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Introduction

Tracy Pintchman

in Women's Lives, Women's Rituals in the Hindu Tradition

This introductory chapter begins with a discussion of Hindu women's participation in religious practice. Some notes on the scholarly and historical context of the study are presented. This is ... More

This introductory chapter begins with a discussion of Hindu women's participation in religious practice. Some notes on the scholarly and historical context of the study are presented. This is followed by an overview of the chapters in this volume.Less

 Dancing Ritual, Ritual Dancing: Experiential Teaching

Sam Gill

in Teaching Ritual

This chapter ruminates on the formal lack of interest in both ritual and dancing. The chapter's author takes his thoughts on the university as “a Christian theological project” into a class on ... More

This chapter ruminates on the formal lack of interest in both ritual and dancing. The chapter's author takes his thoughts on the university as “a Christian theological project” into a class on ritual, in which he had his students dance. From a theoretical point of view, the study of dancing and the study of ritual are very closely related. Many rituals are dance-dramas; many dances are done as ritual. Students' experience of dancing as a component to teaching ritual is easily accomplished and broadly accepted. A comparative worldwide study of ritual and ritual dancing provides a magnificent theater for the construction and examination of ritual theory.Less

Remembering the Rituals: Shamans, Temples and Ancestors

Rachel Harris

in Singing the Village: Music, Memory and Ritual among the Sibe of Xinjiang

This chapter examines the ritual practice of the Sibe people in Çabçal before Liberation. It discusses the double layer of social remembering through contemporary story-telling about the performed ... More

This chapter examines the ritual practice of the Sibe people in Çabçal before Liberation. It discusses the double layer of social remembering through contemporary story-telling about the performed practices of the past and highlights the dominance of shamans and rituals in memories of village life. The chapter describes some observations about animated retellings of shaman stories, discussions of the details of ritual practice, and the re-singing of shamanic ritual songs. It suggests that shamanic rituals in the Sibe villages were and are powerful experiences in people's lives, re-lived and constantly embellished in retelling.Less

 Domesticity and Difference/Women and Men: Religious Life in Medieval Tamilnadu

Leslie C. Orr

in Women's Lives, Women's Rituals in the Hindu Tradition

This chapter explores whether a domestic religious orientation, engaged with the personal and the particular, can be observed in the context of precolonial South India. It focuses on the period ... More

This chapter explores whether a domestic religious orientation, engaged with the personal and the particular, can be observed in the context of precolonial South India. It focuses on the period between the 9th to 13th centuries in the part of India known today as Tamilnadu. The chapter draws on the resources provided by the thousands of inscriptions written in the Tamil language and engraved in stone on the walls of Hindu and Jain temples during this period. These inscriptions record actions, particularly the making of gifts to temples by a wide variety of people. It is argued that although men's and women's activities recorded on temple walls had distinctive colorings, the contexts, roles, and motives for these actions were overlapping and often congruent.Less

Introduction

Yaacob Dweck

in The Scandal of Kabbalah: Leon Modena, Jewish Mysticism, Early Modern Venice

This introductory chapter provides an overview of Kabbalah. A Hebrew term one can render as “tradition” or “reception.” Kabbalah referred to a mode of reading, a library of texts, a series of ... More

This introductory chapter provides an overview of Kabbalah. A Hebrew term one can render as “tradition” or “reception.” Kabbalah referred to a mode of reading, a library of texts, a series of concepts, and a range of practices. As a mode of reading, Kabbalah encompassed a set of interpretive assumptions adopted by an initiate in the course of approaching a sacred text. Kabbalists assiduously applied these methods of exegesis to the most sacred of texts, the Bible, and relied on mystical symbolism to uncover its theological content. The term Kabbalah also encompassed a series of ritual practices. For the religious adept, however, Kabbalah also referred to something beyond these rituals of practice, modes of exegesis, bodies of literature, and new theological concepts. Throughout the medieval and early modern periods, the term Kabbalah referred to a putative tradition of esotericism, to secrets that God had revealed to Moses at Mount Sinai.Less

