Blood Rituals Research Articles

Awareness and believability of the ‘Oke-ite’ money ritual charm efficacy claims on Facebook by Anambra Youths. A Study of Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University Undergraduates

The advent of Social media particularly the facebook platform has enhanced the way individuals interact with each other. It is a platform where individuals especially the youths showcase themselves in order to draw admiration and attention to their lives and it is equally an avenue where entrepreneurs ply their goods and services to get patronage. The Get- rich- quick syndrome that is prevalent amongst Nigerian youths today has led many youths to seek for wealth and validation through engaging in money rituals. Research has shown that many youths especially University undergraduate students engage in anti-social behaviours like cybercrime and blood rituals to make quick money in order to imitate their rich peers. Most of these money making rituals are advertised through facebook videos by native doctors and spiritualists who make claims of its efficacy and popular among them is the Oke-ite money ritual charm. This study therefore seeks to find out the awareness and believability of the efficacy claims of the oke-ite money ritual by Anambra youths using Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University Undergraduates as the study population. Anchored on the Technological Determinism theory, the study employs the Survey method for the research design and the Questionnaire as the instrument for data collection. Findings indicate that most Anambra youths are aware of the facebook videos of the efficacy claims on the Oke-ite money ritual by spiritualists and native doctors and believe in its efficacy while some believe that such rituals can only be effective for a short period of time as it comes with its attendant problems. The study therefore recommends amongst others the need for relevant stakeholders to create awareness especially through the facebook platforms on the dangers of engaging in money rituals by the youths and emphasize on the need for parents and the society at large to question their children and wards whenever they acquire sudden wealth.

Blood ritual: An indigenous approach to peacemaking among the Bimoba people of northern Ghana

AbstractThis study examined blood ritual as an indigenous peacemaking strategy among the Bimoba people of northern Ghana. Descriptive qualitative research methods were used together with in‐depth face‐to‐face interviews with eight elders of the community. The audio‐recorded interviews were transcribed verbatim and thematically analyzed with NVivo 12 software. The findings reveal that the blood ritual approach is participatory, focuses on re‐establishing relationships and emanates from the culture of the Bimoba people. It also involves the use of rituals and seeks the interest of the entire Bimoba community. The study concludes that the strategy shares commonalities with several indigenous peacemaking approaches in Africa and has the potential of facilitating sustainable resolutions of communal conflicts such as the Bimoba chieftaincy conflict. However, similar to other approaches, the blood ritual does not ensure gender equality in peacebuilding as the role of women is reduced to simply being observers. A major limitation of this study is its reliance on only the perspectives of the elders of the community without recourse to the voices of people who appear before the ritual processes, to appreciate how they feel about the blood ritual with respect to their hope and expectation when they appear before the process for solace and solution. Also, the voice of young people, women and other vulnerable groups are not reflected in the blood ritual approach.

Considerations on Pain and Suffering in VestAndPage’s performance art

<p>This text is formed from a series of detailed conversations with Andrea Pagnes of performance art duo VestAndPage (Italian artist Andrea Pagnes and German artist Verena Stenke) on the questions of pain, suffering and blood rituals in their performances. VestAndPage perform extreme physical acts in constrictive physical situations not to glorify pain, but as possibilities for a poetic encounter with suffering as a source of creativity, thus to liberate aesthetics from the justification of sacrifice. Drawing from their personal life experience, they translate their wounds into performative actions to seek authenticity and to speak about existential concerns belonging to mankind, the individual and society.</p><p> </p><p>Keywords: Body, Pain, Suffering, Blood, Performance art.</p>

Reinventing The Primordial: Human Blood Ritual and the Lure of Power in Esiaba Irobi’s Nwokedi

ABSTRACTMany critics of Esiaba Irobi’s Nwokedi have contended that the play portrays an atmosphere of terror and irrationality, which reflects Irobi’s fascination with an ‘invitation to orgy’ (Eagleton) as the panacea to the oppressive political leadership in his postcolonial Nigeria. Beyond this observation, however, the position that in his obsession with power, Nwokedi, the protagonist snowballs into an object of terror himself has not been fully examined. Seeking to further this point of reflection, this paper engages the Hegelian theory of freedom in relation to the Dionysian myth of irrationality as a paradigm for examining the ironical attitude of power in Nwokedi. It interrogates the lure of power and the attempt to reinvent primordial human blood ritual in the play. Nwokedi’s positive riot of perversity, set against a politician’s economics of exploitation results in the death-drive that commands its beholder to relish human annihilation at that point where the opposition between law and personal desire is ‘most dramatically dismantled’ (Eagleton). The paper concludes that if the enchanted ritual revolutionist becomes at once deity and rebel, judge and outlaw, autocrat and anarchist, he equally plunges headlong into that solitude which is both self-willed and tragic.

