization of the mind before the advent of speech. In this childhood environment, sensations are limited to visions and primary emotions, and the world is experienced largely through the eyes and mouth. Psychoanalysts of childhood have called this the phase of oral/visual primacy. It may explain the locus of aggression in typical monster imagery: the rending teeth, the gnashing jaws, the cavernous belly. It would also help us understand the terror at being devoured by a giant

Temple consecration rituals in ancient India. Text and archaeology

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Slaczka, Anna Aleksandra

2006-01-01

The present dissertation concentrates on the study of construction rituals of the Hindu tradition, with special attention to the prathameshtakaanyaasa (the laying of the first stones), the garbhanyaasa (the placing of the consecration deposit) and the muurdheshtakaanyaasa (the placing of the

Tayub as a Symbolic Interaction Medium in Sedekah Bumi Ritual in Pati Regency

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Sisca Dwi Suryani

2015-01-01

Full Text Available This study aims to find, understand, and describe the process of symbolic interaction in sedekah bumi ritual and the supporting symbols of Tayub as the symbolic interaction medium in the ritual. This study applies qualitative methods with the holistic approach. The research was conducted in Dukuh Guyangan, Desa Sidoluhur, Kecamatan Jaken, Kabupaten Pati. In collecting the data, observation, interview, and documentation technique were implemented. Further, the data were analyzed using the technique of data reduction, data presentation, drawing conclusion, as well as verification. The data was validated using the sources triangulation, the technique triangulation, and the time triangulation. Tayub as the medium of symbolic interaction realizes in four interaction processes, as follows: 1 symbolic interaction processes between the ritual actors and the spirits of ancestors reflected in kenduren procession held in punden, 2 symbolic interaction process between ledhek and pengibing that is embodied in ibingan, 3 symbolic interaction process between wiraswara and the audiences that is seen during the dance performance, 4 symbolic interaction process between pengrawit and ledhek that is reflected in the dance movements and the accompanying music. The meanings of symbol behind the ritual itself are reflected through the realization of symbolic interaction. It consists of three elements, as follows: 1 kenduren prayer, 2 offerings and ambeng, 3 Tayub dance.

Intangible cultural heritage as a tourist brand of Serbia

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Bjeljac Željko

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Presented as a part of intangible cultural heritage, Serbian national folklore is rich in spiritual and worldly values and it is transposed in customs, celebrations, music, songs, dances, stories and legends. As a part of tourist offer, these elements are presented in numerous festivals and tourist events. In the year 2012, the Network on the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Serbia was formed. The National Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage registers 27 elements of intangible cultural heritage, among which most representative are the patron saint festivity, St. George's Day ritual, the national dance - kolo, singing accompanied with the musical instrument gusle, Vuk's Parliament, naive painting of Slovak minority, Pirot carpet-making and pottery from Zlakuša village, which reflect the national cultural identity both of Serbian people, and partly of certain ethnic minorities. There are also some elements that are not included in this list, but they also represent a significant tourist value, such as the harvest bread ritual (Dužijanca, Haymaking in Rajac, folk-shoe making (opanak and many others. In this paper, categorization and classification of intangible heritage is made. Those cultural elements that have certain tourist potential and as such may represent a significant factor in the formation of Serbian tourism brand are identified.

The Physical Examination as Ritual: Social Sciences and Embodiment in the Context of the Physical Examination.

Science.gov (United States)

Costanzo, Cari; Verghese, Abraham

2018-05-01

The privilege of examining a patient is a skill of value beyond its diagnostic utility. A thorough physical examination is an important ritual that benefits patients and physicians. The concept of embodiment helps one understand how illness and pain further define and shape the lived experiences of individuals in the context of their race, gender, sexuality, and socioeconomic status. Understanding ritual in medicine, including the placebo effects of such rituals, reaffirms the centrality of the physical examination to the process of building strong physician-patient relationships. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Governmentalities of Alevi Cultural Heritage: On Recognition, Surveillance and "Domesticated Diversity" in Contemporary Turkey

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Benjamin Weineck

2014-12-01

Full Text Available Although Cultural Heritage as such has a rather positive connotation, bringing together notions of safeguarding and human creativity, critical investigations have underlined the various strategic, economic and political rationalities inscribed in this term. In 2010 the UNESCO rendered the Alevi ritual sequence semah Intangible Cultural Heritage and as such it was inscribed in the Turkish National Inventory of Cultural Heritage – although Alevis are not recognized by the Turkish state and its Sunni-Turkist understandings of belonging. The celebration of an Alevi ritual as enriching Turkey’s ‘cultural diversity’ thus asks for an analytical approach that comes to terms with this tension of recognition, ongoing political surveillance and the very specific understandings of diversity that are put into play. With reference to Foucaults (and particularly Roses approach to contemporary government as “governmentality”, Cultural Heritage can be grasped in its ambivalent (but not necessarily conflicting nature as cultural self-fulfillment and governmental control. The paper thus enlarges the analytical scale of thinking about Cultural Heritage in its correlation with identity-formation, the politics of recognition and governance.

COW (ESHU) RITUAL IN THE FUNERAL RITE: THE SIGIFICANCE ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

The study made use of primary and secondary sources of information. ... manners are the animals killed? And (c) for what ..... A critical analysis of the cow ritual shows that the cow implies more .... A.B.C. Chiegboka, A.I. Okodo, E.C. Umezinwa,.

Imágenes del rapto de la doncella en rituales festivos ibéricos

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Brisset, Demetrio E.

2003-12-01

Full Text Available During the patron saint's feasts in several small towns of the Iberian Peninsula, it is the devil who persuades the "moors" to kidnap the Virgin Mary. This ritual abduction of the model woman in Iberian culture can be regarded as part of a symbolic complex expressed throughout the centuries in various significant ways, the persistency of which indicating its deeprooted presence in hearts and minds and its influence on collective values and beliefs. Here I propose a comparative ethnohistorical approach, using the analytical tools of visual anthropology, to the symbolism of the different images of the abducted woman appearing in such patron saint's feasts, whether sacred or profane.

En las fiestas patronales de varios pueblos ibéricos, Luzbel convence a los «moros» para que se apoderen de la Virgen María. Este rapto ritual de la bella imagen de la mujer modélica en nuestra cultura se puede incluir dentro de un complejo simbólico expresado a lo largo de los siglos con muy vanadas formas significantes; persistencia que indica su profunda implantación psíquica e influencia en las creencias y valores colectivos. Aquí se propone una aproximación comparativa etnohistórica, con el instrumental analítico de la antropología visual, para abordar el simbolismo de las diversas imágenes de la mujer raptada que aparecen en dichas representaciones festivas, tanto religiosas como profanas.

Los (defectos del texto: controversias en torno a las prácticas rituales de los musulmanes europeos The faults of the text: debates about the ritual practices of european muslims

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Alberto López Bargados

2010-06-01

Full Text Available Tras revisar la aplicación de las diversas teorías del ritual elaboradas por la antropología a contextos islámicos, y más específicamente los análisis efectuados sobre la práctica del sacrificio durante la festividad del Ayd al-adha, el artículo analiza las dificultades que encuentran las diversas comunidades musulmanas afincadas en Europa para llevar a cabo dicho sacrificio y las eventuales transformaciones a las que se ve sometida la práctica ritual. Asimismo, el artículo convierte las controversias que envuelven la práctica sacrificial islámica en Europa en un ejemplo ilustrativo de un problema general, a saber, el que se genera en torno al lugar que las prácticas religiosas deben ocupar en el espacio público europeo.After revising the application of the different theories of the ritual offered by anthropology in Muslim contexts, and more specifically, the analysis of the practice of the sacrifice during the Ayd al-adha feast, the article seeks out the problems that diverse Muslim communities settled in Europe encounter in order for the sacrifice to take place and the eventual changes that subdue the ritual practice. At the same time, the article considers the controversy surrounding the Muslim practice of sacrifice in Europe as an example of a general problem about the place that the religious practices should occupy in the European public sphere.

Resurrection imageries: A study of the motives for extravagant burial rituals in ancient Egypt

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Jock M. Agai

2015-03-01

Full Text Available Unlike in the New Testament whereby faith in Christ can resurrect the dead, the ancient Egyptians believed that the bereaved created the resurrection of their deceased through burial rituals and by encouraging the living to serve their kings. They thought that faith alone in god or the gods was not enough to resurrect the dead, thus they seemingly superimposed resurrection alongside burials. Using the various forms of Egyptian burial rituals and evaluated from the perspective of the Christian concept of resurrection, this researcher attempts to search for the motives behind specific Egyptian burial rituals. The researcher proposes that the activities of the bereaved or of the living over the dead were paramount in resurrecting the dead in ancient Egypt. The purpose of this research is, firstly, to explain how the Egyptian burial rituals influenced their thoughts on resurrection and, secondly, to show that the Egyptian god(s might have depended on the living to raise the dead.Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: The ancient Egyptians lived their lives mainly to satisfy the interests of the dead, hence their extensive burial rituals. Whilst they believed in the power of the gods to raise the dead, there seemed to be another motive behind their burial practices which suggested that the living may have had more power to raise the dead. The power was realised in the activities of the living in the form of burials, tomb designs, mummification, food offering, and in remembering the dead. This research explains that these burial activities were relevant in resurrecting the dead without which the gods alone were not able to do that.

Ties That Bind: Building and Maintaining Strong Parent-Child Relationships through Family Traditions and Rituals.

Science.gov (United States)

Franklin, Diane, Ed.; Bankston, Karen, Ed.

This booklet discusses the importance of family rituals as a way of staying connected to children as they move through adolescence. Family rituals give teens a sense of being part of a family that values its time together. Even something as simple as a family meal together can have great impact on maintaining a bond between parents and children.…

Stalinist ritual and belief system : Reflections on "political religion"

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van Ree, E.

2016-01-01

This article offers a critical assessment of the Political Religion Theory on the basis of a comparative analysis of the Orthodox and Stalinist belief systems and ritual. The theory works under the assumption that sacralisation of secular objects endows these objects with a transcendental, divine

Objetos rituales e identidad

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Monserrat Ventura i Oller

2000-12-01

Full Text Available El chamanismo especialmente en las sociedades indígenas de América del Sur, se ha caracterizado por un complejo sistema de intercambio interétnico material y simbólico. Como parte de este sistema, los objetos utilizados en los rituales chamánicos no pueden ser interpretados a partir del significado que les otorga cada cultura particular de la que son originarios. Sino que deben ser analizados a partir del significado que cada cultura receptora da a su mundo sobrenatural, que es usualmente representado por formas materiales variables y diversas. Este tema será ilustrado con la etnografía del grupo indígena Tsachila del Ecuador, que despliega una extensa y compleja red de intercambios chamánicos.

Continuing bonds after bereavement:A cross-cultural perspective

OpenAIRE

Valentine, Christine A

2009-01-01

The ways in which eastern and western cultures grieve for their dead are often contrasted. Eastern cultures are seen to place greater value on traditional ritual and ceremony that, it is argued, serve to create a lasting, and comforting, bond with the deceased. By contrast, western societies are seen to be much more materialist and individualistic. This article takes a cross-cultural look at responses to death and loss in the UK and Japan, both post-industrial societies but with very differen...

What Is so "Cultural" About Cultural Entrepreneurship

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Staffan Albinsson

2017-04-01

Full Text Available The term “cultural entrepreneurship” has been increasingly used during the new millennium, mirroring the rapidly growing importance of the “quaternary sector of the economy,” i.e. knowledge-based industries, including culture. Exploration of the literature in which the term “cultural entrepreneurship” is used does not bring a solid, clear-cut, and unambiguous understanding of its definition or meaning. The aim of this paper is to present various uses of the concept and to bring about some clarity in how the concept can be understood. Two overarching uses of the cultural entrepreneurship concept have been found: 1. the anthropologist’s and institutional economist’s use, which indicates the dynamic development of intangible cultural features such as symbols, myths, languages, beliefs, values, norms, rituals, and attitudes in and between societies, and 2. the arts development use, which indicates the dynamic development of cultural services, tangible goods, and individual or collective career promotion. Most authors use a cultural entrepreneurship concept without defining it. Authors could apply more precise definitions by using a quadruple bottom-line framework to position themselves in the nexus of financial, social, artistic, and cultural perspectives.

Capacitar para Distribuir Conhecimento ou para Vender Livros? O Ritual de Treinamento dos Vendedores da Feira do Livro de Porto Alegre

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Deise Luiza da Silva Ferraz,

2010-01-01

Full Text Available While studying the booksellers’ training ritual that takes place in the larger ritualized context of the Porto Alegre Book Fair, this article attempted to analyze the work conditions of book sellers during the Fair, as well as to identify the reasons behind their commitment or non-commitment with the event’s success. The hierarchical structure found in the local daily context is also present during the Fair; however, training focuses on the praise of knowledge, culture and working people. Therefore, employees are encouraged to overlook any possibilities of criticizing work conditions in favor of the satisfaction to participate in such event. The ethnographic method, with participative observation techniques and interviews, was considered the most effective to analyze this space. Results indicate that when a ritualistic connotation is given to training, marketing aspects are neglected and emphasis is placed on the pleasure of festive events and the sociability propitiated. Thus, in spite of poor work conditions, booksellers give up even their basic needs so as to “delight” clients and, as a consequence, to sell better

Kitsch and cultural tourism

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Ioan Petroman

2013-10-01

Full Text Available The urban area covers a high density of structures developed by man compared to the surrounding areas. Cultural tourism includes, on the one hand, cultural tourism in urban areas – particularly historical towns and cities with cultural sites such as museums or theatres – and, on the other hand, cultural tourism in rural areas – where its main goal is to focus on communities, festivals, rituals, and traditions. From the point of view of the practice of urban or rural cultural tourism, tourists are, in most cases, presented what they wish to see: thus, authenticity can turn into inauthenticity and what is promoted is vulgar art or improper beauty, surrogate art or even pseudo-art – kitsch, represented by souvenirs that have nothing to do with true art.

Breaking the Waves: Routines and Rituals in Entrepreneurship Education

Science.gov (United States)

Neergaard, Helle; Christensen, Dorthe Refslund

2017-01-01

Learning is related to the environment created for the learning experience. This environment is often highly routinized and involves a certain social structure, but in entrepreneurship education, such routinization and structure may actually counteract the learning goals. This article investigates how classroom routines and rituals impact on…

Pueblos, rituales y condiciones de vida prehispánicas en el Valle del Cauca

OpenAIRE

Rodríguez Cuenca, José Vicente

2005-01-01

El Valle del Cauca estuvo habitado por diversos pueblos que desarrollaron ingeniosas estrategias adaptativas con el propósito de mantener el equilibrio homeostasis entre la producción de recursos y su consumo. Los sacrificios humanos, las cabezas trofeo, el canibalismo ritual, los festejos asociados a las cosechas, los rituales funerarios, el sostenimiento de tierras de nadie en áreas fronterizas, los mismos combates organizados entre grupos rivales, la exogamia, la reprocidad y el intercambi...

Reading Romance: The Impact Facebook Rituals Can Have On A Romantic Relationship

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Greg Bowe B.A. Mod

2010-10-01

Full Text Available Despite the fact that research has identified intimate relationships as being an important factor in how people look to present themselves on social networking sites, there still remains a lack of research in this domain. By comparing trends inside the rituals of the relationship status, public displays of affection and photographs on Facebook this paper examines how they can impact a relationship in the offline world by discussing the extent to which the design and features of the site can impact the emotional repertoire of its users. Results highlighted that the website has the potential to provide a new focus and channel for a person to depict where their relationship is going, feeling rules can be attached to certain rituals on the website. By focusing on the relationship statusoption and public displays of affection, it was emphasized that these rituals accentuate themes of possession and territory and can be used to configure a couple’s superiority. The discussion on photographs illustrated how the website can bring problems and jealousy to the relationship, particularly when the ‘ex-partner’ was taken into account.

Dinner Rituals That Correlate with Child and Adult BMI

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Wansink, B.; Kleef, van E.

2014-01-01

Objective: What predicts whether a child will be at risk for obesity? Whereas past research has focused on foods, eating habits, feeding styles, and family meal patterns, this study departs from a food-centric approach to examine how various dinner rituals might influence the BMIs of children and

Ritual Slaughter, Animal Welfare and the Freedom of Religion

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Sap, J.W.; Zoethout, Carla; van der Schyff, Gerhard

2017-01-01

According to traditional Jewish and Islamic law, animals must be slaughtered by a single cut to the throat. The practice of ritual slaughter has become controversial to the extent that it is interpreted as precluding animals from being stunned first. This raises a number of important and related

Power play: ritual rivalry and targeted tradition in Glastonbury

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Marion Bowman

2006-01-01

Full Text Available Glastonbury, a small town in the south-west of England, is considered significant by a wide variety of spiritual seekers, including Christians of various denominations, pagans, Druids, Goddess devotees, self-styled ‘New Agers’, Buddhists, Sufis, earth energies researchers, healers and ­others who feel that they have in some way been ‘called’ or ‘drawn’ to the town. Although, for the most part, groups and individuals of very different reli­gious persuasion co-exist comparatively peacefully and a largely laissez-faire attitude to pluralism has developed in the town, increasingly some rivalries and differences in worldview are being played out publicly in ‘traditional’ forms such as processions, rituals and calendar customs. While such traditional religious means are used on occasion to express concord rather than conflict, proclaiming and reclaiming are very much part of the ethos of ritual and processional activity in Glastonbury at present, with pageantry and calendar customs regarded as valuable tools in establishing presence and priority in both overt and subtle ways. The extent to which rival claims to territorial and spiritual supremacy are being played out in the (recreation of rituals and other forms of public display are examined here briefly through two sets of case studies which feature vernacular religious forms being used in relation to contemporary spir­­ituality. The first set involves the Christian Glastonbury Pilgrimage processions and their pagan counterpart the Goddess in the Cart Procession; the second involves the Glastonbury Thorn Ceremony and the Chalice Well Winter Solstice Celebration. The focus here is on the comparative and tactical aspects of these events

Reclaiming space for learning in liturgical contexts: Cracks in the maxim of the uselessness of liturgical ritual

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Marcel Barnard

2012-02-01

Full Text Available The problem addressed in this article is, that empirical and theoretical research appears to demonstrate that liturgy often aims at certain results. This, however, puts the widely accepted notion in Liturgical Studies of the so-called uselessness of liturgical ritual under pressure. Against this background in Liturgical Studies the aim of this article is to reclaim space in academic discourses on liturgy for learning in liturgical contexts. The latter is done by presenting several liturgical models, revisiting arguments regarding the (non functionality of ritual or religion and also by reflecting on ritual-liturgical data that the authors personally collected as part of two research projects.

Reclaiming space for learning in liturgical contexts: Cracks in the maxim of the uselessness of liturgical ritual

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Marcel Barnard

2012-07-01

Full Text Available The problem addressed in this article is, that empirical and theoretical research appears to demonstrate that liturgy often aims at certain results. This, however, puts the widely accepted notion in Liturgical Studies of the so-called uselessness of liturgical ritual under pressure. Against this background in Liturgical Studies the aim of this article is to reclaim space in academic discourses on liturgy for learning in liturgical contexts. The latter is done by presenting several liturgical models, revisiting arguments regarding the (non functionality of ritual or religion and also by reflecting on ritual-liturgical data that the authors personally collected as part of two research projects.

La estructuración ritual del cuerpo, la experiencia y la intersubjetividad en la práctica del budismo zen argentino

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Catón Eduardo Carini

2009-01-01

Full Text Available Neste artigo, analisamos o aspecto fenomenológico do ritual zen na Argentina, especificamente nas práticas e representações relacionadas ao corpo, ao sofrimento e à intersubjetividade. Em primeiro lugar, enfocamos o modo como os praticantes da meditação experimentam e significam a dor e o sofrimento. Em seguida, analisamos o propiciamento de um habitus psicofísico social e construído culturalmente por meio da participação nos centros budistas daquele país, em que as modalidades somáticas da atenção representam um papel de grande importância. Concluindo, questionamos o âmbito da intersubjetividade e da intercorporalidade das comunidades zen, uma vez que é no marco da interrelação em determinado contexto pautado ritualmente que se produz o habitus religioso mencionado anteriormente.The article examines the phenomenological aspect of Zen ritual in Argentina- more specifically, the practices and representations related to the body, suffering and intersubjectivity. In the first place it focuses on the different ways in which Zen meditation practitioners experience and give meaning to their pain and suffering. Secondly, it analyses how participation in Argentinean Buddhist centers promote a socially and culturally constructed psychophysical habitus, in which somatic modes of attention play an important part. The third part investigates the area of intersubjetivity and intercorporality of Zen communities, in a ritually structured context; this is the borderland of the interrelation with others and where the before mentioned religious habitus is produced.

CES--Cultural, Experiential, Skill Building: The Cognitive Foundation.

Science.gov (United States)

Rheams, Annie E.; Gallagher, Maureen

1995-01-01

Critiques the assimilation strategy and the hero-heroine-ritual approach to multicultural education, and offers a third model, the Cultural, Experiential, Skill Building (CES) approach, as an alternative for teacher training. Effects of the CES model on potential teachers and the implications for teacher training are addressed. (GR)

An ancient Maya ritual cache at Pook's Hill, Belize

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Stemp, W. James; Braswell, Geoffrey E.; Helmke, Christophe

2018-01-01

, the edge and surface wear on most of the used obsidian blades are consistent with other functions, including cutting meat/skin/fresh hide, cutting or sawing wood and dry hide, cutting or sawing other soft and hard materials, and scraping hard materials. Clearly, not all blades from this ritual deposit were...

Antropo-Semiótica del cambio ritual: de los viejos a los nuevos ritos

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José Enrique Finol

2014-07-01

Full Text Available Algunas de las preguntas claves que debemos hacernos cuando comparamos viejos ritos –religiosos, cósmicos, cíclicos– con los nuevos ritos propios de las sociedades modernas, donde han irrumpido con fuerza los medios de difusión masiva, son cuáles rasgos constituyen sus diferencias, en qué niveles y circunstancias dichas diferencias se realizan, por qué unos ritos cambian radicalmente y otros no, de dónde proceden esos cambios y qué los facilita; lo que conduce, a su vez, a preguntarse por su orientación y dirección semiótica. Nuestro análisis comparativo de antiguos y modernos ritos nos muestra diferencias en cuatro órdenes distintos: las dimensiones de las formas, la rigidez de las normas, los límites del escenario y la esfera de la comunicación. Ese análisis nos permitirá clasificar los cambios de ritos en intra-rituales, inter-rituales y trans-rituales.

Cultural alternatives. A material reading of the mourning of 11th-M / Alternativas de la cultura. Una lectura material del duelo del 11-M

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Pilar Jimeno Salvatierra

2009-10-01

Full Text Available Since the human ecology approach occurs a break in the forms of studying culture or its accomplishments. The novelty has to do with the need to examine it not in itself or in their performances, but as an element of the ecological system is interconnected with the rest of their material elements. This material functional analysis model is described as a substantive by its main theoretical. Thus the cultural behaviours are responses to disturbances belonging to the system environment. One of the most interesting for the study of social and cultural are rituals, as part of retroactive mechanisms within any human ecological system. The aims of this paper is to theorize about the observation of the material aspects of collective behaviours, such as rituals, ceremonies, or others collective manifestations, that highlight the social importance and interpretative of these aspects. The article manifests both the creation and the orientation of “enactment of meanings” through the analysis of collective behaviours. It also shows an important part of social truth in material performances. Methodological applications such as Rappaport’s reference to material signs in his ritual theory, placing emphasize on the communication role of these are used to interpret the mourning ritual.

Mitos y rituales familiares en familias desplazadas reubicadas en Bogotá

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Brianda Sarmiento

2007-07-01

Full Text Available Este artículo expone los resultados de un proceso conversacional acerca de los mitos y rituales creados, comparando el lugar de origen con el sitio actual de residencia, como parte de una investigación con tres familias en situación de desplazamiento forzado que se han reubicado en Bogotá. El objetivo general fue construir con estas familias una comprensión acerca de la relación entre la situación de desplazamiento y las formas cómo se modifican, se mantienen o se crean mitos y rituales en torno a categorías tales como la cultura, la idiosincrasia familiar, la vida cotidiana y los eventos de ciclo vital, comparando el sitio de origen con el lugar actual de residencia. El método fue descriptivo y comprensivo con una estrategia cualitativa. Se encontró que los mitos y rituales cambian adaptándose a la vida urbana. Se fortalecen los que promueven la unión al interior de la familia, pero los relacionados con la comunidad disminuyen por falta de recursos, falta de pertenencia y como forma de protegerse de peligros externos. Esto genera en las familias la percepción de un empobrecimiento de su vida social, pero también la sensación de fortaleza al interior para afrontar el evento del desplazamiento.

Transcultural use of narcotic water lilies in ancient Egyptian and Maya drug ritual.

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Emboden, W A

1981-01-01

Comparisons are made between ancient ritual uses of the flowers of Nymphaea (Nymphaeaceae) in Maya and Egyptian civilizations. Recurrent motifs encountered in the art of both of these ancient civilizations suggests that the role fo the water lily was that of a narcotic (psychodysleptic) used to mediate ecstasis among a priestly caste. Relevant literature is reviewed as are chemical data. Elements in the complex belief systems of these two civilizations need to be reinterpreted in view of the use of two water lilies as ritual narcotics. The species implicated are Nymphaea caerulea Sav., in Egypt, and N. ampla DC., among the Maya.

A rebirth for the pharaoh: reflections on the classification of the new kingdom divine birth cycle as a ritual

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Mia Rikala

2003-01-01

Full Text Available The interpretation of rituals enacted, or represented,in the temples of Egypt is limited by the often sparse survival of evidence; most of our knowledge of the Egyptian temple cult comes from the temples of the Graeco-Roman period. This paper deals with an aspect of ancient Egyptian divine kingship, the divine birth cycle, and the question of its rituality. The focus is on the well-known but somewhat enigmatic event of engendering the divine child (i.e. the king, as depicted during the New Kingdom period. Following the various types of ritual classification, one might be tempted to interpret the divine birth cycle as a political ritual designed to legitimize the pharaoh's rule. At the same time, it coequals with various aspects of religious renewal, such as the annual re-creation, and rebirth of the pharaonic state through its socio-ideological self, represented by the king. In this respect, one might categorize divine birth as a festival or calendrical rite. The purpose of this paper is to explore various ways of interpreting the divine birth cycle as a ritual, or as a religious representation of a different type.