The heritage of slavery and the educationalist shehe of the Sufi brotherhoods

Felicitas Becker

in Becoming Muslim in Mainland Tanzania, 1890-2000

This chapter describes the significance of the Sufi brotherhoods. It starts by addressing the arrival of the tarika in Southeast Tanzania. The tarika-shehe of the inter-war period, who are most ... More

This chapter describes the significance of the Sufi brotherhoods. It starts by addressing the arrival of the tarika in Southeast Tanzania. The tarika-shehe of the inter-war period, who are most clearly remembered in the coastal towns, were themselves fairly well travelled, well connected, and partly of patrician parentage. Ritual practices constitute a crucial unifying element for the tarika. Two tarika became influential in the late nineteenth century in Southeast Tanzania. The main characters of twentieth-century saints are summarized. The outlines of the shehes' lives and work already give a sense of the tensions they negotiated: between urbanites versed in Arabic script and immigrants to town versed in ngoma, between the ideology of patrician separateness and superiority, and the self-assertion of villagers struggling to make the colonial towns their home. The ritual expertise, colonial domination, and the reformulation of categories of social distinction are discussed. The spread of the tarika and their ritual practices along the Swahili coast illustrates the unity in diversity of this culture area at work.Less

A Typology of Dysfunction

Michael David Kaulana Ing

in The Dysfunction of Ritual in Early Confucianism

This chapter examines the notion of “dysfunction.” It begins by recounting the study of dysfunctional ritual in ritual studies and then proceeds to build on this account by providing a typology of ... More

This chapter examines the notion of “dysfunction.” It begins by recounting the study of dysfunctional ritual in ritual studies and then proceeds to build on this account by providing a typology of dysfunctions rooted in the Liji. It introduces two kinds of dysfunctions and the ways early Confucians dealt with them. It shows that the authors of the Liji sought to avoid failure by emphasizing a program of ritual practice and by “opening the ritual script” in circumstances where following the ritual script would otherwise lead to failure. This latter move allowed early Confucians to advocate the rituals of the past, while at the same time recognize the need to adapt them to contemporary circumstances. It also served to legitimate their role in the sociopolitical structure of early China—in essence claiming that sensitivity to context required more than a textual tradition; it additionally required the presence of trained Confucians to adapt the tradition to living circumstances. The chapter concludes by emphasizing the persistence of ritual failure. In other words, despite the fact that ritual scripts could be altered to account for various circumstances, the authors of the Liji also believed that there were situations where failure was inevitable.Less

The Politics of the Future of Confucianism

Anna Sun

in Confucianism as a World Religion: Contested Histories and Contemporary Realities

This chapter focuses on the possible future developments of Confucianism in Chinese society: as a cultural identity, political ideology, ethical outlook, ritual practice, symbolic tool in politics, ... More

This chapter focuses on the possible future developments of Confucianism in Chinese society: as a cultural identity, political ideology, ethical outlook, ritual practice, symbolic tool in politics, and even the foundation for the civil religion of China. The chapter presents three events that can be seen as corresponding to key issues involved in the future development of Confucianism in China. The first one is called the “politics of epistemology”; the second is the “politics of the religion question,” and finally, the “politics of Confucian nationalism.” However, despite the uncertainties in the politics of the future of Confucianism, its nature as a foundation of morality and possible source of civil religion will never go away.Less

Herto Brains and Minds: Behaviour of Early Homo sapiens from the Middle Awash

Yonas Beyene

in Social Brain, Distributed Mind

The discovery of three late Middle Pleistocene hominid crania, Homo sapiens idaltu, at Herto in the Middle Awash research area in Ethiopia in 1997 shed considerable light on this little-known period ... More

The discovery of three late Middle Pleistocene hominid crania, Homo sapiens idaltu, at Herto in the Middle Awash research area in Ethiopia in 1997 shed considerable light on this little-known period in Africa. These fossils consist of two adults' and a child's crania. All are morphologically intermediate between geologically earlier African fossils and anatomically modern later Pleistocene humans. The three Herto Homo sapiens idaltu crania show cutmarks indicating defleshing using sharp-edged stone tools. The post-mortem modifications and manipulation of the crania, demonstrated best on the child and broken adult crania, suggest that Homo sapiens idaltu performed ritual mortuary practices of which the dimension, context and meaning might only be revealed by further discoveries.Less

