Cult Activities Research Articles

State Coercive Power and the War on Cults in China

As a high-capacity authoritarian regime, China has made immense efforts to exterminate the Falun Gong and other “evil cults.” However, cult activities persist throughout the country. This article seeks to explain why the extensive government repression in China failed to achieve its goal of eliminating “evil cults.” By examining how economic reforms in China have created a relatively safe space for illegal activities, the article highlights the importance of going beyond a focus on the conventional coercive apparatus, and adopting a broad concept of coercive capacity for understanding authoritarian durability. State penetration facilitated by grassroots institutions provides a particularly important foundation for the regime’s coercive power. This study draws on a combination of quantitative and qualitative data. The quantitative study analysis uses a dataset compiled from 5,852 judicial cases in which 8,785 cult activities were prosecuted. The qualitative analysis is conducted as a case study based on fieldwork in a medium-size city in Hunan province.

The Space of the Stylite

For scholars and students of Late Antiquity, the stylite’s column exerts a special appeal. Scholars have examined literary representations of stylites and sought out visual parallels for the phenomenon of column-standing. This article shows that topographical contexts were central to establishing the potency of the column as a holy object and the trajectory of stylitism in history. I employ the term topography broadly to encompass the physical characteristics of an area, the ways in which humans augmented physical characteristics through the built environment, and specific architectural organizations. I examine three topographical contexts and make three interconnected arguments. By selecting the hill adjacent to Telanissos as the location for his columns, the premier stylite Symeon (d. 459) participated in a long-standing regional tradition of activating the numinous power of high places and stone through cultic activity. The monumental pilgrimage complex built after Symeon’s death made the column a relic and integrated veneration of Symeon into liturgical ritual. The incorporation of stylites into northern Syria’s cenobitic communities circumscribed stylitism as a distinctly monastic vocation. These three contexts illustrate that the significance of the column was located in processes of production and reception. At the same time, stylite columns were not passive objects. They faced the gods of old; they enriched ecclesiastical rituals; they molded the bodies of those who activated them; they proclaimed the ascendancy of monastic institutions. As both products of their topography and agents within it, stylite columns constructed a distinctive Christian landscape in Syria’s limestone massif.

社会工作参与邪教治理的介入路径研究

The illegal activities of cult organizations have brought enormous human, material, and economic losses to the country and people, and have caused irreparable personal harm to innocent people. The repeated occurrence of self harm or violence against others caused by cults that harm society shows that the remnants of cults have not been completely eliminated. Under the joint crackdown of multiple government departments and systematic operation, large-scale cult organizations have collapsed, but sporadic and small-scale cult activities are difficult to completely eradicate. Therefore, eliminating the breeding ground for cults and gradually cleaning up the problem of cult governance in cult organizations should be highly valued by the Party and the government, and preventing sporadic cults from resurgence through various opportunities. In terms of cult governance, the government has invested a large amount of governance resources, severely cracking down on cults and transforming cult followers, while safeguarding the basic rights of individuals involved in cults and guiding them to return to the community. From the professional perspective of social work, using the theoretical perspective of social work to analyze the problems of cults, and proposing the use of the three major professional methods of social work to participate in the governance of cults and the transformation of cult believers, promoting better solutions to cult governance issues.

Muhammadiyah dan Islam Wasathyah: Kajian tentang Agency Moderasi beragama melalui Sekolah Muhammadiyah

Muhammadiyah and wasathiyyah Islam are actually two things that cannot be separated because Muhammadiyah is an Islamic organization in Indonesia which has a mission of preaching amar ma'ruf nahi ungkar with an Islamic wasathiyyah approach. This research aims to examine in more depth using a literature approach the role of Muhammadiyah in strengthening religious moderation. The results of this research show that Muhammadiyah is an ideological group that represents Islamic groups in maintaining religious moderation as a national and state commitment. Has Tawassuth's commitment and principles, positions it as a moderate group, maintains balance and is consistent. Muhammadiyah makes Muhammadiyah schools as religious moderation agencies. Religious moderation in Muhammadiyah schools is carried out firstly, the religious da'wah model which is used as a space to implement religious moderation in this section consists of cult activities and religious lectures. Kultum or seven-minute lectures are a means of teaching religious moderation to students. Apart from religious lectures, secondly, Muhammadiyah schools also carry out social and religious activities