The Animal Sacrifice in Religious Rituals or Beliefs

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Tereza Rodrigues Vieira

2016-12-01

Full Text Available Based on a bibliographical research, this article has the scope of the analysis of the sacrifice of nonhuman animals in religious rituals or beliefs practiced in Brazilian territory. By bringing moral, ethical and legal support, this national reality will be discussed in order to arrive at an answer of which good should be protected and guaranteed: religious freedom or the life of nonhuman animals?

Socio-Cultural Conception of Albinism and Sexuality Challenges ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Socio-Cultural Conception of Albinism and Sexuality Challenges among Persons with Albinism (PWA) in South-West, Nigeria. ... For the female PWA the risk of being used for money making rituals; not knowing a sincere partner; their more fragile nature and perceived fear of societal objection and hatred in seeing a ...

Family Rituals and Quality of Life in Children With Cancer and Their Parents: The Role of Family Cohesion and Hope

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Crespo, Carla; Canavarro, M. Cristina; Kazak, Anne E.

2015-01-01

Objective Family rituals are associated with adaptive functioning in pediatric illness, including quality of life (QoL). This article explores the role of family cohesion and hope as mediators of this association in children with cancer and their parents. Methods Portuguese children with cancer (N = 389), on- and off-treatment, and one of their parents completed self-report measures. Structural equation modeling was used to examine direct and indirect links between family rituals and QoL. Results When children and parents reported higher levels of family rituals, they also reported more family cohesion and hope, which were linked to better QoL. At the dyadic level, children’s QoL was related to parents’ family rituals through the child’s family cohesion. This model was valid across child’s age-group, treatment status, and socioeconomic status. Conclusions Family rituals are important in promoting QoL in pediatric cancer via family cohesion and hope individually and via family cohesion in terms of parent–child interactions. PMID:25775914

Ludic role of religious rituals. The use of play for religious ceremony

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Ciocan Tudor Cosmin

2015-11-01

Full Text Available This paper was made as part of a wider research I made about rituals and their meaning and roles they are playing in the religious system of thinking. The way they are thought, displayed, precisely followed as instructed and believed, makes them a powerful social act that has been always provided by any religion, and also a tool for religion to make the human society what it is today. After I speak about what is a ritual and its religious content in general, I am enumerating roles and functions of play and theatre in particular have, both for profane and religious purpose. Do we still use play/games as adults because they are rewarding, they give us pleasure? They are used as means of relaxation, or for continuing the age of childhood; or it is in our nature to play games in everything we do? In this paper I have emphasized play as adaptive potentiation or adaptive variability useful both in therapy, as in religious ceremony. The relation and comparison of rituals with play is due to the fact that playing is the most engaging behavior performed by man and animals, and it can be found as foundation of almost any ritualist activity.

O Desenho Cultural da Arquitetura Guarani

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Carlos Zibel Costa

1993-12-01

Full Text Available This work is about the guarani-mbya tribe dwelling, and its relation to their cultural characteristics, especially those found in the ritual and mythological traditions. The guarani-mbya way of life or tradition - teco - can just exist in their own place - tecoa - which means 'place where we live according to our own way of life' (Melia, 1988:104

TIME IN IGBO COSMOLOGY: THE RITUAL AND ITS VALUES Anayo ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Dean SPGS NAU

In the Igbo traditional concept, time is reckoned in an abstract terms. The Igbo man .... born on Eke day and being the day omabe ritual was going on at the. OnuOmabe ... concern that a particular moon may be calculated differently by different ...

[Ritual use of Anadenanthera seeds among South America natives].

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Carod-Artal, F J; Vázquez Cabrera, C B

2007-01-01

Several South-American native societies snuff psychoactive seeds in magic-religious rituals since ancient times. To describe archeological, historical and ethnographical evidences regarding the ritual use of vilca or yopo (Anadenanthera sp). Anadenanthera seeds were used in South America 3,000 years ago. Archeological studies found vilca seeds in funerary tombs from 1,000 BC in the north of Chile and Argentina; ceramics and snuff tubes were found in San Pedro de Atacama archeological sites from the same data, and in Tiwanaku ceremonial center in Bolivian Altiplano. Today, Anadenanthera sp is used by several native groups in Orinoco basin, where is known as yopo, and in the Brazilian and Colombian Amazon. Hallucinogenic effect is due to the presence of methyl-tryptamine derivatives. Most snuff is prepared from the roasted and powdered seeds, vegetable ash and/or lime obtained from shells. Archeological and ethnographical data suggest that vilca was used and is still used by native shamans as a sacred seed in South America, due to its hallucinogenic effects.

Prácticas rituales ibéricas en La Cueva del Sapo (Chiva, Valencia: más allá del caliciforme

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Sonia MACHAUSE LÓPEZ

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Se presentan los resultados del estudio interdisciplinar del yacimiento ibérico de la Cueva del Sapo (Chiva, Valencia. Las características del conjunto estudiado muestran un contexto ritual que sería frecuentado entre los SS. V-II a. C. La diversidad cronológica y material así como el volumen de restos indican la existencia de varias actividades rituales intermitentes, no generalizadas y que se suceden en el tiempo. Nos acercamos a ellas a través de la presencia de restos de fauna, con escasas evidencias de consumo que reflejan un ritual principal en torno a la figura del ciervo, huesos humanos sin incinerar con marcas que demuestran un tratamiento concreto del cadáver ligado a un complejo ritual funerario en época ibérica y otros materiales –cerámicas, metales y carbones– que también son pruebas de una actividad ritual en la cueva, cuyas características difieren de los criterios tradicionales establecidos para las cuevas con materiales ibéricos. Todos estos factores nos hacen replantearnos la definición tradicional, todavía vigente, para este tipo de contextos rituales, cargada en algunas ocasiones de excesivas generalizaciones.

«Red Ritualism» in the Territory of Don Oblast in 1923-1924

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Tabunshchikova Liudmila

2015-12-01

Full Text Available The birth, development and extinction peculiarities of the “Red Ritualism” (new traditions and rituals of Soviet Russia in the territory of Don Oblast in 1923–1924 are considered in this article on the basis of the regional periodicals of 1920. The Soviet Government was interested in new ritualism from the first revolution years till the beginning of 1930 and in the period of the Khrushchev Thaw (the end of the 1950 — the beginning of the 1960 . The article is devoted to the investigation of theses processes at the regional level in the first half-year of the 1920. The struggle with survives of time was on of the most evident areas of the anti-religious activity of the Goverment in the fi rst half-year of the 1920 th. After the company of church values confiscation the Government stroke an ideological blow at the way of life — they created “civil funeral”, “red marriage” and “octyabriny” (a name-day, the soviet ritual as an alternative of christening. In the Don region theses rituals appeared in 1923. “The red christening” was the most popular, “the civil funeral” was the least one. These processes were mostly spread in the cities and in a less degree in the villages. While in the whole country in 1925 the interest toward the “red ritualism” reached the peak, in the Donskaya oblast it was fading away. The author in this work uses the archive materials that were not published previously. The article will be useful for the specialists and other people interested in the given subject.

Importing a Culture of Success Via a Strong Principal.

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Reavis, Charles A.; Vinson, David; Fox, Richard

1999-01-01

Examines how a new principal at a historically low-performing high school brought about changes in the school culture and in student achievement. Describes how the principal emphasized achievement at the highest levels through heroes and heroines, rites and rituals, stories, governance and leadership, symbols, enforcing expectations, and serving…

The Political Economy of Desire in Ritual and Activism in SriLanka (abstract

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Wim Van Daele

2013-02-01

Full Text Available Amidst the complexity of the development-religion nexus, this chapter examines desire and its varying expressions as fundamental concerns of many religions motivating both development and alternatives to development. In Sri Lanka, as people deal with social change, the neoliberal and globalised development is understood and re-interpreted through local idioms and formations of desire. The neoliberal economy cultivates desire and, as such, leads to a perceived increase in the presence of pretas (greedy, hungry ghosts that occasionally emerge when people die. The hungry ghosts, as fetishised formations of desire, resonate with consumers and entrepreneurs, who exhibit an insatiable hunger for ever more material wealth. Hence, the ritual appeasement of hungry ghosts and the social activism of groups such as the Movement for National Land and Agricultural Reform are clearly linked by their mutual concern with the existential insecurity of fellow human and non-human beings caused by excessive and unbalanced desire. However, the explicit articulation of specific concerns regarding desire diverges between ritual action and social activism. Ritual materialises and condenses the anxiety related to desire, whereas social activism describes the fetishisation of desire in more abstract economic, political and scientific terms.

Hallucinogenic drugs in pre-Columbian Mesoamerican cultures.

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Carod-Artal, F J

2015-01-01

The American continent is very rich in psychoactive plants and fungi, and many pre-Columbian Mesoamerican cultures used them for magical, therapeutic and religious purposes. The archaeological, ethno-historical and ethnographic evidence of the use of hallucinogenic substances in Mesoamerica is reviewed. Hallucinogenic cactus, plants and mushrooms were used to induce altered states of consciousness in healing rituals and religious ceremonies. The Maya drank balché (a mixture of honey and extracts of Lonchocarpus) in group ceremonies to achieve intoxication. Ritual enemas and other psychoactive substances were also used to induce states of trance. Olmec, Zapotec, Maya and Aztec used peyote, hallucinogenic mushrooms (teonanacatl: Psilocybe spp) and the seeds of ololiuhqui (Turbina corymbosa), that contain mescaline, psilocybin and lysergic acid amide, respectively. The skin of the toad Bufo spp contains bufotoxins with hallucinogenic properties, and was used since the Olmec period. Jimson weed (Datura stramonium), wild tobacco (Nicotiana rustica), water lily (Nymphaea ampla) and Salvia divinorum were used for their psychoactive effects. Mushroom stones dating from 3000 BC have been found in ritual contexts in Mesoamerica. Archaeological evidence of peyote use dates back to over 5000 years. Several chroniclers, mainly Fray Bernardino de Sahagún, described their effects in the sixteenth century. The use of psychoactive substances was common in pre-Columbian Mesoamerican societies. Today, local shamans and healers still use them in ritual ceremonies in Mesoamerica. Copyright © 2011 Sociedad Española de Neurología. Published by Elsevier Espana. All rights reserved.

Dances of Hostility and Friendship: Embodied Histories of Group Relations in the Agusanen Manobo Spirit-Possession (Yana-an Ritual

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Jose S. Buenconsejo

2000-12-01

Full Text Available This paper explores the complex, aesthetic embodiment of a particular history of group relations. It investigates how the form or materiality of ritual séance-constituted by dance, music, speech, and acts-reflects changes in the political economy. The paper deals with Agusanen Manobo séance (yana-an as a channel for embodying the Agusan Manobo's rich cultural imagination of "others." Agusan Manobos are indigenous people,most of whom are now Christians and who live in middle Agusan Valley. Their "imaginary others" are distant outsiders with whom the Manobos owe some kind of affinity because of a more or less shared historical experience based upon concrete social exchange practices.The paper examines two kinds of social relations: (1 Manobos vis-à-vis other indigenous peoples, and (2 Manobos vis-à-vis the Visayan speaking settlers. It demonstrates that the nature of the first social relation is symmetrical or egalitarian. This contrasts with the second, which is asymmetrical. The paper shows that Agusan Manobo yana-an makes reflexive, visceral statements about these social relations, enabling ritual participants to define their social identity and reconstrue the newer asymmetrical Manobo-Visayan relations back to its original equalizing one.

Organizational culture: essence and basic characteristics in the conditions of the globalizatio

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E. B. Bannikova

2015-09-01

Full Text Available The article presents an analysis of the concept of «organizational culture» through the prism of a phenomenon of culture and different approaches to organizational culture are crystallizes. Culture is defined as historically certain level of society development and man, that expressed in the types and forms of human life organization, and material and spiritual values, which created by them. It is shown that one of the classifications of culture divided it into three types: monoactive (or linearly arranged, poliactive and reactive. Each of these types is characterized by a particular style of the information collection that defines the possibility of decisions making management when using this classification in organizations. The features of the interpretation of the concept of «organizational culture» are defined. The essence of the organizational culture is a set of values, which are the guidelines of behavior of employees, management decision-making guidelines, as well as a system of symbols and rituals that serve as a set of rules approved behavior of employees in an organization. Marked constituent elements of organizational culture: system of values, leadership style, the characters of organization, ceremonies and rituals, cultural organization’s network. The main characteristics of organizational culture are: universality, informality, stability. It is shown that the components of organizational culture changing in the conditions of globalization, which calls for new forms and methods of work with personnel in modern organizations.

Ritual use of currency in Laimbwe history, Cameroon | Kah | Lwati: A ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Ritual use of currency in Laimbwe history, Cameroon. ... exchange and a measurement of value to replace other indigenous currencies, had an impact ... social classes and the re-enforcement of the socio-political order of the Laimbwe people.

The trajectories of Christianity and African ritual practices: the public ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

In South Africa, there are mainly two Christian traditions on Christianity and African ritual practices. One being from missionaries and now mainly trailed by most white Mainline Churches and Pentecostal Churches. The other is by African Independent Churches (AIC). The first group oppose and condemn Christian ...

A ritual on the Comrades Marathon | Van Vuuren | South African ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

The race challenges its participants in terms of a combination of constraints, such as the spatial, physical, temporal and the psychological. An auto-ethnographical research methodology is applied in combination with literature on ritual and sports, such as distance running, karate, the Olympic Games and triathlon.

Peripartum Depression, Traditional Culture, and Israeli Society.

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Dekel, Sharon; Stanger, Varda; Georgakopoulos, Emily R; Stuebe, Caren M; Dishy, Gabriella A

2016-08-01

Although it is known that culture affects psychopathology, the nature of the relationship between culture and peripartum depression (PPD) is not fully understood. Here we report on 2 cases of Israeli women who are affiliated with traditional cultural groups that emphasize reproduction but developed PPD after childbirth. The first woman is an ultra-Orthodox Israeli Jew and the second is an Israeli Arab. The 2 cases illustrate the effect of cultural beliefs and rituals on the conceptualization, treatment, and trajectory of PPD. The cases suggest a complex relationship between traditional cultures and PPD, including the possibility that cultural factors may have both adaptive and maladaptive consequences. Future qualitative and quantitative studies are needed to further clarify this relationship. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Neuroscientific Explanations of Religious Experience are Not free from Cultural Aspects

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Runehov, Anne Leona Cesarine

2008-01-01

We cannot disregard that the neuroscientific research on religious phenomena such as religious experiences and rituals for example, has increased significantly the last years. Neuroscientists claim that neuroscience contributes considerably in the process of understanding religious experiences, b...... neuroscientific issues, also cultural-religious assumptions that underlie this conclusion. Key Words Culture, Neuroscience, Religious Experience, Meditation. Udgivelsesdato: January...

Satanism, ritual abuse, and multiple personality disorder: a sociohistorical perspective.

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Mulhern, S

1994-10-01

During the past decade in North America, a growing number of mental health professionals have reported that between 25% and 50% of their patients in treatment for multiple personality disorder (MPD) have recovered early childhood traumatic memories of ritual torture, incestuous rape, sexual debauchery, sacrificial murder, infanticide, and cannibalism perpetrated by members of clandestine satanic cults. Although hundreds of local and federal police investigations have failed to corroborate patients' therapeutically constructed accounts, because the satanic etiology of MPD is logically coherent with the neodissociative, traumatic theory of psychopathology, conspiracy theory has emerged as the nucleus of a consistent pattern of contemporary clinical interpretation. Resolutely logical and thoroughly operational, ultrascientific psychodemonology remains paradoxically oblivious to its own irrational premises. When the hermetic logic of conspiracy theory is stripped away by historical and socio/psychological analysis, however, the hypothetical perpetrators of satanic ritual abuse simply disappear, leaving in their wake the very real human suffering of all those who have been caught up in the social delusion.

Kuliwa: A Cultural Identity of the Local People of Mandar, West Sulawesi

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Zuhriah Zuhriah

2016-08-01

Full Text Available Tola’ bala means to refuse or to draw away the danger that might happen. In West Sulawesi it is called Kuliwa. It is being done by the wife of fisherman, punggawa’. The people of Mandar are usually practicing kuliwa ritual before going to fishing or venturing to a journey through the sea. It is an obliged ritual, which is done for inaugurating or welcoming something as in object or through ceremonial acts. For instance, to inaugurate the use and first voyage of a ship, or to acquire machine or other tools used for fishing (jala and gae’, and for the first time for fishing. It is requirement ritual for every fisherman before having a long journey into the sea. They believed that without practicing Kuliwa, something dangerous in the sea might happen during the sailing time. Hereby, this paper aims to explore more on what the way of the people of Mandar is still practicing and maintaining this ritual and how it becomes gather in tradition and religion? Kuliwa is not just talking about tradition, but also the life of religion in Mandar society and further believed as their cultural identity.

Mapping a Space for a Rhetorical-Cultural Analysis: A Case of a Scientific Proposal

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Dorpenyo, Isidore Kafui

2015-01-01

This article analyzes a proposal submitted to a funding unit in Michigan Technological University by a PhD Forestry student. A rhetorical-cultural approach of the text provides evidence to argue that scientific writing is rooted in a cultural practice that valorizes certain kinds of thought, practices, rituals, and symbols; that a scientist's work…

''Your Big Wedding Day''. Temporal Goal in Church Marriage Rituals

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Robinson, R.; Hermans, C.A.M.; Scheepers, P.L.H.; Schilderman, J.B.A.M.

2007-01-01

In this contribution the authors explore notions about the origin and destiny of bridal couples’ relationships from participants’ views of church marriage rituals. A church wedding can be a pivotal moment in a bridal couple’s life, and on these occasions people tend to contemplate the past and the

Family Rituals and Quality of Life in Children With Cancer and Their Parents: The Role of Family Cohesion and Hope.

Science.gov (United States)

Santos, Susana; Crespo, Carla; Canavarro, M Cristina; Kazak, Anne E

2015-08-01

Family rituals are associated with adaptive functioning in pediatric illness, including quality of life (QoL). This article explores the role of family cohesion and hope as mediators of this association in children with cancer and their parents. Portuguese children with cancer (N = 389), on- and off-treatment, and one of their parents completed self-report measures. Structural equation modeling was used to examine direct and indirect links between family rituals and QoL. When children and parents reported higher levels of family rituals, they also reported more family cohesion and hope, which were linked to better QoL. At the dyadic level, children's QoL was related to parents' family rituals through the child's family cohesion. This model was valid across child's age-group, treatment status, and socioeconomic status. Family rituals are important in promoting QoL in pediatric cancer via family cohesion and hope individually and via family cohesion in terms of parent-child interactions. © The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society of Pediatric Psychology. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Rituals to free the spirit – or what the cremation pyre told

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nielsen, Karen Høilund

2009-01-01

Sammenligning og diskussion af begravelsesriterne på gravpladsen Lindholm Høje (400-800 e.kr.) og skriftlige overleveringer om brandbegravelser og ledsagende ritualer, herunder hos Ibn Fadlan og i Beowulf-kvadet....

On culture and human development: Interview with Barbara Rogoff

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Glaveanu, Vlad Petre

2011-01-01

In this interview Professor Barbara Rogoff explores the many ways in which culture shapes the course of human development, and illustrates this with several findings from her past as well as most recent work. These reveal the vital importance of growing up in a family and a community for the human...... child and participating, from early on, in their various rituals and practices. Building on and enriching cultural psychological sources, Professor Rogoff offers us a comprehensive framework with which to understand both cultural and developmental phenomena and, above all, their multiple intersections...

Children's Religious Knowledge: Implications for Understanding Satanic Ritual Abuse Allegations.

Science.gov (United States)

Goodman, Gail S.; Quas, Jodi A.; Bottoms, Bette L.; Qin, Jianjian; Shaver, Phillip R.

1997-01-01

Using a structured interview, 48 3- to 16-year-old children were questioned about their knowledge of religious and satanic concepts. Although few children evinced direct knowledge of ritual abuse, many revealed general knowledge of satanism and satanic worship. Results suggest that most children probably do not generally possess sufficient…

Midichlorians--the biomeme hypothesis: is there a microbial component to religious rituals?

Science.gov (United States)

Panchin, Alexander Y; Tuzhikov, Alexander I; Panchin, Yuri V

2014-07-02

Cutting edge research of human microbiome diversity has led to the development of the microbiome-gut-brain axis concept, based on the idea that gut microbes may have an impact on the behavior of their human hosts. Many examples of behavior-altering parasites are known to affect members of the animal kingdom. Some prominent examples include Ophiocordyceps unilateralis (fungi), Toxoplasma gondii (protista), Wolbachia (bacteria), Glyptapanteles sp. (arthropoda), Spinochordodes tellinii (nematomorpha) and Dicrocoelium dendriticum (flat worm). These organisms belong to a very diverse set of taxonomic groups suggesting that the phenomena of parasitic host control might be more common in nature than currently established and possibly overlooked in humans. Some microorganisms would gain an evolutionary advantage by encouraging human hosts to perform certain rituals that favor microbial transmission. We hypothesize that certain aspects of religious behavior observed in the human society could be influenced by microbial host control and that the transmission of some religious rituals could be regarded as the simultaneous transmission of both ideas (memes) and parasitic organisms. We predict that next-generation microbiome sequencing of samples obtained from gut or brain tissues of control subjects and subjects with a history of voluntary active participation in certain religious rituals that promote microbial transmission will lead to the discovery of microbes, whose presence has a consistent and positive association with religious behavior. Our hypothesis also predicts a decline of participation in religious rituals in societies with improved sanitation. If proven true, our hypothesis may provide insights on the origin and pervasiveness of certain religious practices and provide an alternative explanation for recently published positive associations between parasite-stress and religiosity. The discovery of novel microorganisms that affect host behavior may improve our

Midichlorians - the biomeme hypothesis: is there a microbial component to religious rituals?

Science.gov (United States)

2014-01-01

Background Cutting edge research of human microbiome diversity has led to the development of the microbiome-gut-brain axis concept, based on the idea that gut microbes may have an impact on the behavior of their human hosts. Many examples of behavior-altering parasites are known to affect members of the animal kingdom. Some prominent examples include Ophiocordyceps unilateralis (fungi), Toxoplasma gondii (protista), Wolbachia (bacteria), Glyptapanteles sp. (arthropoda), Spinochordodes tellinii (nematomorpha) and Dicrocoelium dendriticum (flat worm). These organisms belong to a very diverse set of taxonomic groups suggesting that the phenomena of parasitic host control might be more common in nature than currently established and possibly overlooked in humans. Presentation of the hypothesis Some microorganisms would gain an evolutionary advantage by encouraging human hosts to perform certain rituals that favor microbial transmission. We hypothesize that certain aspects of religious behavior observed in the human society could be influenced by microbial host control and that the transmission of some religious rituals could be regarded as the simultaneous transmission of both ideas (memes) and parasitic organisms. Testing the hypothesis We predict that next-generation microbiome sequencing of samples obtained from gut or brain tissues of control subjects and subjects with a history of voluntary active participation in certain religious rituals that promote microbial transmission will lead to the discovery of microbes, whose presence has a consistent and positive association with religious behavior. Our hypothesis also predicts a decline of participation in religious rituals in societies with improved sanitation. Implications of the hypothesis If proven true, our hypothesis may provide insights on the origin and pervasiveness of certain religious practices and provide an alternative explanation for recently published positive associations between parasite-stress and

Las comadronas y su oficio ritual

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Oscar Liendo

2015-01-01

Full Text Available En Chichicastenango, ciudad ritual del mundo indígena guatemalteco, se realizó recientemente el IV Encuentro Nacional de Comadornas. Una treintena de comadronas, representantes de los cuatro grupos étnicos predominantes en el país, se reunieron para discutir una serie de problemas que ellas afrontan diariamente. El acto fue auspiciado por UNICEF y el Ministerio de Salud de Guatemala, instituciones que vienen apoyándolas desde hace más de cuatro años en capacitación participativa y gestión de fondos rotatorios para adquirir sus materiales e instrumentos de trabajo, como desinfectantes, ligaduras o mantas para recibir al bebé.

Ritual Continuity and “Failed Rituals” in a Winter Masquerade in the Italian Alps

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Lia Zola

2011-08-01

Full Text Available Alpine winter masquerades, also known as carnival masquerades, may be regarded as one of the most complex phenomena within the field of study of cultural anthropology and folklore. In the Italian alpine chain some of them have been brought to a new life two decades ago after a long period of decline; since then, alpine winter masquerades have been the focus of a great interest by cultural anthropologists, theatre performers and other intellectuals. In some cases bringing a winter masquerade to new life has proved to be successful; in others, after a first, “reborn” performance, some celebrations abruptly stopped. My paper aims to explore issues of ritual continuity and ritual failure through a specific case-study, that of the carnival masquerade in Salbertrand, an alpine settlement of 485 inhabitants in the upper part of the Val di Susa, in the Italian western alpine chain.Les mascarades alpines d'hiver, aussi connues comme mascarades de carnaval, peuvent être considérées comme l’un des phénomènes les plus complexes dans le champ d'étude d'anthropologie culturelle et du folklore. Dans la chaîne alpine italienne, certains d'entre eux ont été amenés à une nouvelle vie il y a deux décennies, après une longue période de déclin. Dès lors, les mascarades alpines d'hiver ont été sujet d'intérêt majeur pour les anthropologues culturels, les acteurs de théâtre et d'autres intellectuels. Dans certains cas, réactiver une mascarade d'hiver s'est soldé par une réussite ; dans d'autres, après une première manifestation "renaissante" quelques célébrations se sont brusquement arrêtées. Mon article aspire à explorer les phénomènes de continuité et d'échec rituel à travres une étude de cas spécifique, celui de la mascarade de carnaval de Salbertrand, une localité alpine de 485 habitants dans la partie supérieure de Val De Suse, dans les Alpes occidentales italiennes.

