Description Of Ritual Research Articles

ABOUT FOLKLORE IN THE CREATIVE ACTIVITY OF MYKHAILO STARYTSKY AND MYKOLA LYSENKO AND ITS INFLUENCE ON THE FORMATION OF THE UKRAINIAN PROFESSIONAL MUSIC AND DRAMA THEATER

The article is devoted to the study of folklore activities of Ukrainian playwright, writer, poet, translator, theatrical and cultural figure, director, philanthropist, director of the first Ukrainian professional theater, the so-called “theater of luminaries”, Mykhailo Starytsky (1840–1904) and the founder of the Ukrainian national opera, composer, pianist, conductor, folklorist, public figure Mykola Lysenko (1842–1912). The main attention is paid to the analysis of the playwright’s use of descriptions of rituals, customs, traditions, folk morals of Ukrainians, as well as examples of the use of small folk genres, phraseology. It was found that for the Ukrainian community the study and preservation of folk traditions in the second half of the 19th century played an important role in the formation of national self-identification and national consciousness. The origins, features and functions of ethnography in Starytsky’s works are determined, in particular it is proved that the playwright’s use of descriptions of Christian and pre-Christian rites was primarily aimed at a true image of traditional Ukrainian society, an important component of which were ancient rituals, games, music and drama actions. It is shown how the rites of the winter and summer cycles of the folk calendar are reflected in various ways in the artist’s work, which is the most saturated with various bright rituals and customs. It is proved that the study of folk music significantly influenced the composer’s creativity. It is confirmed, that folklore in the works of Starytsky and Lysenko had a positive effect on the formation of the Ukrainian professional theater as a music and drama one.

Farewells to the War and Military Magic in the Folklore of the Cossack Period: Relationship with the Funeral Rite

The articleis aimed at the studying the military magic of Zaporizhzhya, Register and Black Sea Cossacks, as well as the rituals associated with their farewell to a land and sea campaigns. Main research methods include descriptive, comparative and comparative-historical ones. The source base is formed with folklore texts of the 16th–18th centuries, in particular, Ukrainian folk dumas, songs, prayers and incantations, as well as ethnographic descriptions of rituals and magical practices related to war. The authoress uses both previously published materials and her own recordings made during the last decade. The theoretical basis for the article consists of the works of predecessors, Ukrainian scientists of the 19th–20th centuries Mykola Kostomarov, Mykola Sementovskyi, Vasyl Myloradovych, Dmytro Yavornytskyi, Kateryna Hrushevska, Prokop Korolenko, and others, who have published a number of primary sources and attempted to analyze them. The scientific novelty of the work concerns the fact that it is the first comprehensive folkloristic study where a comparative analysis of collective and individual magical practices of the Cossack period is carried out. They are supposed to ensure the victory of the Cossack army over the enemy and save the life of every Cossack. All available materials indicate that the ritual of the farewell to war in Cossack times belongs to the rites of passage and is most closely related typologically to the funeral ritual, namely to the symbolic funeral. It duplicates such key elements of the funeral as preparation for death (preparation of new clothes, confession and communion of the Holy Mysteries), a ritualized form of farewell to relatives and the whole community, the use of occasional folklore forms (wishes, blessings, formulas of reconciliation with neighbours), ritual bringing the Cossacks out of «their» cultural space (house, yard, village), mourning a Cossack who goes on a campaign, a joint meal. The same places of farewell also appear: a threshold, a gate, the border of a settlement. Thus, sending off to war can be considered one of the forms of a symbolic funeral.

