This is a volume about the life and power of ritual objects in their religious ritual settings. In this Special Issue, we see a wide range of contributions on material culture and ritual practices ...across religions. By focusing on the dynamic interrelations between objects, ritual, and belief, it explores how religion happens through symbolic materiality.
The ritual objects presented in this volume include: masks worn in the Dogon dance; antique ecclesiastical silver objects carried around in festive processions and shown in shrines in the southern Andes; funerary photographs and films functioning as mnemonic objects for grieving children; a dented rock surface perceived to be the god’s footprint in the archaic place of pilgrimage, Gaya (India); a recovered manual of rituals (from Xiapu county) for Mani, the founder of Manichaeism, juxtaposed to a Manichaean painting from southern China; sacred stories and related sacred stones in the Alor–Pantar archipelago, Indonesia; lotus symbolism, indicating immortalizing plants in the mythic traditions of Egypt, the Levant, and Mesopotamia; lavishly illustrated variations of portrayals of Ravana, a Sinhalese god-king-demon; figurines made of cow dung sculptured by rural women in Rajasthan (India); and mythical artifacts called ‘Apples of Eden’ in a well-known interactive game series.
The first five books of the Hebrew Bible contain a significant number of texts describing ritual practices. Yet it is often unclear how these sources would have been understood or used by ancient ...audiences in the actual performance of cult. This volume explores the processes of ritual textualization (the creation of a written version of a ritual) in ancient Israel by probing the main conceptual and methodological issues that inform the study of this topic in the Pentateuch.
This systematic and comparative study of text and ritual in the first five books of the Hebrew Bible maps the main areas of consensus and disagreement among scholars engaged in articulating new models for understanding the relationship between text and ritual and explores the importance of comparative evidence for the study of pentateuchal rituals. Topics include ritual textualization in ancient Anatolia, Egypt, Greece, and Mesopotamia; the importance of archaeology and materiality for the study of text and ritual in ancient Israel; the relationship between ritual textualization and standardization in the Pentateuch; the reception of pentateuchal ritual texts in Second Temple writings and rabbinic literature; and the relationship between text and ritual in the Dead Sea Scrolls.
In addition to the editors, the contributors to this volume include Dorothea Erbele-Küster, Daniel K. Falk, Yitzhaq Feder, Christian Frevel, William K. Gilders, Dominique Jaillard, Giuseppina Lenzo, Lionel Marti, Patrick Michel, Rüdiger Schmitt, Jeremy D. Smoak, and James W. Watts.
This article explores the history and procedures of the 49-day Buddhist funeral ceremony, which functions as a ritual for the dead and a healing tool for the bereaved. The significance of this ...ceremony has its origins in The Treatise of the Great Commentary of the Abhidharma (아비달마대비바사론, 阿毘達磨大毘婆沙論) and The Sūtra of the Fundamental Vows of the Bodhisattva Kṣitigarbha (지장보살본원경, 地藏菩薩本願經). While this 49-day ceremony has been practiced in Korea for centuries, it was overshadowed by Confucian-style funerals, which were predominant during the Joseon dynasty. Since the end of the Joseon dynasty, Buddhism and Buddhist practices, including the 49-day funeral ceremony, emerged in Korea and continue to be practiced with frequency today. This article maintains that these rituals have two primary purposes. The first is to aid the departed in a successful rebirth. The second is to help the bereaved cope with their loss, which often includes various forms of psychological distress. After introducing the 49-day ceremony as it is currently practiced in Korea, this article shifts its focus to delve deeper into the ceremony’s potential for healing. We will first examine the psychological healing elements that this ceremony offers, followed by considerations related to the grieving process, both within and outside of a Buddhist context.
Jewish ritual immersion has been practiced among Jews for over two thousand years, from the late second century BCE until today. Although much has been written in recent years on various aspects of ...this ritual as it was performed in different periods, no study has surveyed the practice from the perspective of the longue durée—from its earliest manifestations until the modern era. The present study does just that; it examines the textual evidence and material remains that shed light on how the ritual was performed over the course of the past two millennia, exploring who practiced it in each period, and how it developed and changed over the centuries.
End-of-relationship rituals are not respected within Protestant churches. Therefore, many church websites emphasize that there are no official divorce rituals to this day. This is despite the fact ...that there are numerous impulses for divorce rituals, some of which are also firmly established in church practice. Practitioners who devote themselves to these rituals often have to be innovative. This article presents three unpublished drafts for separation rituals, which are understood as expressions of ritual design. Experiences from academic teaching show that the field divorce rituals is particularly suitable for initiating learning processes on ritual design, a skill of great importance for future pastors. Although divorce rituals are unpopular now, they are likely to become part of the standard repertoire of churches soon.
Focusing on concepts, practices and images associated with purity in the ancient Mediterranean, this volume contributes new aspects to the current discussion about the forming of religious ...traditions, from a comparative perspective that acknowldges individual developments, mutual exchanges, as well as transcultural processes.; Readership: Scholars interested in the history of religions, religious contacts and social-cultural interactions in Antiquity, purity and impurity in the ancient Mediterranean world, as well as mechanisms of social control and regulation in ancient societies.
Marketers recognize the contributions that consumer rituals make to their organizations. They endeavor to have such contributions persist as they support consumers in enacting those rituals. This ...ethnographic study examines the temporal aspects of ritual, termed 'ritual vitality.' We explain how marketers can influence ritual vitality through engagement in the
chronos
and
kairos
temporal dimensions of ritual; theorize the relationship between those dimensions; identify the ways in which marketers and consumers interact through a ritual's
chronos
and
kairos
temporal dimensions; and theorize how marketers and consumers co-create these experiences as each party guides, aligns with, or detours from one another. This co-creation is central to ritual vitality. Finally, we contribute an understanding of how
chronos
and
kairos
temporal dimensions shape, structure, and perpetuate ritual performance, and identify opportunities for marketers and consumers to participate in the synchronization of
chronos
and
kairos
temporality and the support of ritual performances that together may result in ritual vitality.
The Archaeology of Ritual Swenson, Edward
Annual review of anthropology,
01/2015, Volume:
44, Issue:
1
Journal Article, Book Review
Peer reviewed
Open access
The main objective of this review is to consider what archaeology can contribute to general anthropological theories on "ritual in its own right" and to highlight the potential for advancing ...knowledge about ritual experience as a distinctive material process. An examination of the exceptional material frame marking ceremonial events demonstrates the value of ritual as a heuristic and challenges archaeologists who privilege the interpretation of religion, affect, ontology, or cultural rationalities as necessarily determinative of the ritualization process. Therefore, archaeologists should not interpret ritual places and residues as immediate proxies of other sociopolitical realities but instead should base their inferences on cross-contextual analyses of archaeological data sets. Ultimately, attention to the amplified materialization of the ritual process, often entailing the performative bundling of disparate material items in archaeological deposits, permits a re-evaluation of theories proposing that ritual is intimately connected to agency and power.
This research aims to describe and interpret forms of interreligious rituals in primary schools. Researchers also look at children's religious expressions in practicing interreligious rituals and ...their contribution as learning resources in building a sense of togetherness in schools. This study uses a qualitative-phenomenological approach with data collection interviews, observations, and documentation. The results showed that children's religious rituals were taught in and outside the classroom. They practice with teachers of the same religion in class, but outside the classroom, they practice with students of other religions as spectators. Therefore, religious rituals that can be communicated socially are celebrated. Interreligious rituals do not make children and parents experience theological fear but can become a source of learning to recognize and respect other religious rituals. The ritual expression is an expression of harmony and togetherness because they can cooperate in celebrating their respective religious rituals.