Ritualism in transition. A study on the preferences of corporeal destiny

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Paula Analía Pochintesta

2016-07-01

Full Text Available The aim of this article is to present a few of the results from my Ph.D. research. This is a comparative analysis on ritual preferences regarding own death expressed by middle-aged people (cohort of 1957 and 1972 and people in the fourth age (cohort of 1917 and 1932. The data is collected from biographical interviews conducted in 2009 and 2012 in the Metropolitan Area of Buenos Aires, Argentina. The results show a transformation in funerary practices and customs in the urban context in the last years. The analysis indicates that for middle-aged people there is a preeminence for cremation which defines the dematerialization of death. Both the rejection to cemeteries and funeral ceremonies reflecta changing ritualism. Appreciation of cemeteries and burials, however, characterizesthe cohort of the fourth age and constructsa different relation between the alive and the dead.

Bread in the folk culture of the Serbs in its pan-Slavic context

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Radenković Ljubinko

2014-01-01

Full Text Available The Slavs do not consider bread to be a common foodstuff, but a sacred object, a symbol of wealth and happiness. Almost all significant rituals (holidays, rites from the life cycle of a person, occasional magical activities use bread. In some of them, such as marriages or the Serbian holiday krsna slava, it is the main ritual object, which has great symbolic value. This paper addresses the use of bread in the ritual behavior of the Serbs and related peoples, where bread has the characteristics of a symbol and therefore gains a communicative function (it is used to convey or to receive information. It is also points out that the symbolic function of bread changes depending on the grain used to make it, whether it is leavened or unleavened, and the shape of it. [Projekat Ministarstva nauke Republike Srbije, br. 177022: Serbian Folk Culture Between East and West

On Ritual Narrative and Construction of the Press Conference:A Cultural Anthropology Approach%论新闻发布会的仪式叙事与建构--对新闻发布会的文化人类学解释

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

赵振祥; 王洁

2014-01-01

The ritual view of communication reconstructs the mode of communication,from which the press con-ference can be regarded as the performance of ceremony process. In the virtual context generated by the digital media,the press conference evolves from the actual ceremony to the media ritual. Great emphasis should be put on the ritual construction of the press conference. Hence the symbolic meaning of the ceremony is suggested to be strengthened at the levels of role structure,role behavior,space-time factors and situation and so on so as to create the ritual order and achieve the ritual purpose.%传播仪式观重构了传播的模式，以“仪式观”观之，新闻发布会是仪式进程的展演。在数字媒介生成的虚拟情境下，新闻发布会从现实仪式演变为媒介仪式。应重视新闻发布会的仪式建构，从角色构成、角色行为、时空要素、情境等层面强化仪式的象征意义，以建立仪式秩序、实现仪式目的。

A theory of modern cultural shifts and meltdowns.

Science.gov (United States)

Hochberg, Michael E

2004-08-07

Many cultural attributes such as adornment, language slang, mannerisms and rituals are thought to have little or no influence on individual survival and reproduction, functioning rather as markers of cultural identity that promote group cohesion. Here, I show that if cultural markers are under weak selection and subject to loss or substitution, then the breakdown of cultural cohesiveness may proceed without stabilizing reactions until many or most of a culture's identifiers are forever lost. This may culminate in a 'cultural meltdown', whereby the culture is caught in a vortex of ever-decreasing membership and insufficient selection against the accumulation of unfamiliar markers. In progressively altering the topology of communication from diffusion to broadcasting, globalization may be both accelerating the erosion of cultural identities and amplifying dominance behaviours above their normal adaptive levels.

77 FR 34985 - Notice of Intent To Repatriate Cultural Items: U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Indian...

Science.gov (United States)

2012-06-12

... determined that the cultural items meet the definition of unassociated funerary objects and repatriation to... custody of the Arizona State Museum, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, that meet the definition of..., including characteristics of portable material culture, attributes of ceramic styles, domestic and ritual...

The fear of the Lord as key pastoral guidance, for a healing ministry to survivors of generational ritual abuse / by Karen Hayward

OpenAIRE

Hayward, Karen

2010-01-01

Generational ritual abuse within satanic or fertility (abusive witchcraft) cults is a controversial subject. This study shows that, while not all reported memories may be true, False Memory Syndrome is not an intrinsic scientific reality of generational ritual abuse. Recent publications under the editorial pens of Noblitt and Perskin Noblitt (2008), as well as Sachs and Galton (2008), describe the types of abuse and torture perpetrated in various forms of ritual abuse (including the results o...

Türkiye'de Politik Ritüeller Political Rituals In The Turkish

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Kürşat ÖNCÜL

2013-07-01

Full Text Available Rituals that have been seen with especially religious stylesstarting from the time before the process of nationalization have begunto be systematic by having distinguishing aspects in association withbeing a nation which resulted from the formation of the commoncustoms in the following times. While the feeling of being a communityas a result of nationalization allows the rituals having historicalbackground to continue, new social and political acceptations make upnew ceremonies and new rituals to be put into practice in theseceremonies. Rituals and ceremonies which are performed so as todisplay the awareness of the people who have different political viewsdespite being in the same cultural circle, or to ensure the coalition overa shared entity have continued and will continue so long as thefundamental synergy, which constitutes the party, continues.The Turkish Republic founded after the collapse of the OttomanEmpire have inherently a social and political construction in whicheither formal or informal ceremonies and related rituals are performedin accordance with the common frame whose essential elements werecited above. The governors discountenance every action and movementoutside their constitution and such organizations that they interfere inaccordance with the flexible / rigid regulations of the domestic andglobal political conditions are the reflections of an attitude from past tothe future. In the Turkish Republic, it is also possible to see a numberof ceremonies and related rituals accepted as legal or illegal in line withthe statements. The participants perform the ceremonies and theirrituals again with the aim of realization of the early time of event andmostly reformation of the place where it took place. Every newrecurrence backs up the group awareness and motivates the newparticipant to share this moment. Rituals that have some sort ofsacredness at this point turn into sometimes only a memorial ceremonyof a group and sometimes the

Darwinism and the cultural evolution of sports.

Science.gov (United States)

De Block, Andreas; Dewitte, Siegfried

2009-01-01

This article outlines a Darwinian approach to sports that takes into account its profoundly cultural character and thereby overcomes the traditional nature-culture dichotomies in the sociology of sport. We argue that there are good reasons to view sports as culturally evolved signaling systems that serve a function similar to (biological) courtship rituals in other animals. Our approach combines the insights of evolutionary psychology, which states that biological adaptations determine the boundaries for the types of sport that are possible, and pure cultural theories, which describe the mechanism of cultural evolution without referring to sport's biological bases. Several biological and cultural factors may moderate the direct effect that signaling value has on a sport's viability or popularity. Social learning underlies many aspects of the cultural control of sports, and sports have evolved new cultural functions more-or-less unrelated to mate choice as cultural evolution itself became important in humans.

Sacra loca y armamento. Algunas reflexiones en torno a la presencia de armas no funcionales en contextos rituales

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Gabaldón Martínez, María del Mar

2010-12-01

Full Text Available Many weapons from the Ancient Past have been found in archaeological contexts defined by its ritual character such as graves, sanctuaries or votive deposits. Precisely from these archaeological contexts came most of the findings of weapons with no military function. Some of them were manipulated (symbolically or physically for ritual purposes and the others were made for an exclusively ritual or ceremonial function.Un gran número de armas del pasado proceden de contextos arqueológicos definidos por su carácter ritual, ya sean las sepulturas, los santuarios o los «depósitos votivos». En estos contextos arqueológicos se han hallado la mayor parte de las armas que no tienen función para el combate, bien porque han sido transformadas (física o simbólicamente, bien porque han sido creadas (destinadas para tener un uso exclusivamente ritual o ceremonial. [fr] Un grand nombre d’armes antiques provient de contextes archéologiques définis par leur caractère rituel, qu’il s’agisse des sépultures, des sanctuaires ou des dépôts votifs. C’est dans ces contextes qu’on été retrouvées la majorité des armes dépourvues de fonctionnalité militaire, soit parce que leurs caractéristiques ont été altérées (matériellement ou symboliquement, soit parce qu’elles ont été spécialement fabriquées dans un but rituel ou cérémonial.

Between skipping rope and Eid ul-Fitr: Everyday youth culture in 8th form

OpenAIRE

Duits, L.

2009-01-01

Youth culture studies are becoming increasingly rare and the little theorizing that is done consists mostly of conceptual discussions. This article addresses these theoretical and empirical gaps by ethnographically investigating the relationship between context and content of youth culture. It answers the central research question ‘How do how specific, varying school contexts affect the routines and rituals that constitute everyday youth culture at school?’ This article provides an thick desc...

Sensing Hinduism: Lucian-Indian Funeral “Feast” as Glocalized Ritual1

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Sabita Manian

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Migrant narratives of Indo-Caribbean religious practices in the smaller island states of the Caribbean are rare, and that Diaspora’s funerary traditions are even less explored. This scholarly lacuna is addressed here by using data from ethnographic research conducted in St. Lucia to examine the funerary ritual of a Lucian-Indian “feast” through the multidisciplinary lens of glocalization. Specifically, we investigate the following: (a ways that the diasporic identity of Lucian-Indians has been adapted and re-configured within a local-global nexus; (b the extent to which there has been a local construction of a distinct socio-spatial identity among Lucian-Indians, one retaining “Hinduness” even as they assimilated into the larger St. Lucian society; and (c whether glocal characteristics can be identified in the performance of a particular funeral feast. Following Roudometof, we posit that many aspects of a Lucian-Indian ethno-religious funerary ritual demonstrate indigenized and transnational glocalization.

Organizational Culture at High Schools in TRNC: A Comparative Case Study

Science.gov (United States)

Silman, Fatos; Ozmatyatli, Icim Ozenli; Birol, Cem; Caglar, Mehmet

2012-01-01

This study was conducted to compare the organizational culture in two TRNC schools by using influencing factors of metaphors, physical environment, values, norms, rituals, language, legends and reward systems. To obtain data, a triangulation of participant interviews, observations and written sources were used. Results appear to display that the…

Interpretando el genesis del descanso: una aproximación a los mitos y rituales del turismo

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Korstanje, Maximiliano

2009-01-01

Full Text Available The myths and the rituals have been analyzed during a lot of time by the anthropology. However, few of them are linked to the processes of rest and to the logic of the work. The following article seeks to be a novel contribution, to the function of the vacations like ritual processes of atonement. The state of art is based on two Mircea Eliade works -titled Myth and Reality, published in 1968; and The Myth of the Eternal Return, re-printed in 2006.

Manifestation of cultural diversity in the novel Megokgo ya Lethabo ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Among the South African black communities comprising Venda, Tsonga, Sotho, Nguni and Khoisan, marriage is not viewed as a union of two individuals, but rather as a joining together of a number of families by means of various rituals, practices such as 'bride wealth' ilobola and negotiations. This has created a cultural ...

Prolonged toxicity from Kambo cleansing ritual.

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Kai; Horng, Howard; Lynch, Kara; Smollin, Craig G

2018-04-02

Kambo cleanse is a purification, cleansing ritual traditionally performed by South American shaman to confer luck and health to hunters. We report a patient who presented to the emergency department with prolonged symptoms of vomiting, flushing, facial swelling, altered mental status, and agitation requiring chemical restraints, 22 h after a Kambo cleanse. The patient was found with four small, circular, superficial burns to the ankle at the site where the resin was introduced. The cleanse consists of rubbing resin obtained from the secretions of the giant leaf frog (Phyllomedusa bicolor) into superficial wounds to produce intense gastrointestinal symptoms followed by a sensation of increased stamina and strength. The cleanse is now being increasingly performed in Europe and USA.

Guarani education and religion in the state of Paraná, Brazil: a study on the Nimongarai ritual

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Rosangela Celia Faustino

2012-12-01

Full Text Available Due to the violent expropriation and commercialization of large areas in the state of Paraná, Brazil, at the beginning of the 20th century the surviving indigenous groups were herded within small parcels of land, called villages, and currently denominated Indigene Land (IL. The Nhandewa Guarani of the northern region of the state of Paraná, living in the Laranjinha, Ywyporã and Pinhalzinho ILs, have experienced terrible conditions since they lost many of their traditions and culture, including their language. During the 1980s and 1990s and within the context of the world economic crisis, the international organisms UNESCO and World Bank aimed at social cohesion and started, as a joint venture with the national states, the implementation of an inclusion policy based on the right to be different. Current analysis discusses the results of a cultural revival project developed through the register of narratives by the indigene elderly people with regard to the Nimongarai baptism ritual and pedagogical interventions in schools in the state of Paraná.

Los rituales de pasaje según adolescentes

OpenAIRE

Brêtas, José Roberto da Silva [UNIFESP; Moreno, Rafael Souza [UNIFESP; Eugenio, Daniella Soares [UNIFESP; Sala, Danila Cristina Paquier [UNIFESP; Vieira, Thais Fernanda [UNIFESP; Bruno, Priscila Rabelo [UNIFESP

2008-01-01

OBJETIVO: Identificar as impressões de adolescentes acerca do que poderia representar um ritual de passagem. MÉTODOS: Estudo descritivo realizado junto a 751 adolescentes de ambos os sexos, entre 12 e 20 anos, que freqüentavam três escolas públicas do ensino fundamental e médio da região de Santo Eduardo do município de Embu, São Paulo. RESULTADOS: Após análise de conteúdo desvelamos as categorias: mudanças físicas; mudanças psicológicas (subcategorias: responsabilidade, experiências, conflit...

Culture and Belief Systems: A Christian Experience in the 21st Century

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Culture, which is manifested in symbols, heroes, rituals, values and practices, refers to the cumulative deposit of knowledge, experience, beliefs, values, attitudes, meanings, hierarchies, religions, concepts of time, roles, spatial relations, concepts of the universe and material objects and possessions acquired by a group of ...

The effects of ayahuasca ritual participation on gay and lesbian identity.

Science.gov (United States)

Cavnar, Clancy

2014-01-01

The practice of drinking ayahuasca-a psychoactive brew indigenous to the Amazon-has been investigated in several studies and shown to have positive long-term effects on mental states, and a particularly strong positive effect on perceptions of identity. This article discusses if these previous findings can be found in the experience of gay people, who are often taught by their culture and religion that their lifestyles, values, and sexual orientation are unacceptable. The qualitative study examined the interview responses of 17 self-identified gay and lesbian participants who had drunk ayahuasca in a ceremonial context within the past three years, regarding their self-perceptions and integration of group beliefs. Participants drank either in shamanic or Santo Daime ceremonies or, in the case of one participant, with an Afro-Brazilian group that used ayahuasca. Participants reported affirmation of their sexual orientation, and no participants reported negative effects on perception of identity. Additional positive effects in other areas of their lives, which they attributed to ayahuasca sessions, contributed to the overall positive outcomes that were reported by this group as a result of their ritual participation.

El futbol nos une: socialización, ritual e identidad en torno al futbol

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Jorge Alberto Cárdenas Meneses

2008-01-01

Full Text Available El futbol es el deporte espectáculo más consumido del mundo. En el documento se explora el sentido de pertenencia de los aficionados a unos colores determinados, el proceso de socialización con fines de autoadscripción y el proceso de identidad con un equipo. Para ello se hace un trabajo cualitativo en donde un clásico de futbol se convierte en un escenario de división de identidades con tintes rituales. La descripción densa de este fenómeno en una escuela preparatoria llena de significados ritualizados por jóvenes, y donde las banderas y camisetas colman de colores la semana previa y posterior a un duelo en el que los aficionados son el jugador número 12. Se desea mostrar el consumo cultural heterogéneo del futbol como un elemento aglutinador de imaginarios sociales: el orgullo por la victoria, el duelo ante la derrota.

Reconsidering Schumpeterian opportunities: The contribution of interaction ritual chain theory

OpenAIRE

Goss, David

2007-01-01

Purpose The purpose of this article is to develop a conceptual framework that recognises the significance of emotional and interactional factors in shaping the development and enactment of entrepreneurial opportunities. Design/methodology/approach Provides a theory development illustrated through a case study based on secondary sources. Findings Demonstrates how emotion and interaction ritual chains can extend the scope of entrepreneurial theorising. Research limitations/...

Jesuítas e Tupi: o encontro sacramental e ritual dos séculos XVI-XVII

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Adone Agnolin

2006-06-01

Full Text Available Traduzindo os dogmas doutrinais pós-conciliares para os indígenas americanos, os missionários empreendiam uma tradução de uma tradição religiosa ocidental para uma cultura que não participava dela. Os códigos culturais daquela cultura "estranha" deviam servir para inscrever a tradição religiosa ocidental entre os indígenas. Para fazer isso, a "redução" devia corrigir os excessos (dos costumes e as ausências (de crenças dos novos catecúmenos americanos. Os excessos impunham a disciplina, enquanto as ausências reclamavam a doutrina. Nesse percurso, o hibridismo cultural decorrente de uma interpretação ritual do encontro doutrinal e sacramental reescreveu a relação com o sagrado segundo uma nova estrutura, tipicamente colonial.

Consumos Rituales: usos y alcances de las mercancías religiosas en el santuario de San Expedito

OpenAIRE

Algranti, Joaquín

2016-01-01

Resumen El objetivo del presente artículo consiste en explorar los consumos rituales que despliegan los peregrinos en torno a la imagen de San Expedito en la parroquia Nuestra Señora de Balvanera, Buenos Aires, Argentina. El artículo se encuentra dividido en tres partes. En la primera nos proponemos reconstruir brevemente la figura del homo œconomicus y la influencia en los estudios sobre consumo religioso. En el segundo apartado vamos a explorar los usos rituales de los objetos de santería. ...

Socio-cultural factors influencing and maintaining yam and cowpea diversity in Benin

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Zannou, A.; Tossou, R.C.; Vodouhè, S.; Richards, P.; Struik, P.C.; Zoundjihékpon, J.; Ahanchédé, A.; Agbo, V.

2007-01-01

Yam and cowpea are important elements in the food culture of local communities in the Transitional Guinea-Sudan Zone of Benin. Yam and cowpea serve to satisfy vital needs in households and in communities, but also play an essential role in the rituals and ceremonies of the agrarian civilizations of

Interpretando el genesis del descanso: una aproximación a los mitos y rituales del turismo

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Maximiliano Korstanje

2009-01-01

Full Text Available Los mitos y los rituales han sido analizados durante mucho tiempo por la antropología. Sin embargo, existen pocos estudios que los vinculen a los procesos de descanso, y a la lógica del trabajo. El siguiente artículo pretende ser un aporte novedoso, a la función de las vacaciones como procesos rituales de expiación. El marco referencial utilizado se basa en dos trabajos del historiador Mircea Eliade titulados Mito y Realidad, publicado en 1968; y El Mito del Eterno Retorno, de última reimpresión en 2006.

Nuevos recipientes rituales metálicos: la problemática de su distribución peninsular

OpenAIRE

Caldentey Rodríguez, Paz; López Cachero, Javier; Menéndez Bueyes, Luis Ramón

2009-01-01

RESUMEN: La aparición y estudio de nuevos recipientes rituales metálicos con soportes de manos de los tipos I y II de Cuadrado en diversos yacimientos, nos ha permitido relacionar la distribución de todos estos objetos documentados a lo largo y ancho de toda la geografía peninsular con la explotación comercial de las diferentes vías de comunicación hacia el interior de la Península Ibérica, principalmente, entre los siglos VII y IV aC.ABSTRACT: The appearance and study of new ritual metallic ...

Stable isotope and DNA evidence for ritual sequences in Inca child sacrifice

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Wilson, Andrew S; Taylor, Timothy; Ceruti, Maria Constanza

2007-01-01

Four recently discovered frozen child mummies from two of the highest peaks in the south central Andes now yield tantalizing evidence of the preparatory stages leading to Inca ritual killing as represented by the unique capacocha rite. Our interdisciplinary study examined hair from the mummies to...

Chamanismos guaraní contemporáneos en Brasil: un estudio de transfiguración cultural

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Isabel Santana de Rose

2013-01-01

Full Text Available Este artículo examina la adopción del uso de la ayahuasca y otras prácticas rituales en el pueblo guaraní Mbiguaçu (Santa Catarina, Brasil. Esta adopción es producto del diálogo que ha surgido a través de performances rituales compartidas con grupos no indígenas, en las que circulan conceptos y discursos presentes en las políticas públicas y en el movimiento de prácticas alternativas espirituales. Los actores involucrados en la formación de la red de relaciones que examinamos comparten ideas e imágenes en co­mún, como conocimiento indígena, el nativo “ecológico” y “espiritual”, indigenidad y “medicina tradicional”. Demostramos que la apropiación de estos rituales e ideas es parte del movimiento etnopolítico de transfiguración cultural en desarrollo entre los guaraní en el litoral brasileño.

Religion for Revolution: Shifting Perceptions of Bodily Ritual in the Lebanese Shi‘a Community

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Savannah Danielle Dodd

2015-07-01

Full Text Available This paper applies Cartesian and Weberian theories of rationalization and Leslie Sharp’s concept of bodily commodification to the transition in the observance of Ashura from practices of bodily mortification to blood donation among the Shi‘a community in Lebanon. The author argues that this shift politicizes salvation and sacralises revolution through a process of rationalization, made possible through the invocation of the Karbala Paradigm, in order to facilitate the commodification of blood for political activism. This shift in ritual practice for the commodification of blood has occurred as a result of three key transitions: (i from body/self-unity to body/self-dualism; (ii from salvation in the next world to salvation in this world; and (iii from personal salvation to societal salvation.[Dengan merujuk teori rasionalisasi model Descartes dan Weber serta konsep komodifikasi tubuh dari Leslie Sharp, tulisan ini menelusur pergeseran yang terjadi pada ritual Ashura dari praktik melukai diri menjadi kegiatan donor darah di kalangan Syiah di Lebanon. Proses ini, menurut penulis, telah mengubah konsep penyelamatan dan revolusi sakral melalui proses rasionali­sasi. Hal ini terjadi dengan memakai Paradigma Karbala sebagai media komodifikasi darah untuk aktivisme politik. Pergeseran komodifikasi darah dalam praktik ritual ini terjadi melalui tiga transisi utama: (i dari kesatuan diri menjadi dualisme diri; (ii dari keselamatan akhirat menjadi keselamatan dunia; dan (iii dari penyelamatan pribadi menjadi penyelamatan sosial].

Punishment of Minor Female Genital Ritual Procedures: Is the Perfect the Enemy of the Good?

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Jacobs, Allan J; Arora, Kavita Shah

2017-08-01

Female genital alteration (FGA) is any cutting, removal or destruction of any part of the external female genitalia. Various FGA practices are common throughout the world. While most frequent in Africa and Asia, transglobal migration has brought ritual FGA to Western nations. All forms of FGA are generally considered undesirable for medical and ethical reasons when performed on minors. One ritual FGA procedure is the vulvar nick (VN). This is a small laceration to the vulva that does not cause morphological changes. Besides being performed as a primary ritual procedure it has been proposed as a substitute for more extensive forms of FGA. Measures advocated or taken to reduce the burden of FGA can be punitive or non-punitive. Even if it is unethical to perform VN, we argue that it also is unethical to attempt to suppress it through punishment. First, punishment of VN is likely to cause more harm than good overall, even to those ostensibly being protected. Second, punishment is likely to exceed legitimate retributive ends. We do not argue in favor of performing VN. Rather, we argue that non-punitive strategies such as education and harm reduction should be employed. © 2016 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Reflections on Rasāyana, Bcud Len and Related Practices in Nyingma (Rnying Ma Tantric Ritual

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Cathy Cantwell

2017-12-01

Full Text Available The Tibetan term, bcud len, "imbibing the essence juice", is considered an equivalent for the Sanskrit term, rasāyana. But in Tibetan Buddhist ritual manuals, both terms occur, apparently with slightly different connotations. Practices classified as bcud len are frequently relatively short, and seem primarily designed for the use of individual yogis, usually as a subsidiary practice to complement their main tantric meditation. The production of bcud len pills which are said to sustain, rejuvenate and extend the life of the body, or even to bring immortality, is often an integral part of the practice. The term, rasāyana, is used in Tibetan transliteration (ra sā ya na, not as a title or classification for a specific ritual practice or recipe for pills, but rather to refer to the processes of alchemical transformation of substances within complex ritual "medicinal accomplishment" (sman sgrub performances which are generally communal. In this case too, pills are produced, of the broader "sacred elixir dharma medicine" (dam rdzas bdud rtsi chos sman type. This paper will consider a range of the practices, and of substances used in the sacred medicinal compounds.

Social Robotic Experience and Media Communication Practices: An Exploration on the Emotional and Ritualized Human-technology-relations

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Christine Linke

2013-01-01

Full Text Available This article approaches the subject of social robots by focusing on the emotional relations people establish with media and information and communication technology (ICTs in their everyday life. It examines human-technology-relation from a social studies point of view, seeking to raise questions that enable us to make a connection between the research on human relationships and the topic of human-technology relation, especially human-humanoid-relation. In order to explore the human-technology-relations, theoretical ideas of a mediatization of communication and of a ritual interaction order are applied. Ritual theory is particularly used to enable a focus on emotion as a significant dimension in analyzing social technologies. This explorative article refers to empirical findings regarding media communication practices in close relationships. It argues that following the developed approach regarding mediatized and ritualized relational practices, useful insights for a conceptualization of the human-social robot relation can be achieved. The article concludes with remarks regarding the challenge of an empirical approach to human-social robot-relations.

AHP 40: NAMUYI TIBETAN pha⁵⁴ tsə⁵⁴ RITUALS AND ORAL CHANTS

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Libu Lakhi (Li Jianfu

2016-02-01

Full Text Available sa54 da54 (b. 1939 is a Namuyi pha54 tsə54 - a traditional Namuyi religious practitioner/ specialist - who chants and conducts religious rituals. He lives and practices in Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province, China. This article introduces pha54 tsə54 sa54 da54 and the many hours of his oral materials recorded by Libu Lakhi in 2009 that are archived at http://tinyurl.com/lgf3row. In addition, aspects of Namuyi religion are described, including terms of mountain deities, ill omens and taboos, the pha54 tsə54, sa54 da54, chants, and a personal account of a ritual done in Dashui Village, Minsheng Township, Xichang City, Sichuan Province in March 2013. An appendix, seven photographs, and a diagram provide additional detail.