Origins of Moral-Political Philosophy in Early China: Contestation of Humaneness, Justice, and Personal Freedom, by Tao Jiang

One important question to ask when either writing or reviewing is: what is the ideal audience for this book? I would not recommend Tao Jiang’s Origins of Moral-Political Philosophy in Early China as an introductory book for non-specialists. Some of the best parts of this book are the opening accounts of the methodological disputes between Sinologists and philosophers (pp. 1-26), the discussions of how Chinese philosophy ties into issues of identity politics and ‘Orientalism’ (pp. 26-34), and the summary of recent archaeological discoveries and how they might inform our understanding of the received canon (pp. 97-111, 185-90). However, these sections will, in my opinion, be most interesting to those already conversant with Chinese philosophy. This book is also pitched to cognoscenti in its presentation of Chinese philosophers. For example, early in the book, Jiang informs the reader, ‘For Confucius, the Zhou [dynasty] institution of ritual and music represented the most legitimate and effective way of organizing the sociopolitical world’ (p. 54). However, the reader is not given an account of what ‘ritual’ refers to until later in the chapter. After quoting at length another author who gives a very abstract description of ritual, Jiang adds, ‘Simply put, in the ancient Chinese context, ritual was the general structure through which human beings interacted with each other as well as with the natural and the supernatural worlds’ (p. 68). But there is no specific example of what a ritual is until even later in the chapter (p. 73). My sense is that most general readers (and most philosophers) will need more examples of rituals and a clear explanation of why one might take ritual seriously as a tool of social control.

Folklore in Mykhailo Starytsky’s plays as a ground for the formation of Ukrainian music and drama theater

Statement of the problem. The study and preservation of folk traditions played an important role for the Ukrainian society in the process of forming national consciousness in the second half of the XIX century. It was from that time that the theater movement, whose soul M. Starytsky was, became active, and ethnography significantly influenced both the artist’s theatrical activity and the development of the Ukrainian music and drama theater in general. The article examines ethnographic elements in M. Starytsky’s plays with the purpose to find out the role of folklore in his work as a factor that influenced the formation of the Ukrainian music and drama theater. The scientific and practical novelty of the paper are conditioned by a lack of the separate comprehensive study devoted to ethnographic component as a part of M. Starytsky’s drama legacy and a basic factor of establishing of the Ukrainian musical and drama theater. The general scientific methods of researching, such as analysis, synthesis, generalization, allowed to process a significant amount of material, to draw theoretical conclusions. The principles of objectivity, historicism and systematization made it possible to analyze historical processes in all their contradictions and diversity. The interdisciplinary approach permitted to attract the results of scientific research from the areas of music, theater, and art history. Main attention is paid to the analysis of the playwright’s use of descriptions of rituals, customs, traditions, folk morals of Ukrainians, as well as the examples brining into play the small folk genres, phraseology. The results of the study. The origins, features and functions of ethnography in M. Starytsky’s works are determined, in particular, it is proved that the playwright’s use of the descriptions of Christian and pre-Christian rites was primarily aimed at a true image of traditional Ukrainian society, where the ancient rituals, games, musical and dramatic actions were an important component. It is shown how the rites of the winter and summer cycles of the folk calendar, which are most saturated with various bright rituals and customs, are reflected in various ways in the writer’s plays. It is confirmed that ethnography in M. Starytsky’s work had a positive effect on the formation of the Ukrainian professional theater as musical and dramatic. Conclusions. The folklore-ethnography, in particular calendar-ritual, component is one of the important expressive means, which gives M. Starytsky’s works picturesqueness, deepens the drama, strengthens the characters, makes their stage embodiment more vivid and at the same time emphasizes the peculiarities of the social age: traditions are still quite strong, however, something new is gradually entering the life of Ukrainian society. Customs and rituals embodied on drama scene become the basis for the progress of Ukrainian theater as a musical-dramatic: reflecting the characteristic features of the people’s soul, the folklore elements play an extremely important role, both in terms of reproducing the features of social lives, and from the viewpoint of preserving the national identity.

Dutch spirits, East Indians, and Hindu deities in Guyana: Contests over land

AbstractIn modern‐day Guyana (formerly British Guiana) residents of the coastal region of the country are susceptible to other‐than‐human powers: the spirits of Dutch colonizers, who claim ownership over the land, especially in areas where sugar plantations once operated. Regarded as the “masters of the land,” or “boundary masters,” Dutch spirits demand offerings and the recognition of land rights from their human co‐habitants. Through a description of rituals towards the land performed by members of a heterodox Hindu sect, the worship of the goddess Kali, this article addresses territorial sovereignty through the lens of lived and embodied practices of co‐habitation between East Indians and Dutch spirits, giving special attention to the processes of establishing proprietary rights over the land through such acts as planting trees.

