Life-cycle Rituals Research Articles

Ambivalent heritage: tourism, weddings and pilgrimage in Hisor, Tajikistan

ABSTRACT This article considers the social and symbolic work of Hisor as a site of Tajikistan’s cultural heritage. Hisor carries with it an array of meanings and represents a convergence of multiple spheres of social life: leisure, education, life-cycle rites and religiosity. Hisor’s flexibility allows it to materialize Tajikistan’s governing ideology as one local project of modernity. This article discusses three contexts in which visitors experience Hisor as heritage: tourist visits to the ‘Old Madrassa’ museum, wedding photographs in front of the fortress walls and pilgrimages to the shrine of Makhdumi Azam. The heritage practices and discourses associated with Hisor offer a complex case study of how the temporal ambivalence of heritage operates on the ground in Central Asia and suggest some of heritage’s utility as a social practice for instantiating cultural memory.

Rate' Singing: Religious humming as a marker of cultural identity in Makassar’s life cycle rituals

Rate' Singing: Religious humming as a marker of cultural identity in Makassar’s life cycle rituals

Life cycle rituals of Greeks of Russia: birth, wedding, funerals (based on the materials of ethnolinguistic expeditions held in 2022–2024)

Life cycle rituals of Greeks of Russia: birth, wedding, funerals (based on the materials of ethnolinguistic expeditions held in 2022–2024)

Полевые дневники Б.А. Куфтина, руководителя Тунгусской экспедиции, как источники эпохи становления советской этнографии

The article analyzes the travel diaries of the head of the Tunguska expedition of 1927–1928, Boris Kuftin (1892–1953). Methods and materials. Participants of the Tunguska Expedition conducted field research on Lake Baikal and the Far East in places where Evenks, Nanais, Negidals, Nivkhs, Oroches, and Udeges people lived. They collected valuable ethnographic materials about the ethnocultural features of settlement, types of dwellings, fishing activities, life cycle rituals, shamanism, holidays, and features of the language and folklore of the Tunguso-Manchus and Paleoasiats. Field notebooks of B.A. Kuftin are stored in St. Petersburg, in the Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (the Kunstkamera) of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and contain a large volume of ethnographic and anthropological information, drawings, shamanic texts, and various life support technologies. Results. However, in addition to them, the scientific heritage of the scientist has a travel diary, which reflects personal road observations and impressions of B.A. Kuftin, subjective characteristics of regional transport infrastructure in the first quarter of the 20th century, his own assessments of the development of Siberian and far Eastern historical science, their relationship with world science, and museum business in Eastern Siberia and the Far East. During the route, B.A. Kuftin met a large number of scientists – representatives of different scientific disciplines – who showed aspects of their complex social relations at the time.

Urbanization and its Impact on the Cultural Values in the Life Cycle Rituals of the K’Ho Ethnic Group in Lam Dong Province, Vietnam

Urbanization significantly affects the cultural values embedded in the life cycle rituals of ethnic communities. This paper explores the transformation of cultural values within the life cycle rituals of the K’Ho ethnic group in Lam Dong Province, Vietnam, focusing on weddings and funerals. Utilizing urbanization as a phenmenon, it examines how these rituals evolve in response to the pressures and opportunities of urban life, highlighting the dynamic interplay between tradition and modernity in a rapidly urbanizing context. The research employs a sociological framework, combining primary data collection through detailed surveys and in-depth interviews with 26 individuals, and secondary document analysis. The survey included 477 household questionnaires, focusing on K’Ho households in Ta Nung commune and Lac Duong town. Document analysis involved examining books, scientific reports, statistical data, and other relevant sources to provide comprehensive insights into the effects of urbanization on K’Ho life cycle rituals. The study concludes that urbanization significantly impacts the cultural values and practices of the K’Ho ethnic group, leading to the professionalization and simplification of traditional rituals. Traditional practices are increasingly infused with modern elements, reflecting broader socio-economic transformations and the integration of new cultural norms. These findings underscore the importance of detailed, context-specific analyses to understand the unique cultural heritage and socio-economic conditions of ethnic communities in the face of urbanization.