Penguatan Mental Mahasantri Al-Jamiah IAIN Curup Melalui Kuliah Tujuh Menit

Kultum is an abbreviation of 'seven-minute lecture', this makes every lecture activity carried out for a relatively short duration considered a kultum. From a linguistic point of view, a lecture or cult is a story or verbal explanation to express a purpose. In this research, the author used a qualitative descriptive research type. Qualitative research is collecting data in a natural setting to interpret phenomena that occur where the researcher is the key instrument. The morning cult activities at Ma'had al-Jami'ah Iain Curup are carried out every day. With direction from the ustadz dan ustadzah, the students who have finished the morning prayer then continue reading the selected surahs that have been determined, then after the students have finished reciting the Koran, the students sit in neat rows to listen to the sermon that has been scheduled by the ustadz dan ustadzah, and when The kultum has begun, the mahasantri listens carefully. Then, in carrying out the dawn kultum method to strengthen the mentality of the ma'had al-jami'ah mahasantri, they use various methods that are from the Islamic perspective, namely the example method, the habituation method, the advice method, the story method, and the reward method. Supporting and inhibiting factors for the implementation of the Subuh Kultum method in strengthening the mentality of Ma'had al-Jami'ah Iain Curup mahasantri can be seen from internal factors, the Mahasantri can listen well to the Subuh Kultum material being delivered, while the inhibiting factors are that Mahasantri are late in attending the Subuh Kultum and are noisy. during the dawn cult. Meanwhile, for external factors, there is good cooperation between fellow ustadz dan ustadzah to bring order to mahasantri, the availability of adequate facilities and infrastructure for carrying out the dawn cult, and the allocation of time specifically for the dawn cult. Meanwhile, the inhibiting factor is that the mahasantri often stop delivering cult material in the middle because they feel disturbed by the noisy mahasantri

Justice at the House of Yhw(h): An Early Yahwistic Defixio in Furem

What was the nature of ritual in ancient Yahwism? Although biblical sources provide some information about various types of cultic activity, we have thus far lacked any extra-biblical ritual texts from Yahwistic circles prior to Greco–Roman times. This article presents such a text—one that has been hiding in plain sight for almost a century on a small ostracon found on the island of Elephantine. It has variously been interpreted as dealing with instructions regarding a tunic left at the “house of Yhw”—the temple to Yhw(h) that flourished on the island from the middle of the sixth to the end of the fourth century BCE. While there is little debate regarding the epigraphic reading of this text, it has hitherto failed to be correctly interpreted. I present an entirely new reading of this important document, revealing it to be written in poetic form and to match the characteristics of a “prayer for justice” curse ritual. It is, in fact, the oldest known example of this genre; its only known specimen in Aramaic, its unique witness in a Yahwistic context, and the sole record of any ritual performance at a temple to Yhw(h). Significantly, it is administered by a priestess.

Who venerated the ancestors at the Petit-Chasseur site? Examining Early Bronze Age cultic activities around megalithic monuments through the archaeometric analyses of ceramic findings (Upper Rhône Valley, Switzerland, 2200–1600 BC)

Through the analyses of recovered pottery, this study explores the social dimension of an ancestor cult developed at the Petit-Chasseur megalithic necropolis (Upper Rhône Valley, Switzerland) during the Early Bronze Age (2200–1600 BC). The jar votive offerings and domestic pottery from settlement sites were characterized using a range of spectroscopic and microscopic techniques. Acquired archaeometric data allowed identification of six ceramic fabrics and two types of clay substrate—illite- and muscovite-based—which were used in pottery production. The present article discusses the pottery composition in the light of natural resources available in the region, thus shedding light on raw material choices and paste preparation recipes. The Early Bronze Age people that lived in the Upper Rhône Valley seem to have shared a common ceramic tradition, partly inherited from the previous Bell Beaker populations. The compositional correspondence between the jar offerings and domestic pottery revealed that the majority of the known Early Bronze Age groups partook in cultic activities at the Petit-Chasseur megalithic necropolis.