Обрядовая поэзия хакасов в материалах Н. Ф. Катанова (к 160-летию со дня рождения)

The paper describes the main milestones of expedition and research activities of N. F. Katanov (1862-1922) and his contribution to the collection and study of folklore material. With most of N. F. Katanov’s scientific works and field materials still unpublished, this work aims to attract the attention of researchers to the material of the outstanding scholar. A more extensive study and publication of N. F. Katanov’s works will contribute to the preservation of the unique folklore tradition of the Turkic-speaking peoples of Southern Siberia and expand the range of research based on the scientist's folklore materials. Ritual poetry reflecting religious and mythological ideas of the people is the least studied genre of the Khakass folklore. The paper analyzes the texts of the late 19th century, recorded by N. F. Katanov (1878-1892) and published in the “Samples of folk literature of the Turkic tribes”. The Khakass ritual poetry is considered as a part of the folklore heritage collection of the first Khakass scholar. N. F. Katanov collected a wealth of material on ritual poetry from the Kachin, Kyzyl, Sagai, and Shors. Of great value are records of ceremonial folklore with full ethnographic descriptions of rituals, attributes used in rituals, actions performed by shamans, and their incantations addressed to deities and spirits-masters of localities. The scholar was especially interested in a rite as a complex interaction of word and action, ritual and verbal text. Also, N. F. Katanov recorded and left to descendants a rich fund of records of shamanic folklore.

ПРОСТІР ПОЗА МЕЖАМИ ЖИТЛА ТА «ЧУЖИНА» В ТРАДИЦІЙНИХ УЯВЛЕННЯХ УКРАЇНЦІВ

The article considers the issue of ideas about space outside the home and the concept of «foreignness» in the traditional worldview of Ukrainians. That topic is insufficiently covered in the professional literature, because authors often focus either on covering the topic in global or regional (Eastern European) contexts, or on considering certain aspects of it. Worldview issues for the traditional outlook are universal, but their individual manifestations and importance in each culture play the role of a national marker. Therefore, this article is based on the analysis of numerous examples of Ukrainian folklore, especially lyrical and calendar-ritual songs, legends and fairy tales, as well as descriptions of rituals collected by ethnographers and folklorists in the XIX – early XX centuries. In the course of the research, the authors find that spatial conseptions were based primarily on binary oppositions, that is the opposition of the simplest understood descriptive characteristics: «near-far», «big-small», «domestic-foreign». The opposition of «domestic» and «foreign» in the delimitation of space was of key importance: «domestic» seemed everything clear, inhabited, native, related to personal experience; «foreign» – distant, incomprehensible, dangerous. To understand the spatial delimitation, the authors consider worldviews in the semantic pairs «in the house»/»outside», «in the yard»/»beyond the gate», «in the own village»/»outside the village», «own land»/»foreignness». Particular attention is paid to the concept of «foreignness» in the Ukrainian worldview, which demonstrates worldviews of distant uninhabited space. The token «foreignness» has a large number of meanings that vary depending on the context of using the verbal wording. A «foreignness» can be a space outside the yard, a neighbor’s house, a neighboring village, a distant land, another state, and so on. An important element of the topic is the study of boundary symbolism, because the zoning of space determines the presence of symbolic limits between individual territories with different semantics. These boundaries are often acted upon by objects, loci, or architectural elements that are quite familiar to us. For example, gates, fences, relief elements. All these boundaries were symbolic, were part of the worldview and played a significant role in rituals.

