Search Results

San La Muerte

Frank Graziano

in Cultures of Devotion: Folk Saints of Spanish America

This chapter explores the devotion to San La Muerte (St. Death) in northeastern Argentina. It explains the evolution of San La Muerte from a Guaraní-Christian amulet to a folk saint, and examines ... More

This chapter explores the devotion to San La Muerte (St. Death) in northeastern Argentina. It explains the evolution of San La Muerte from a Guaraní-Christian amulet to a folk saint, and examines contemporary devotion in Corrientes and Chaco provinces.Less

Contemporary Documents in Hebrew and Jewish Aramaic

Eyal Ben-Eliyahu, Yehudah Cohn, and Fergus Millar

in Handbook of Jewish Literature from Late Antiquity, 135–700 CE

This chapter describes contemporary documentary texts, written on stone, mosaic or papyrus, or on amulets or magic bowls. It does not aim to provide a full bibliography of these documents, but simply ... More

This chapter describes contemporary documentary texts, written on stone, mosaic or papyrus, or on amulets or magic bowls. It does not aim to provide a full bibliography of these documents, but simply to offer a guide to those publications that gives the reader the easiest access to the original text, a photograph of it and, where available, a translation.Less

Literary Offerings

Jill Rappoport

in Giving Women: Alliance and Exchange in Victorian Culture

Literary annuals from the 1820s and ’30s not only shaped the way women imagined giving by modeling scenes and styles of exchange but, by cultivating a larger ethos of generosity for this publishing ... More

Literary annuals from the 1820s and ’30s not only shaped the way women imagined giving by modeling scenes and styles of exchange but, by cultivating a larger ethos of generosity for this publishing enterprise, also positioned readers as gift recipients, placing them under the burdens and benefits of gift exchange. As gifts, annuals created a reading community and urged that community to engage in reciprocal efforts—either by passing along the gift of the annual itself or by engaging in the other kinds of exchange (charitable, abolitionist) it promoted. However, their focus on reciprocity limits the communities they endorse; the narratives direct readers’ sympathies away from less-fortunate recipients and back toward peer relationships with donors. Annuals are thus a key site for exploring how women’s literature helped to construct, not just represent, the giving subjects and networks that this book explores.Less

The Roman Child in Sickness and in Health

Keith Bradley

in The Roman Family in the Empire: Rome, Italy, and Beyond

This chapter investigates the harder side of family life in ancient Rome in a survey of diseases and treatments of illnesses by focusing on the extent to which disease was regarded as a special ... More

This chapter investigates the harder side of family life in ancient Rome in a survey of diseases and treatments of illnesses by focusing on the extent to which disease was regarded as a special characteristic of childhood in the Roman world, and, if it was, how parents responded to it. It also looks at the illnesses that were associated with childhood. By modern western standards, Roman children suffered from appalling levels of sickness that were generally incurable, even conditions that seemed trivial. When survival was all that mattered, every expedient had its place. When children survived, an element of the miraculous was involved, and perhaps an answer to prayer. In the process of recovering Roman family experience, a prime place might indeed be properly allowed for parents regularly praying to their household gods for their children's safe entry into the adult world. Two types of charm especially employed as medical remedies for children were the phallic amulet and the bulla.Less

Paper Charms, and Prayer Sheets as Adjuncts to Chinese Worship: (1953)*

Marjorie Topley

Jean DeBernardi (ed.)

in Cantonese Society in Hong Kong and Singapore: Gender, Religion, Medicine and Money

There are few Chinese rites for which some kind of paper charm or prayer sheet is not necessary. Some of these papers are specific to a particular rite but many may be used in a general way to cover ... More

There are few Chinese rites for which some kind of paper charm or prayer sheet is not necessary. Some of these papers are specific to a particular rite but many may be used in a general way to cover most of the misfortunes which man may encounter wherever he lives. Some charms can be used for several or all of these purposes, but an individual may prefer, or by trial and error come to regard as more potent, a particular one of the many varieties available. Charms generally carry religious texts, sometimes in Sanskrit or Pali translated phonetically into Chinese characters, and some have a drawing of the god or saint appealed to. Mystic symbols are used to donate constellations, and archaic writing adds power to a charm. Paper charms are of various kinds, usually with the functions they claim to perform printed on them in bold letters. One of the commonest kinds is the fu2 amulet.Less

Second Lecture: What is a New Testament Manuscript?