Exploring place attachment: Insights from post-Gorkha earthquake resettlement planning in Nepal

This study investigates the relationship between place attachment and resettlement planning in Nepal post the Gorkha Earthquake of 2015. Focusing on functional place dependence, it analyses place attachment within the Panipokhari Integrated Settlement, designed for the Thami community in Dolakha district. Using "residential satisfaction" as a parameter to measure the influencing factors of place dependence, data were collected through a Likert scale survey, interviews, and observations. The analysis encompassed Cronbach's Alpha for reliability (α = 0.825), mean satisfaction scores for evaluation, and Spearman’s rank correlation to explore relationships between residential satisfaction parameters and place dependence factors. The study revealed significant correlations, highlighting varied influences on place attachment. Notably, social connectivity, represented by nearness to relatives (r = 0.720, p = 0.000), exhibited a strong positive correlation. Similarly, infrastructure amenities like electricity (r = 0.532, p = 0.000) displayed a relatively strong positive correlation, while access to health facilities (r = 0.447, p = 0.002) demonstrated a moderate positive correlation. Moreover, settlement planning components—kitchen gardens (r = 0.623, p = 0.000), open spaces (r = 0.578, p = 0.000), settlement layout (r = 0.549, p = 0.000), and cattle sheds (r = 0.574, p = 0.000)—significantly correlated with increased attachment. Additionally, housing design factors like immediate exterior spaces (r = 0.730, p = 0.000), spaces for life cycle rituals (r = 0.771, p = 0.000), and social events (r = 0.663, p = 0.000) and building performance factor winter thermal comfort (r = 0.606, p = 0.000)displayed substantial positive correlations. Acknowledging study limitations, it offers insights for planners and policymakers, stressing holistic approaches for sustainable resettlement. Future research should explore diverse factors and contexts, emphasizing the dynamic nature of place dependence. Ultimately, the study underscores the intricate relationship between satisfaction parameters and place attachment, urging comprehensive resettlement strategies.

Benteng Wuna: Tantangan Golongan Bangsawan Muna di Era Modern

Fort Wuna as evidence of the residential separation of the Muna noble class shows that the social stratification system still applies in Muna even though many people still have middle to lower economic conditions. This research aims to find out what challenges are faced by the Muna noble class in the modern era with middle to lower economic conditions. The theory used in this research is Everyday Form of Resistance by James C. Scott. By using ethnographic methods, it was found that the Muna aristocrats who are in the middle to lower economic conditions must always maintain traditions by performing life cycle rituals that require a lot of money. The tactics used in overcoming these problems are by way of donations from relatives and superimposing their children in the procession of life cycle rituals carried out by other noble families.

“And I Believe in Signs”: Soviet Secularity and Islamic Tradition in Kyrgyzstan

AbstractIn Central Asia, the Soviet state had destroyed most Islamic institutions by the late 1930s, which gradually alienated millions of Soviet Muslims from the basics of Islamic theology and key Islamic practices of virtue cultivation, including the five daily prayers (namaz), Islamic ethics of dressing (like covering certain parts of the body), and certain lifestyle prescriptions (such as the avoidance of alcohol, gambling, and premarital sex). As a result, mainstream Islam in Central Asia came to revolve around the main Islamic life-cycle rites (i.e., male circumcision, the marriage ceremony, and funeral prayer) and occasional practices of uttering blessings, reciting short Qur’anic verses for the souls of the deceased, and visiting shrines, among others. Although more than thirty years have passed since the fall of the USSR, this non-observant form of Islam remains widespread in the region. Inquiring into the conceptual and affective aspects of Soviet forced secularization in Central Asia, I make two interrelated interventions into secularism studies and the anthropology of Islam. First, I theorize Soviet secularism through attending to the modern state’s aspiration to transcend and transform the particularities of lived traditions, which reveals significant overlaps between communist and liberal modes of statecraft and subject formation. Second, reflecting on a non-observant form of Islam in contemporary Kyrgyzstan, I ask: what remains of a tradition of virtue ethics when its modes of abstract reasoning and virtue cultivation have all but vanished?

Name System Based on Birth Order as A Balinese Ethnic Identity in Bali Indonesia

This article results from field research that describes a naming system based on birth order, namely Wayan, Made, Nyoman, and Ketut, as Balinese ethnic identities. Data analysis uses an interaction cycle consisting of various activities: data collection, data reduction, data display, and conclusion drawing and verifying. The research objective is to describe the meaning of the naming system and its changes. The results of the study show that this naming system is not only a Balinese ethnic identity but also has social, cultural, psychological, and religious-magical meanings for the owner of the name. This meaning causes the Balinese to recognize the life cycle ritual of giving a name, namely nelubulanin. This ritual is an obligation for the parents in Bali.