PYTHAGORAS’ NORTHERN CONNECTIONS: ZALMOXIS, ABARIS, ARISTEAS

Apart from his teachings, wonders and scientific discoveries, Pythagoras was also known for his wide-ranging journeys. Ancient authors alleged that he visited many countries and nations from Egypt to India, stayed with the Phoenicians and the Ethiopians and talked to the Persian Magi and Gallic Druids. However, he never went to the North. If, nevertheless, he was eventually associated with the northern inhabitants, it is only because they themselves came into close contact with him. The first of them was Zalmoxis, a deity of a Thracian tribe, the Getae, who guaranteed them immortality after death (Hdt. 4.94). Having described a blood ritual that the Getae practised to become immortal, Herodotus relates a story he heard from the Hellespontine and Pontic Greeks. It goes that Zalmoxis was not adaimōnbut a former slave of Pythagoras on Samos and, having adopted the doctrine of immortality from him, he returned to Thrace and converted his tribesmen to it with a cunning trick. He invited the most prominent of them to a men's hall (ἀνδρείων) for entertainment and told them that neither he nor they or their descendants would die, but would live eternally. Then, having constructed a secret underground chamber, he suddenly disappeared from the eyes of the Getae and hid in his shelter for three full years, being lamented as dead. Then he showed himself again to the Getae, thus persuading them of the truth of his promises (4.95).

Hdt. 3.11 – Punishment, Human Sacrifice, Oath, Symposion? Ritual and Group Cohesion

At the beginning of the third book of the Histories, while presenting the way Kambyses conquered Egypt, Herodotos makes a short digression on the way the Greek and Karian mercenaries serving the Egyptian king killed the children of a former comrade who defected to the Persians and conspicuously drank their blood, mixed with water and wine. Although the fragment is one of the few sources regarding the practices and rituals conducted by Greek mercenaries in the archaic period, the fact narrated by Herodotos remains obscure as there is no consensus whether it should be linked with Greek punishment customs, symposia or the blood rituals used when taking oaths. The interpretation proposed in this paper is that of an oath taken in order to dispel any suspicions regarding the commitment of some mercenaries to their former comrade’s cause.

A Taste for the Transgressive: Pushing Body Limits in Contemporary Performance Art

A Taste for the Transgressive: Pushing Body Limits in Contemporary Performance Art

A Tale of Ritual Murder in the Age of Louis XIV: The Trial of Raphaël Lévy, 1669, by Pierre Birnbaum, translated by Arthur Goldhammer

A Tale of Ritual Murder in the Age of Louis XIV: The Trial of Raphael Levy, 1669, by Pierre Birnbaum, translated by Arthur Goldhammer. Stanford Studies in Jewish History and Culture. Stanford, California, Stanford University Press, 2012. iii, 178 pp. $60.00 US (cloth). Pierre Birnbaum's study of a ritual murder trial in seventeenth-century France succeeds in achieving what good microhistories do best: it exposes readers to the fate of a relatively unknown historical event/figure in order to force us to reevaluate our understanding of the past. Birnbaum excavates a criminal trial in which a Jew was accused of kidnapping and killing a young Christian boy in 1669. The defendant, Raphael Levy, was executed even though he steadfastly maintained his innocence. Birnbaum convincingly argues that Levy's trial and execution need to be remembered by the French today. Like the trial of Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish military officer wrongfully accused of treason in the late nineteenth century, Levy's experience and its erasure from mainstream historiography reveals how anti-Semitism can contaminate modern French political culture. Raphael Levy, a Jew living in the French borderlands near Metz, was accused of having murdered young Didier Le Moyne in order to extract his blood to perform an occult Jewish ritual. Such ritual murder accusations were a rare but regular occurrence in late medieval Germany, but until now historians have not recognized their existence in France. During the course of Levy's trial, the specific allegations of a single murder quickly mushroomed into more general accusations of Jewish desecration of the Host. This second set of charges resulted in several prominent Jews of Metz being imprisoned and interrogated. In the end, Levy was burnt at the stake in January 1670, but the others were spared by the timely intervention of Louis XIV who explicitly denied the existence of Jewish blood rituals and ordered that all defendants be exonerated. Birnbaum constructs a forceful and dramatic narrative of these harrowing events. The strength of his analysis lies in linking this seventeenth-century trial to twentieth-century political culture. Birnbaum demonstrates that Levy's trial has been largely forgotten by historians, but occasionally deployed by French anti-Semitic writers to malign the Jewish people. Nevertheless, as a specialist in twentieth-century politics and Jewish history, Birnbaum's relative lack of knowledge about the seventeenth century results in some errors: early modern French courts did not prosecute 100,000 witches and current research about the French monarchy under Louis XIV belies his blithe statements about rational bureaucracy. More importantly, Birnbaum missed opportunities to strengthen his central argument that anti-Semitism has a long history in France. A richer religious context would have helped readers to understand why Jews were particularly vulnerable to harassment in the late seventeenth century. Birnbaum notes a rise in criminal accusations against Jews in Lorraine during the 1660s and 1670s; at one point during the Levy trial, Christian crowds sought to attack and expel all Jews from Metz. …