David C. Parker

in Textual Scholarship and the Making of the New Testament

This chapter asks the question ‘What is a New Testament manuscript”. It discusses papyrus copies, including amulets, ones with sentences for fortune-telling. Parchment majuscule manuscripts are ... More

This chapter asks the question ‘What is a New Testament manuscript”. It discusses papyrus copies, including amulets, ones with sentences for fortune-telling. Parchment majuscule manuscripts are discussed, and three other classifications, amulets, ostraca, and lapidary inscriptions. Next discussed are minuscules, in particular commentary (catena) manuscripts, their format, contents, the inconsistency with which they have been listed as copies of New Testament works, and their textual significance. Discussion then moves on to liturgical and lectionary manuscripts, paratext, and non-textual elements. It is concluded that, while traditional catalogues required that a manuscript be simply either included or excluded from a list of New Testament manuscripts, the use of databases with multiple fields abolishes the need to make the distinction. It is argued that there is no such thing as a New Testament manuscript, and that the concept of a canon functions only at the level of the collection of works.Less

“What Children Need”: Making Childhood with Technologies of Protection and Healing

Frances Garrett

in Little Buddhas: Children and Childhoods in Buddhist Texts and Traditions

This chapter explores the care of children in Tibetan culture as seen in several works on the medical and ritual treatment and defence of children. These texts describe a remarkably broad range of ... More

This chapter explores the care of children in Tibetan culture as seen in several works on the medical and ritual treatment and defence of children. These texts describe a remarkably broad range of technologies for healing and protecting children, recommending the feeding of pills, soups, butters, beers, or texts to children, parents, or deities; physically manipulative techniques, such as surgery, washing, anointing, fumigating, or massaging; the wearing of all manner of amulets, talismans, strings, papers, ointments, or letters; and the theatrical staging of elaborate hospitality or ransom dramas. Through an examination of the making and use of these therapeutic and protective objects, the chapter proposes that studying the material culture of childhood may be a fruitful method for understanding the child as a category in Tibet.Less

Gaining Access to Power

Ward Keeler

in The Traffic in Hierarchy: Masculinity and Its Others in Buddhist Burma

Because social relations imply an individual’s vulnerability, ways must be found to protect oneself. Two possibilities present themselves: amassing power in oneself in order to make oneself resistant ... More

Because social relations imply an individual’s vulnerability, ways must be found to protect oneself. Two possibilities present themselves: amassing power in oneself in order to make oneself resistant to outside attack; or subordinating oneself to concentrations of power (whether human or otherwise) from whom one will gain protection. This chapter enumerates some of the measures taken to foster invulnerability, including the use of amulets, daily Pali recitation, tattoos, and organized readings of particularly powerful Pali texts. It also describes the relations some people enter into with spirits (nat) and Buddhist saints (wei’za), entities whose power is believed to be available to supplicants who demonstrate their fealty to them, but who arouse considerable ambivalence among other, orthodox and reformist Burmese Buddhists.Less

Healin’ da Sick, Raisin’ da Daid: Hoodoo as Health Care, Root Doctors, Midwives, Treaters

Katrina Hazzard-Donald

in Mojo Workin': The Old African American Hoodoo System

This chapter examines Hoodoo as health care and the role of the African American midwife in the old tradition black belt Hoodoo complex. Scholarship has totally overlooked a discussion of traditional ... More

This chapter examines Hoodoo as health care and the role of the African American midwife in the old tradition black belt Hoodoo complex. Scholarship has totally overlooked a discussion of traditional Hoodoo healers: treaters, midwives, and root doctors. Even African Americans who know anything of contemporary Hoodoo will usually not immediately associate it with medicinal herbalism. Hoodoo marketeers were neither interested in nor had access to this aspect of Hoodoo. This chapter considers how Hoodoo midwives, treaters, and root doctors mastered treatments and developed their regional pharmacopoeia. It discusses one technique used by all three types of Hoodoo health care providers: the method of using string to tie sacred healing knots. It also describes nine types of healing amulets used in Hoodoo: single-knot string amulet; multiknot amulet; root necklace; prayer bead necklace; prayer cloth; biblical scroll; walking cane; religious lithography; and silver coin.Less