Life Cycle Rites in Worldview System of Buryat People (Material from Archive of S. P. Baldaev)

The significance of this study lies in the necessity of conducting a scientific analysis of folklore and ethnographic materials collected by one of the first folklorists in ethnic Buryatia, S. P. Baldaev. The analysis was carried out on texts recorded in the Transbaikal and Pre-Baikal regions, which relate to the rituals of the Buryat life cycle, including wedding rituals, childbirth rituals, and initiation rituals. These rituals had a fundamental influence on the formation of the worldview of traditional Buryat society. It is emphasized that the life cycle rituals clearly differentiated gender and age responsibilities and regulated interpersonal relationships within the family. Folklore and ethnographic data preserved in the Center for Eastern Manuscripts and Xylographs of the Institute of Mongolian Studies, Buddhist Studies, and Tibetology of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences are introduced into scientific circulation. The results of the study will contribute to enriching the Buryat understanding of the world order with new facts and historical materials, which are relevant both for academic science and for contemporary society, which has a demand for the revival of traditional values.

Шаманские лечебные обряды западных бурят

Introduction. In the Buryat tradition, healing was a most common function attributed to shamans. The main pragmatic aspect of healing depends on the semiotic component of a ritual, communicative connection with the other world being a key indicative. Healing practices of Turko-Mongolian shamans were distinguished by that rituals were accompanied by spells aimed at propitiating or neutralizing spirits of disease to be communicated with during the ritual. Goals. The study seeks to analyze archival shamanic verbal materials of Western Buryats once articulated in the course of utilitarian pragmatic ritual efforts supposed to treat the sick. The Buryat shamanic practices have not yet been considered in this perspective. Materials and methods. The work involves scientific and methodological experiences of scientists who had investigated main issues of traditional Mongolian medicines from historical and ethnographic perspectives. The paper approaches medical practices of Mongols in the context of religious and mythological ideas. The main research method is the semantic-hermeneutical analysis of verbal material. Results. Shamanic healing practices of Buryats are ritual and magical activities serving to propitiate and appease the mythological spirit of disease. The shaman/shamaness implement no therapeutic measures, they only somewhat actualize some magical functions aimed at eliminating causes of the disease. Conclusions. Semiotic rituals are main elements of a ritual performance; the ritual basis of Buryat shamanic healing practices is essentially monotypic, and rests on belief in magical powers of word and ritual; the actual types of rituals implemented during treatment correspond to main calendar and life-cycle rituals. The healing ritual uses rudiments and fragments of earlier healing methods preserved in the folk tradition.

The Changing Sacredness and Taboo in Life Cycle Ritual : A Comparative Analysis among Migrated Tribes of Periurban Area

Tribals are unique in their culture due to continued closeness to nature, forests, flora and fauna. They have different traditions, cultures, lifestyles, beliefs, food, languages, rituals etc. They are unique in their worship rites and sacraments of organized religions and cults, atonement and purification rites, oaths of allegiance, dedication ceremonies, coronations and presidential inaugurations, marriages, funerals etc. Krushnanagar is a small village is located in Chandaka tehsil of Khordha district in Odisha, India, having a population of 468 people, out of that 90% are tribal people and rest 10% are scheduled cast people. Bhubaneswar is nearest city to krushnanagar for all major economic activities, which is approximately 20 km away. The people in the villagers have migrated from Mayurbhanj district to Krishnagar of Chandaka Tahsil around 30-50 years ago, in search of better livelihood. I have taken two majority tribes in krushnanagar i.e Bhumij and santal for the study and observed that there has been socio cultural changes in tribal societies in terms of culture, religion, and economic aspects. They perform rituals very similar to Hinduism and very similar to the culture followed in nearby cities Bhubaneswar and Cuttack. This article, with an aim to describe the changing sacredness and taboo among the tribals of Krushnanagar village due to the impact of modernisation and close proximity to culturally rich city of Odisha. Primary data collected through census analysis and discussion with village headman and other villagers vis a vis literature available in this context have been made as base. It is observed that the sanctity of most of the rituals are not being practiced anymore or some new rituals are being adapted. Now taboo is a different concept in all society. There has been a continuous acculturation process in the practices of life cycle rituals. Newly conceptualized stages have emerged, such as “bridal shower”, “baby shower”, “bachelorette party”, “empty nest”, etc. These celebrations are derived from evolving stages of life and signify progression and change. They can be culminated and categorized under traditional classifications of the life cycle rituals and represent the dynamic growth of society and culture in today’s modern and technologically advanced world..