Субрегиональные календарные традиции белорусов-переселенцев: стабильные, мобильные и уникальные компоненты

The article deals with the ritual and song components of the subregional calendar traditions of Belarusian settlers from the Omsk and Novosibirsk regions, Krasnoyarsk and Primorsky territories (records of songs and descriptions of rituals of the 1970s–2010s). It has been established that the subregional traditions of Belarusian settlers differ from each other in the composition of calendar rituals, the presence or absence of a song component in them and the number of song samples. The author comes to the conclusion that the annual calendar cycle of Belarusian migrants includes stable and mobile folklore and ethnographic complexes. Stable ones are developed in all the studied subregional traditions, in them the ratio of “rite-song genres” is balanced. Mobile ones may be present / absent in different sub-regional traditions or have different weight in their ritual-genre systems, the ratio of rituals and songs in such complexes is, as a rule, unequal. In addition, there are a small number of unique elements that distinguish any tradition from a number of others. The most stable is the winter festive folklore-ethnographic complex. It is present in all sub-regional traditions in sufficient completeness and safety. Only the Omsk subregion has a striking difference, where there is also a uniqat – the Christmas ritual game “Tereshka’s marriage”. The second stable component is the stubble ritual-labor complex with song genres related to it, including ritual ones and those dedicated to the season. The features of mobile folklore-ethnographic complexes are considered. The unique features of each subregional tradition are revealed.

Dancing around the Cauldron with Rangda, the Balinese widow-witch: Exploring gender relations and attitudes toward women and children in Southeast Asia

By taking a cross-cultural approach based on library research, content analysis, and fieldwork in the Philippines, this paper compares Southeast Asian and European tales. The Southeast Asian tales are rooted in local philosophical and cultural traditions. Balinese literature is replete with descriptions of rituals to ward off vampires. The flying half-bodied Aswangs in the Philippines, like their Malaysian sisterlings, can be shown to bear some resemblance to Balinese witches who culminate in the Rangda, the queen of witches. The Balinese ritual battle between the troubled widow witch Rangda and the gentle Barong offers a circular view of history that arguably holds to a universal notion of good and evil. In contrast, European witch tales can be traced back to the hysterical witch hunts and persecution of female midwives and healers in Medieval times that were perceived as threatening the power and authority of male doctors, priests, and landed government officials. The conclusion is that Southeast Asian lore connotes a different set of gender relations and attitudes toward women and children than European origin.

The Arts of Imitation in Latin Prose: Pliny's Epistles/Quintilian in Brief by Christopher Whitton