The Form and Function of a Biblical Blood Ritual

Abstract There is a consensus in current research that Levitical law never requires blood to be tossed upon the upper surface of the altar. This conception has reinforced—and has been reinforced by—an understanding that yhwh is never to be offered blood. However, it appears that according to several priestly texts, the blood of many sacrifices, including wellbeing, whole-burnt and reparation offerings, is to be tossed upon the upper surface of the altar.

Contesting discourses of blood in the ‘red shirts’ protests in Bangkok

The spilling of blood in modern political protest is an exceptional event. This article discusses the deployment of blood as a means of struggle by the members of an extra-parliamentary movement, known as the ‘red shirts’, in March 2010, in the course of their prolonged attempt to topple the government of the Thai prime minister Abhisit Vejjajiva. Two contesting discourses of blood are discussed: the symbolic discourse of blood as a self-sacrificial act deployed by the protesters to curse their enemies, and the medical counter-discourse deployed by the authorities, in an effort to neutralise the protesters' act. Several issues raised by the blood-spilling act are examined: its perceived appropriateness, its ritual roots and its disputed effectiveness as a curse. In conclusion, it is suggested that the blood ritual constitutes a reflective move to counter the prevailing ‘regime of images’ in Thai society.

Baptism of Blood: Bodies Performing for the Law

This article undertakes an analysis of Ron Athey’s and Hermann Nitsch’s performance art and blood rituals to show how their radical artistic spectacles are necessary acts of defiance in contemporary art and society. They open up the possibilities for subjects to redefine their relationship to the big Other. The author argues that the use of blood is at the centre of both of these artists’ performances and has the potency to unsettle and attack the patriarchal system of social authorities. At the same time, the popularization of such artistic and bloody practices has led to the appropriation of blood in mainstream popular culture. By referring to popular artist Lady Gaga and her use of blood in recent performances, the article demonstrates that blood is divested of its symbolisms and becomes a mere commodified product. The comparison between performance artists and popular artists like Lady Gaga reveals how blood is used in different ways to facilitate each artist’s project. While Athey’s performances stress blood as the site of the reality of the body in pain, and Nitsch’s as a celebration of both Eros and Thanatos, Lady Gaga’s performances by using fake blood separate blood from the body and meaning.

:Contested Rituals: Circumcision, Kosher Butchering, and Jewish Political Life in Germany, 1843–1933

In this book, Robin Judd provides a history of two central blood rituals practiced by Jews in Germany during the nine decades between 1843 and 1933. Her decision to synthesize the histories of circumcision and kosher butchering is very clever. The parallels are uncanny, as both rituals define Jewish affiliation and require special ways of cutting flesh. Moreover, as various German governments extended control over religious life, both rituals underwent scrutiny by those who questioned their medical and physical consequences. Judd pays close attention to how Jewish organizations defended these rituals when state officials, animal protectionists, and antisemites campaigned to regulate or even forbid them. Her work brings neglected episodes in medical, civic, and religious history into sharp focus and thereby helps us better understand Jewish life during these crucial nine decades. This is no mean feat, considering the great attention historians have paid to understanding how much and what kind of agency Jews possessed in Germany before the Nazi era.

Blood Ritual in the Hebrew Bible: Meaning and Power. By WILLIAM K. GILDERS.

Blood Ritual in the Hebrew Bible: Meaning and Power. By WILLIAM K. GILDERS.