A Study on Life Cycle Rituals of Kisan Tribe in Odisha

The Kisan Adivasi constitutes a single among the 62 tribes recognized in Odisha. The Kisans do better than the other ethnic groups in comparison. In Odisha's western region, they are primarily found in Sundergarh, Jharsuguda, Sambalpur, and Deogarh, among others as well, belong to the various regions of Orissa where a large number of people live in Bargarh, Balangir, Kalahandi, Keonjhar, Jaipur, and Boud are further districts wherever it is located. Cultivator is the meaning of the word "Kisan." The name "Kisan" was given to him since this group of people has a long history of cultivation. These individuals had a variety of local designations and were found all throughout the entire globe.Kola and Morva can be identified by their given names in the Kuchinda block of the Sambalpur district, just as Kuda, Kor, and Mirdha are located within the Sundergarh district. Kisans, unlike other ethnic groups, speak a particular language. Comparable to indigenous languages of many different kinds of mankind, they interact in Kurukh, Odia, and Sambalpuri in as well as Kisan. Hinduism is recognised as the dominant religion among the Kisans. In spite of this, a large number of Kisan tribe people have converted to Christianity from Hinduism. In addition to older people, they love nature. Together with them and Budhabandha, Ganasir, Baghiya, Gosain, Veemdevata as their village deity, Samalai Mahaprabhu is praised as the house deity while the place where cows and other animals graze. This worship is referred to as guhalpuja. Born into a Kisan family, they speak in Kisan, because Kunhan, while they must adhere to a number of social laws between the time they are born until the day they pass away. The purpose of this paper is to present the Kisan tribe's life cycle rituals in the Indian state of Odisha. The authors of this article used information gathered from primary and secondary sources when writing it.

A Study on Life Cycle Rituals of Kisan Tribe in Odisha

A Study on Life Cycle Rituals of Kisan Tribe in Odisha

Обряд сватовства у тувинцев Монголии (полевые материалы авторов)

Introduction. The article examines the authors’ field data for an insight into a key wedding element — the matchmaking ceremony practiced by Tuvans inhabiting Bayan-Ölgii and Khovd provinces of Mongolia. It is due to the latter’s isolation that their material and spiritual culture — and specifically life-cycle rites — still retain somewhat unique features to be identified with the aid of comparative analysis. Goals. The paper aims to investigate the matchmaking ceremony of Tuvans from Bayan-Ölgii and Khovd provinces of Mongolia and, thus, shed light on most ancient beliefs and cults, customs and rituals, clarify questions of ethnogenetic and ethnocultural ties with the core ethnic community — Tuvans of the Tyva Republic (Russia). Methods. The work employs contemporary interdisciplinary research methods that facilitate a comprehensive approach involving methodological principles of related scientific disciplines, such as source studies and ethnography. Investigation of objective reality at the nexus of several related humanities fields shall yield a wider picture of ethnic specificities inherent to the examined culture and its functioning principles in the Tuvan ethnos at large. Results. The article considers archival and newly obtained field data on the matchmaking ceremony practiced by Tuvans of Khovd and Bayan-Ölgii aimags of Mongolia. Conclusions. Thus, the work presents a comparative ethnographic analysis of ritual matchmaking practices observed among Tuvans of Mongolia.

Then Zipporah took a Flint … Circumcision as a Rite of Passage in Exod 4,24-26

ABSTRACT This article about Exod 4,24-26 argues that God is willing to kill Moses since he had not circumcised his son. The ritual described in the textual unit is an example of circumcision as a life cycle ritual at the threshold of adulthood. Originally, circumcision in ancient Israel was not carried out on boys at the eighth day after birth. As a result of the construction of a new identity after the return from exile, the age of circumcision changed from early puberty to newborn. Exod 4,24-26 offers a glimpse at the earlier custom.