Toddlers' Use of Peer Rituals at Mealtime: Symbols of Togetherness and Otherness

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Mortlock, Anita

2015-01-01

Mealtimes and their associated rituals are recognised as important aspects of human socialisation; however, much of the research about mealtimes in early childhood education settings has focused on health or on adult-child discursive exchanges. The present study aimed to investigate children's interactions with each other and their influence on…

Advertising styles in different cultures

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Krasulja Nevena

2003-01-01

Full Text Available Modern consumer is inhabitant of a "Global Village" as well as of its own national culture which largely influences his creation of a system of values, beliefs and style of life in general. According to adopted values and styles, consumers from different cultures have different buying behavior, different needs and preferences related to a product and they have their favorite advertising styles. As advertising reflects culture, symbols and rituals which are used are even more emphasized and strengthen cultural values, which are then used as a strong advertising style characteristic. Global advertisers are increasingly faced with different environment meaning. A fact that has been proved in practice is that standardized approach to advertising does not transmit values in a correct way, so the advertisers that want to achieve long term success must differentiate their brands to competitors'. In modern market environment strategy "Think globally, act locally" proved to be adequate for advertising in modern international market.

National holidays. Civic religions and political rituals in the liberal Europe of the «long Nineteenth Century» | Las fiestas nacionales. Religiones de la patria y rituales políticos en la Europa liberal del «largo siglo XIX»

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Maurizio Ridolfi

2004-12-01

Full Text Available In nineteenth-century Europe, the symbolic conflicts involved in the construction of the so-called «civic religions» took place in a public sphere in which rituals from the past were performed with a double aim: that of representing the new bourgeois hierarchies and legitimising liberal institutions in the name of a new national sentiment. With regard to the devising of a calendar of public holidays and with reference to traditional religious rituals in Europe and America, two main patterns were established: these were the French and the North American models, which were conflicting but at the same time shared many common features. A comparative study of the civic religions of southern European countries has produced a classification based on the degree of interaction (or even conflict between traditional religion and the State, as well as the longevity of the nation State and its ability to influence the patriotic education of the ruling classes. Whereas in countries with more firmly established State institutions and a «glorious» imperial past –the case of Spain and Portugal–, a sense of national integration nourished by a return to historical-cultural tradition arose at the onset of decadence, in recently formed nation States – like Greece and Italy - political-military memories of the heroic phase of the fight for national independence acquired considerable importance. On more than one occasion, however, in Spain and Italy for example, the two mythical-symbolic factors (cultural and military combined to represent the national sentiment. In general, the adaptation of dynastic ceremonies to public holidays in the various nation States gave a new definition to political liturgies on different planes, with a complex transition, in some cases even contamination, between the various known models of political festivals: royal under the Ancien Régime, Caesarian under the Second French Empire, and civil and patriotic under the liberal

Rituals of commensality and the politics of state formation in the "princely" societies of early Iron Age Europe

OpenAIRE

Dietler, Michael

2015-01-01

Introduction My task in this essay is to address the question «what can an examination of rituals of commensality add to our understanding of political structure and process in the so-called "princely" societies of Early Iron Age Europe ? ». The short answer is, I believe, a great deal. This is both because rituals are potentially recoverable as distinct events in the archaeological record and because, as will be shown, they are a fundamental instrument and theater of political relations. The...

Música ritual funeraria

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Carmelo Lisón Tolosana

2009-01-01

Full Text Available La música es, como todos sabemos, una arte que con sonidos vocales y/o instrumentales de muy variado tipo nos deleita por su belleza y nos entusiasma porque expresa y produce emociones. Es, además, un arte universal y proteico porque la encontramos en todas culturas y porque va asociado a la palabra, a la canción y a la múltiple danza y, más importante para el tema de estas pocas líneas, con el ritual. No es extraño que su uso se ritualizara en psicoterapia desde hace siglos; al pintor Hugo Van der Goes (1440-1482 le tocaban música para aliviarlo de su melancolía. La música en alguna de sus manifestaciones se oye en todas partes, pero sea clásica o folclórica, sinfonía, jazz u ópera, sonara o fuga, flamenco o jota, e instrumentada por cuerda, percusión, clavicordio, piano, viento etc. se produce según cánones culturales temporales, dimensión importante que nos invita a reflexionar sobre algo tan atrayente desde la antropología. Me limito en este corto ensayo a describir un aspecto tradicional popular en el que engranan música, rito y funeral en parte del SO orensano. Parto, como siempre de la etnografía.

The structure of cross-cultural musical diversity

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Rzeszutek, Tom; Savage, Patrick E.; Brown, Steven

2012-01-01

Human cultural traits, such as languages, musics, rituals and material objects, vary widely across cultures. However, the majority of comparative analyses of human cultural diversity focus on between-culture variation without consideration for within-culture variation. In contrast, biological approaches to genetic diversity, such as the analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) framework, partition genetic diversity into both within- and between-population components. We attempt here for the first time to quantify both components of cultural diversity by applying the AMOVA model to music. By employing this approach with 421 traditional songs from 16 Austronesian-speaking populations, we show that the vast majority of musical variability is due to differences within populations rather than differences between. This demonstrates a striking parallel to the structure of genetic diversity in humans. A neighbour-net analysis of pairwise population musical divergence shows a large amount of reticulation, indicating the pervasive occurrence of borrowing and/or convergent evolution of musical features across populations. PMID:22072606

The structure of cross-cultural musical diversity.

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Rzeszutek, Tom; Savage, Patrick E; Brown, Steven

2012-04-22

Human cultural traits, such as languages, musics, rituals and material objects, vary widely across cultures. However, the majority of comparative analyses of human cultural diversity focus on between-culture variation without consideration for within-culture variation. In contrast, biological approaches to genetic diversity, such as the analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) framework, partition genetic diversity into both within- and between-population components. We attempt here for the first time to quantify both components of cultural diversity by applying the AMOVA model to music. By employing this approach with 421 traditional songs from 16 Austronesian-speaking populations, we show that the vast majority of musical variability is due to differences within populations rather than differences between. This demonstrates a striking parallel to the structure of genetic diversity in humans. A neighbour-net analysis of pairwise population musical divergence shows a large amount of reticulation, indicating the pervasive occurrence of borrowing and/or convergent evolution of musical features across populations.

The Apperception of Musical Creativity: Performance as Ritual, Composition as Self-Realization

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Nagy, Zvonimir

2015-01-01

Musical invention is defined in this article as a form of inward creativity. The creative acts of musical performance are understood in terms of ritual-like symbolic and stylized actions, and those of musical composition as the mind's enactment of meditation and reflection. This article draws on the relationship between two psychological…

La Capacocha como ritual político. Negociaciones en torno al poder entre Cuzco y los curacas

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Schroedl, Annette

2014-01-01

Este artículo estudia las funciones que los rituales políticos tenían en el estado inca a través del análisis de la fiesta de la Capacocha. Las ceremonias públicas de la religión estatal proporcionaban el escenario en el cual se negociaron las relaciones políticas entre el soberano y sus súbditos, entre Estado y pueblos conquistados por los incas e incorporados en su imperio. De este modo, los rituales políticos contribuyeron a la consolidación del dominio de los incas sobre los pueblos andin...

Patients Reporting Ritual Abuse in Childhood: A Clinical Syndrome. Report of 37 Cases.

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Young, Walter C.; And Others

1991-01-01

Thirty-seven adult dissociative disorder patients who reported ritual abuse in childhood by satanic cults are described. A clinical syndrome is presented that includes dissociative states with satanic overtones, posttraumatic stress disorder, survivor guilt, unusual fears, and substance abuse. Questions concerning reliability, credibility, and…

The Ritualized Bodies of Cybele's Galli and the
 Methodological Problem of the Plurality of Explanations

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J. Peter Södergård

1993-01-01

Full Text Available The explanandum in this article is the self-castration of Cybele's Galli. The explanans is the various theories that have been put forward to elucidate this phenomenon. The author begins by sketching out the complicated religio-historical scene for this ritual, then introduces the plurality of theories concerning Galli's ritual self-castration, so that the intellectual dilemma of evaluation and preference is obvious; which one of the theories is decisive? Are they necessary or sufficient? Do they compete or cooperate? The aim of this article is also to make a critical methodological evaluation of the use of psychological determinants in religio-historical studies of the self-castration of the Galli in the cult of Cybele and Attis.

Reinscribing the Goddess into the Culturally Relative Minutiae of Tantric Texts and Practices: A Perennialist Response to Tantric Visual Culture

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Jeffrey S. Lidke

2017-10-01

Full Text Available A celebration and critical evaluation of Sthaneshwar Timalsina’s brilliant book, Tantric Visual Culture: A Cognitive Approach. In this groundbreaking work, Timalsina utilizes the lens of cognitive studies to shed interpretive light on the Tantric visualization practices that he knows both as a scholar and lifetime practitioner. Timalsina argues that mastery of Tantric practice requires immersion in the culturally relative metonymic and holographic logic framed by the Tantric ritual texts. The conclusion that arises from his analysis is that Tantric “truths” are bound to the linguistic and cultural systems that frame them. In response, I herewith offer a perennialist critique and argument for a more nuanced consideration of the transcendent “truth” or “being” that is the stated aim of Tantric practice.

Patrocinio eclesiástico, rituales de poder e historia urbana en la Hispania Tardoantigua (Siglos IV al VI

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Pablo FUENTES HINOJO

2009-10-01

Full Text Available RESUMEN: En el presente artículo se abordan problemas relativos a los nuevos espacios de prestigio y rituales de poder, que aparecieron en las ciudades de Hispania durante la Antigüedad tardía, como resultado de la difusión del cristianismo y del desarrollo de instituciones eclesiásticas de gobierno.ABSTRACT: This article studies the problems related to the new ceremonial areas and power rituals caused in cities of Spain, during the Late Antiquity, by the Christianity diffusion and the development of ecclesiastic institutions of government.

The Methodological Framework of Occupational Training in Culture and Art High Schools of Kazakhstan

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Kulbekova, ?igul K.; Tleubayeva, Balzhan S.; Tleubayev, Seraly Sh.; Saparova, Yulduz A.; Dildebayeva, Gulmira R.; Daribayeva, Raushan D.; Omar, Esen O.

2016-01-01

The purpose of this study is to examine specific features of the traditional Kazakh dances as the methodological foundation of training specialists in the culture and art universities. The article describes the main typologies of Kazakh dances, such as ritual and ceremonial, combative-hunting, work dances, household-imitative dances, festive and…

Mermaids and Spirit Spouses: Rituals as Technologies of Gender in Transnational African Pentecostal Spaces

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Jeanne Rey

2013-04-01

Full Text Available This article aims to approach the construction of gender in transnational spacesby focusing on the ritual practice of African Pentecostal migrants in Europeand in Africa. One dimension of African Pentecostalism is its insistence on thepractice of exorcism called ‘deliverance’ where malevolent spirits are expelledfrom one’s body. Within the Pentecostal demonology, several categories ofspirits carry implications for how gender is constructed. This article will analyseeffects of the appearance of these spirits on the construction of genderamong Ghanaian and Congolese Pentecostal churches in Geneva and in Accra.It will show that variations in the appearance of spirits within rituals can beinterpreted as a negotiation of gender roles in a migratory context. Shifts inPentecostal demonology can therefore be interpreted as a response to thereconfiguration of gender roles associated with the broader gender contextand work opportunities in Europe.

Brief Report: Avoidance Extinction as Treatment for Compulsive and Ritual Behavior in Autism

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Wolff, Jason J.; Hupp, Susan C.; Symons, Frank J.

2013-01-01

Treatment options for maladaptive repetitive behaviors associated with autism are limited. This is particularly so for ritual and compulsive forms of repetitive behavior, which commonly interfere with adaptive activities and may cause distress to individuals with autism and their families. The present study assessed an avoidance extinction…

The dialogue between sacred, symbol and ritual to Mircea Eliade’s thinking

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Stelian Manolache

2017-11-01

Full Text Available Consequently implementing a vision that was mostly phenomenological and hermeneutical on the object and of the religious doctrine and content, Mircea Eliade had a remarkable contribution of originality and profoundness to the study of the problems related to sacred and profane and symbol and ritual. For the Romanian researcher, at the core of the dialectic game between sacred and profane, there is the behaviour of the religious man, opposed to the natural man, searching for divinity in an instinctive/ programmatic manner, trying to overcome his earthly condition by entering the inaccessible world of the sacred. Due to the more than obvious contemporaneity importance of the preoccupations and behaviour of homo religious, in post-modernity, starting from the dialogue between science and religion, we consider that there is the necessity and opportuness in a secularised and desacralized world to dedicate a study, 110 years later from the birth of the eminent professor, to the manner the Romanian eminent researcher Mircea Eliade saw and explained the sacred, the symbol and the ritual.

Opera as Social Showcase: Rituals of “Magic Mirrors” at the Margravial Opera House in Mid-Eighteenth-Century Bayreuth

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Vlado Kotnik

2016-04-01

Full Text Available This article proposes a ritualistic approach to opera in the historical case of the mid-eighteenth-century Margravial Opera House in Bavarian Bayreuth to argue that court opera can be understood as a variety of social showcase. In this view, court opera is a specific form of communication through which opera established the various types of relationship between itself and the social worlds in which, and for which, it was created. By referring to the operatic rituals under the leadership and sponsorship of Wilhelmina of Bayreuth and her husband Frederick, it will be established how the Bayreuth’s ruling couple used opera for several social and political purposes. As both genre and institution, the margravial opera production is interpreted by the analytical models of anthropologists of ritual and theatre, like Victor Turner, Clifford Geertz, Maurice Bloch, Stanley Tambiah, Catherine Bell, employing their ritual theory, especially Turner’s concept of a “hall of magic mirrors”.

Innovations in the Treatment of Bulimia: Transpersonal Psychology, Relaxation, Imagination, Hypnosis, Myth, and Ritual.

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Brown, Michael H.

1991-01-01

Written for counselors who must help clients deal with bulimia, this article reviews bulimia's most obvious physical signs and symptoms, etiology, and behavioral characteristics. Considers innovative counseling approaches including Transpersonal Psychology, relaxation training, imagination, fantasy, hypnosis, myths, and rituals. (Author)

Confrontación, territorio y "espiritualidad". El lugar de los rituales mapuche en el proceso del poder.

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Hernán Horacio Schiaffini

2015-12-01

Full Text Available Indagamos en torno a la organización y el desarrollo de rituales mapuche en el noroeste de Chubut y sudoeste de Río Negro, situando el desarrollo de estas ceremonias en el marco de las luchas por el territorio que atraviesan las familias, las comunidades y las organizaciones de la zona, así como las alianzas políticas y sociales que elaboran. Sostenemos que, en la actualidad, jerarquizar analíticamente la esfera de las confrontaciones permite observar cómo el ritual y el territorio se articulan a través de la construcción de fuerzas sociales. Ponemos especial énfasis en demostrar la vigencia y eficacia de las celebraciones rituales, sin que este carácter “instrumental” niegue sus contenidos mitológicos y filosóficos en constante renovación. Para ello damos cuenta de su organización y sentidos, revisamos la historia de los grupos mapuche en Argentina y describimos y analizamos algunos casos etnográficos, basándonos en el trabajo de campo realizado en la región desde 2009.

RITUAL RAMBUT GEMBEL DALAM ARUS EKSPANSI PASAR PARIWISATA

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Moh. Soehadha

2013-12-01

Tulisan ini mengambil fokus pada agama dan perubahan sosial akibat ekspansi pasar pariwisata di dataran tinggi Dieng, dan hubungannya dengan kapitalisme negara. Pemerintah telah mengusahakan ritual rambut gembel sebagai komo­ditas pariwisata di dataran tinggi Dieng. Hasil analisis menunjukkan bahwa ada dua varian respon sosial terhadap perubahan akibat ekspansi pasar pariwisata, yaitu masyarakat yang menerima dan masyarakat yang menolak. Masyarakat penerima adalah orang-orang yang memiliki kepentingan di bidang ekonomi dalam kegiatan pengembangan pariwisata, sedangkan masyarakat yang menolak adalah orang-orang yang memegang keyakinan dan tradisi lokal. Secara teoritis, studi ini memberi penjelasan bahwa religiusitas masyarakat dipengaruhi oleh moda produksi ekonomi yang ada.

Symbolism and ritual practices related to hunting in Maya communities from central Quintana Roo, Mexico.

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Santos-Fita, Dídac; Naranjo, Eduardo J; Estrada, Erin I J; Mariaca, Ramón; Bello, Eduardo

2015-09-29

Some Mayan peasant-hunters across the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico still carry out a hunting ritual -Loojil Ts'oon, Loj Ts'oon or Carbine Ceremony- in which they renew the divine permission for hunting in order to continue deserving the gift of prey after a period of hunt. Thus they are granted access to game by the gods and the Lords of the Animals, particularly the spirit/evil-wind call. This paper focuses on the acts within the Loojil Ts'oon -which is performed in the X-Pichil community and surrounding area- that make it unique among the hunting rituals performed in other parts of the Peninsula. The Loojil Ts'oon hunting ritual was observed and registered in audiovisual format in two different occasions in X-Pichil (Friday 04/29/2011 and Friday 07/29/2011). Afterwards, we delivered digital videodisks (DVD) to hunters and their families and to the j-men (the magic-medic-ritual specialist) who participated in these ceremonies. This delivery produced confidence among participants to talk more openly and in-depth about the Loojil Ts'oon, revealing symbolic, psychological, and material details previously unknown to outsiders. Qualitative information was obtained through the ethnographic method using techniques such as participant observation and guided tours. Semi-structured interviews were carried out to obtain complementary information. On one hand, we describe the preparation and cleansing of the "Sip soup", as well as its parading and distribution -delivery to the spirit/evil-wind Sip- on the streets of the community (highlingting the role of the rooster as a counter-gift). On the other hand, the cleansing of the jaws (of deer: Odocoileus virginianus, Mazama spp.; and peccaries: Tayassuidae) and their return to the Lords of Animals in the hills so that they may give these animals new life. By performing the Loojil Ts'oon, the act of killing an animal is legitimized. The kill transforms into an exchange to perpetuate life, in which gods and Lords of animals grant

Culture and creativity in the Otavalo region (Ecuador

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Bernarda Elisa Pupiales Rueda

2017-06-01

Full Text Available The article addresses some of the cultural manifestations of the people located in Otavalo (Ecuador, and witnesses the validity of the ancestral traditions of the ethnic groups that make it possible for the creativity to be interconnected with the popular expressions through an innate ability to the development of decorative, utilitarian, mythical or profane objects that constitute the handicrafts, clothing and the popular celebrations. Otavalo’s crafts is related to syncretic culture, sacred and profane, traditional and modern, ritual and playful. In addition, there are some similarities with the region of south Colombia. So, there are clear cultural links, either by the proximity, as well as the cultural roots they share. The study leads to a series of reflections on the traditions of a region with a high indigenous ethnic component and a rich and prolific material culture which evidences complex hybridizations and influences.

Leaving Quietly? A Quantitative Study of Retirement Rituals and How They Affect Life Satisfaction

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van den Bogaard, L.

2017-01-01

This study quantitatively explores the understudied topic of retirement rituals, what factors influence them, and how the experience of such rites of passage may affect postretirement satisfaction with life (SWL). Various regression techniques are applied to 2 waves of Dutch panel data gathered

Developing the organisational culture in a healthcare setting.

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Nightingale, Adele

2018-01-17

This article aims to define organisational culture and explain why it is important to patients, carers and those working in healthcare environments. Organisational culture is not a new concept and the literature on the subject is well-established. However, because of the changing dynamics of the NHS, there has been a shift away from 'what' the NHS stands for, often relating to its history and rituals, to 'who' it functions for, including how healthcare professionals such as nurses can develop and drive the organisational culture. The article seeks to assist nurses in understanding the role of organisational culture, as well as implementing its main principles in the workplace. ©2018 RCN Publishing Company Ltd. All rights reserved. Not to be copied, transmitted or recorded in any way, in whole or part, without prior permission of the publishers.

Negative Emotional Energy: A Theory of the “Dark-Side” of Interaction Ritual Chains

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David Boyns

2015-02-01

Full Text Available Randall Collins’ theory of interaction ritual chains is widely cited, but has been subject to little theoretical elaboration. One reason for the modest expansion of the theory is the underdevelopment of the concept of emotional energy. This paper examines emotional energy, related particularly to the dynamics of negative experiences. It asks whether or not negative emotions produce emotional energies that are qualitatively distinct from their positive counterparts. The analysis begins by tracing the development of Interaction Ritual Theory, and summarizes its core propositions. Next, it moves to a conceptualization of a “valenced” emotional energy and describes both “positive” and “negative” dimensions. Six propositions outline the central dynamics of negative emotional energy. The role of groups in the formation of positive and negative emotional energy are considered, as well as how these energies are significant sources of sociological motivation.

Experiencias e interpretaciones en performances rituales (Iruya y El Cajón, noroeste argentino

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Karen Avenburg

2014-07-01

Full Text Available Este artículo se propone reflexionar acerca del modo en que dos performances rituales del noroeste argentino recrean en sus puestas en escena diferentes experiencias. Desde un enfoque etnográfico apoyado en los respectivos trabajos de campo de las autoras, se analizan comparativamente la Fiesta Patronal de la Virgen del Rosario de Iruya (Salta y la Semana Santa de El Cajón (Catamarca. En particular, se discuten algunas de las razones por la cuales en un contexto ritual la puesta en escena implica la recreación de su historia sociocultural y política, mientras que en el otro el eje central transcurre reactualizando eventos cosmológicos. El marco teórico utilizado se basa en el concepto de performance y su relación con la experiencia, siguiendo los aportes realizados por Edward Bruner y Victor Turner.

Culture in cycles: considering H.T. Odum's 'information cycle'

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Abel, Thomas

2014-01-01

'Culture' remains a conundrum in anthropology. When recast in the mold of 'information cycles,' culture is transformed. New fault lines appear. Information is splintered into parallel or nested forms. Dynamics becomes cycling. Energy is essential. And culture has function in a directional universe. The 'information cycle' is the crowning component of H.T. Odum's theory of general systems. What follows is an application of the information cycle to the cultural domains of discourse, social media, ritual, education, journalism, technology, academia, and law, which were never attempted by Odum. In information cycles, cultural information is perpetuated - maintained against Second Law depreciation. Conclusions are that culture is in fact a nested hierarchy of cultural forms. Each scale of information production is semi-autonomous, with its own evolutionary dynamics of production and selection in an information cycle. Simultaneously, each information cycle is channeled or entrained by its larger scale of information and ultimately human-ecosystem structuring.

Cultural Identities in Sustaining Religious Communities in the Arctic Region: An Ethnographic Analysis on Religiosity from the Northern Viewpoint

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Nafisa Yeasmin

2017-12-01

Full Text Available Northern countries are facing the challenges of declining human capital, and admitting immigrants, many of whom belong to religious minorities, to satisfy the demand for labour. If northern societies accept multiculturalism and immigrants, they should not disregard the cultures and religious practices (for example, ritual slaughter of immigrants, as they need to survive and integrate as a minority community in a secular society. However, there is clash between secularism and religions permitting animal slaughter, which is prohibited by some and allowed by other European countries. Community viability and sustainability depend partly on the exercise of community beliefs and ideology that support identity behaviour. This study will present an ethnographic analysis of the religiosity related to ritual slaughter and Muslim cultural identity in the European Arctic region and explore how religious relativism and practice sustain the community and support the overall integration of the Muslim minority in the North.

Comida ritual em festas de Tambor de Mina no Maranhão (Ritual food in Maranhão’s Tambor De Mina festivities - DOI: 10.5752/P.2175-5841.2011v9n21p242

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Sérgio Figueiredo Ferretti

2011-07-01

Full Text Available Resumo Tambor de Mina é o nome da religião afro-brasileira no Maranhão e na Amazônia estabelecida a partir de São Luís desde meados do século XIX. Existem duas casas fundadas por africanos que se continuam: a Casa das Minas Jeje, de origem daomeana e a Casa de Nagô, iorubana de onde derivam a maioria dos terreiros de Mina recentes e atuantes. Trata-se de religião muito ritualizada e discreta, envolvida em segredos e mistérios cuja mitologia é pouco comentada e os rituais muito desenvolvidos. As religiões afro-brasileiras se caracterizam pela realização de festas com transe, danças e comidas que atraem muitos participantes. A comida é bastante para oferecer a todos e distribuir as sobras. A fartura nas festas maiores constitui um dos elementos de prestígio das casas. O texto baseia-se em entrevistas com líderes de um terreiro antigo e de duas casas recentes, sobre comida de santo nas festas. Na linguagem de Mauss o sacrifício constitui obrigação que estabelece uma comunicação entre o mundo sagrado e o profano. O preparo e o consumo da comida de santo permitem conhecer aspectos do sincretismo e dos simbolismos nos rituais. Palavras-chave: Religiões afro-brasileiras; comida de santo; sincretismo; festas; ritual.   Abstract Tambor de Mina is the name of the Afro-Brazilian religion in Maranhão and Amazon established in São Luís (capital of Maranhão state since the mid-nineteenth century. There are two matrix-houses founded by Africans: Casa das Minas Jeje, a Dahomean origin house and Casa de Nagô, originally Yoruba and from which most of the Tambor de Mina's houses come from. It is a very ritualized and discrete religion, involved in secrets and mysteries whose mythology is not frequently commented upon and its rituals are highly developed. Afro-Brazilian religions are characterized by the performance of parties with trance, dance and food which attract many participants.  Food is enough to be offered to everyone and

Ritual and reflexes of lost sovereignty in Sikka, a regency of Flores in eastern Indonesia

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E.D. Lewis

2008-12-01

Full Text Available In 1993 some among the Sikkanese population of the town of Maumere on the north coast of Flores in eastern Indonesia attended a ritual to reconcile the members of two branches of the family of the rajas of Sikka, a dynasty that had once ruled the district. The two branches had fallen out over differences in opinion about the last succession to the office of raja a few years before the end of the rajadom in the late 1950s. A description of the ritual, which was conducted in an urban rather than a village setting, and an analysis of the performance demonstrate much about the persistence of elements of the old Sikkanese religion in modern Sikkanese society. The contemporary Sikkanese are Christians and the regency of Sikka is part of the modern Indonesian nation-state.