Peningkatan Kompetensi Guru PAI melalui Kegiatan Kultum Pagi di SMK PGRI 2 Kediri

Religious education is needed for every individual and as a school response to innovate such as cultural activities of teachers to students or students to students, one of which is with cult programs either from students to students or teachers to students, but in this study the cults were carried out by teachers to teachers. The focus of this research is how the preparation of teachers in delivering the morning cult, how to implement the morning cult and how the results of the morning cult activity on improving the competence of Islamic Religious Education (PAI) teachers at SMK PGRI 2 Kediri. This research is a type of qualitative research with a case study type using data collection methods; Observation, documentation and interview. The results of this study indicate that there is an increase in teacher competence, but the presenters do not yet have a detailed plan because they take into account the different readiness of each presenter, the implementation of the morning cult has been running smoothly even though there are still some obstacles from other teachers and the results of the cult activities morning cults can increase teacher competence, besides that morning cults can improve personal, social and professional skills of Islamic Religious Education teachers, but pedagogical competence does not increase significantly.

Mourning for Tammuz: Prophecy and Projection in Ezekiel 8:14

Abstract While many commentators take Ezek 8:14 at face value, ancient Near Eastern parallels call this understanding into question. Both East and West Semitic sources indicate that mourning rituals for a goddess’s dead consort were carried out in state-sponsored temples that symbolized the goddess. Since this does not accord with what is known about the Jerusalem temple in the early sixth century BCE, it is probable that the visionary writer of verse 14 has projected onto the temple observances for the dying god that did not belong to it. There are indications, however, that his mourning rites were also observed in less formal settings. Women were prominent participants in these popular rituals (as they were in funeral observances in general). It is likely, therefore, that the author of verse 14 knew of mourning rites for a dead god observed in Judah outside of the temple context. Since Ezekiel indicted illegitimate cultic activities that took place throughout the nation for defiling the central sanctuary, the vision of ritual mourning for Tammuz buttressed the prophet’s claim that YHWH had decided to abandon the temple. As it is uncertain that women in Judah called the dead god “Tammuz,” the use of that divine name may come from Ezekiel.

Review: Religious Violence in the Ancient World: From Classical Athens to Late Antiquity, edited by Jitse H. F. Dijkstra and Christian R. Raschle

Review: <i>Religious Violence in the Ancient World: From Classical Athens to Late Antiquity</i>, edited by Jitse H. F. Dijkstra and Christian R. Raschle

Предметы культового назначения у раннесредневековых тюрок Центральной Азии: опыт интерпретации археологических материалов

Written accounts provide information that allows us to assume the existence of a special group of people among the early medieval Turks of Central Asia associated with the implementation of cult activities. At the same time, the definition of their specific functions, the establishment of the attributes of such a practice, and many other aspects within the framework of the designated subject remain debatable. Significant prospects are associated with the study of archaeological materials that quite fully characterize the material and spiritual culture of the Turks. The article presents an overview of the extensive source base, analyzes the results of excavations of burial complexes, and compares the observations made with the existing experience in interpreting sites from various chronological periods. This made it possible to present a range of objects that were supposedly associated with the implementation of cult activities. It has been established that most of these finds from burials demonstrate the spread of the practices of “personal magic”, including things that served as personal amulets. The author formulates assumption that the absence of explicit burials of clergymen among Turks reflects the performance of such actions not by a special professional group of people, but by the heads of clans or elders.

Динамика процесса пост/де/секуляризации среди молодежных групп московского мегаполиса