Carnival and Laughter in the Traditional Life Cycle Rites of the Peoples of the Middle Volga Region: in Search of a Positive Future

The subject of the study is carnival and laughter forms in the traditional life cycle rites of the peoples of the Middle Volga region before 1917. On the basis of archival materials collected by the author and local history literature, a typology of variants of the manifestation of carnival and laughter forms in the ritual practices of the population of the region is carried out for the first time. Based on specific historical examples, the analysis of the selected variants ("noisy performance", "antics", "censure" and "imitation") is carried out. The article uses systematic and culturological approaches that allow to explain the reasons for the stability and semantic content of the rituals, as well as their role in the translation of spiritual and moral values of the inhabitants of the region. The scientific novelty of the research lies in the interpretation of the traditional life cycle rites of the peoples of the Middle Volga region as the focus of carnival and laughter forms that help overcome fears of an unknown future and create an atmosphere of optimism. The main result of the research is a new understanding of the traditional life cycle rites of the peoples of the Middle Volga region as a means of psychotherapy due to their inherent carnival and laughter forms that help a person adapt to various conditions of existence. The material of the article can serve as a basis for scientific research in the field of psychology of ritual activity, for the preparation of educational courses on the history of everyday life and cultural studies.

Функциональное назначение некоторых обрядов бурят, посвященных всеобщему благополучию и лучшему перерождению

Introduction. Nowadays lay Buddhist rites pertaining to everyday life and dealing with community, group, family, individual and household causes are viable, needed, and productive enough. Goals. The study aims at revealing most stable household / family rites of the Buryats and determining their essentials and features. Methods. Traditional classification and systematization methods have proved instrumental in identifying stable and changeable properties, local features of family / household rites across various Buddhist ethnic groups in Buryatia. The method of comparative historical analysis serves to define the actual processes of preserving and transforming life cycle rites. Those of observation, interview, and interrogation make it possible to characterize the present-day religious consciousness of lay Buddhists and reveal certain changes in traditional Buryat attitudes and customs that emerged due to historical processes to have yielded some formal peculiarities of basic rituals and rites. The paper pays special attention to the revived everyday rite of sangaril. Results. Field data show that cult practices have preserved only what is best remembered without books and experts, i.e. what is familiar since olden times, most common, and requires no high theological qualifications — if there is a significant loss of the bookish tradition, and in the absence of Buddhist ritual experts of Tibetan origin. So, those are everyday rites most closely connected with folk customs and dealing with economic and household needs of believers that prove most persistent. In other words, what is most closely connected with everyday life does survive and exist. Conclusions. Traditional family and everyday rites, such as oboo, sangaril, maani, funeral and Sagaalgan-related ones (New Year), collective worshipping of sahiusan-protectors for family well-being, are currently perceived as folk customs and viewed as integral elements of the original Buryat ethnic tradition. To date, those are religious ideas and beliefs of the public that serve a most characteristic phenomenon in religious life of Burya­tia’s Buddhists, rather than activities of the official clergy. Our observations also attest to that religious efforts of believers tend to increase.

Christian Saluan: The Existence Of The Saluan “Monika” Life Cycle Ritual In The Gklb Betania Sinampangnyo Congregation

The Saluan tribe is one of the tribes who inhabit the Banggai Regency, Central Sulawesi. The majority of this tribal community is Muslim and has a distinctive tribal language that is used in even daily rituals, namely the Saluan language. This article aims to see the existence of life cycle rituals carried out by the Saluan tribal community who are Christian. The life cycle ritual carried out by the Saluan Christian tribal community is realized through the traditional Saluan "Monika" marriage, which is held in the GKLB Betania Sinampangnyo congregation. The life cycle ritual is able to become a symbolic interaction space by making the traditional marriage of the Saluan "Monika" tribe as part of the GKLB Betania Sinampangnyo congregation. This study uses qualitative research with a descriptive approach . The results of this study indicate that, first, the existence of life cycle rituals opens up space for symbolic interactions between Christianity and Saluan culture in individuals, married couples, families and the GKLB Betania Sinampangnyo congregation. Second, the existence of life cycle rituals makes it clear that in the traditional marriage of the Saluan “Monika” tribe in the GKLB Betania Sinampangnyo congregation, Malinowski's theory of cultural functions occurs. This article will be part of a study of observations, interviews and literature in collecting data and presenting data in a qualitative-descriptive manner using a phenomenological approach as a research method supported by theoretical concept of "rites de passage" theory from van Gennep which will be used as a surgical medium to observe and explain life cycle rituals in the traditional marriage of the Saluan "Monika" in the GKLB Betania Sinampangnyo congregation .