Blood Ritual in the Hebrew Bible: Meaning and Power (review)

Blood Ritual in the Hebrew Bible: Meaning and Power (review)

Review of William K. Gilders, Blood Ritual in the Hebrew Bible: Meaning and Power

Review of William K. Gilders, Blood Ritual in the Hebrew Bible: Meaning and Power

Encyclopedia of religious rites, rituals, and festivals

Contents Include: Agricultural Rituals. Altered States of Consciousness. Ancestor Worship - Africa. Animal Rituals. Asceticism. Australian Aboriginal. Birth Rituals. Blood Rituals. Body and Ritual. Buddhism. Calendrical Rituals. Cannibalism. Catholicism. Chinese New Year. Christmas. Day of the Dead. Death Rituals. Divination Rituals. Diwali. Easter. Fire Walking. Food and Rituals. Gender Rituals. Glossalalia. Greco-Roman. Healing and Rituals. Hinduism. Hopi. Humor and Rituals. Hunting Rituals. Iban. Islam. Jainism. Javanese. Judaism. Magic. Mardi Gras. Marriage Rituals. Matsu. Mbuti. Melanesian. Micronesian. Millennialism. Music. Naming Rituals. Nature Worship. Navan Ceremony. New Year's Celebrations. Newala Ritual. Nuer. Oaths and Ordeals. Orthodoxy. Paganism and Personal Rituals. Pilgrimage. Political Rituals. Polynesian. Possession/Trance. Prayer. Protestantism. Puberty Rites. Purity and Pollution. Ramadan. Rastafarianism. Revitalization Rituals. Rites of Communitas. Rites of Passage. Ritual and Symbol. Ritual as Communication. Ritual as Performance. Ritual of Performance. Ritual Specialists. Rituals of Purity. Sacred Places. Sacrifice. Santeria. Satanic Rituals. Scatological Rituals. Secular Rituals. Shakers. Shamanism. Shintoism. Sikhism. Snake Handling

Pensando as sociedades pré-hispânicas. Um estudo sobre a sociedade mexica e a conquista espanhola

Este artigo tem como objetivo analisar o complexo ritual do derramamento de sangue no mundo mesoamericano, atendo-se às décadas imediatamente anteriores e posteriores à conquista. Seu objetivo, em primeiro lugar, é estabelecer as conexões entre os rituais ligados ao sangue, considerando principalmente o sangue humano, e a construção e expansão do estado asteca. Num segundo momento, o artigo analisa diferentes textos históricos que mencionam ou estudam os sacrifícios.

Between Communion and Renunciation: Revising The American

In the space between the two endings of Henry James's novel The American--the first completed in 1877 for the final installation of a serial publication in The Atlantic Monthly and the second completed in 1905 for publication in Volume 2 of the 1907 New York Edition of James's collected works--James traces a path from the archaic blood ritual of communion sacrifice to the allegedly modern spiritualization of religious renunciation to the secular "crisis" of a more ethical mode of relationality. James's novel tells the story of an American businessman, Christopher Newman--"a powerful specimen" of the "national type" (18, 17)--who has come to Europe, and finally Paris, in 1868 "to pick up aesthetic entertainment" (AM1 301). 1 Newman becomes engaged to the widowed daughter of an old, aristocratic French family, Claire de Cintré, née Bellegarde, only to lose her to the Carmelite convent when the family turns against the marriage and Claire proves too faithful to the family "religion" to resist its law. As James explains in his 1907 preface to the New York Edition of the novel, the story turns for him on how Newman, who has been characterized by the novel's [End Page 286] narrator as exceedingly "good natured," will respond to this wrong. Having become privy to a Bellegarde family secret--a letter written by the deceased Bellegarde patriarch charging his own wife with his death so that his daughter may be married to a man of whom he disapproves (M. de Cintré)--Newman first contemplates revenge, but at the very end "give[s] it up," and "let[s] the Bellegardes go," by burning the damning document in the fire (AM1 308, 306).

Blood rituals: Self-cutting in female psychiatric inpatients.

Blood rituals: Self-cutting in female psychiatric inpatients.

The rise of blood sacrifice and priest-kingship in Mesopotamia: A ‘cosmic decree’?

The first stage of civilization appeared in the Bronze Age with templecentred urban settlements. It is not known why priest-kings were suddenly accepted as hierarchically superior rulers entitled to provisions by their fellows who thereby turned themselves into mankind's first commoners. Sophisticated blood rituals became the most prominent activities of the first permanent lords. The origin of these sacred procedures remained equally enigmatic. Though well documented, the textual and archaeological sources, which point to catastrophic preconditions for the emergence of a sacrificial élite, are only rarely taken into consideration by students of religion. This paper tries to show the essential correctness of Mesopotamian myths, which claim the first ‘cult places’ and their priestly personnel to have emerged as institutions for ‘beclouded’ people in need of ‘counselling’ after natural disasters had inflicted ‘destructions’ on their habitats.