The Illuminations of Theurgy: Philosophy and Magic

Radcliffe G. Edmonds III

in Drawing Down the Moon: Magic in the Ancient Greco-Roman World

This chapter focuses on ancient ideas of theurgy. From the uses of the term in the ancient evidence, “theurgy” may be defined as the art or practice of ritually creating a connection between the ... More

This chapter focuses on ancient ideas of theurgy. From the uses of the term in the ancient evidence, “theurgy” may be defined as the art or practice of ritually creating a connection between the mortal, material world that is before one's eyes and the unseen, immortal world of the gods. Such a practice may be a lifelong assimilation of the individual soul to the divine, or it may be a momentary activation of the connection with divine power to achieve some more immediate end on earth. Whereas normative religious action in the Greco-Roman world tends to involve just the human worshipper and the divine god in a sequence of reciprocal responses, theurgy, as it appears in the ancient evidence, attempts to bring the divine and mortal together, uniting the divine power with the human worshipper. This process of unification involves connecting elements of the cosmos at every level of being, from the lowest dregs of inanimate matter through the animal and human living creatures and up to the various kinds of divinities, including the very highest. Ultimately, theurgy appears as magic, labeled as an “extraordinary ritual practice,” whether in a positive or negative sense.Less

The Relationship between Becoming Caddo and Becoming Mississippian in the Middle Red River Drainage

Amanda Regnier

in Mississippian Beginnings

Pre-Columbian Caddo culture is frequently viewed as a western extension of the Mississippian world, This chapter examines the timing and nature of the Early Caddo emergence in the Middle Red River ... More

Pre-Columbian Caddo culture is frequently viewed as a western extension of the Mississippian world, This chapter examines the timing and nature of the Early Caddo emergence in the Middle Red River drainage. While the Caddo drew upon the same religious traditions of the Mississippian world, they had their own separate shared ritual practices that set them apart.Less

The Goddess Plugged In: Pritam Bhartwan and the Commodification of Possession Rituals

Stefan Fiol

in Recasting Folk in the Himalayas: Indian Music, Media, and Social Mobility

Jagar rituals have long been stigmatized as a type of folk religion because they involve animal sacrifice, corporeal possession, and the participation of low-status divinities and social groups. In ... More

Jagar rituals have long been stigmatized as a type of folk religion because they involve animal sacrifice, corporeal possession, and the participation of low-status divinities and social groups. In recent decades, however, jagar has become a quintessential marker of regional belonging and religious expression in Uttarakhand. The public acceptance of jagar is part of a broader mobilization of vernacular devotional forms across South Asia facilitated by the growing economic clout of urban migrants and vernacular music industries. The hereditary drummer and healer Pritam Bhartwan has been a major catalyst for the resignification of jagar. This chapter highlights the transformations within Pritam Bhartwan’s own public persona as a means of illuminating the shifts in the public perception of jagar and in the concept of folk more broadly. Less

Ritual Life at Medieval Hokkeji

Lori Meeks

in Hokkeji and the Reemergence of Female Monastic Orders in Premodern Japan

This chapter focuses on the ritual life of the medieval Hokkeji community. The study and performance of ritual served Hokkeji nuns on a number of levels. It was through ritual practice that Hokkeji ... More

This chapter focuses on the ritual life of the medieval Hokkeji community. The study and performance of ritual served Hokkeji nuns on a number of levels. It was through ritual practice that Hokkeji nuns were able to claim a place in the broader Ritsu community, to work toward toward their own salvation and that of their loved ones, and to serve lay communities both near and far. Indeed, the centrality of ritual in the lives of Hokkeji nuns and in their relationships with lay patrons is so striking that it raises the question of whether or not the Hokkeji nuns' order is best described as a female priesthood.Less