El recorrido al Cerro Gordo y el ritual tepehuano de las ofrendas en los cerros de la comunidad de San Bernardino de Milpillas

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Chantal CRAMAUSSEL

2014-01-01

Full Text Available El ritual de las ofrendas es una ceremonia propiciatoria de la lluvia que se efectúa al terminar la estación seca en los cerros más altos de la comunidad de San Bernardino de Milpillas Chico, en la Sierra Tepehuana del estado de Durango. A esos rituales distintos de los cató- licos que forman parte del ciclo anual de costumbre concurren las autoridades civiles, los curanderos y miembros del Consejo de ancianos. Es un momento muy importante en el que se refuerza la cohesión de los tepehuanos que tienen un patrón de asentamiento muy disperso, como los demás grupos del norte, pero sus rituales presentan también similitudes con los mesoamericanos.

Ritual de despedida em familiares de pacientes com prognóstico reservado

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Márcia Lucrecia Lisbôa

2003-06-01

Full Text Available Pesquisa qualitativa que teve por objetivo investigar os efeitos terapêuticos do ritual de despedida na iminência da morte, em familiares de pacientes com prognóstico reservado. Foram estudadas oito famílias de pacientes internados em um Hospital Geral. Utilizou-se o método clínico, as técnicas de estudo de caso e entrevistas pós-óbito, dados submetidos à análise de conteúdo. Os resultados mostraram que os familiares se despediram através da comunicação verbal e não-verbal, da religião, da "liberação", do "estar junto", sendo favoráveis à realização do ritual, destacando o aprendizado, o privilégio de participar e a importância da orientação psicológica. São difuculdades: sentimentos de pena, tristeza, ajuda na aceitação da morte, a aproximação entre os familiares e o paciente, abertura da comunicação, melhoria de condilções para elaborar o luto, redefinição dos relacionamentos com a pessoa ainda em vida.

Pasiones devoradoras y sentimientos trágicos. El tema del amor en algunas canciones rituales ganaderas de los Andes

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Juan J. Rivera

2008-10-01

Full Text Available This article will examine a certain sentimental education. It will try to describe the emotional world of the people who participates in the cattle branding rituals of the Lima Highlands (Peru. This sentimental ethnography will be restricted to the corpus of songs recollected in a specific region -the Chancay valley peasant communities- by the author and an anthropologist who was there forty years ago. I will try to depict the kind of feelings that these songs express. I will not consider them as being part of a coherent ideology but rather as critical and also contradictory comments. These comments give us a modern Andean peasantry perspective about their ecology, their way of life and the recent modernization processes in the region. Their perspective in these ritual songs seems to be translated into the vocabulary of passions, particularly the unfortunate love. Actually, the cattle branding ritual in which the songs appear constitute a space in which cattle farmers must symbolically appropriate their animals and at the same time send them to death selling them to the slaughterhouses of the city.

Cultes de fertilité chez les Drung du Yunnan (Chine Fertility Rituals among the Drung People of of Yunnan (China

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Stéphane Gros

2012-10-01

Full Text Available L’absence, chez les Drung du Yunnan, de rituels clairement identifiables comme rituels territoriaux implique de se questionner sur l’articulation entre l’ancestralité, le territoire et le pouvoir politique dans le cadre d’un objectif rituel commun : l’obtention de la fertilité. Après une description de deux pratiques rituelles liées à cette notion de fertilité, le sacrifice de bovins et le culte aux montagnes, telles qu’elles coexistaient autrefois chez les Drung, l’auteur questionne les liens entre ces deux pratiques et leurs implications politiques respectives. Si ces deux rituels peuvent se définir comme des cultes à la fertilité, ils manifestent cependant un rapport différent au territoire dans sa définition politique. D’un côté le sacrifice manifeste un caractère dynamique et compétitif de la relation politique (lié au prestige sans réelle inscription spatiale, tandis que de l’autre le culte aux montagnes manifeste un fort ancrage territorial révélateur de l’ancienne structure politique hiérarchique dans laquelle les Drung se trouvaient intégrés sous l’autorité de chefs tibétains (considérés comme les anciens maîtres des lieux. À un autre niveau, ces deux cultes de fertilité cristallisent une relation plus complexe au territoire vu comme un espace communautaire au sein duquel s’articulent les relations entre hommes et esprits.Among the Drung of Yunnan, the absence of any clearly identifiable territorial rituals calls into question the relationship between ancestrality, territory and political power within the framework of a common ritual goal : achieving fertility. This article presents an ethnographic description of two rituals associated with the notion of fertility—the ox sacrifice and the mountain cult—that used to coexist in Drung society. The links between these two rituals and their respective political implications are thus explored. While both rituals can be defined as

Ritual and environment : the 'mósit' ceremony of the Ethiopian Me'en people

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Abbink, G.J.

1995-01-01

This essay deals with the relation between ritual behaviour and environmental conditions in an African rural society, that of the South-East Surmic (Nilo-Saharan)-speaking Me'en people, a group of 'tribal' cultivators in Käfa region, Ethiopia. The study attempts to integrate 'ideational' and

Personal Reflections of Funeral Rituals and Spirituality in a Kentucky African American Family

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Collins, Wanda Lott; Doolittle, Amy

2006-01-01

This article introduces the authors' experiences and observations as grief/bereavement counselors participating in urban and rural funerals. A vignette illustrates the use of rituals and spirituality of one African American family, living in a rural area of Kentucky, and their efforts to cope with their own grief and loss of a loved one. The…

Therapeutic effects of ritual ayahuasca use in the treatment of substance dependence--qualitative results.

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Loizaga-Velder, Anja; Verres, Rolf

2014-01-01

This qualitative empirical study explores the ritual use of ayahuasca in the treatment of addictions. Ayahuasca is an Amazonian psychedelic plant compound created from an admixture of the vine Banisteriopsis caapi and the bush Psychotria viridis. The study included interviews with 13 therapists who apply ayahuasca professionally in the treatment of addictions (four indigenous healers and nine Western mental health professionals with university degrees), two expert researchers, and 14 individuals who had undergone ayahuasca-assisted therapy for addictions in diverse contexts in South America. The study provides empirically based hypotheses on therapeutic mechanisms of ayahuasca in substance dependence treatment. Findings indicate that ayahuasca can serve as a valuable therapeutic tool that, in carefully structured settings, can catalyze neurobiological and psychological processes that support recovery from substance dependencies and the prevention of relapse. Treatment outcomes, however, can be influenced by a number of variables that are explained in this study. In addition, issues related to ritual transfer and strategies for minimizing undesired side-effects are discussed.

Hofstede’s Dimensions of National Cultures Revisited: A Case Study of South Korea’s Culture

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Buja Elena

2016-12-01

Full Text Available In about thirty-five years since the first publication of Hofstede’s (1991 study on the dimensions of national cultures, people all over the world have evolved in various directions and to various extents due to the phenomenon known as globalization. The present paper aims to investigate whether within this time span South Korea, a technically and economically developed country, whose way of life is strongly influenced by Confucianism, has complied with or resisted this phenomenon. The data that will be discussed have been collected from a Korean best seller (Shin’s Please Look After Mom, 2012 that approximately covers the period in which Hofstede conducted his investigations on national cultures. Hopefully the findings will indicate that the deeply rooted values have remained almost the same, while the outer layers of culture (such as the symbols or rituals, also known as ‘practices’ have changed due to the influences exerted by the other important economic and cultural powers of the world (such as Japan, the United States or some of the European countries Korea has come in touch with.

Changing Cultural Spaces, Transformation of the Traditions: Hıdırellez Celebrations held in Ankara and Hamamönü Hıdırellez Festivals

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Selcan Gürçayır Teke

2016-06-01

Full Text Available Hıdırellez festival, one of the rituals that hails the start of summer, is celebrated widely across Anatolia. The belief thatwishes for the future will come true if certain actions are performed at Hıdırellez festival, may be seen as the basic motivation behind this ritual and the transmission of this tradition from generation to generation. Many practices at Hıdırellez are related to nature. The space to celebrate Hıdırellez is of the utmost importance due to the context of the ritual. There are many cultural spaces in Anatolia assigned for the celebration of Hıdırellez; these are selected based on the belief that they have been visited by Hızır. The cultural transmission of Hıdırellez celebrations is being hindered among an urbanizing population due to fewnew spaces being planned for them and a lack of protection for the existing spaces. This article focuses on the Hıdırellez festival spaces and the necessity of moving these spaces into cities in order to maintain the tradition. This article evaluates the basic importance of these spaces from the standpoint of sustainability and the formation of the tradition using the Hamamönü Hıdırellez festival, which is celebrated in Ankara. It discusses the variations of the participant profiles at the Sixth Hamamönü Hıdırellez festival, to be held in Ankara this year and the how their expectations have been shaped based on changing spaces. It concludes that besides the dimension of belief in the rituals, the dimension of entertainment is also prominent for participants at the Hamamönü Hıdırellez festival, and that various Hıdırellez traditions have found their way into popular culture.

Análisis documental de los rituales de posesión en la Baja Edad Media

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Tomás Puñal Fernández

2002-01-01

Full Text Available Las cartas de posesión constituyen uno de los tipos diplomáticos más interesantes de la documentación notarial privada. Mediante un esquema sencillo, casi en forma de acta notarial, sin demasiados tecnicismos ni muchas de las abundantes y complicadas cláusulas jurídicas presentes en la documentación notarial, son el más fiel reflejo de la expresividad popular de la baja Edad Media, que recurre a la palabra y al signo ritual como manera de manifestar sus deseos. La documentación del ceremonial y los rituales de posesión provenientes del derecho consuetudinario y de prácticas ancestrales se combina con la práctica jurídica, ambas generadoras de derechos y deberes. Su estudio, análisis y significado, tanto a través de los formularios de la época, como de los registros notariales y de la propia documentación encontrada en algunos fondos monásticos son el objetivo de este trabajo, ofreciendo la existencia de una documentación, fiasta la fecha, poco conocida.The letters of possession are one of the most interesting notarial types of the prívate notarial documentation. Through a simple form, like a notarial document, without using neither too many technical words ñor many complicated legal clauses, usually present in the notarial documents, they are the most faithful reflection of the people's behaviour in the Middie Ages; who used the oral expressions and the ritual signs as a way to show their wishes. The ceremony's documentation and the possessions rituals, coming from the Common Law and from the oíd practices, are combined with the legal practices, and both genérate rights and obligations. The goal of this paper is to study, analyse and find the meaning of these documents, both using the forms and the notarial records, and the Information found in the monastic archives; showing ttie existence of several documents not very well known so far.

Comfortable Fictions and the Struggle for Turf: An Essay Review of "The Invented Indian: Cultural Fictions and Government Policies," Edited by James A. Clifton.

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Deloria, Vine, Jr.

1992-01-01

Clifton's collection of essays attacks recent pro-Indian "fictions" (including Native spirituality and the relationship between the Iroquois League and the U.S. Constitution) as politically motivated romanticism and nonsense. The authors are struggling to maintain white intellectual authority over definitions of Indian identity and interpretations…

The role of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) routines and rituals in men with cancer and their significant others (SOs): a qualitative investigation.

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Klafke, Nadja; Eliott, Jaklin A; Olver, Ian N; Wittert, Gary A

2014-05-01

Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) is frequently used in cancer patients, often with contribution of the significant others (SOs), but without consultation of healthcare professionals. This research explored how cancer patients integrate and maintain CAM use in their everyday life, and how SOs are involved in it. In this qualitative study, male participants were selected from a preceding Australian survey on CAM use in men with cancer (94 % response rate and 86 % consent rate for follow-up interview). Semistructured interviews were conducted with 26 men and 24 SOs until data saturation was reached. Interview transcripts were coded and analyzed thematically, thereby paying close attention to participants' language in use. A major theme associated with high CAM use was "CAM routines and rituals," as it was identified that men with cancer practiced CAM as (1) functional routines, (2) meaningful rituals, and (3) mental/spiritual routines or/and rituals. Regular CAM use was associated with intrapersonal and interpersonal benefits: CAM routines provided men with certainty and control, and CAM rituals functioned for cancer patients and their SOs as a means to create meaning, thereby working to counter fear and uncertainty consequent upon a diagnosis of cancer. SOs contributed most to men's uptake and maintenance of dietary-based CAM in ritualistic form resulting in interpersonal bonding and enhanced closeness. CAM routines and rituals constitute key elements in cancer patients' regular and satisfied CAM use, and they promote familial strengthening. Clinicians and physicians can convey these benefits to patient consultations, further promoting the safe and effective use of CAM.

The ritual person as a hero in J. P. Clark's Ozidi | Eghagha | Lagos ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Within the microcosmos of J.P. Clark's epic-drama Ozidi, a man can become a hero by fulfilling the demands of ritual. Ozidi is a posthumous avenger, bom to set right the wrong committed by conspirators who had murdered his father in cold blood. By avenging his father's death, he gives the man honour and prestige among ...

Divine Intersections: Hindu Ritual and the Incorporation of Religious Others

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Kathinka Frøystad

2012-08-01

Full Text Available This article throws the study of multireligious sociality in Western contexts into sharp relief by examining the case of India. Much of the current scholarship of cosmopolitanism and multiculturalism tends to assume that religious beliefs, practices and spaces make the respective religious communities close entirely in upon themselves. While this assumption may hold true for most of the Western settings we study, it does not necessarily give an accurate description of the conditions for multireligious sociality in other parts of the world. In India, for instance, religious boundaries still display signs of malleability despite the religious politicization and occasional interreligious violence of the past decades. Drawing on recent anthropological research, this article shows that people of different religious denominations still visit Sufi shrines, that Hindus still incorporate ritual elements and divine beings from the religious traditions of their Others and that they exercise a wide personal choice in terms of spiritual activities, thus enabling spiritual paths that cross in and out of Hinduism. In a Hindu context rituals do not necessarily have an insulating effect; they may also provide points of intersection that open up toward the Other, thus fostering familiarity and recognition. Similar arguments have been made for Buddhist settings. The question is thus whether the current scholarship of cosmopolitanism may entail a certain monotheistic bias that needs to accounted for, something that is of particular importance when theorizing in ways that make universal claims.

Exploration of Food Culture in Kisumu: A Socio-Cultural Perspective

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Fredrick Argwenge Odede

2017-07-01

Full Text Available Increasingly food culture in the context of socio-cultural dimension is becoming important for sustainable urban development. In the last four years food festivals have been held in Kisumu attracting several interests both from within and without the City. The Kisumu fish night event of 2013 marked the melting point of food culture in Kisumu. This paper thus explores the noble intention of integrating food culture in Kisumu as a socio-cultural capital for the advancement of City sustainable development agenda. To an agrarian society, life is about food from its production, the processing/preservation up to the consumption or the sharing. People connect to their cultural or ethnic background through similar food patterns.  People from different cultural backgrounds eat different foods leading to the question: Are Luos in Kisumu defined by their own food culture? This study further investigated the mode of production, and storage of food resources, examined food cuisines of the Luo community in Kisumu, and assessed the food habits, practices and beliefs associated with food cuisines, as well as, the nutritional and socio-cultural values of Luo cuisines. The research employed qualitative methods of data collection such as interviews, observation, focused group discussion and photography using purposive and snowball sampling technique. Content analysis was used to draw general universal statements in thematic areas with respect to the research objectives. The study revealed that Luo community in Kisumu has a food culture laced with rich cultural practices, rituals and societal norms that defines them as a distinct cultural identity but interacts with other cultural groups in the metropolitan city of Kisumu. Further, the study confirms that indeed food culture is vital for sustainable development of urban centre granted that Kisumu largely evolved as urban centre for exchange of goods for food.

Traumatised between culture and religion: Women’s stories

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Christina Landman

2012-04-01

Full Text Available The majority of churches in South Africa offer some form of healing, be it diaconal, ritual or faith healing. Western and township views on healing differ significantly in terms of the natural and supernatural causes of and cures for illnesses. This article tells the stories of township women who were trapped between the binaries presented by Western, cultural and township healings, and their choicelessness in terms of abortion, adoption, abuse, death and sex. Through narrative counseling, based on social construction theories, the women experienced healing by exploring the healing spaces between the binaries of cultural contexts and Western medicine, through the liberty afforded them by the perspective of a preferred way of being.

ETHNOMUSICAL TRADITIONS IN THE STRUCTURE OF CULTURAL IDENTITY PEOPLE OF DAGESTAN

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Medina ABDULAEVA

2013-10-01

Full Text Available In the layered structure of the peoples of Dagestan identities play a special role Ethnomusical tradition. If instrumental music can be noted ethnoculture environmental, safety in a multi-ethnic region, the art song is in the dynamics and was less stable in the transformation taking place in the field of music. In the space of the sacred-religious music genre took the crystallization of new phenomena - Mawlid, the songs in the ritual of dhikr, nasheed. A proportion of the "closed" ethnic culture, providing her safety, due to the priority role of tradition in the culture of indigenous peoples of Dagestan.

Rationality and ritual participation and exclusion in nuclear decision-making

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Wynne, Brian

2013-01-01

In Rationality and Ritual, internationally renowned expert Brian Wynne offers a profound analysis of science and technology policymaking. By focusing on an episode of major importance in Britain's nuclear history - the Windscale Inquiry, a public hearing about the future of fuel reprocessing - he offers a powerful critique of such judicial procedures and the underlying assumptions of the rationalist approach. This second edition makes available again this classic and still very relevant work. Debates about nuclear power have come to the fore once again. Yet we still do not h

Culture, Tradition, Custom, Law and Gender Equality

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MJ Maluleke

2012-03-01

Full Text Available In August 2011 Advocate Joyce Maluleke, Director in the Gender Directorate of the South African Department of Justice and Constitutional Development addressed the Annual General Conference of the South African Chapter of the International Association of Women Judges held in Potchefstroom on the dangers of harmful traditional practices such as early and forced marriages, virginity testing, widow's rituals, levirate and sororate unions, female genital mutilation, breast sweeping/ironing, the primogeniture rule, practices such as 'cleansing' after male circumcision, and witch-hunting. Although she considers respect for tradition, culture and customs to be part of the South African identity, she argues that cultural practices should be rooted in respect for human rights, democracy and equality. We publish her paper here as an oratio.

Assessment of addiction severity among ritual users of ayahuasca.

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Fábregas, Josep Maria; González, Débora; Fondevila, Sabela; Cutchet, Marta; Fernández, Xavier; Barbosa, Paulo César Ribeiro; Alcázar-Córcoles, Miguel Ángel; Barbanoj, Manel J; Riba, Jordi; Bouso, José Carlos

2010-10-01

Ayahuasca is a psychoactive beverage used for magico-religious purposes in the Amazon. Recently, Brazilian syncretic churches have helped spread the ritual use of ayahuasca abroad. This trend has raised concerns that regular use of this N,N-dimethyltryptamine-containing tea may lead to the medical and psychosocial problems typically associated with drugs of abuse. Here we assess potential drug abuse-related problems in regular ayahuasca users. Addiction severity was assessed using the Addiction Severity Index (ASI), and history of alcohol and illicit drug use was recorded. In Study 1, jungle-based ayahuasca users (n=56) were compared vs. rural controls (n=56). In Study 2, urban-based ayahuasca users (n=71) were compared vs. urban controls (n=59). Follow-up studies were conducted 1 year later. In both studies, ayahuasca users showed significantly lower scores than controls on the ASI Alcohol Use, and Psychiatric Status subscales. The jungle-based ayahuasca users showed a significantly higher frequency of previous illicit drug use but this had ceased at the time of examination, except for cannabis. At follow-up, abstinence from illicit drug use was maintained in both groups except for cannabis in Study 1. However, differences on ASI scores were still significant in the jungle-based group but not in the urban group. Despite continuing ayahuasca use, a time-dependent worsening was only observed in one subscale (Family/Social relationships) in Study 2. Overall, the ritual use of ayahuasca, as assessed with the ASI in currently active users, does not appear to be associated with the deleterious psychosocial effects typically caused by other drugs of abuse. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Rituals of interaction in everyday life: Goffman, Durkheim player

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Juarez Lopes de Carvalho Filho

2016-12-01

Full Text Available DOI DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5007/2175-7984.2016v15n34p137 This article proposes an exegesis of Goffman’s affiliation to Durkheim’s sociology, relating two works: Interaction Ritual and The Elementary Forms of Religious Life. He emphasizes two aspects that estimate present in both authors: the rites and the sacredness of the individual and the moral dimension of life in society. For Goffman the interaction rites are occasions to affirm the moral and social order. In a face-to-face, each social actor seeks to provide him a prized image, the “face” or “positive social value a person effectively claims by line of action that others assume that it adopted in the particular contact course.” In Interaction Ritual, Goffman critical sociologists and social anthropologists who, being engaged in the symbolic significance of modern society from Durkheim, did not take into account the notion of soul, present in the Elementary Forms of Religious Life. After identifying the intellectual and scientific influence in the formation of habitus and sociological métier Goffman, the text proposes to examine notions such rules, soul, rites, deference and the size necessary for the understanding of the social fabric in the order of interaction. It follows exposing a comparative table of the rites as described by Goffman modeled from Durkheim’s typology. It is expected that the reading of Goffman the light of Durkheim is an access road to the sociology of the first, and a way to update the contributions of the second reading of the social fabric of everyday life.

Water and Gender in Recreating Family Life with Maa Ganga: The Confluence of Nature and Culture in a North Indian River Pilgrimage

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Catrien Notermans

2016-11-01

Full Text Available This article studies the meaning of water and gender in the North Indian pilgrimage to the sacred river Ganges. It joins the recent criticism in anthropology concerning the nature/culture divide and aims to transcend that divide by focusing on water, not apart from but as part of social life. Assuming that water’s sociality is gendered, the authors look at how both the river water—itself as a landscape material—and the pilgrims’ engagements with that water are gendered. Starting from the central question: How do men’s and women’s ritual engagements with the sacred female river water (mutually construct social life? The article investigates men’s and women’s ritual use of water at different sites. It focuses on more than the central pilgrimage shrine and links the sacred river site to people’s homes to know how the moving river water, collected by pilgrims at the shrine, is used in water rituals back home. Trying to counterbalance the male and scriptural bias which is prominent in the literature on Ganges’ pilgrimage sites, the pilgrimage is studied from the perspective of lived religion that takes people’s embodied practices and sensory experiences of nature into account as well as people’s everyday life. By showing how men’s and women’s rituals differ and complement each other, it argues that men’s rituals at the pilgrimage site and women’s rituals at home serve the recreation of the family in a paired way. The argument is built on longitudinal and multi-sited ethnographic fieldwork at the Ganges river shrine in Haridwar (Uttarakhand and pilgrims’ residence in Udaipur (Rajasthan.

“The Language of Gods”: The Pragmatics of Bilingual Parallelism in Ritual Ch’orti’ Maya Discourse

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Kerry Hull

2017-10-01

Full Text Available In this study I investigate the discursive function of parallelism in the ritual speech of Ch’orti’ Maya. Specifically, I examine the exploitation of the dual lexicons of Ch’orti’ Mayan and Spanish in the production of parallel structures. Ch’orti’ ritual speech is almost universally constructed in parallelistic fashion, accomplishing at once a near hypnotic cadence when performed, while also serving various pragmatic functions. I detail the dynamic breadth of what I refer to as bilingual parallelism, i.e., parallelism that involves the pairing of synonymous terms from different languages in a distich. The effective use of parallelistic speech is said by the Ch’orti’ to be an imitation of the speech patterns of the gods themselves, thereby further explaining its importance in ceremonial contexts when speaking to gods and otherworld beings.

Social Functions of Ritual Music of Dong Funeral Ceremony%侗族丧葬仪式音乐的社会功能探析--以黔东南黎平县龙额村为例

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

姚仕秀

2014-01-01

侗族丧葬仪式是侗族人民的一项重要人生仪礼，它的内容和形式与侗族人民的宗教信仰观念有着密切关系，反映了侗族社会的民间传统习俗文化。仪式音乐作为丧葬仪式的组成部分，在仪式过程中担负着不同类型的角色，有赞颂亡者功德、沟通人神对话等媒介的作用。解读龙额侗族丧葬仪式音乐文化，分析其文化内涵及社会功能，对了解和研究侗族丧葬仪式特征，具有重要的价值和意义。%The funeral ceremony of Dong is an important ritual for Dong people. There is a close relationship between its religious concepts and its form and content, reflecting the traditional customs and culture of Dong. As a part of the funeral ceremony, the ritual music plays a different type of roles in it:praising the dead, and communicating with God, and so on. This paper studies the culture of its funeral music and analyzes its cultural conno-tations and social functions for better understanding characteristics of the Dong funeral ceremony, which has important value and significance.

Cultural processes in psychotherapy for perinatal loss: Breaking the cultural taboo against perinatal grief.