BOOK REVIEWS/COMPTES RENDUS 175 ship, for example, the author’s overstressing of fertility as an interpretative paradigm of women’s religion.5 As Meghan DiLuzio has noted, Boëls-Janssen overemphasises the role of the priestess Flaminica Dialis as a “fertility talisman.”6 Interpreting fertility as a function of many women’s rituals and of many gods and goddesses is indeed too generalising. Therefore, Panoussi should have been more cautious in basing her interpretations on Boëls-Janssen’s conclusions (Bacchus as a fertility god, 20; descriptions of rituals of Bona Dea, Fortuna Muliebris, and Mater Matuta as showcasing the value of female sexuality and fertility, 172). Furthermore, taking for granted Tacitus’ and Suetonius’ presentation of the emperor Nero as a bride or a groom in his weddings with two cinaedi (76–77) is problematic, since both authors severely distort the portrayals of the Roman emperors in order to undermine their masculinity along with the political system that enabled such “bad” emperors to rule in Rome. It would be much more fruitful to query how and with what aims Tacitus and Suetonius introduced compromising elements from Petronius’ satirical representation of the wedding of Giton and Pannychis, as discussed by Panoussi (66–74), into their depiction of Nero’s alleged homosexual weddings.7 A more intensive scholarly dialogue with recent literature on the religions of Rome would have also allowed Panoussi to address other problematic points in the reconstruction of Roman rituals and their literary representations, for instance her assumption that a holy marriage was usually a part of mystery cults (75). Nevertheless, Brides, Mourners, Bacchae: Women’s Rituals in Roman Literature is a thought-provoking read for students and scholars, offering complex discussions of multiple levels of representations of gender, ethnicity, and women’s rituals in Roman literature. Humboldt University Berlin Darja Ï Sterbenc Erker The Arts of Imitation in Latin Prose: Pliny's EPISTLES/Quintilian in Brief. By Christopher Whitton. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 2019. Pp. xviii, 557. Although the phenomenon of poetic intertextuality has been extensively discussed during the last three decades, that of prose intertextuality has yet to receive similar attention. Whitton’s learned book is an excellent contribution in this direction. It focuses on Pliny’s intertextual debt to Quintilian’s Institutio oratoria in his Epistles, which up until now had gone largely unnoticed, but at the same time it also examines many other aspects of Plinian intertextuality, including echoes of a variety of Greek and Latin authors. As a result, the value of this original and thought-provoking study lies not only in its exploration of Quintilian’s reception by his pupil and in the new light it sheds on the artistry of Pliny’s Epistles, but also, more broadly, in significantly improving our understanding of Roman rhetorical culture, prose intertextuality, and literary imitation. 5 N. Boëls-Janssen, La vie religieuse des matrones dans la Rome archaı̈que (Rome 1993). 6 M. DiLuzio, A Place at the Altar: Priestesses in Republican Rome (Princeton 2016) 23, n. 33. 7 Tacitus sought to shock his readers by depicting transgressions of gender norms in his portrayals of the emperors. Cf. Thomas Späth, “Skrupellose Herrscherin? Das Bild der Agrippina minor bei Tacitus,” in id. and B. Wagner-Hasel (eds.), Frauenwelten in der Antike: Geschlechterordnung und weibliche Lebenspraxis (Darmstadt 2000) 271. 176 PHOENIX The book starts with a few pages (xii–xvii) that present its aims and dispositio in lieu of a preface; in the following twelve chapters Whitton examines thematic clusters in Pliny’s Epistles that demonstrate his textual and ethical imitation of his teacher’s work. The first two chapters, entitled “Two Scenes from the Life of an Artist” (1–19) and “Setting the Stage” (20–68) respectively, play an introductory role. Chapter One convincingly establishes Quintilian’s intertextual presence in two letters of Pliny’s self-portrait (Ep. 1.6 and 9.36), where the latter meticulously, subtly, and minutely blends, reworks, and modifies aspects of Quintilian’s advice on writing (especially on dictation and country composition). Chapter Two, which serves as prolegomena, presents and compares the two protagonists as individuals and as authors (with the help of Ep. 2.14, 4.11, 4.13...

Secrecy, sacredness and unveiling of the Kalenjin cultural initiation rites

AbstractSecret rituals and a secret language are the core aspect of the seclusion and circumcision, which used to be an important part of the lives of men and women alike. They are meant to be secret, although descriptions of rituals can be found in academic texts as well as in the internet. This article aims at shedding light on the complexity of secrecy and the unveiling of secrets in the Kalenjin society of Kenya and explains the procedure of the unveiling and the various reactions of members of the society.

СИНТЕЗ ВОСТОЧНОГО И ЧУВАШСКОГО В ПОЭМЕ В. КЕРВЕНЯ «ЛЮДИ»

The article is devoted to the analysis of the combination of the Oriental and Chuvash lore traditions in the modern Chuvash literature. The subject of the research is the poem “Çынсем” (“People”) by V. Kerven. It is ascertained that in the work, the story basis is connected with the depiction of the hero Kayano’s life; the introduction of the publicistic and philosophical principle allows conveying reflections on the small-numbered indigenous peoples’ fate. The literary intention is identified through the use of legends and lore plots, the descriptions of rituals, and the peculiarities of the worldview. The authors reveal that through the story of the Oriental people’s fate the writer shows the problems of the Chuvash reality.