Considerations on Death in the Korean Context

Michael J. Pettid and Charlotte Horlyck

in Death, Mourning, and the Afterlife in Korea: Ancient to Contemporary Times

This chapter sets out the book's purpose, which is to draw out the commonalities, disparities, and changes in the ways in which death was dealt with at various moments in Korea's history and how ... More

This chapter sets out the book's purpose, which is to draw out the commonalities, disparities, and changes in the ways in which death was dealt with at various moments in Korea's history and how different worldviews have influenced understandings of death and the afterlife. It discusses the basic ideas or beliefs that have influenced or continue to influence how death is perceived, including popular folk practices, funerary rites in Buddhism, and Confucianism. It also details the scope and organization of the present study. The ritual practices connected with death are some of the most complex in Korea, both historically and at present. For that reason one can understand much about life in general by investigating the practices surrounding death.Less

Gendered Rituals

in Transforming Displaced Women in Sudan: Politics and the Body in a Squatter Settlement

This chapter investigates a specific example of how displaced women from the South who settle in predominantly Muslim, Arabized Khartoum thrive by crafting new meanings of self and community, time ... More

This chapter investigates a specific example of how displaced women from the South who settle in predominantly Muslim, Arabized Khartoum thrive by crafting new meanings of self and community, time and place. Closer examination of gendered ritual practices in the context of urban life shows new ideas arising as focal points for reconfiguring a woman's place in the world and her relationship to the Sudanese polity. The virtues requisite for marriageability, especially virginity, modesty, and an unblemished sexual reputation, are an integral aspect of gender ideology among women in Douroshab and other circumcision-practicing societies. The acceptance of female circumcision is not structurally integrated in the shantytown. Displaced women have to elbow their way into a multicultural mosaic that prompts them to compose new concepts of self and community.Less

Family Relations and Contested Religious Moralities

Anna Lora-Wainwright

in Fighting for Breath: Living Morally and Dying of Cancer in a Chinese Village

This chapter examines the interplay between the spirit world and perceptions of illness, healing, and mourning by comparing the cases of Gandie and Uncle Wang. More specifically, it considers how ... More

This chapter examines the interplay between the spirit world and perceptions of illness, healing, and mourning by comparing the cases of Gandie and Uncle Wang. More specifically, it considers how different religious allegiances produce different attitudes to healing and mourning, including disagreements. The chapter begins with an overview of spirit mediums and ritual revival in China, along with the historical process of differentiation between superstition, tradition, and religion. It then discusses the role of ritual practices in producing family and social relations as well as contending modes of morality. It argues that cancer treatment is a critical moment for negotiating family relations and that allegiance to the spirit world influences the ways in which these relationships are produced. Finally, it shows how villagers view the parameters of moral behavior in relation to the processes of reproduction of unequal power relations within the family.Less

The Variety of Ritual Experience in Premodern States

Richard Blanton

in Ritual and Archaic States

Any turn to collective action in polity-building will create a fertile ground for argumentative discourses about human nature as well as about new cultural production that aims to transform ... More

Any turn to collective action in polity-building will create a fertile ground for argumentative discourses about human nature as well as about new cultural production that aims to transform entrenched cultural designs. This chapter addresses how ritual may play a role in such discourses. While no classifying system will properly capture all the nuance and complexity of ritual practice, to add substance to my comparative exercise I follow Stanley Tambiah’s sense that some rituals can be understood as “constitutive” acts, serving to reaffirm that which is bound by convention and not subject to conscious evaluation. For example, Balinese political rituals serve to reaffirm the central, unquestioned, and timeless fact of Balinese kingship (legitimacy of rule)—the sanctified status of corporeal god-kings. By contrast, I found that in the more collective polities, ritual, as Tambiah explains, can more often be understood to “regulate a practical or technical activity … without actually constituting it.” Rather than to “astonish thousands of peasants” and thereby reproduce the central structural property of a government, as in Bali, the civic rituals of the more collective polities allow for a rational evaluation of the polities’ operative principles and their theories of human nature.Less