Material Religion, Created and Experienced: Burial Sites, Symbolic Visions, and Sign Acts

Susan Niditch

in The Responsive Self: Personal Religion in Biblical Literature of the Neo-Babylonian and Persian Periods

Chapter 5 explores the relationship between literary texts, objects, spaces, and pictorial representations as they relate to the study of personal religion. This chapter focuses on material religion ... More

Chapter 5 explores the relationship between literary texts, objects, spaces, and pictorial representations as they relate to the study of personal religion. This chapter focuses on material religion as manifested in a burial site, in prophetic visionary experiences, and in a form of performance art exemplified by the sign act.Less

Blessing and Guarding in West Semitic Inscribed Amulets

Jeremy D. Smoak

in The Priestly Blessing in Inscription and Scripture: The Early History of Numbers 6:24-26

This chapter compares the Ketef Hinnom amulets to inscriptions found on Phoenician and Punic amulets from the late Iron Age. The chapter argues that the priestly blessing formula derived from a stock ... More

This chapter compares the Ketef Hinnom amulets to inscriptions found on Phoenician and Punic amulets from the late Iron Age. The chapter argues that the priestly blessing formula derived from a stock dedicatory formula, and that the formula was also closely associated with a stock formula inscribed upon amulets and bands for protective purposes. The similarities between the blessing’s formula and the formulas found on the Phoenician and Punic amulets indicate that one of the motivations behind the writing of the blessing on the Ketef Hinnom amulets was that its language conveyed an apotropaic register. After comparing the formulas found on the amulets, the chapter discusses the significance of the fact that the Ketef Hinnom amulets were found in a mortuary context, and argues that the discovery of the priestly blessing in this context points to its early association with concerns over protection in the tomb and in the afterlife.Less

Hunters, Warriors, and Their Technologies

Mariane C. Ferme

in Out of War: Violence, Trauma, and the Political Imagination in Sierra Leone

This chapter explores the transmogrification of historical figures of hunters and their epistemologies of forest and landscape into novel forms of militias trained for guerrilla warfare. Hunter ... More

This chapter explores the transmogrification of historical figures of hunters and their epistemologies of forest and landscape into novel forms of militias trained for guerrilla warfare. Hunter militias organized at a national scale as paramilitary forces emerged halfway through the civil war in alliance with the Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP), which took power in the 1996 elections. They blended modern techniques of warfare with supernatural protections. These militias initially provided protection and accountability to civilian populations—particularly in rural areas—at a time when political institutions failed to do so. The reconfiguration of hunters as militias enabled the possibility of new forms of community as creative experiments at a time of transition and crisis.Less

Christian Culture and the 72 Names

in All the Names of the Lord: Lists, Mysticism, and Magic

This chapter begins its exploration of the number seventy two from the Slavonic erotapocritical text “How many are the names of God”? It discusses that the idea that the Lord has seventy two names ... More

This chapter begins its exploration of the number seventy two from the Slavonic erotapocritical text “How many are the names of God”? It discusses that the idea that the Lord has seventy two names appears in the Slavic material in two seemingly independent contexts. The first is the erotapocritical entry itself, a highly informative conceptual summary that is extant. The second is the amulet “These are the names of the Lord, seventy two in number”, whose extant traces are older, going back as far as the late thirteenth century, and much more numerous. Both texts place a strong emphasis on the concept of the seventy two names. The amulet advertises the names themselves as a potent protection against every evil. The point where the two contexts come together and suggest a possible direct relationship is the extremely peculiar codex MS Slav Jerusalem 22 from 1498.Less

Epilogue

in All the Names of the Lord: Lists, Mysticism, and Magic

The remarkably successful career of the Slavic amulet of seventy two divine names hinges on one central event in its history: its initial printed publication. The text first appeared in 1520 as part ... More