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Markin, Rayna D; Zilcha-Mano, Sigal

2018-03-01

This paper argues that there is a cultural taboo against the public recognition and expression of perinatal grief that hinders parents' ability to mourn and their psychological adjustment following a loss. It is proposed that this cultural taboo is recreated within the therapy relationship, as feelings of grief over a perinatal loss are minimized or avoided by the therapist and parent or patient. Importantly, it is suggested that if these cultural dynamics are recognized within the therapy relationship, then psychotherapy has the immense opportunity to break the taboo by validating the parent's loss as real and helping the parent to mourn within an empathic and affect-regulating relationship. Specifically, it is suggested that therapists break the cultural taboo against perinatal grief and help parents to mourn through: acknowledging and not pathologizing perinatal grief reactions, considering intrapsychic and cultural factors that impact a parent's response to loss, exploring cultural reenactments within the therapy relationship, empathizing with the parent's experience of loss and of having to grieve within a society that does not recognize perinatal loss, coregulating the parent's feelings of grief and loss, and helping patients to create personally meaningful mourning rituals. Lastly, the impact of within and between cultural differences and therapist attitudes on the therapy process is discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

PERGESERAN NILAI-NILAI BUDAYA PADA SUKU BONAI SEBAGAI CIVIC CULTURE DI KECAMATAN BONAI DARUSSALAM KABUPATEN ROKAN HULU PROVINSI RIAU

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Ryan Prayogi

2016-06-01

Full Text Available This research was grounded by social problems, which is a shift of cultural values and global transformation with positive and negative values including waning identity tribe Bonai, such as change the culture in the form of traditional values in traditional ceremonies as a result of changes in the environment their lives, both the natural environment and the physical and social environment such as the loss of a sense of kinship, courtesy, honesty, and mutual cooperation. The findings in this study revealed that 1 the tribe Bonai a principle of life that becomes a guideline and regulations that must be adhered to by the tribal people Bonai hereditary implemented include: Birth, Circumcision Rosul, Employment, Education, Marriage Married, Leadership System Society, Death. 2 The shifting cultural mores which are currently experiencing a shift towards cultural values that include a shift in values Nativity, Circumcision Rosul, Marriage, and Ritual Dewo. 3 Preservation made to the successor or the younger generation by providing knowledge about the culture, following the race on culture or festival and explain the meanings contained in each ceremony they have done, executing each set of tribal Bonai traditions, which are birth, circumcision messenger, dewo mating and rituals for marriage. 4 Development of indigenous culture as do general should be imparted to young people from birth to adulthood through education and infomal also goes by way of natural or natural and spontaneous. In particular the development of the cultural values taught to elementary school through high school

Ritual folklórico y representaciones colectivas. Modelo de Análisis Comunicacional

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ANTONIO MUÑOZ CARRIÓN

1986-01-01

Full Text Available Se definen los materiales folclóricos de acuerdo a sus elementos constitutivos (acciones, personas, objetos, valores y normas; se atribuye a las funciones de cada elemento presente en el contexto de una celebración la determinación de relaciones constantes y variables. Se emplea un análisis estructural-formal para investigar el orden interno que rige el carnaval tradicional Ru, el cual se celebra anualmente en un pueblo de Galicia, en el noroeste de España. Se concluye que en el interior del carnaval mencionado, cuyo desarrollo es aparentemente caótico e incontrolable, existe una estructura aceptada de normas que lo condiciona y lo inmoviliza. Este repertorio de "normas carnavalísticas" opera como una sintaxis en los márgenes del significado que posee cada norma para el grupo y para el individuo. Esta perspectiva teórica rechaza aquellos enfoques que estudian los rituales folclóricos sólo en tanto que productos del sistema social; antes bien, los sistemas de reglas vigentes en el ritual merecen un estudio específico.

Seneca Storytelling: Effect of the Kinzua Dam on Interpretations of Supernatural Stories

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Melissa Borgia

2014-03-01

Full Text Available This paper analyzes supernatural lore of the Hodinöhŝyönih (Iroquois of the Northeastern United States, specifically the Seneca people living near the Kinzua Dam. After briefly tracing the historical richness of Iroquois and Seneca stories about supernatural beings and occurrences, it offers interpretations on these stories that are pertinent to a new generation. Traditional storytellers such as the various Indigenous peoples of North America use their tales as vehicles for instruction in their communities; an important part of this instruction is maintenance and strengthening of cultural traditions within communities and families. The building of the Kinzua Dam on the Seneca Allegany Territory in the late 1960s and subsequent upheavals in the community have deepened the tradition of stories about supernatural incidents while serving as a means through which old stories have gained strength and guided those removed by the dam’s construction to overcome those tragic events.

Provisioning the Ritual Neolithic Site of Kfar HaHoresh, Israel at the Dawn of Animal Management.

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Meier, Jacqueline S; Goring-Morris, A Nigel; Munro, Natalie D

2016-01-01

It is widely agreed that a pivotal shift from wild animal hunting to herd animal management, at least of goats, began in the southern Levant by the Middle Pre-Pottery Neolithic B period (10,000-9,500 cal. BP) when evidence of ritual activities flourished in the region. As our knowledge of this critical change grows, sites that represent different functions and multiple time periods are needed to refine the timing, pace and character of changing human-animal relationships within the geographically variable southern Levant. In particular, we investigate how a ritual site was provisioned with animals at the time when herd management first began in the region. We utilize fauna from the 2010-2012 excavations at the mortuary site of Kfar HaHoresh-the longest continuous Pre-Pottery Neolithic B faunal sequence in the south Levantine Mediterranean Hills (Early-Late periods, 10,600-8,700 cal. BP). We investigate the trade-off between wild and domestic progenitor taxa and classic demographic indicators of management to detect changes in hunted animal selection and control over herd animal movement and reproduction. We find that ungulate selection at Kfar HaHoresh differs from neighboring sites, although changes in dietary breadth, herd demographics and body-size data fit the regional pattern of emerging management. Notably, wild ungulates including aurochs and gazelle are preferentially selected to provision Kfar HaHoresh in the PPNB, despite evidence that goat management was underway in the Mediterranean Hills. The preference for wild animals at this important site likely reflects their symbolic significance in ritual and mortuary practice.

Discovering what is hidden: The role of non-ritualized covert neutralizing strategies in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder.

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Belloch, Amparo; Carrió, Carmen; Cabedo, Elena; García-Soriano, Gemma

2015-12-01

Neutralizing strategies are secondary to obsessions and an additional cause of distress and interference, but they have received little attention in theories and research, especially the non-ritualized covert strategies. This study focuses on the comparative impact of non-ritualized covert and compulsive-overt strategies in the course of OCD. Eighty-two OCD adult patients completed measures assessing distress, interference, appraisals and overt and covert neutralizing strategies to control obsessions. Thirty-eight patients who had completed cognitive therapy were assessed again after treatment. Only overt compulsions are associated with OCD severity. Nonetheless, considering the main symptom dimension, covert strategies are also associated with severity in patients with moral-based obsessions. Patients who used covert strategies more frequently, compared to those who use them less, reported more sadness, guilt, control importance, interference, and dysfunctional appraisals. Regarding the overt strategies, patients who used them more reported more anxiety and ascribed more personal meaning to their obsessions than the patients who used them less. After treatment, recovered patients decreased their use of both covert and overt strategies, while non-recovered patients did not. There was a higher rate of non-recovered patients among those who used more non-ritualized covert strategies before treatment. Emotions and appraisals were assessed with a single item. OCD symptom dimensions were only assessed by the Obsessive-Compulsive Inventory. In addition to studying overt compulsions, the impact of covert neutralizing strategies on the OCD course and severity warrants more in-depth study. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Bringing Culture in: Community Responses to Apology, Reconciliation, and Reparations

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Miller, Bruce Granville

2006-01-01

In this paper, the author describes historic Coast Salish ritual practices and the concepts regarding wrongdoing and redemption that underlie them. He draws out the implications, particularly the associated dangers, derived from these existing rituals for ritual work conducted by outsiders engaging Coast Salish peoples. Finally, he considers the…

De la plegaria y de la cocina ritual (Chiapas, México)

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Pujol, Helios Figuerola

2014-01-01

Intentaremos mostrar cómo, entre los tzeltales de Cancuc, en los altos de Chiapas, el ch’abajom (rezador) se transforma, durante el tiempo del ritual, en un delicado chef cocinero. Los conocimientos culinarios del ch’abajom se encuentran resumidos en un libro de recetas que, en un sueño premonitorio, un mestizo le entregará para facilitar sus actividades. En ese escrito encontrará los versos con metáforas y figuras retóricas con las que los dioses se alimentan. Para que éstas sean eficaces de...

Music, Myths and Rituals: Traditional Societies of African Lobi Peoples and Environmental Issues

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Hien Sié

2018-02-01

Full Text Available The practice of music in societies with oral tradition, in general, and particularly in black Africa, was rooted in the mythological beliefs, concerning the body of myth stories retold among people in those societies and interdictions/taboos and totems, which do not have grounds in logic and reason, that attempt to explain the nature of the human beings and their surrounding. Being the crucial elements that structure and regulate all sphres of life, as well as the manifestations and consequences of religious beliefs, those were the attempts to describe and explain the origins and fundamenatal values of a given culture and /or religious considerations of the people in the given society. If those extra-musical features were influential and inspiring enough, then that made it possible to establish the relations, i. e. the allusions to mythology and rituals which could be expressed in the music. When thinking about this particular fact, then it must be allowed that the music is likely to provide a primary document for understanding the sysems of thoughts and for teaching us lessons on certain facets of the life of those societies/ cultures. In particular, it can be used as a means to learn about their relationship to the environmental, natural occurances and the humanity, the fact the researchers have not been sufficiently focused on when research about the music. This researh aims to reflect on how well musical art has contributed to addressing that goal, namely, based on the concrete examples drawn from the music of Lobi peoples/tribes, the author is trying to shine a light on how these peoples, consciously or instictively, convey an often complex set of problems, and communicate with an immediacy and universality that often sit outside of common language, particularly the environmental problems they encounter in their existence.

A Inquisição e a Feitiçaria: A Ritualização do Interrogatório e da Tortura * The Inquisition and Witchcraft: the Ritualization of Inquiries and Torture

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JOÃO DAVI AVELAR PIRES

2014-02-01

Full Text Available Resumo: Este trabalho se propõe a pensar a Inquisição, principalmente a medieval, como uma extensão ou organização católica que buscava a erradicação daqueles que se opunham aos dogmas e a moral pregadas pela Igreja. Fundamentados pelo conceito de ritual, apresentamos a relação entre a Inquisição e as mulheres acusadas de feitiçaria como um ritual, que se inicia desde o momento da captura das acusadas, passando pelos interrogatórios, pela tortura e chegando até o auto-de-fé, onde era queimada num local público, geralmente em feriados ou dias santos.Palavras-chave: Inquisição – Feitiçaria – Ritual. Abstract: his paper proposes to think the Inquisition, mainly medieval, as an extension or Catholic organization that sought to eradicate those who opposed the beliefs and morality preached by the Church. Basing on the concept of ritual, we present the relationship between the Inquisition and women accused of witchcraft as a ritual, which begins from the moment of capture of the accused, throughout the  inquiry and torture until  reaching the act of faith, where she  was burnt  at a public place, usually on holidays.Keywords: Inquisition – Witchcraft – Ritual.

The Maple Sugar Festival

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Johnston, Basil

1978-01-01

Describing the Iroquoi's Maple Sugar Festival, this article details the symbolism of renewal, becoming, and regeneration celebrated by the Iroquoi as the sap from the maple trees begins to flow each year. The symbolic role of woman, the sweet sap itself, and man's fellow creatures are described. (JC)

The "Endura" of The Cathars' Heresy: Medieval Concept of Ritual Euthanasia or Suicide?

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Tsiamis, Costas; Tounta, Eleni; Poulakou-Rebelakou, Effie

2016-02-01

The aim of the study is to explore the medieval concepts on the voluntary death of severely sick people, as they emerge through the endura (endurance) of the heresy of the Cathars in France (twelfth to fourteenth centuries). The endura was the prerequisite act of repentance that would allow the fallen soul to return to heaven. The endura was a necessary act of repentance, after the performance of a ceremonial purification of the soul (consolamentum), and consisted of the patients' voluntary abstention from vital food. The consolamentum and endura could be performed in the final stage of a disease with the consent of the patients or their relatives. The role of the Cathar physician was only to determine the severity of the disease and the forthcoming death of the patient. The physician was not allowed to take steps that would deprive the life of the patient, and the performance of the ritual endura was duty of the spiritual leaders of the community. The modern ethical approach to this subject is dictated by the medieval belief on the salvation of the soul and tries to answer the question of whether the endura could be seen as a medieval concept of a ritual euthanasia or fell within the theological sin of suicide.

Symptom dimensions in obsessive-compulsive disorder: phenomenology and treatment outcomes with exposure and ritual prevention.

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Williams, Monnica T; Mugno, Beth; Franklin, Martin; Faber, Sonya

2013-01-01

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a severe condition with varied symptom presentations. Currently, the cognitive-behavioral treatment with the most empirical support is exposure and ritual prevention (EX/RP); however, clinical impression and some empirical data suggest that certain OCD symptoms are more responsive to treatment than others. Prior work identifying symptom dimensions within OCD is discussed, including epidemiological findings, factor analytic studies, and biological findings. Symptom dimensions most reliably identified include contamination/cleaning, doubt about harm/checking, symmetry/ordering, and unacceptable thoughts/mental rituals. The phenomenology of each of these subtypes is described and research literature is summarized, emphasizing the differential effects of EX/RP and its variants on each of these primary symptom dimensions. To date it appears that EX/RP is an effective treatment for the various OCD dimensions, although not all dimensions have been adequately studied (i.e. symmetry and ordering). Modifications to treatment may be warranted for some types of symptoms. Clinical implications and directions for future research are discussed. Copyright © 2013 S. Karger AG, Basel.

Healing Through States of Consciousness: Animal Sacrifice and Christian Prayer Among the Kachin in Southwest China.

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Zhang, Wenyi

2016-01-01

Healing rituals can be understood in terms of configurations of two states of consciousness-a culturally elaborated everyday waking consciousness, and an enhanced and culturally elaborated state of consciousness. Two healing rituals performed by the ethnic Kachin in Southwest China differentiate these two states of consciousness in their theories of life and death. The first ritual, animal sacrifice, employs the ordinary consciousness, including will and expectation, of participants through the enhanced state of consciousness of the ritual officiant. The second, Christian prayer, utilizes the enhanced consciousness of Christian Congregation to achieve psychic transformation. These two rituals maneuver different configurations of the two states of consciousness in achieving healing efficacy.

Snert: Ritual-liturgical measurements and recipes for social capital

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Cas Wepener

2010-03-01

Full Text Available The questions of how social capital is measured and how it is generated have received ample attention in recent years. This article is an attempt at making a modest contribution towards addressing these issues and specifically also as a contribution from the fields of Liturgical and Ritual Studies. It is argued that commensality can be taken as both lens/barometer with regard to the presence or absence of social capital, as well as being a potential generator of social capital. In order to arrive at this conclusion regarding food and the eating habits of humankind, the phenomenon of commensality and its relation to social capital is approached here from three different angles, namely Social Anthropology, New Testament Studies and Ethnography.

AHP 24: A Multi-ethnic Village in Northeast Tibet - History, Ritual, and Daily Life in Chu cha

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Stobs stag lha སྟོབས་སྟག་ལྷ།

2013-09-01

Full Text Available Multi-ethnic Chu cha Village in Mchod rten thang Township, Dpa' ris Tibetan Autonomous County, Gansu Province, China is described in terms of location; population; clothing; language; religion; history; and personal, family, and community rituals. Photographs provide additional information.

Substance and Sense: Objects of Power in the Life, Writings, and Legacy of the Tibetan Ritual Master Sog bzlog pa Blo gros rgyal mtshan

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Gentry, James Duncan

2014-01-01

This thesis is a reflection upon objects of power and their roles in the lives of people through the lens of a single case example: power objects as they appear throughout the narrative, philosophical, and ritual writings of the Tibetan Buddhist ritual specialist Sog bzlog pa Blo gros rgyal mtshan (1552-1624) and his milieu. This study explores their discourse on power objects specifically for what it reveals about how human interactions with certain kinds of objects encourage the flow of po...

[Neonatal palliative care and culture].

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Bétrémieux, P; Mannoni, C

2013-09-01

The period of palliative care is a difficult time for parents and caregivers because they are all weakened by the proximity of death. First of all, because of religious and cultural differences, parents and families cannot easily express their beliefs or the rituals they are required to develop; second, this impossibility results in conflicts between the caregiver team and the family with consequences for both. Caregivers are concerned to allow the expression of religious beliefs and cultural demands because it is assumed that they may promote the work of mourning by relating the dead child to its family and roots. However, caregivers' fear not knowing the cultural context to which the family belongs and having inappropriate words or gestures, as sometimes families dare not, cannot, or do not wish to describe their cultural background. We attempt to differentiate what relates to culture and to religion and attempt to identify areas of potential disagreement between doctors, staff, and family. Everyone has to work with the parents to open a space of freedom that is not limited by cultural and religious assumptions. The appropriation of medical anthropology concepts allows caregivers to understand simply the obligations imposed on parents by their culture and/or their religion and open access to their wishes. Sometimes help from interpreters, mediators, ethnopsychologists, and religious representatives is needed to understand this reality. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

Religious and cultural aspects of psychotherapy in Muslim patients from tradition-oriented societies.

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Kizilhan, Jan Ilhan

2014-06-01

Patients from collective cultures with a tradition-bound Islamic cultural background (e.g. people from the Middle East and some Far-East countries such Pakistan and Indonesia), have a different perception of disease and different conceptions of healing, which up till now have not been sufficiently appreciated in modern multimodal therapeutic approaches and health management. Taking patients' value systems into consideration in a culture-sensitive way, with reference to their notions of magic, healing ceremonies and religious rituals and especially patterns of relations and experience in the treatment of psychological diseases in medical psychotherapeutic work, with due regard to scientific psychotherapeutic standards, can be used as an intercultural resource and lead to establishing partnership-like relationships between patients and therapists.

Rituals in nursing: intramuscular injections.

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Greenway, Kathleen

2014-12-01

To consider to what extent intramuscular injection technique can be described to remain entrenched in ritualistic practice and how evidence-based practice should be considered and applied to the nursing practice of this essential skill. The notion of rituals within nursing and the value or futile impact they afford to this essential nursing skill will be critically reviewed. Discursive paper. Literature review from 2002-2013 to review the current position of intramuscular injection injections. Within the literature review, it became clear that there are several actions within the administration of an intramuscular injection that could be perceived as ritualistic and require consideration for contemporary nursing practice. The essential nursing skill of intramuscular injection often appears to fit into the description of a ritualised practice. By providing evidence-based care, nurses will find themselves empowered to make informed decisions based on clinical need and using their clinical judgement. For key learning, it will outline with rationale how site selection, needle selection, insertion technique and aspiration can be cited as examples of routinised or ritualistic practice and why these should be rejected in favour of an evidence-based approach. The effect on some student nurses of experiencing differing practices between what is taught at university and what is often seen in clinical practice will also be discussed. © 2014 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Pilgrims past and present: the ritual landscape of Raqchi, southern Peru

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Bill Sillar

1999-11-01

Full Text Available In 1533 the Spanish overthrew the Inka1 empire that then dominated the Andean region and much of the west coast of South America. Most tourists going to Peru visit Cuzco and Machu Pichu, but few see any of the other spectacular Ink a ruins, such as the mythical and ritual site at Raqchi. There research is focusing on the site itself and on the long-term history of the Vilcanota Valley, including the changes wrought by the Spanish invasion. The project is also working with the local community to promote sustainable tourism.

Convergence, Creative Industries and Civil Society Towards a New Agenda for Cultural Policy and Cultural Studies

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Colin Mercer

2009-10-01

Full Text Available In this article I start with a personal experience "cameo" from 1996 in Australia and extrapolate from that some issues that remain relevant in the sometimes trou-bled relationship between cultural studies and cultural policy. These are encapsu-lated in the three "cs" of convergence, creative industries and civil society which provide a new context for both new research and new policy settings. The argu-ment is developed and situated in historical terms by examining the "cultural technologies", especially the newspaper, and subsequently print media in the 19th century, electronic media in the 20th century and digital media in the 21st century which provide the content, the technologies and the rituals for "imagining" our sense of place and belonging. This is then linked to ways of understanding culture and cultural technologies in the context of governmentality and the emergence of culture as a strategic object of policy with the aim of citizen- and population for-mation and management. This argument is then linked to four contemporary "testbeds" - cultural mapping and planning, cultural statistics and indicators, cul-tural citizenship and identity, and research of and for cultural policy - and priori-ties for cultural policy where cultural studies work has been extremely enabling and productive. The article concludes with an argument, derived from the early 20th century work of Patrick Geddes of the necessity of linking, researching, un-derstanding and operationalising the three key elements and disciplines of Folk (anthropology, Work (economics, and Place (geography in order to properly situate cultural policy, mapping and planning and their relationship to cultural studies and other disciplines.

Religion as culture: religious individualism and collectivism among american catholics, jews, and protestants.

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Cohen, Adam B; Hill, Peter C

2007-08-01

We propose the theory that religious cultures vary in individualistic and collectivistic aspects of religiousness and spirituality. Study 1 showed that religion for Jews is about community and biological descent but about personal beliefs for Protestants. Intrinsic and extrinsic religiosity were intercorrelated and endorsed differently by Jews, Catholics, and Protestants in a pattern that supports the theory that intrinsic religiosity relates to personal religion, whereas extrinsic religiosity stresses community and ritual (Studies 2 and 3). Important life experiences were likely to be social for Jews but focused on God for Protestants, with Catholics in between (Study 4). We conclude with three perspectives in understanding the complex relationships between religion and culture.

Symbols, spaces and materiality: a transmission-based approach to Aegean Bronze Age ritual.

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Briault, C.

2005-01-01

This thesis explores the transmission of ritual practices in the second millennium BC Aegean. In contrast to previous approaches, which often overlook gaps in the diachronic record, emphasising continuity in cult practice over very long timescales, it is argued here that through charting the spatial and temporal distributions of three broad material types (cult symbols, spaces and objects), it is possible to document the spread of cult practice over time and space, and, crucially, to monitor ...

Word play, ritual insult, and volleyball in Peru.

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Perez, Justin

2011-01-01

Many gay men in the popular sectors of Lima, Peru participate in vóley callejero, or street volleyball. The ethnographic data presented in this article describes verbal and corporal mechanisms through which gay identity emerges within the particular context of the street volleyball game, ultimately highlighting the contextual nature of identity. The volleyball players are not just hitting a ball back and forth, they are engaging in a meaningful activity that illuminates intersections of language, sexuality, and identity. Through the manipulation of the street into a volleyball court, the volleyball players create a space conducive to the articulation of particular verbal and embodied practices that index gay identity. The challenge to the regulations of "proper" volleyball through the practice of ritual insulting and the cultivation of gay volleyball technique are playful reconfigurations of gendered practices prominent in the sites where fieldwork was carried out.

Mardin Süryanilerinde Belleğin Teolojik-Kültürel Çerçevesi / Theological - Cultural Framework of Memory in Mardin Syriacs

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Tahir Pekasil

2016-05-01

Full Text Available Theological - Cultural Framework of Memory in Mardin Syriacs Abstract In this article, “theological/ritual-cultural framework of memory”, "memory participation tools" "recall figures" will be examined in the case of Mardin Syriac Orthodox Church. "Ritual participation" and "rhythmic repetition" which enables "theological-social inclusion" and "integration", also mobilizes remembering instruments and guarantees protection, revival and transfer of cultural memory. This also ensures continuation of sense of belonging. Priests who are accepted as "vicarious memory" enable participation to memory in church which is a "memory space" mediating to the "transmission of blessing and grace by ritual representation". Priests also by institutionalizing ceremonies and rituals which integrated with music, makes cultural meanings functional. The theme is discussed from the perspective of cultural memory and supported by face to face interviews. Mardin Süryanilerinde Belleğin Teolojik-Kültürel Çerçevesi Öz Bu yazıda, Mardin Süryani Ortodoks Kilisesi örneğinden hareketle “belleğin teolojik/ritüel- kültürel çerçevesi”, “belleğe katılım araçları”, “hatırlama figürleri” ele alınacaktır. “Teolojik ve toplumsal katılımı”, “bütünleşmeyi” sağlayan “ritüel katılım” ve “ritmik tekrar”, hatırlama araçlarını harekete geçirerek kültürel belleğin korunmasını, canlandırılmasını ve aktarılmasını garanti etmekte, aidiyetin devamını sağlamaktadır. Belleğe katılımı sağlayan “vekil hafıza” olarak kabul edilen papazlar, bir “hafıza mekânı” olan kilisede, “inayetin ritüel temsille aktarımına” aracılık yapmakta; “ritüel tasarım” yoluyla müzikle bütünleştirdikleri ayin ve ritüelleri kurumsallaştırarak kültürel anlamlara işlerlik kazandırmaktadırlar. Çalışma konusu, kültürel bellek perspektifinden ele alınmış ve mülakat örnekleri ile desteklenmiştir.

Festive Culture of Kryashens

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Ksenia Yu. Khusnutdinova

2017-11-01

Full Text Available Traditional festive ritual culture occupies an important position in the life of the Kryashens. The article is based on our own field research conducted in 2014. The purpose of the article is to study traditional holidays and their significance for the Kryashens. The article showed popular traditional Kryashen holidays, their innovations and origins, which go deep into history and are closely intertwined with the culture of neighboring peoples. The methodological base of the study assumes the consideration and the analysis of the traditional festive culture of the Kryashens. The work uses general historical methods: historical-comparative, cultural-anthropological, the method of complex analysis and the discriminative method. The work is also based on the combination of quantitative and qualitative methods: discourse - mass survey through questionnaires, in-depth interviews, focus groups, included monitoring. The article gives a detailed description of each holiday. Kryashen people keep the ancient traditions of their ancestors, combining their Turkic roots and Orthodox culture. During the long parallel development of national holidays, customs and religions, Christianity has become an integral part of the Kryashen spiritual life - this confirms the special significance of Orthodox religious holidays. Also, ethnic-cultural characteristics and the celebration of traditional holidays are of great importance for Kryashens. Particularly honored calendar holidays for the Kryashens are the following ones: Easter, Christmas, Epiphany, Petrov Day (Pitrau, Trinity, Nardugan, Semik, Pokrov. These festive traditions are marked by a certain important value and stability in the cultural environment of the Tatarstan Kryashens. The materials of the article can be useful for ethnologists, social and cultural anthropologists, and everyone interested in this topic.

Revision of the Word Association Test for assessing associations of patients reporting satanic ritual abuse in childhood.

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Leavitt, F; Labott, S M

1998-11-01

A growing number of psychiatric patients report satanic ritual abuse, prompting research into this controversial area. In the current study, the Word Association Test (WAT) was modified to assess experience with satanic abuse. Pilot work resulted in norms for two domains: normative and satanic. Female psychiatric patients were compared on their associations in two studies. Based on a sexual history, they were grouped into those reporting sexual abuse, those reporting satanic ritual abuse (SRA), and those without a history of sexual abuse (controls). In both studies, SRA patients gave significantly more total associations, significantly fewer normative associations, and significantly more satanic associations than did the other two groups. These results suggest that an experience base is shared by individuals reporting SRA that is not found in individuals who do not report satanic abuse (even if they do report sexual abuse). The implications of these findings are discussed from the perspective of arguments advanced by advocates and critics of SRA.

Con el diablo adentro. El consumo medicinal y ritual del balche’ entre los mayas de Yucatán visto desde una perspectiva etnohistórica.