Acequias: Trust and Hydrosocial Territory

Acequias:Trust and Hydrosocial Territory Sylvia Rodríguez (bio) This essay originally appeared in Sustainability and Water Management in the Maya World and Beyond, edited by Jean T. Larmon, Lisa J. Lucero, and Fred Valdez Jr. Louisville: University Press of Colorado, pp. 200–227, 2022. It is republished here with permission. Acequias And Moral Economy New Mexico's acequias belong to a family of hand-dug, gravity-flow, small-scale, farmer-managed irrigation systems found all over the world. Some are historically related, but others are not. Despite their differences in terms of environment, geography, climate, regional and national setting, language, and culture, these systems all seem to operate in strikingly similar ways. This alignment has led one anthropologist to propose that their common operating principles are the result of a rare process of convergent evolution, whereby the same form emerges independently in different places and times, because it is highly adaptive (Trawick, Reig, and Salvador 2014). Such systems—which are found, for example, in the Andes, Mexico, Spain, Switzerland, China, India, Nepal, the Philippines, Africa, and Bali—have proven to be sustainable and resilient within their respective ecological settings, whether arid or humid. Nevertheless, many have disappeared under the onslaught of modernization, while those that still exist struggle to survive in the face of myriad adverse political, economic, social, demographic, environmental, and climatic forces. This chapter examines the dynamic interface between acequia governance and the broader hydrosocial regime and territory in which it is embedded. My discussion explores the question of acequia sustainability [End Page 582] in light of ethnographic, historical-, comparative-, political-, and ecological systems–modeling perspectives. This analysis moves from microsocial to macrosocial levels and back again, focusing on how the tension between local and regional water politics has evolved through time. Acequia Agriculture And Governance The term "acequia" refers to both the irrigation canal and the association of parciantes who own and operate it. The association consists of farmer-rancher parciantes, or water right and landowners who share a common presa (stream diversion) into a hand-dug acequia madre ("mother ditch") from which linderos, venitas, sangrías (laterals) convey water to individual properties. Their basic canal structure and operating principles derive from Islamic-Iberian rules, technology, and practices introduced to the semiarid upper Rio Grande valley by Spanish colonial settlers who occupied mercedes reales, or grants of land awarded by the Spanish Crown, starting in the late sixteenth century. Acequia agriculture extended riparian habitats, transformed regional ecology, and created the northern New Mexican landscape seen today. Acequia irrigation was integral to the agropastoral economy that persisted into the twentieth century and survives today in reduced and modified form among rural and semiurban Nuevomexicanos. Even though few parciantes today subsist entirely or even primarily on agriculture, acequias remain the organizational backbone of many rural Nuevomexicano communities. The moral economy model of community irrigation management posits a system of principles and values that supports and guides cooperative, independent economic practice. Drawing on ethnographic research in highland Peru and Valencia, Spain, understood in light of Elinor Ostrom's work (1990), Trawick identifies nine operating principles common to all small-scale, farmer-operated irrigation systems: autonomy, alternation or turn taking, contiguity in distribution, uniformity, proportionality, transparency, boundary maintenance, direct feedback, and graduated sanctions (Trawick 2003; Trawick, Reig, and Salvador 2014, 88). Like their Islamic-Iberian forebears and modern cognates in Valencia, New Mexico's acequia irrigation systems exhibit these attributes. [End Page 583] Parciantes Parciantes are obligated to pay dues, contribute labor to the cleaning and maintenance of acequia infrastructure, observe the customs of water sharing, and annually elect a mayordomo (ditch boss) and three commissioners who oversee ditch management and governance. Labor contribution and water allocation are proportional to the amount of acreage a parciante irrigates. The mayordomo allocates water proportionally to parciantes in good standing on the basis of equity and need, supervises communal labor on the ditch, and resolves disputes over water. Commissioners include a secretary, treasurer, and president. Acequia communities define themselves as place-based, territorial, and linked through time by kinship, spatial contiguity, and a continuous round of sacred and secular calendric and life-cycle rituals. Today...