This article analyzes the monitoring indicators of sociological studies of the capital of Russia, characterizing the involvement of young people in religious and secularization processes over the past 15 years. The analysis is based on monitoring data conducted by the Institute for Socio-Political Research and the Institute for Demographic Re-search of the Federal Scientific Research Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences in 2008-2021. The problematic situation is related to the fact that the subject of re-search is at the intersection of the interaction of two changing subjects – youth and society, as well as two cultures – secular and confessional. The general framework of the research methodology is defined by the concepts of post/de/secularization. The orientation of the process of post/de/secularization of Moscow youth was determined through a fixed system of indicators, including: the level of traditional religiosity and atheism of youth groups; the level of "unchurched", non-confessional religiosity of youth; dynamics of post/de/secularization of youth groups; involvement of youth age groups in cult activity. It is noted that the materials of sociological data of recent years continue to reveal a trend towards a gradual decrease in the level of traditional religiosity and "church-mindedness" of the young generation of the capital metropo-lis. Cult activity among the capital's youth does not exceed 7-8%, while among the population as a whole it is at the level of 10-11%. At the same time, the share of reli-gious “non-confessional” youth has increased over the past five years. In general, the religious situation in the youth environment, as well as in society, is characterized by blurring of the boundaries between religious and secular consciousness: a decrease in the level and degree of religiosity with an increase in atheistic sentiments. It was de-termined that the most common motives for the manifestation of cult activity are due not to religious, but to ethno-cultural factors. Based on methodological and methodo-logical principles, researchers record the continuation of negative dynamics in the de-velopment of desecularization, stating the restoration of the process of secularization of the youth of the Moscow metropolis. Acknowledgment: The article was prepared within the framework of the Program of Fundamental and Applied Scientific Research "Ethnocultural Diversity of Russian Society and Strengthening the All-Russian Identity" (Order of the President of the Russian Federation No. PR-71 dated 16.01.2020).

Сарматские культы и общество сарматов

The proposed article addresses the problem of social reflection of the cult life of the Sarmatians, investigated with the help of archeology and written tradition. In the article, special attention is paid to the concept of priesthood, which is compared with other concepts (healers, fortune-tellers, shamans). There is a practice in the archaeological literature to use a certain set of signs for attributing burials as priestly. Researchers usually refer to priestly burials as female and male burials with extraordinary grave goods. But these burials are more likely to be the burials of leaders and their wives and are associated with the performance of certain cult actions by them. Shrines and ritual sites, as well as cult objects known in Sarmatian culture, are not necessarily associated with the specialization of cult activities. The use of the concepts of ‘Sarmatian priests’, ‘Sarmatian priestesses’ and ‘priestly attributes’ by the archaeologists is rather a tribute to historiography, but upon closer examination, they turn out to be historiographical phantoms rather than a reflection of social realities.

Aslak Rostad. Human Transgression—Divine Retribution: A Study of Religious Transgressions and Punishments in Greek Cultic Regulation and Lydian-Phrygian Propitiatory Inscriptions (“Confession Inscriptions”)

Aslak Rostad. <i>Human Transgression—Divine Retribution: A Study of Religious Transgressions and Punishments in Greek Cultic Regulation and Lydian-Phrygian Propitiatory Inscriptions (“Confession Inscriptions”)</i>

Nuraghi as Ritual Monuments in the Sardinian Bronze and Iron Ages (circa 1700–700 BC)

AbstractStarting with a brief review of different theories about the residential and defensive uses of Sardinian nuraghi (monumental stone towers), the author assesses their ritual significance and functions from the standpoint of architecture and design, similarities to other cult buildings, and associated features and finds. Evidence for cult activities in certain towers has grown in recent years and is widely accepted for the Iron Age (circa 950–700 BC) and later. By contrast, ritual practices are not often recognized for the much longer period of tower construction and usage in the Bronze Age (circa 1700–950 BC). This is attributable partly to the now dominant hypothesis of a transformation in the function and status of nuraghi in the Iron Age and an assumed separation between sacred and secular buildings in the nuragic period. The author challenges this perspective while discussing the contribution of ritual to the social, economic, and political uses of nuraghi in the Bronze Age.

The arm-shaped vessels in Anatolia and the Eastern Mediterranean during the Late Bronze Age: a morphological and contextual analysis

The so-called libation arms found in Anatolia and the Eastern Mediterranean during the Late Bronze Age, belong to the ceramic class Red Lustrous Wheel-made Ware, characterized by a very fine fabric, a careful cooking and a red slipped and polished surface. Even if they were thoroughly analyzed, it was generally assumed that these objects were linked to religious or cultic activities and destined to libatory action. However, no systematic investigation was carried out in relation to their finding contexts. This paper presents the results of a morphological and contextual analysis of this specific artifact. It offers suggestions for production areas, function and distribution on the base of a catalog that collects all the pieces found so far and on the analysis of each finding context. The data seem to indicate an Anatolian type of production unrelated to that of the Red Lustrous Wheel-made Ware, which is solely linked to religious activity.