The remarkably successful career of the Slavic amulet of seventy two divine names hinges on one central event in its history: its initial printed publication. The text first appeared in 1520 as part of a pioneering work of Cyrillic typography. The book, known as the Miscellany for Travelers, came out of the Venetian printing house of the Montenegrin entrepreneur Božidar Vuković —a central figure in the earliest chapter of modern Cyrillic bookmaking. Cyrillic typography appeared on the cultural map of Europe relatively late, however, early in the next century, the production of Cyrillic books moved almost entirely to Venice, which had established itself as perhaps the most important typographic center in Europe at the time. The publishing house of Vuković had much to do with the success of Cyrillic printing in Venice.Less

African Cuban Sacred Traditions and the Making of an Insurgency

Aisha K. Finch

in Rethinking Slave Rebellion in Cuba: La Escalera and the Insurgencies of 1841-1844

This chapter explores the ways a range of African spiritual practices became the lynchpins in a sacred insurgent geography of 1844. This cultural architecture, particularly through amulets and ... More

This chapter explores the ways a range of African spiritual practices became the lynchpins in a sacred insurgent geography of 1844. This cultural architecture, particularly through amulets and rituals, proved useful to slave organizers as they encouraged awareness and support for the bourgeoning movement. This chapter considers how the cultural infrastructure of West and Central Africa—primarily its religious cosmologies and expressive cultures—provided a vehicle and a language for rural black people to access rebellious ideas and articulate a revolutionary agenda. In doing so, these practices became instrumental in connecting people to the idea of insurgency in the rural areas.Less

The Material Culture of Infancy

Maureen Carroll

in Infancy and Earliest Childhood in the Roman World: 'A Fragment of Time'

Chapter 4 explores the range of things that infants used and with which they were surrounded in daily life, even though much of the physical evidence for them comes from funerary contexts. These ... More

Chapter 4 explores the range of things that infants used and with which they were surrounded in daily life, even though much of the physical evidence for them comes from funerary contexts. These include items related to their nourishment, such as feeding bottles, but also objects meant to entertain and to protect them, such as toys and apotropaic jewellery. Effigies of swaddled infants dedicated in sanctuaries in Italy and Gaul provide important insight into the clothing and textiles worn by infants. Visual depictions of children provide further information about their infantile possessions and companions, including pets.Less

Sacred Stuff

Abigail Brundin, Deborah Howard, and Mary Laven

in The Sacred Home in Renaissance Italy

Inventories have long been used by historians as a source for investigating ‘worldly goods’; here, they are scrutinized anew for evidence of devotional practices in the home. Rosaries, little ... More

Inventories have long been used by historians as a source for investigating ‘worldly goods’; here, they are scrutinized anew for evidence of devotional practices in the home. Rosaries, little crosses, Agnus Dei, and coral are just some of the material objects that served to sacralize the home. These same items, densely recorded in the inventories of workshops and private households also figure in dowry contracts and registers of pawned goods. Such documents, drawn up by notaries, afford us new insights into the significance of material things at key moments in the life-cycle. Often invested with amuletic powers, many of the objects under investigation blur the boundaries between religion and superstition and draw attention to the profoundly protective role of domestic devotion.Less

Drunken Hags with Amulets and Prostitutes with Erotic Spells: The Re-Feminization of Magic in Late Antique Christian Homilies

Dayna S. Kalleres

in Daughters of Hecate: Women and Magic in the Ancient World

This chapter explores the perpetuation of Roman stereotypes in Christian rhetoric of the Post Constantinian period. As Christianity emerged from secrecy into the public sphere, following the Council ... More

This chapter explores the perpetuation of Roman stereotypes in Christian rhetoric of the Post Constantinian period. As Christianity emerged from secrecy into the public sphere, following the Council of Nicea (325 ce), church leaders such as John Chrysostom expressed concern over patrolling Christian identity in private homes. By drawing on literary tropes such as the drunken hag, dispensing amulets and healing potions, or the prostitute, casting love spells to captivate Christian husbands, Chrysostom constructs a rhetorical opposition in his sermons between magical dangers, lurking in the pagan city, and the vulnerable Christian home and family. In his endeavor to forge a new Christian empire, Chrysostom tries to force his flock to break from traditional pagan practices; in the process, even seemingly inoffensive remedia such as amulets or spells, recited in the name of God and Jesus, are forbidden as idolatry.Less