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Daniela Sánchez Aroche

2015-12-01

Full Text Available This article aims to bring forward historiographical information regarding the consumption of balche’ between the peninsular Maya people from an ethnohistorical framework. First, exposing epigraphic approaches regarding former notions about beekeeping, favorable dates for the realization of such activities, and offerings deposited in hives. Subsequently, we analyze the restrictions imposed in the colonial era contained in records where its medicinal uses and ritual functions are shown. Finally, using ethnographic historiography, we identify balche’s continued therapeutic and ritual usage.

De sillas y almohadones o de la naturaleza ritual del poder en la nueva España de los siglos XVI y XVII

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Cañeque, Alejandro

2004-12-01

Full Text Available This article examines the relationship between public ritual and colonial authority in sixteenth and seventeenth-century New Spain. In colonial society, the establishment of authority depended more on such things as prestige, reputation and/or public appearance than on the use of force. This helps explain the great transcendence attributed by contemporaries to all kinds of public rituals. Their effects were far from negligible: they were much more than a disguise with which to make the rulers’ power more palatable. Royal officials constituted their power and identities through public ceremony, and therefore placed crucial importance on maintaining an authoritative public image.

El artículo estudia la interrelación entre ritual público y autoridad colonial en la Nueva España de los siglos XVI y XVII. En la sociedad colonial, el afianzamiento de la autoridad dependía más de cuestiones tales como prestigio, reputación y/o apariencia pública que del uso de la fuerza. Eso permite explicar la trascendencia tan grande que los contemporáneos dieron a todo tipo de rituales públicos pues sus efectos estaban lejos de ser algo insignificante y eran mucho más que simples disfraces para hacer más digerible el poder de los gobernantes. Los oficiales reales consituían su poder y su identidad a través del ceremonial público y, por tanto, daban una importancia crucial al mantenimiento de una imagen pública llena de autoridad.

The Use in Experiential Education of Ceremonies and Rituals from Native American Cultures.

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Hall, McClellan; Couch, G. Owen

1992-01-01

McClellan Hall, a Native American, expresses distress and embarrassment at the improper use of Native cultural ceremonies at Association for Experiential Education conferences. G. Owen Couch, a non-Native, describes his personal experiences in using Native American philosophies inappropriately and his realization of the dangers in doing so. Both…

Healing in Herero culture and Namibian African independent churches

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Selaelo T. Kgatla

2015-09-01

Full Text Available The current phenomenon of Namibian African Independent Churches (NAICs draws attention from various people in civil society in Namibia. Although the ministries of NAICs are engaged with activities which are unusual for Christian churches, such as healing the people, fighting against evil spirits and power, performing certain rituals, prophesying and leading the worship services with African Traditional Religion (ATR as a frame of reference in 21st century, they do have a very big influence on various aspects of society in Namibia, which cannot be ignored. This is because those activities are familiar to the everyday lives of Africans and in touch with their culture. With regards to this, this article focuses on the causes of integration or harmony between the Herero culture and the NAICs.

El kyphi, un perfume ritual, mágico y medicinal en el universo egipcio grecorromano

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Sabino Perea Yébenes

2011-01-01

Full Text Available Muchas fuentes antiguas, literarias y epigráficas, hablan de un singular producto típicamente egipcio: el kyphi. Se trata de un compuesto «químico» muy complejo, hecho con productos naturales, que toma la forma de incienso. De hecho, se traduce normalmente como «incienso», aunque éste sea sólo una parte de su composición. Su uso es muy variado: se emplea en los rituales de los templos egipcios, y en ceremonias mágicas, y también, por sus propiedades, tiene aplicaciones en medicina, desde época griega a la Edad Media.Many ancient sources, literary and epigraphic, speak of kyphi, a singular product typically Egyptian. This is a «chemical» product very complex, made with natural products, which takes the form and texture of incense. In fact, it is usually translated as «incense», although this is only part of its composition. Its use is very varied, in the rituals of the Egyptian temples and also, and magical ceremonies. For their properties, is used in medicine, from Greek times to the Middle Ages.

The ritual of coffee break inside organizations: toward social efficiency and/or performance?

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Cécilia BRASSIER-RODRIGUES

2015-07-01

Full Text Available This research examines a non-formal ritual practice – the coffee break – inside organizations. Based on a survey conducted on 12 marketing and commercial teams in France, we analyse if the coffee break has an objective of social efficiency or of performance. While solving this question, our results also reveal the importance of seniority in the observed behaviors, suggesting that it symbolizes an informal level of authority in front of the formal authority symbolized by the status.

Symptom Dimensions in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: Phenomenology and Treatment Outcomes with Exposure and Ritual Prevention

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Williams, Monnica T.; Mugno, Beth; Franklin, Martin; Faber, Sonya

2013-01-01

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a severe condition with varied symptom presentations. The cognitive-behavioral treatment with the most empirical support is currently exposure and ritual prevention (EX/RP); however, clinical impression and some empirical data suggest that certain OCD symptoms are more responsive to treatment than others. Prior work identifying symptom dimensions within OCD is discussed, including epidemiological findings, factor analytic studies, and biological findings...

Taiwans multi-etniske samfund og den oprindelige befolknings postkoloniale situation eksemplificeret ved genindførelsen af traditionelle ritualer

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Rudolph, Michael

2012-01-01

Since the middle of the 1990s, traditionalist performances were on the rise in Taiwan. Generously subsidized by government bodies, aboriginal elites now not only publicly worshipped ancestor gods and enacted animal sacrifices in so called revitalized rituals, but also used these occasions to point...

Approach to disability in a population from the Argar Culture

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Roca, María G.

2012-06-01

Full Text Available A new research field is being developed on disability in Archaeology and Physical Anthropology, which is investigated in this article in the context of the Argaric Culture. More than 200 skeletons, coming from sites in Granada province (Castellón Alto, Fuente Amarga, Cuesta del Negro, Terrera del Reloj and Cerro de la Encina, were studied, finding four with signs of physical impairment: one male and one female who must both have used a walking aid, and two males with shoulder dislocations. All four individuals were buried according to Argaric Culture rituals, beneath their dwellings, indicating that they were not socially rejected. Nevertheless, further insight into disability in this culture is hampered by the limited biological and archaeological data available.

La discapacidad, entendida como la consideración de una persona con invalidez por parte de su comunidad, constituye un nuevo campo de investigación en Ar queología y Antropología Física. Aquí se investiga este concepto en el marco de la cultura de El Argar. Se han estudiado más de 200 esqueletos procedentes de yacimientos de la provincia de Granada (Castellón Alto, Fuente Amarga, Cuesta del Negro, Terrera del Reloj y Cerro de la Encina entre los cuales cuatro muestran señales de invalidez: un hombre y una mujer que debieron haber requerido ayuda para caminar y dos varones con luxaciones de hombro. Los cuatro individuos fueron enterrados según los rituales de la cultura argárica, bajo sus propias viviendas, lo que indica que no fueron rechazados socialmente. Sin embargo, no se puede profundizar sobre la concepción de la discapacidad en esta cultura puesto que los datos arqueológicos y biológicos son muy limitados.

Mummy Lake: An unroofed ceremonial structure within a large-scale ritual landscape

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Benson, Larry V.; Griffin, Eleanor R.; Stein, J.R.; Friedman, R. A.; Andrae, S. W.

2014-01-01

The structure at Mesa Verde National Park known historically as Mummy Lake and more recently as Far View Reservoir is not part of a water collection, impoundment, or redistribution system. We offer an alternative explanation for the function of Mummy Lake. We suggest that it is an unroofed ceremonial structure, and that it serves as an essential component of a Chacoan ritual landscape. A wide constructed avenue articulates Mummy Lake with Far View House and Pipe Shrine House. The avenue continues southward for approximately 6 km where it apparently divides connecting with Spruce Tree House and Sun Temple/Cliff Palace. The avenue has previously been interpreted as an irrigation ditch fed by water impounded at Mummy Lake; however, it conforms in every respect to alignments described as Chacoan roads. Tree-ring dates indicate that the construction of Spruce Tree House and Cliff Palace began about A.D. 1225, roughly coincident with the abandonment of the Far View community. This pattern of periodically relocating the focus of an Anasazi community by retiring existing ritual structures and linking them to newly constructed facilities by means of broad avenues was first documented by Fowler and Stein (1992) in Manuelito Canyon, New Mexico. Periods of intense drought appear to have contributed to the relocation of prehistoric Native Americans from the Far View group to Cliff Palace/Spruce Tree House in the mid-13th century and eventually to the abandonment of all Anasazi communities in southwestern Colorado in the late-13th century.

AHP 37: ETHNICITY AND CULTURAL DIVERSITY ON THE NORTHEAST TIBETAN PLATEAU - SANCHUAN'S WEATHER MANAGEMENT RITUALS IN COMPARATIVE CONTEXT

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Gerald Roche

2015-06-01

Full Text Available What is the relationship between ethnic, cultural, and linguistic diversity? This paper is part of a broader project to investigate this question in the context of a region of supposed ethno-cultural rupture – the Sino-Tibetan Frontier. My investigations of ethnicity, culture, and language in this region (Roche 2011, 2014, 2015, Roche and Lcag mo tshe ring 2013, Roche and Stuart 2015 have focused on a population referred to as the Monguor or Tu. My work also aims to contribute to broader trends in the study of Tibet and ethnic minorities in China that look at the complex relations between ethnicity and diversity (Jinba Tenzin 2013, Chao 2012, Merriam 2012, Hayes 2014. My research has been inspired by Barth's (1969 critique of the 'Herderian trinity' of community, culture, and identity (Wimmer 2013. In contrast to the Romantic notion of bounded communities professing a common identity based on shared culture, Barth suggested that the landscape of cultural difference is frequently divided arbitrarily, with ethnic boundaries often placed between culturally similar groups. He therefore advises placing emphasis on boundary marking and maintenance over the 'cultural stuff' contained within ethnic bounds. Within this 'boundary paradigm', "Researchers would no longer study 'the culture' of ethnic group A or B, but rather how the ethnic boundary between A and B was inscribed onto a landscape of continuous cultural transitions" (Wimmer 2013:22-23. ...

The Revolt of the “Ñatitas”: “Ritual Empowerment” and Cycle of the Dead in La Paz, Bolivia

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Fernández Juárez, Gerardo

2010-06-01

Full Text Available The periodic exhumation and moving of dead bodies is a ritual of long history in the Central Andes, as revealed by “programs to extirpate idolatry” in the 16th and 17th centuries as well as ethnography on current All-Saints Day celebrations. Despite the open hostility of the Catholic Church toward “unorthodox” customs regarding the dead, remarkable instances of them can still be observed and studied at present, such as the socalled “Feast of the Ñatitas” which is held on every Sunday following All-Saints Day in the premises and church of “the General Cemetery” of La Paz. The current process of “ritual empowerment” of native peoples and social movements in Bolivia makes it all too clear the full significance of this feast as well as its commanding presence in ritual time and space against the policy of Catholic Church authorities in the country.

La periódica exhumación y traslado de cadáveres constituye un comportamiento ritual de larga duración en los Andes Centrales, tal y como acreditan los “procesos de extirpación de idolatrías” de los siglos XVI y XVII, así como la etnografía contemporánea en relación con la festividad de Todos los Santos. A pesar de la actitud crítica y el celo de la Iglesia Católica contra este tipo de comportamientos ceremoniales “heterodoxos”, contamos con ejemplos especialmente elocuentes que continúan practicándose en la actualidad; es el caso de la llamada “Fiesta de las Ñatitas”, que corresponde al domingo siguiente a la del Primero de Noviembre y que se celebra en el camposanto y en el templo del Cementerio General de La Paz. El actual proceso de “empoderamiento ritual” de los pueblos originarios y los movimientos sociales en Bolivia hace resaltar el alcance significativo de esta fiesta y su éxito rotundo en tiempos de vivo conflicto con los responsables de la Iglesia Católica boliviana.

Fundar la casa: prácticas rituales y espacio doméstico en el oppidum ibérico de El Puig d’Alcoi (Alacant

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Grau Mira, Ignasi

2015-12-01

Full Text Available In this paper we present the ritual practices identified in the Iberian oppidum of El Puig d’Alcoi, in the central area of the ancient Contestania, in the northern part of the current province of Alicante. We present two separate deposits under the houses dated during the 5th and 4th centuries BC, in which were buried remains of banquets and animal sacrifices, with the burial of a newborn in one of them. We interpret them as foundation rituals of houses and are analysed in relation to domestic life developed in the course of the occupation of the oppidum, in particular with the processes of building-rebuilding the houses and the social relationships of the community that inhabited El Puig d’Alcoi.En este trabajo presentamos las prácticas rituales identificadas en el oppidum ibérico de El Puig d’Alcoi, en el área central de la Contestania, al norte de la actual provincia de Alicante. Se trata de dos depósitos en la base de viviendas del poblado de los ss. v y iv a.C., en los que se enterraron restos de banquetes y sacrificios de animales, con la inhumación de un perinatal en uno de ellos. Los interpretamos como rituales de fundación de viviendas y se analizan en relación con la vida doméstica desarrollada en el transcurso de la ocupación del poblado, en concreto con los procesos de construcción-reconstrucción de las casas y con las relaciones sociales de la comunidad que habitó El Puig d’Alcoi.

A CULTure of Entrepreneurship Education

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Farny, Steffen; Frederiksen, Signe Hedeboe; Hannibal, Martin

2016-01-01

High hopes are invested in a rapid institutionalisation of an enterprise culture in Higher Education. This has heightened the importance of entrepreneurship education (EE) in most Western societies; however, how values and beliefs about entrepreneurship are institutionalised in EE remains...... prevalent in EE. We argue for greater appreciation of reflexive practices to challenge normative promotions of beliefs and values that compare with forms of evangelising, detrimental to objectives of Higher Education. Consequently, we call for a more critical pedagogy to counteract a ‘cultification...... relatively unchallenged. This study applies the lens of the cult, in particular three elements Rituals, Deities and the Promise of Salvation, to reflect on the production and reproduction of entrepreneurship in EE. In doing so, the paper addresses uncontested values and beliefs that form a hidden curriculum...

Sarmatian Attributes in Archaeological Complexes of Catacombs Burials in Arys Culture of Southern Kazakhstan (1st Century B.C. - 3rd Century A.D.

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Podushkin Aleksandr Nikolaevich

2015-12-01

Full Text Available The publication is devoted to archaeological research of monuments of the catacomb of Arys culture of Southern Kazakhstan (1st Century B.C. - 3rd Century A.D.. Now scientists have a complete understanding of the range and typology, periodization and chronology of monuments of this culture. There are three stages: Karaultobe (4th century B.C. - 1st century A.D.; Karatobe (1st Century B.C. - 4th century A.D.; Altintobe (4th-6th centuries A.D.. These stages are characterized by specific clusters of signs in the form of artifacts. The author also carried out the ethnic attribution of the Arys culture in association with the ancient state Kangiuj. As a result of this work, the ethnicity of the state Kangiuj was revealed: in particular, late Saka’s, Sarmatian, Huns and Kangiuj ethnic components which are relevant to archaeological complexes, were identified. In the Arys monuments of culture the author discovered complexes of findings which associated with the Sarmatian world of Eurasia by their ethno-cultural parameters. They include typical for the Sarmatians list of ritual action and the funerary equipment, including weapons, bronze mirrors, ritual and religious objects, signs-tamgas, jewelry (including Egyptian faience, articles in “animal”, gold-turquoise and polychrome style. The characteristics of the burial complexes of catacombs of the Arys culture discussed in the publication and corresponding to chronological calculations and ethno-cultural interpretations, allow to speak about presence in the territory of South Kazakhstan of the Asian Sarmatians or any local branch of the Union of the Sarmatian tribes in the 1st century B.C. - 3rd century A.D.

Interpellation by the Force: Biopolitical Cultural Apparatuses in The Force Awakens

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Simon Orpana

2017-12-01

Full Text Available Following Nicholas Brown’s and Fredric Jameson’s ideas about pastiche and art under postmodern capitalism, this essay argues that Star Wars: The Force Awakens is not so much a film as a means of interpellating a new generation of fans into the Star Wars universe and its attendant merchandising empire. I introduce the idea of Biopolitical Cultural Apparatuses as an adaptation of Louis Althusser’s theory of ideology to the neoliberal context, where state apparatuses have been retooled and augmented by cultural apparatuses that manage desires and expectations at the level of bodies, ritual, and affect. In this context, the Death Star emerges as an image of the disavowed totality that global capitalism must repeatedly conjure and dispatch as it projects itself, expansively, into the future.

The Ritual "Play of the Congos" of North-Central Panama: Its Sociolinguistic Implications. Sociolinguistic Working Paper Number 85.

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Joly, Luz Graciela

An excerpt from the "Play of the Congos," given in Congo, Spanish, and English, exemplifies the sociolinguistic features of the combined play and ritual language used by the Afro-Hispanic population in the Caribbean region of the Costa Abajo in north-central Panama. The sociolinguistic norms are an important part of the "regulation…

Desire for experiential travel, avoidance of rituality and social esteem: An empirical study of consumer response to tourism innovation

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Wing Yin Chan

2016-01-01

Full Text Available This study investigates tourist consumption responses toward tourism innovation. To measure tourist responses, this study posits three key consumption drivers, namely social esteem, desire for experiential travel, and avoidance against rituality of tourism settings (a subscale of need for uniqueness and models consumers’ affective response within the context of tourism innovation. It involves 295 respondents in an empirical survey. The findings affirm the three drivers toward tourist consumption behavior. Avoidance of rituality reflects tourist preference toward tourism product and service innovation. Desire for experiential travel and the pursuit of social esteem signify tourism management and marketing innovation. Social esteem, need for status and creative choice have significant influence on tourists’ affective responses. Acquiring unique tourist products, desire for experiential travel and seeking social esteem are important motivations for tourist consumption. The implications of the study enrich the existing literature of consumer behavior and tourist consumption in response to tourism innovation.

Stable isotope and DNA evidence for ritual sequences in Inca child sacrifice

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Wilson, Andrew S.; Taylor, Timothy; Ceruti, Maria Constanza; Chavez, Jose Antonio; Reinhard, Johan; Grimes, Vaughan; Meier-Augenstein, Wolfram; Cartmell, Larry; Stern, Ben; Richards, Michael P.; Worobey, Michael; Barnes, Ian; Gilbert, M. Thomas P.

2007-01-01

Four recently discovered frozen child mummies from two of the highest peaks in the south central Andes now yield tantalizing evidence of the preparatory stages leading to Inca ritual killing as represented by the unique capacocha rite. Our interdisciplinary study examined hair from the mummies to obtain detailed genetic and diachronic isotopic information. This approach has allowed us to reconstruct aspects of individual identity and diet, make inferences concerning social background, and gain insight on the hitherto unknown processes by which victims were selected, elevated in social status, prepared for a high-altitude pilgrimage, and killed. Such direct information amplifies, yet also partly contrasts with, Spanish historical accounts. PMID:17923675

Adventus Praesulis: Social Consensus and Power Rituals in the Urban World of the Late Antiquity

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Pablo FUENTES HINOJO

2012-03-01

Full Text Available It is the purpose of this article to examine the emergence of the Christian rituals of power and his influence on the construction of the memory in the urban societies from the Ivth to VIIth centuries. The attention is focused concretely on the adventus praesulis , ceremony of arrival of the bishop to his seed, studing his origins, political and social function, and effects on the perception that the urban population had about his common past.

Cross-cultural perspectives on music and musicality.

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Trehub, Sandra E; Becker, Judith; Morley, Iain

2015-03-19

Musical behaviours are universal across human populations and, at the same time, highly diverse in their structures, roles and cultural interpretations. Although laboratory studies of isolated listeners and music-makers have yielded important insights into sensorimotor and cognitive skills and their neural underpinnings, they have revealed little about the broader significance of music for individuals, peer groups and communities. This review presents a sampling of musical forms and coordinated musical activity across cultures, with the aim of highlighting key similarities and differences. The focus is on scholarly and everyday ideas about music--what it is and where it originates--as well the antiquity of music and the contribution of musical behaviour to ritual activity, social organization, caregiving and group cohesion. Synchronous arousal, action synchrony and imitative behaviours are among the means by which music facilitates social bonding. The commonalities and differences in musical forms and functions across cultures suggest new directions for ethnomusicology, music cognition and neuroscience, and a pivot away from the predominant scientific focus on instrumental music in the Western European tradition. © 2015 The Author(s) Published by the Royal Society. All rights reserved.

La Danza del Diablo: Estéticas-rituales-comunitarias en la Mixteca Oaxaqueña

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David Terrazas Tello

2014-07-01

Full Text Available La imagen del diablo que trajeron los evangelizado- res, junto con la espada del conquistador, fue el resulta- do de un largo proceso socio-histórico-político-cultural. La espada y la cruz necesitaban herramientas de control ideológico a través del miedo, la culpa, la amenaza del infierno. Esta imagen fue utilizada por las órdenes mo- násticas para emprender la lucha contra la idolatría, cuya premisa fue la total extirpación del “paganismo”; usan- do como estrategia la satanización de los dioses del Me- soamericanos. El Mal tiene una de tantas encarnaciones dentro del contexto festivo actual en el calendario de la mixteca oaxaqueña, a través de la puesta en escena de la Danza de Diablos. Para el análisis de esta danza se pro- pone la categoría transdisciplinaria de estéticas-ritua- les-comunitarias, la cual muestra como se reproduce lo simbólico en la memoria ancestral de la cultura, y como la figura del mal está presente en las cosmovisiones mix- tecas contemporáneas. AbstractThe image of the devil that brought the evangelizers, along with the sword of the conqueror, was the result of a long process socio-historical-political-cultural. The sword and the cross needed tools of ideological control through fear, the guilt, the threat of hell. This image was used by the monastic orders to take up the fight against the idolatry, whose premise was the complete removal of the “paganism”; using as strategy the demonization of the gods of the Mesoamericans. The evil is one of many incar- nations within the current context in the festive calendar of the Mixteca oaxacan, through the implementation of the dance scene of Devils. For the analysis of this dance it is proposed that the transdisciplinary category of aes- thetic-ritual-community, which shows how symbolic it is reproduced in the ancestral memory of the culture, and as the figure of the evil is present in the Mixtec contem- porary worldviews. 

La danza e la lotta: performances culturali e buone pratiche di cooperazione tra Europa e Africa - Dance and fighting: cultural performances and best practices of cooperation between Europe and Africa

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Antonio Aresta

2015-06-01

Full Text Available The article examines the relationship between cultural performances (ritual fighting and its theatrical representation, social dynamics and international cooperation. It is the fruit of research work that was carried out last year in Senegal and Italy. The analysis that was realised concerns three subject fields: the connections between myth and ritual fighting in Senegal, from the emic perspective; the transformations of the ritual that have taken place over the last decades and the different ways in which it is practiced in urban and rural contexts, and its relations with political power and the media; the theatrical representation of the rite in the work of the “Takku Ligey Théâtre” company, in the ambit of the N.A.T. programme of international cooperation (Network for African Talents. The N.A.T. programme took place from 2012 to 2014 with the aim of supporting cooperation between Europe and Africa, through the performing arts (music, theatre and dance, and involved associations and institutions from four countries (Italy, Senegal, Mozambique and Cameroon.

Philosophical and cultural perspectives on acoustics in Vedic Hinduism

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Prasad, M. G.

2004-05-01

Acoustics plays a very important multi-faceted role in Vedic Hinduism. Vedas, that is an infinitely large collection of chants (mantras) in ancient Sanskrit language, form the foundational literature of Vedic Hinduism. The Vedic chants have specific acoustical qualities and intonations. The Vedic literature describes the various aspects of acoustics, namely, philosophical, spiritual, and cultural. The use of sounds from conch-shell, bells, cymbal in addition to the Vedic chants in rituals shows the spiritual aspects. Vedic literature discusses the role of sound in the philosophical understanding of our world. Music, both vocal and instrumental, plays an important role in the cultural aspects of Vedic Hinduism. It can be seen that certain musical instruments such as ``mridangam,'' a percussion drum, reflect scientific principles underlying in their design. This paper presents an overview of the various important and interesting roles of acoustics in Vedic Hinduism.

Dismantling reified African culture through localised homosexualities in Uganda.

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Nyanzi, Stella

2013-01-01

Uganda's Anti-Homosexuality Bill of 2009 aimed at protecting the cherished culture of the people against emergent threats to the traditional heterosexual family. The Bill's justification, however, lay in myopic imaginings of a homogenous African-ness and pedestrian oblivion to pluralities within African sexualities. This paper revisits the debate that homosexuality is 'un-African'. Rhetoric analysis of the Anti-Homosexuality Bill exposes how dominant discourses of law, medicine, religion, geography and culture reinforce the view that homosexuality is foreign to Africa. Based on ethnography in contemporary Uganda, I explore how self-identified same-sex-loving individuals simultaneously claim their African-ness and their homosexuality. Their strategies include ethnic belonging, membership to kinship structures, making connections with pre-colonial histories of homosexuality, civic participation in democratic processes, national identity, organising of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and questioning support groups, language and nomenclature, visibility and voice in local communal activities, solidarity and adherence to cultural rituals. In present-day Uganda, same-sex-loving men, women and transgender people variously assert their African-ness.

Non-drinking and drinking cultures through similarities and differences of attitudes, rituals and patterns

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Dragišić-Labaš Slađana

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Research of alcohol use from sociological and cultural aspects are significant and always actual social subject. Economical, national and global burden conditioned by the consumption is exceptionally high. Particularly interesting has been considering the link between consumption and social changes and influences of religion. The aim of this paper is to present some societies different by nationality, religion and region where the level of consumption is either at its highest or lowest in the World. Also, the aim of this work was to show the link between consumption and religion, than between consumption and social attitudes to drinking and influences of social factors and changes. The World Health Organization and other scientific data sources were used - studies on use of alcohol from Russia, Check Republic, Serbia and several countries with Islam and Jewish religion. The differences in consumption levels have been changing and previous religious influences have been replaced by the cultural and social. Still, regardless of the changes, the use of alcohol has kept its important role in transmitting the class, ethnic, national, gender and local identities.

Dirty and 40 days in the wilderness: Eliciting childbirth and postnatal cultural practices and beliefs in Nepal.

