An illuminating account of the steadfast resilience of rural popular culture in post-Mao China
Lin Zhao’en (1517–1598) set out to popularize Confucianism by combining Confucian studies ...with Daoist inner alchemical techniques and Buddhist Chan philosophy into something he called the Three in One Teachings. Despite periods of clandestine activity since its inception, the Three in One cult has undergone a remarkable revival in post-Mao China. Today, in more than a thousand temples by tens of thousands of cult initiates, Lin is worshipped throughout Southeast China and Southeast Asia as Lord of the Three in One. Many of the temples have been restored since the late 1970s, when China began to experience an explosive resurgence of popular culture and religion. In this book, Kenneth Dean draws on a decade of field work to document the reemergence of this cult, which seeks to transmit a universal vision of truth yet retains a strong local appeal through its healing rituals and spirit mediumism. Although the Chinese government still tries to suppress these resurgences in the interest of modernization, the cult’s locally based networks are unstoppable social forces.
Dean explores the organization and transmission of the Three in One’s unique cultural vision, the reception of this vision, and the construction of subjectivity within a vibrant ritual tradition. Outlining such features as inner alchemical meditation, scripture and iconography, ritual practice, and spirit mediumism, he demonstrates the cult’s transformative potential as well as its contemporaneity and dynamism. Rural Chinese popular culture emerges here as resilient, highly complex, and always evolving.
Sim Gill's photograph "Isolation" captures Kensington Park Gardens in London during the third national lockdown in the UK. On Mar 23, 2020, the UK's prime minister issued a stark directive: "You must ...stay at home." Within a mere twenty-four hours, their daily routines and rituals were cast into uncertainty, their usual distractions temporarily vanished, leaving them with existential queries about what lay ahead, the duration of this new reality, and when normalcy might return. For numerous individuals, this marked their first encounter with a paradigm-shifting global event, encompassing remote work and social distancing, as well as upending familiar habitual practices. On reflection, it is important that their narratives surrounding this period respect and reflect a framework that honestly captures the incompleteness and tensions of this unprecedented moment.
Kabbalah and Sex Magic: A Mythical-Ritual Genealogy . By Marla Segol. Penn State University Press, 2021. 220 pages; $99.95 hardcover; $34.95 softcover; available as ebook.
The archaeology of religion is a much neglected area, yet religious sites and artefacts constitute a major area of archaeological evidence. Timothy Insoll presents an introductory statement on the ...archaeology of religion, examining what archaeology can tell us about religion, the problems of defining and theorizing religion in archaeology, and the methodology, or how to 'do', the archaeology of religion. This volume assesses religion and ritual through a range of examples from around the world and across time, including prehistoric religions, shamanism, African religions, death, landscape and even food. Insoll also discusses the history of research and varying theories in this field before looking to future research directions. This book will be a valuable guide for students and archaeologists, and initiate a major area of debate.
1. Introduction to the Theme 2. History of Research 3. Contemporary Approaches 4. The Case Studies 5. Prospects and Conclusion: Prospects, A Future Approach? Towards a Theory of Archaeology and Religion
Timothy Insoll is Lecturer in Archaeology at the School of Art History and Archaeology at the University of Manchester. His previous publications include The Archaeology of Islam (1999), Archaeology and World Religion (2001) and THe Archaeology of Islam in Sub-Saharan Africal (2003)
The Role of Easter Dyed Eggs in Ukrainian Rituals
The article describes the phenomenon of one of the oldest and most significant fields of Ukrainian folk art ‒ Ukrainian Easter dyed eggs, represents ...the mythical origins of Easter dyed eggs, explains the process of making decorated eggs and highlights their role in Ukrainian folk ceremonies, mainly spring and Easter rites and traditions. In purpose to demonstrate the phenomenon of Ukrainian painted eggs, the author formulates a hypothesis from which it follows that the Easter dyed egg plays a very important role in Ukrainian rituals, both pagan springtime and Christian Easter. The article refers to the achievements of Ukrainian researchers in this area of study, notably the scientific studies of Mykoly Sumcova, Erasta Biniashevskiego, Vasylia Sapigi, Oleksy Voropaja and others.
Konstruktivistische Ansätze haben seit langem auf die Notwendigkeit hingewiesen, die Beziehung zwischen Identität und Differenz bei der Bildung und Aufrechterhaltung von Sicherheitsgemeinschaften wie ...der North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) besser zu verstehen. Aufbauend auf Émile Durkheims Ritualtheorie argumentiere ich, dass der soziale Zusammenhalt in einer Sicherheitsgemeinschaft auf rituellen Aktivitäten beruht, und zwar gerade dann, wenn kein politischer Konsens besteht. In diesem Beitrag möchte ich Durkheims ursprüngliche Erkenntnisse über die Rolle des Rituals bei der Schaffung von Solidarität nutzen, indem ich zeige, dass der Zusammenhalt der NATO weniger auf der Homogenität der Überzeugungen ihrer Mitglieder beruht als auf dem „Wir-Gefühl“ während eines Rituals. Anhand der transatlantischen Sicherheitsgemeinschaft entwickle ich zunächst einen theoretisch-konzeptionellen Rahmen, der erklärt, wie Rituale Solidarität zwischen den NATO-Mitgliedstaaten erzeugen. Das Argument wird dann durch eine empirische Fallstudie zur rituellen Rekonstruktion der Solidarität durch die NATO nach dem Irakkrieg 2003 veranschaulicht.
O estudo realizado junto ao grupo Jongo de Pinheiral, na antiga Fazenda Pinheiros, no Vale do Paraíba (RJ), revelou que seus integrantes mantêm uma relação afetiva entre si e têm um histórico de ...lutas sociais marcado por gestualidades ligadas à dança. Com base nesses dados, apresento, neste artigo, uma análise do ritual praticado por jongueiros e umbandistas dedicado a "passagem para o outro plano" dos espíritos que habitam a fazenda. Para isso, mobilizo os estudos da antropóloga Marlene Cunha no campo dos gestos e postura no candomblé Angola. A análise permite a compreensão dos gestos preliminares, liminares e pós-liminares do ritual.
The present article proposes to reflect on the fieldwork and the relations between the religious and afro-maranhense fields from two texts about the Maranhão Mine Drum (tambor de mina do Maranhão). ...It is intended to understand how these two writings indicate a possibility of changes of positions, in so far as the anthropologist's text can be interpreted from the religious discourse, and the Mina priest's text from the anthropological position.
Unlocking the meaning and performative aspects in this first-ever edition in any European language, of these core Zoroastrian rituals in India, Céline Redard and Kerman Dadi Daruwalla open up the ...Indian tradition for future research and highlight its importance.
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