A Day in the Life of an Aesthetic Tāntrika: From Synaesthetic Garden to Lucid Dreaming and Spaciousness

This essay addresses the question of the relationship between Aesthetics and Tantra, in the world-view and life-world of Hindu Tantric visionary Abhinavagupta (ca. 975–1025 C.E.) and his tradition. I respond to a classic work on Abhinavagupta’s understanding of aesthetic experience and religious experience by shifting the focus from ultimate experience to the life of a liberated being. I argue that Abhinavagupta’s blending of Aesthetics and Tantra naturally follows from his view of liberation, which re-integrates the body and senses into the religious life, and affirms the reality of the material world in which the liberated being is embedded. I recover the very humanness and boundedness of Abhinavagupta as an additional way of understanding liberation. I draw on hymns of praise, descriptions of ritual, thoughts on hermeneutics of Being, and complex metaphors, from Abhinavagupta’s tradition, and engage with various thinkers, including Performance Theorist Richard Schechner and neurologist James Austin, to flesh out complex metaphors depicting the relationship between consciousness and the world. I conclude by reflecting on similarities between the Trika model of Self, as interpreted by Abhinavagupta’s student Kṣemarāja, and lucid dreaming.

Славяно-турецкое языковое и культурное взаимодействие (на материале хамаилов литовских татар)

One of the most common genre varieties of literary heritage of Lithuanian Tatars is the chamails. Due to their content, chamails are divided into two groups: prayer’s, intended for imams, and so-called faldjey’s, which besides prayers and descriptions of rituals includes materials on the Muslim chronology, advices on the treatment of diseases with the help of prayers, interpretation of dreams, magic texts. Unbelievable value for researchers represents chamails, in which most of the eastern texts of ritual content and prayers are accompanied by an interlinear translation into Belarusian / Polish language.The translated texts from the manuscript (signature 3246 ar.), stored at the Manuscripts and Rare Book Department of the Scientific Library of Kazan Federal University, and manuscripts (signature No. 869) from the collection of professor A. Muhlinsky, stored at the Library of St. Petersburg University, is going to be the object of the comparative study.

Cultural Transmission of Precautionary Ideas: The Weighted Role of Implicit Motivation

Inspired by the idea that cognitive systems evoke cultural phenomena, this study tested a theory suggesting precautionary cognitive mechanisms as both a constraint and an enabler of transmission of cultural concepts such as religious rituals. Using ‘restricted range of themes’ as a link between precautionary cognition and religious rituals, this cross cultural study of Zulu communities in sa tested people’s inferences about implications of failure to perform life-stage rituals in order to identify the nature of the presence of precautionary themes in Zulu rituals and any involvement of environmental factors. The results reflected inferences rather than echoing of formal descriptions of rituals, and revealed a consistent affinity between certain threat-domains and specific Zulu rituals: birth and early age rituals evoked the Contamination/Contagion domain, women’s maturity rituals evoked the Decline in Resources domain, marital rituals evoked a mixture of Decline in Resources and Loss of Status domains, and death rituals evoked the Predation/Assault domain. This suggests that precautionary cognition effect on religious rituals is mediated by life-history strategy rather than by ecology factors, and also, that understanding precautionary cognition is crucial for uncovering the real motivations for religious behaviour, as direct reports cannot be taken at face value.

Institutional Cultures of Assessment: A Qualitative Study of Administrator Perspectives

Abstract In this study, results are presented from a rigorous content analysis of responses to two open-ended questions included in the Administrators' Survey of Assessment Culture. A sample of 302 US higher education administrators provided 566 narrative responses addressing (1) the primary reason they conducted assessment on campus, and (2) how they would characterize their campus assessment cultures. Analysis revealed two meta-themes: “Institutional Structures,” including procedures, data usage, and accountability; and “Organizational Culture,” administrators' descriptions of rituals, artifacts, discourse, values, and change related to assessment. Implications are shared for reframing and cultivating notions of institutional cultures of assessment.

Institutional Cultures of Assessment: A Qualitative Study of Administrator Perspectives

Abstract In this study, results are presented from a rigorous content analysis of responses to two open-ended questions included in the Administrators' Survey of Assessment Culture. A sample of 302 US higher education administrators provided 566 narrative responses addressing (1) the primary reason they conducted assessment on campus, and (2) how they would characterize their campus assessment cultures. Analysis revealed two meta-themes: “Institutional Structures,” including procedures, data usage, and accountability; and “Organizational Culture,” administrators' descriptions of rituals, artifacts, discourse, values, and change related to assessment. Implications are shared for reframing and cultivating notions of institutional cultures of assessment.