Defining Citizenship in Archaic Greece ed. by Alain Duplouy and Roger Brock

Reviewed by: Defining Citizenship in Archaic Greece ed. by Alain Duplouy and Roger Brock Naomi T. Campa Defining Citizenship in Archaic Greece. Edited by Alain Duplouy and Roger Brock. Oxford, UK and New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2018. Pp. xiii + 370. Hardback, $120.00. ISBN: 978-0-1988-1719-2. The edited volume under review began as two conferences in 2009 and 2010.1 The contributors are all respected scholars in the field who represent an array of methodological approaches to citizenship. The uniting factor is the recognition of the archaic period as a valuable era of study in its own right, rather than solely a precursor to the classical age, and an overt rejection of the traditional view of citizenship based on Aristotle's standard of holding office and administering justice.2 Looking beyond an institutional definition of citizenship that privileges political office, the volume showcases what it meant for the Greeks of the archaic period to be citizens from the standpoint of descent and participation. An examination of the table of contents reveals the impressive range of contributions. The chapters explore the role of military obligations, commensality, religion, athletics, associations, luxury and other community delimiting activities. The volume serves both as a compilation of the current state of scholarship on archaic Greek citizenship and as a call to action, with some chapters laying the groundwork for future developments in the field. Rather than produce the most cursory summaries of all the chapters within the constraints of this review, I will instead highlight representative chapters, in particular those that gesture towards new directions for the field. Thus, exclusion by no means indicates a lack of quality or appeal. The book opens with Duplouy's wide-ranging survey that lays out traditional approaches to citizenship and the general response to them of the past couple of decades. Announcing from the outset that his survey will not be comprehensive, he manages to dip into controversies without getting bogged down. Despite his caveat, the chapter is a useful outline of the main currents of scholarship for those wishing to situate the chapters that follow. In "State Formation in Early Iron Age Greece: The Operative Forces," Davies [End Page 366] presents a model of six forces that lead to the development of the polis and so citizenship (namely, the exceptional individual, population, the environment, the supernatural, convertible resources and the combination of memory, imagination and identity). His self-proclaimed experimental approach is intended to lessen the gap between Classics and the social sciences and between the Late Bronze Age and the Early Iron Age. Davies suggests that his chapter is preparatory to future analysis since the work is incomplete without an account of the interaction of those forces. Blok's following chapter, "Retracing Steps: Finding Ways into Archaic Greek Citizenship," develops what a citizenship that decenters office holding was like in practice. She brings a keen eye to the study of terminology for "citizens" and participation in the polis in order to present a view of citizenship rooted in cult activity that is capacious enough to include women. While less detailed than her monograph, Blok's methodology reveals what careful philology coupled with historical method can accomplish.3 In line with the revisionist stance of the book, in "Citizenship and Civic Subdivisions: The Case of Sparta," Lupi makes the novel argument that obai were not in fact the five villages that predated Laconia's synoikism, but that they were the Spartan-variety of phratry (a subdivision of phylai). The contemporary evidence for archaic Sparta, including an inscription and fragments of Tyrtaeus, makes it a good case study for demonstrating the link between civic subdivisions and archaic citizenship. Whitley's chapter "Citizenship and Commensality in Archaic Crete: Searching for the Andreion" combines literary, epigraphic and archaeological evidence, which are at times at odds with each other, to show the role of dining groups in citizenship. He frames the activity in these groups as "diacritical feasting" that delineated citizens from non-citizens in Crete. Whitely does not attempt to answer every question he raises, but encourages greater incorporation of archaeology in historical argument. Duplouy puts his introductory comments into action...