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Sharma, Sheetal; van Teijlingen, Edwin; Hundley, Vanora; Angell, Catherine; Simkhada, Padam

2016-07-05

Pregnancy and childbirth are socio-cultural events that carry varying meanings across different societies and cultures. These are often translated into social expectations of what a particular society expects women to do (or not to do) during pregnancy, birth and/or the postnatal period. This paper reports a study exploring beliefs around childbirth in Nepal, a low-income country with a largely Hindu population. The paper then sets these findings in the context of the wider global literature around issues such as periods where women are viewed as polluted (or dirty even) after childbirth. A qualitative study comprising five in-depth face-to-face interviews and 14 focus group discussions with mainly women, but also men and health service providers. The qualitative findings in Nepal were compared and contrasted with the literature on practices and cultural beliefs related to the pregnancy and childbirth period across the globe and at different times in history. The themes that emerged from the analysis included: (a) cord cutting & placenta rituals; (b) rest & seclusion; (c) purification, naming & weaning ceremonies and (d) nutrition and breastfeeding. Physiological changes in mother and baby may underpin the various beliefs, ritual and practices in the postnatal period. These practices often mean women do not access postnatal health services. The cultural practices, taboos and beliefs during pregnancy and around childbirth found in Nepal largely resonate with those reported across the globe. This paper stresses that local people's beliefs and practices offer both opportunities and barriers to health service providers. Maternity care providers need to be aware of local values, beliefs and traditions to anticipate and meet the needs of women, gain their trust and work with them.

Ruang Budaya “Barikan” Di Desa Sumber Polaman Lawang Jawa Timur

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Fifi Damayanti

2017-08-01

Full Text Available Lawang city has many interesting sights, one of which is the source Polaman Baths, located in Sumber Polaman. In the Village of Polaman there are some cultural activities that make up the cultural space. Local communities do village ritual ceremonies to honor ancestors founders of the village as well as a petition to God for the prosperity of rural communities Polaman. The cultural activities are known as cultural ritual barikan. Time and Barikan ritual space in the traditional settlement pattern forming Polaman rural communities. The research method in this study is descriptive-qualitative method with an etnographic approach. This study aims to identify patterns formed by the settlement of the cultural activities that make up the cultural space. By knowing the settlement pattern is formed it will be determined the shape of preservation suitable for spaces used settlements and cultural preservation barikan itself. Keywords: cultural space, barikan traditional ceremonies, village Source Polaman

Theory and method at the intersection of anthropology and cultural neuroscience

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Brown, Ryan A.

2010-01-01

Anthropologists have become increasingly interested in embodiment—that is, the ways that socio-cultural factors influence the form, behavior and subjective experience of human bodies. At the same time, social cognitive neuroscience has begun to reveal the mechanisms of embodiment by investigating the neural underpinnings and consequences of social experience. Despite this overlap, the two fields have barely engaged one another. We suggest three interconnected domains of inquiry in which the intersection of neuroscience and anthropology can productively inform our understanding of the relationship between human brains and their socio-cultural contexts. These are: the social construction of emotion, cultural psychiatry, and the embodiment of ritual. We build on both current research findings in cultural neuroscience and ethnographic data on cultural differences in thought and behavior, to generate novel, ecologically informed hypotheses for future study. In addition, we lay out a specific suggestion for operationalizing insights from anthropology in the context of cultural neuroscience research. Specifically, we advocate the development of field studies that use portable measurement technologies to connect individual patterns of biological response with socio-cultural processes. We illustrate the potential of such an approach with data from a study of psychophysiology and religious devotion in Northeastern Brazil. PMID:19965815

Functional, symbolic or ritual? On several tools from the furnishing of aristocratic burials in eponymous Vendel, Sweden

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Ježek, Martin

2016-01-01

Roč. 8, č. 3 (2016), s. 491-504 ISSN 1866-9557 Grant - others:Rada Programu interní podpory projektů mezinárodní spolupráce AV ČR(CZ) M300021203 Institutional support: RVO:67985912 Keywords : Early middle ages * boat burial * elite * precious metal * touchstone * zinc * forging tools * ritual metallurgy Subject RIV: AC - Archeology, Anthropology, Ethnology Impact factor: 1.844, year: 2016

Entre ritual y espectáculo, reflexividad corporizada en el candombe

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Manuela Rodríguez

2009-07-01

Full Text Available Este trabajo analiza la danza del candombe montevideano con el objetivo de reconstruir un tipo de reflexividad que opera en el contexto de una perfomance festiva, caracterizada por situarse en un espacio-tiempo intermedio entre ritual y espectáculo y en donde lo corporal juega un rol principal. Con el término reflexividad corporizada se intenta caracterizar un tipo de reflexión transformadora de las subjetividades que no se da únicamente en la conciencia, sino en un sujeto "total". A partir de un cruce entre la fenomenología y un análisis más estructural de las representaciones instituidas sobre las mujeres negras uruguayas, buscamos comprender la rearticulación significante en las prácticas y discursos, principalmente en la reformulación que la performance posibilita. Como acontecimiento liminar, que permite una apertura senso-perceptiva, la danza del candombe produce transformaciones subjetivas en los participantes, fundamentalmente porque estas experiencias involucran la participación corporal y un peculiar tipo de reflexividad que es corporizada.This paper analyses the Candombe dance from Montevideo to reconstruct a kind of reflexivity present in a festivity performance which is, in terms of space and time, halfway between the ritual and the spectacle, and where the corporal aspect plays a fundamental role. The term embodied reflexivity is used to characterize a kind of transforming reflexivity in subjectivities, which takes place no only in conscience but in a "total" subject. From an approach that intertwines a phenomenological with a structural analysis of established representations in black Uruguayan women, we aim to understand the re-articulation or the signifiers in practices and discourses, mainly in the re-formulation the performance makes possible. As a liminal event that allows a sensory-perceptive opening, the Candombe dance produces subjective transformations in dancers, primarily because this experience involves body

SHARIA AS LOCAL THEOLOGY: REFLECTION ON ACEHNESE CULTURE AND IDENTITY

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Saifuddin Dhuhri

2016-05-01

Full Text Available This article elucidates local theology, which encapsulates in the work of shari’a in Acehnese contexts. The argument of this article is grounded in the Acehnese historical epochs in which Acehnese cultural identity were formulated. I argue that Acehnese shari’a is the set of local rituals, beliefs and ideas as the production of local interpretation of Islam, which responds to local cultural identity. That version of Islam works as local theology, which embodies sacred and divine values and is perceived as local identity and ideology. Building on Tibi’s, Salim’s and Nuim’s argument on shari’a and Hall’s perspective on identity and ideology, I examine the work of shari’a in Acehnese historical times, and its relation to Acehnese culture and ideology. There are four indications that shari’a holds central role in formulating the Acehnese theology, where local cultural identity and ideology are seen as part of Islamic religiosity, namely the process of Islamization of Southeast Asia, the function of local Islamic traditional boarding education (dayah, the distribution of local power, and the work of local arts.

“A horror so deep only ritual can contain it”: The art of dying in the theatre of Sarah Kane

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Sara Soncini

2010-10-01

Full Text Available Death is an overarching presence in Sarah Kane's dramatic universe, peopled by characters charging towards death, and usually encountering it in scenes of Grand Guignol excess and grotesque violence. Death is ambivalently presented as the only escape from the nightmare of living and, at the same time, as that which makes living a nightmare; as the moment of "complete sanity and humanity" in which "everything suddenly connects", and as the ultimate, irrevocable and unredeemable act of self-annihilation. Following Kane's turn towards a more poetic form of drama, in her last two plays this discourse of death is handed over to the words nameless characters or unidentified voices who are likewise engaged in a long, painful quest for selfhood pivoting on the awareness of mortality and the simultaneous dread of and longing for death it engenders. This essay focuses on the ritual quality of the death scenes and/or narratives that crowd Kane's drama. Throughout her work, dying is never an easy, straightforward business, but rather a long, complicated, and at times frustrating mise en scène which also entails rehearsing a repertory of traditional rituals and, once their shortcomings become apparent, devising and testing new ones. The amount of theatricality involved in the art of dying is foregrounded through a web of intertextual references to other literary and/or dramatic sources; this dialogue ties in with a self-reflexive probing of the theatre's ability to provide a ritual that will be capable of "contain[ing] the horror" by supplying a formal framework to express, embody and experience death collectively.

Predicting civil religion at a cross-cultural level

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Lavrič Miran

2009-01-01

Full Text Available The concept of civil religion has caught major attention among scholars studying the junction of religion and politics (J.-J. Rousseau, E. Durkheim, R. Bellah. The notion focuses on the phenomenon of cultural contents sacralizing and ritualizing the ruling political institutions of a society, extending support to the integration of the political and social system at a cultural level. The notion of civil religion has recently been operationalized crossculturally, but light has not been shed upon its predictors. In this paper authoritarianism is tested as a predictor of civil religion cross-culturally. Four student samples of Bosnian, Serbian, Slovenian and US students were analyzed. Very strong, significant associations between authoritarianism, as operationalized by a modified Lane scale, and civil religion were found in all cases. Moreover, upon introducing femininity, anxiety and gender into the analysis, a strong, dominant and significant impact on the part of authoritarianism was still found when civil religion was observed crossculturally. When the same predictors were applied to explaining general religiosity, authoritarianism fell short of being a significant predictor in most of the environments observed. Such results suggest an especially close link between civil religion and authoritarianism.

A sacred dance transmitted in the ritual for paying homage to one's teacher in Thailand

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岩澤, 孝子

2001-01-01

This article attemps to describe a dance which is considered as a sacred knowledge among classical dancers in Thailand. This is the reflection of their unique idea, wai khru, which means showing respect to the teacher and the ritual based on this idea. In Thailand wai khru is generally practised wherever they have a person to be recognized as a teacher in their own comunities. In these days, however, under the influence of the modernization, the idea that the teacher has a special power and k...

The influence of Christian conversion in Mapuche traditional medicine in Temuco, Chile: toward a cultural syncretism or a form of ideological assimilation?

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Torri, Maria Costanza

2013-12-01

The Mapuche communities living in the urban areas of Chile have undergone radical cultural changes due to Christian conversion. This article analyzes the influence of these changes on the Mapuche ideas and practices of the traditional healers (machi) and patients in Temuco (IX Region), Chile, and the changes and adaptations in the perceptions of healing practices and rituals by the patients. The paper shows how, despite some evident challenges, the encounter with the religion of Christianity can create a process of cultural and spiritual syncretism and push traditional medicine toward an increased specialization in the therapeutic practices.

Levels and Patterns in the Analysis of the Organizational Culture

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Mariana Aida Cimpeanu

2011-05-01

Full Text Available Knowledge and analysis of the component elements of the organizational culture helps us greatly understand the respective culture, establish the main guidelines of the company values and understand the behaviours and attitudes of the employees. M. Thevenet indentifies two levels at which the culture manifests itself: the external level – the outside culture (which refers to local, regional or national culture, and the inner level –the internal culture (including organizational culture, professional culture, the culture of a group. Starting from this assumption, one can identify the main components of the organizational culture: founders, the organization’s history, values, beliefs and symbols, the way of thinking, the standards of behaviour etc. Some of these are visible, forming a cultural foundation surface, while others create a less visible foundation of culture – the hidden level. Kotter and Heskett agree that these two levels of analysis are very connected and influence each other. Considering their importance, other authors identify three, four or more levels of culture (Denison, Hofstede, Shein, bringing forth first the values then the rituals, heroes and symbols. Different models of culture analysis help us explain the elements of culture and understand its importance by providing for the researchers a starting point in explaining specific aspects related to the organizational culture and the organizational behaviour. By understanding the organizational culture, the members of an organization are able to shape their behaviour, can recognize their rights and obligations inside the company and the style of internal communication. They can determine the style of clothing and the dominant attitude inside the company, the way in which the management defines and implements its decisions and the staff policy.

Culturally sanctioned suicide: Euthanasia, seppuku, and terrorist martyrdom

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Pierre, Joseph M

2015-01-01

Suicide is one of the greatest concerns in psychiatric practice, with considerable efforts devoted to prevention. The psychiatric view of suicide tends to equate it with depression or other forms of mental illness. However, some forms of suicide occur independently of mental illness and within a framework of cultural sanctioning such that they aren’t regarded as suicide at all. Despite persistent taboos against suicide, euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide in the context of terminal illness is increasingly accepted as a way to preserve autonomy and dignity in the West. Seppuku, the ancient samurai ritual of suicide by self-stabbing, was long considered an honorable act of self-resolve such that despite the removal of cultural sanctioning, the rate of suicide in Japan remains high with suicide masquerading as seppuku still carried out both there and abroad. Suicide as an act of murder and terrorism is a practice currently popular with Islamic militants who regard it as martyrdom in the context of war. The absence of mental illness and the presence of cultural sanctioning do not mean that suicide should not be prevented. Culturally sanctioned suicide must be understood in terms of the specific motivations that underlie the choice of death over life. Efforts to prevent culturally sanctioned suicide must focus on alternatives to achieve similar ends and must ultimately be implemented within cultures to remove the sanctioning of self-destructive acts. PMID:25815251

Altered states of consciousness and short-term psychological after-effects induced by the first time ritual use of ayahuasca in an urban context in Brazil.

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Barbosa, Paulo Cesar Ribeiro; Giglio, Joel Sales; Dalgalarrondo, Paulo

2005-06-01

This report describes psychological assessments of the first time ritual use of ayahuasca in the religious groups União do Vegetal and Santo Daime. Nineteen subjects who tried the beverage in Santo Daime rituals and nine subjects who tried it in União do Vegetal rituals were evaluated one to four days before their first ayahuasca experience in life and one to two weeks after this experience. Semistructured interviews and a structured psychiatric scale were used in the first evaluation to elicit set variables concerning attitudes towards the ayahuasca experience and to elicit mental health status. Mental health status was reassessed in the second evaluation, which also included a semistructured interview concerning the phenomenology of altered states of consciousness (ASCs). Predominantly positive expectancies concerning the ayahuasca experience were the most prominent findings concerning set variables. Visual phenomena, numinousness, peacefulness, insights and a distressing reaction were the most salient ASC experiences. A significant reduction of the intensity of minor psychiatric symptoms occurred in the Santo Daime group after the hallucinogen experience. Subjects in both groups reported behavioral changes towards assertiveness, serenity and vivacity/joy. The set and setting hypothesis, suggestibility processes, as well as the supposed unique effects of ayahuasca are used in discussing these findings.

Bailar bembé: una perspectiva antropológica procesual (Contramaestre, Santiago de Cuba

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Galván Tudela, José Alberto

2008-08-01

Full Text Available Literature on Afro-Cuban religions has shown a preferential interest in historic relations and spreading, in syncretism or in the metaphysics of rituals, often studied fragmentarily. This text, from southwest Cuban Bembe, insists on the need for a dynamic analysis of ritual processes, from a performative approach. The author shows through symbolic practices, perceptions and cultural meanings conferred by the ritual actors/actresses, how different religious systems are remade by the latter by means of a highly creative cultural bricolage activity within an increasing globalization framework.

La literatura sobre las religiones afrocubanas ha mostrado un interés preferencial por las conexiones y la difusión históricas, por el sincretismo, o por la metafísica de los rituales, a menudo estudiados de un modo fragmentado. El presente texto, a partir del Bembé del sureste cubano, insiste en la necesidad del análisis dinámico de los procesos rituales, desde una aproximación performativa. El autor muestra a través de las prácticas simbólicas, de las percepciones y de los significados culturales que les otorgan los/as actores/rices rituales, cómo éstos reelaboran sistemas religiosos dispares mediante una actividad de bricolaje cultural fuertemente creativa en un contexto de creciente globalización.

Past-life identities, UFO abductions, and satanic ritual abuse: the social construction of memories.

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Spanos, N P; Burgess, C A; Burgess, M F

1994-10-01

People sometimes fantasize entire complex scenarios and later define these experiences as memories of actual events rather than as imaginings. This article examines research associated with three such phenomena: past-life experiences, UFO alien contact and abduction, and memory reports of childhood ritual satanic abuse. In each case, elicitation of the fantasy events is frequently associated with hypnotic procedures and structured interviews which provide strong and repeated demands for the requisite experiences, and which then legitimate the experiences as "real memories." Research associated with these phenomena supports the hypothesis that recall is reconstructive and organized in terms of current expectations and beliefs.

Acoustics of native-American ceremonial sites in prehispanic America (Acustica en los espacios escenios rituales prehispanicos)

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Martinez, Maria Isabel

2003-11-01

This thesis establishes a methodology that incorporates the latest procedures used in architectural acoustics for the study of open spaces of this general type, and definitions are given for the acoustic variables of interest. The ``Juego de Pelota'' (ball game) sites are the only ceremonial sites built specifically for the performance of a fertility ritual, and are ideal for the study of prehispanic architectural topographies. Analysis of the acoustic properties of such sites revealed that the topographical characteristics of the elevation profiles of these architectural structures determine the acoustic behavior of these spaces. Such profiles are classified into three basic types: (i) inclined profile, (ii) terraced profile, and (iii) mixed profile. The terraced profiles are the most efficient, and the mixed profiles are the least efficient, in regard to acoustics. The consideration of the acoustic behavior of architectural structures intended for the ``Ball Game,'' as the designs evolved over time, leads to the conclusion that acoustical sensations that contributed effectively to the characteristic mystical atmosphere of the ceremonial rituals were characteristic only of those sites constructed in the ``classical'' period. Thesis advisors: Jaime Navarro and Juan J. Sendra Copies of this thesis written in Spanish may be obtained by contacting the advisor, Jaime Navarro, E.T.S. de Arquitectura de Sevilla, Dpto. de Construcciones Arquitectonicas I, Av. Reina Mercedes, 2, 41012 Sevilla, Spain. E-mail address: jnavarro@us.es

La metamorfosis ritual: la identidad religiosa en la Amazonia

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Jean-Pierre Goulard

2012-01-01

Full Text Available Las sociedades indígenas han conocido muchos cambios a lo largo de su historia, especialmente desde el siglo xix . Sus relaciones con el exterior, sobre todo con el mundo de los “blancos”, los han llevado a adoptar estrategias propias con las cuales han logrado sobrevivir. En este documento se analizan algunos aspectos religiosos inducidos por los movimientos proféticos que prevalecen entre los tikuna grupo étnico amazónico, y que han determinado las opciones escogidas por este pueblo. A través de tal eje, el autor muestra cómo, a pesar de lo vivido por el grupo étnico, ha sido posible mantener un sistema de creencias que sigue en diálogo con la vida de su sociedad. Entonces, se propone la hipótesis de que se puede entender que este sistema perdura y se fundamenta en invariantes socioculturales que se entienden a través del filtro de la metamorfosis ritual, que les permite a los tikuna conservar y reivindicar su identidad étnica.

Cultural Anthropology Study on Historical Narrative and Jade Mythological Concepts in Records of the Great Historian: Annals of the First Emperor of Qin

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JUAN WU

2016-10-01

Full Text Available This paper takes Records of the Great Historian: Annals of the First Emperor of Qin, an essential historical narrative at the dawning of Chinese civilization, as a case to illustrate the causality of historical incidents and the underlying mythological concepts, reveal the underlying mythological concepts that dominate the ritual behaviors and narrative expressions, and highlight the prototype function of mythological concepts in the man’s behavior and ideology construction. Once the prototype of certain cultural community is revealed, the evolvement track of its historical cultural texts and the operative relations between coding and re-coding will be better understood.

Building Harmony through Religious Reception in Culture: Lesson Learned from Radin Jambat Folktale of Lampung

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Agus Iswanto

2018-12-01

Full Text Available Understanding of the existence of various religious receptions in culture gives a great opportunity for the building and nurturance of harmony among religious followers and for the creating of solidarities in the society. This article uncovers receptions of religious aspects (ultimate truth aspect/god, cosmological aspect and religious ritual aspect in the cultural products of Radin Lambat, a folktale from Lampung. The article is based on the texts of Radin Lambat folktale, interviews, and other literary sources about Lampung cultures. Religious receptions as shown in Radin Lambat folktale indicate the preservation of past beliefs, coupled with the gentle addition and inclusion of Islamic teachings, to create harmonization between religion and tradition through folktale. This shows that Islam in the societies of Lampung is Islam that values cultures through the processes of gradual and varied receptions. This article is expected to add evidence to related sources about the concepts and practices of harmony among religious followers in Indonesia in local tradition, and the addition to the range of the rare religious-cultural reception studies of Lampung society

Muertos heroicos y muertos anónimos: rituales de duelo y viudez en la violencia

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PATRICIA TOVAR

2004-01-01

Este artículo describe los rituales de muerte cuando esta llega a destiempo y con brutalidad, y examina bajo qué circunstancias se tiende a idealizar a los que han fallecido. Se describe el duelo y el luto desde la perspectiva de las mujeres que han perdido a sus compañeros en hechos de violencia, en el contexto del conflicto armado. Por otra parte, se muestra la desigualdad de realidades que existen entre las viudas según la ocupación de sus maridos y el tratami...

Personalidad, psicopatología y rendimiento neuropsicológico de los consumidores rituales de ayahuasca

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Bouso Saiz, José Carlos

2012-01-01

Descripció del recurs: 16 de gener de 2014 La ayahuasca es una decocción psicoactiva de origen amazónico elaborada con plantas que contienen el agonista de los receptores serotoninérgicos 5-HT2A N,N-dimetiltriptamina (DMT) y alcaloides inhibidores de la monoaminoxidasa (harmina, harmalina y tetrahidroharmina) que permiten que aquel sea activo por vía oral. La ingesta de ayahuasca es el elemento central de varias iglesias sincréticas brasileñas que han expandido sus prácticas rituales a zon...

History of my Father Mogorotoɨ ‘Blue Macaw’: Words of the Ritual of the Fruits, which Come to Us as Food in Abundance, as Told by the Okaina Ethnic Group

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Anastasia Candre

2011-01-01

Full Text Available Bilingual Witoto-Spanish text about the origin and stages of the yuakɨ ritual dance (ritual of the fruits, which is celebrated by the Witoto and other neighboring groups of the Caqueta-Putumayo interriverine region in the Colombo-Peruvian Amazon. This text was written by an indigenous woman in the buue dialect of the Witoto language from the memories of the speeches of her father in the “yard of tobacco and coca” when she was a child.

Obsessive Compulsive Personality Disorder as a Predictor of Exposure and Ritual Prevention Outcome for Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

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Pinto, Anthony; Liebowitz, Michael R.; Foa, Edna B.; Simpson, H. Blair

2011-01-01

Despite elevated rates of obsessive compulsive personality disorder (OCPD) in patients with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), no study has specifically examined comorbid OCPD as a predictor of exposure and ritual prevention (EX/RP) outcome. Participants were adult outpatients (n = 49) with primary OCD and a Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale (YBOCS) total score ≥ 16 despite a therapeutic serotonin reuptake inhibitor dose for at least 12 weeks prior to entry. Participants received 17 ses...

Tourismological valorization of intangible cultural heritage of Serbia according to the Hilary du Cros method

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Željko Bjeljac

2016-02-01

Full Text Available The folk artistry of Serbia is rich in spiritual values tied to customs, celebrations, music, song, dance, games, stories and legends, and this kind of cultural heritage is presented through numerous festivals, events and tourist manifestations. In 2012, the network for the safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage was formed, comprised of the National committee for intangible cultural heritage, the Commission for admission into the registry of intangible cultural heritage, a network of coordinators and the Center for intangible cultural heritage of Serbia. These institutions have chosen 6 elements of intangible cultural heritage, out of 27 suggestions: the slava, the Đurđevdan ritual, the kolo dance, singing accompanied by gusle, Slovakian naive painting, the custom of making and lighting farmers’ candles, Pirot carpet weaving, and Zlakusa pottery as elements of cultural heritage which reflect the national and cultural identity of the Serbian people, and Slavic minorities. These elements of intangible cultural heritage have a certain tourism potential and can represent an important factor in the forming of the tourist brand of Serbia. In order to determine the importance of the 27 suggestions of intangible cultural elements of Serbia, an analysis was conducted, using an adapted form of the Hilary du Cros method of tourist valorization.

Imagining the absent dead: rituals of bereavement and the place of the war dead in German women's art during the First World War.

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Siebrecht, Claudia

2011-01-01

Drawing on women's visual responses to the First World War, this article examines female mourning in wartime Germany. The unprecedented death toll on the battlefronts, military burial practices and the physical distance from the remains of the war dead disrupted traditional rituals of bereavement, hindered closure and compounded women's grief on the home front. In response to these novel circumstances, a number of female artists used their images to reimagine funerary customs, overcome the separation from the fallen and express acute emotional distress. This article analyses three images produced during the conflict by the artists Katharina Heise, Martha Schrag and Sella Hasse, and places their work within the civilian experience of bereavement in war. By depicting the pain of loss, female artists contested the historical tradition of proud female mourning in German society and countered wartime codes of conduct that prohibited the public display of emotional pain in response to soldiers’ deaths. As a largely overlooked body of sources, women's art adds to our understanding of the tensions in wartime cultures of mourning that emerged between 1914 and 1918.

Meat products and consumption culture in the East.

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Nam, Ki-Chang; Jo, Cheorun; Lee, Mooha

2010-09-01

Food consumption is a basic activity necessary for survival of the human race and evolved as an integral part of mankind's existence. This not only includes food consumption habits and styles but also food preparation methods, tool development for raw materials, harvesting and preservation as well as preparation of food dishes which are influenced by geographical localization, climatic conditions and abundance of the fauna and flora. Food preparation, trade and consumption have become leading factors shaping human behavior and developing a way of doing things that created tradition which has been passed from generation to generation making it unique for almost every human niche in the surface of the globe. Therefore, the success in understanding the culture of other countries or ethnic groups lies in understanding their rituals in food consumption customs. Meat consumption culture in the East has not been well developed by its characteristic environment, religion, history, and main food staples. However, recently, the amount of meat production and consumption of the Eastern countries has grown rapidly by the globalization of food industry and rapid economic growth of the countries. This manuscript introduces meat-based products and consumption culture in Asian countries. However, because the environments and cultures within Asia are too diverse to cover all food cultures, this manuscript focused mainly on three northeast Asian countries including China, Japan, and Korea (Republic of) and some southeast Asian countries including Vietnam and Thailand, which have similar environments and cultural interactions historically but retain their own characteristic food culture.