Ritual, performance, and politics in the ancient Near East

In this book, Lauren Ristvet rethinks the narratives of state formation by investigating the interconnections between ritual, performance, and politics in the ancient Near East. She draws on a wide range of archaeological, iconographic, and cuneiform sources to show how ritual performance was not set apart from the real practice of politics; it was politics. Rituals provided an opportunity for elites and ordinary people to negotiate political authority. Descriptions of rituals from three periods explore the networks of signification that informed different societies. From circa 2600 to 2200 BC, pilgrimage made kingdoms out of previously isolated villages. Similarly, from circa 1900 to 1700 BC, commemorative ceremonies legitimated new political dynasties by connecting them to a shared past. Finally, in the Hellenistic period, the traditional Babylonian Akitu festival was an occasion for Greek-speaking kings to show that they were Babylonian and for Babylonian priests to gain significant power.

Die betekenis van ritueelteorie vir rousmartpastoraat

The value of ritual theory for pastoral care in times of grief. In this article the focus is on ritual theory and its relevance for pastoral care during the grief process. For these purposes the first task at hand is finding an appropriate description of what ritual implies, especially in the context of pastoral care. It includes studying different descriptions from different study fields to provide a broad theoretical view of ritual and to identify relevant perspectives. This view is narrowed to ritual as performance as well as legitimisation of experience. Concerning the pastoral aspect of grief care the research mainly focuses on the work of the Dutch practical theologian, Corja Menken-Bekius and the American practical theologian David Hogue. Menken-Bekius’ works on ritual from a clinical pastoral perspective while Hogue gives a neuropsychological perspective. Included in the processing of these two views are the works of anthropologist, Roy Rappaport and psychologist, Onno Van der Hart. Finding a description of ritual is not an easy task. The one offered is created with careful consideration of the inclusions and exclusions within the ‘idea’ of ritual. Meaning is subjective when it comes to ritual. A general meaning might be ascribed to a specific ritual, yet each individual might have a different experience and might attach different meanings. This happens unwittingly and unwillingly. What is found to be important in the rituals proposed in this article, is the ability of rituals to provide a framework of order within a situation of chaos and that it also creates a moment of remembrance.

English Convents in Eighteenth-Century Travel Literature

‘A Nun’s dress is a very becoming one’, wrote Cornelius Cayley in 1772. Similarly, Philip Thicknesse, witnessing the clothing ceremony at the English Augustinian convent in Paris, observed that the nun’s dress was ‘quite white, and no ways unbecoming … [it] did not render her in my eyes, a whit less proper for the affections of the world’. This tendency to objectify nuns by focusing on the mysterious and sexualized aspects of conventual life was a key feature of eighteenth-century British culture. Novels, poems and polemic dwelt on the theme of the forced vocation, culminating in the dramatic portrayals of immured nuns in the Gothic novels of the 1790s. The convent was portrayed as inherently despotic, its unnatural hierarchy and silent culture directly opposed to the sociability which, in Enlightenment thought, defined a civilized society. This despotic climate was one aspect of a culture of tyranny and constraint, which rendered nuns either innocent and victimized or complicit and immoral. Historians have noted that these stereotypes were remarkably similar to those applied to the Orient and have thus extended Said’s notion of ‘otherness’ - the self-affirmation of a dominant culture as a norm from which other cultures deviate – to apply not merely to oriental cultures but to those aspects of European culture deemed exotic. In so doing, they have challenged the notion that travel writing was an exact record of social experience and have initiated a more nuanced understanding of textual convention and authorial experience. For historians of eighteenth-century Britain this has led to an examination of the construction of anti-Catholicism within travel literature and its use as an ideology around which the Protestant nation could unite. Thus, Jeremy Black has noted that anti-Catholicism remained the ‘prime ideological stance in Britain’ and has claimed that encounters with Catholicism by British travellers in France ‘excited fear or unease … and, at times, humour or ridicule’. Likewise, Bryan Dolan and Christopher Hibbert have seen encounters with continental convents culminating in negative descriptions of rituals, relics and enclosed space.