Использование фаланг быков населением Северной Кулунды в энеолите (по материалам поселения Новоильинка-VI)

The settlement of Novoilinka-VI is located in the Khabar district of the Altai Territory, 8 km west of the village of Novoilinka. In the materials of the first cultural horizon of the monument, an expressive series of bone tools was found. For this horizon, six radiocarbon dates were obtained from animal bones. Four of them were performed by liquid scintillation method (LSC) SOAN-9042 4290±95 l.n., SOAN-9043 4320±100 l.n., IGAN-5312 4210±80 l.n., IGAN-5311 4190±90 l.n. and three using the method of accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) 4485±20 l.n., 4505±20 l.n., 4485±20 l.n. Osteological collections of the first horizon of the settlement Novoilinka-VI were processed in the field by L.L. Gaiduchenko. In the course of this, samples were selected for permanent storage and further study in the laboratory of Altai State University. Forty-five second phalanges of bulls are represented in the collection. Of these, twenty have traces of processing and/or use of varying degrees of intensity. On some objects, external influence has greatly changed the natural bone surface, on others only barely noticeable traces are recorded in certain areas. The working versions of both non-utilitarian actions with phalanges (their participation in games, cult activities) and the use of some artifacts as ceramic smoothing tool, abrasive tool, a product for weight. Analogies to the materials under consideration are numerous and can be traced across the vast expanses of Northern Eurasia from the Eneolithic era to the ethnographic time. However, the second phalanges from the collection of the first cultural horizon of the settlement of Novoilinka-VI have their own specifics. This distinguishes them both among the materials of synchronous monuments (Botai settlement) and later ones. The materials obtained and the results of studying the presented collection of the second phalanges expand our understanding of the material and spiritual culture of the Eneolithic population of Northern Kulunda.

Some reflections on the sacral role of Egyptian royal women of the New Kingdom

The paper deals with a controversial question concerning the character of the sacral role of the royal women in the context of the concept of divine queenship. As the queenship is seen in modern Egyptology as an essential constitutive element of the ideology of kingship, the sacral role of the royal women is frequently determined as similar or even parallel to that of the king. In particular, the sacral scenes with the images of the royal women performing the rites in pair with a king or alone are sometimes considered as an illustration to this interpretation. As the author of the present paper suggests, this approach needs a reеvaluation, which should be based on a careful examination of all surviving scenes depicting a cultic activity of the royal women. Among other issues the author touches, as well, the problem of the sacral role played by Nefertiti whose official position differs considerably of that of other royal women. A preliminary study of figurative and epigraphical sources, especially of the offering scenes with representations of the royal women, allowed the author to assume that in the majority of cases they played an auxiliary and secondary role. Indeed, since the Ramesside period the most widespread iconography of a royal woman is her representation shaking the sistrum/sistra – an auxiliary action in the divine cult. Thus, the thesis about the great king’s wife (or the king’s mother)’ role as a counterpart of the king in his cultic functions should be revised, if not rejected.

Официальная религиозная жизнь православного Прикамья в документах фонда уполномоченного по делам религий

The author proposes to reconstruct the religious life of the Orthodox Kama region in the period after the Great Patriotic War through the prism of documents contained in the fund of the regional commissioner for religious affairs. To analyze the information, the method of historical criticism of sources is used. Reconstruction of the realities of local Orthodoxy is carried out taking into account the political context of the post-war period, government decrees of that time and the specifics of the profession and worldview of those who compiled the documents. The features of drawing up documents for official use are taken into account. The reconstruction was based on annual information reports, service notes and materials of participant observations in the temples of the region from 1948 to 1990, which made it possible to trace the dynamics of quantitative changes in participation in cult practice. The object of the research was the official ritual activities during the daily period and holidays. The main research issue of the article is to identify the specifics of the religious life of the local Orthodox community under constant pressure from atheistic ideology. This presupposes the identification of the most popular forms of participation of believers in ritual activities and the establishment of strategies for religious behavior that would make it possible to realize the faith under pressure from the state. To verify the data obtained, both the interview data contained in the fund and the author's modern research materials, characterizing the current situation in Orthodoxy, were used. The study revealed trends in the extinction of traditional ritual activities against the background of changes in the behavior of believers and the formation of new principles of attitudes towards religion and the church. The main factors influencing the transformation of religious behavior of believers have been identified. The available statistical data on the participation of Orthodox citizens in official religious practice are analyzed. The special status of Orthodoxy in late Soviet society as a position of the synthesis of religious and Soviet behavior for believers is determined. Two trends in the culture of the population of the region are highlighted: the success of the policy of atheization of citizens and the strengthening of cult activity at the level of individual forms of religious behavior.