Mortuary Ritual Research Articles

From equal to better: investing the chief among the northern Yaka of Zaïre

IntroductionAmong the Northern Yaka of Zaïre the office and function of the chief is thought of as prior to and as the source of all things: the chief represents and surpasses his subordinates by his twofold function. First, he is asovereign rulerwho alone personifies unity, perpetuity and high authority. But the chief fails to live up to these chiefly ideals since his physical body ages and he cannot escape death or transcend the succession of generations and political scenes and factions. This failure seems to be remedied, however, not so much by concealing the chiefs bodily transitoriness through a mystifying cult, but by identifying the chief in his body with the origin of the political institutions. Embodying the founding ancestors, the chief ‘re-presents’ or makes present ‘the primal space–time order’ (yitsi khulu). The ruler thus personifies the legitimate political order: he re-presents and imposes the perennial hierarchical social organisation, territorial unity and moral order. In his enthronement and rule, he must re-enact the founding dramas of conquest and life transmission to renew cultural time by linking it to the ‘primal and permanent space–time order’. Sacrificial death, mortuary ritual, rebirth, purification, etc., re-enact the founding dramas and provide transformative metaphors, linking men and women, life and death, inside and outside, ascendant and descendant, before and after, the local territory and Yaka society.

Megaliths in Action: Some Aspects of the Neolithic Period in the Channel Islands

The wealth of evidence for Channel Islands megaliths is surveyed, with some attention to the contribution of the archaeological family Lukis. Detailed studies of distribution and relative survival demonstrate one advantage of the insular circumstance. A review of structural diversity, associations, and mortuary rites provides a local schema and this is placed within the framework for north-west France. The effects of insularity versus wider developments are assessed. Two specific case-studies—a structural and social interpretation of La Hougue Bie and an assessment of megalithic origins based on the Déhus carving—are of considerable importance for the wider field. Detailed lists of island structures are appended

Survey and Excavation of Ring Cairns in SE Dyfed and on Gower, West Glamorgan

Ring cairns in Wales have been viewed as a discrete form of structured cairn, a stony ring enclosing an open central area, dating to the second millennium be, whose distinctive character may reflect a particular role not primarily connected with the interment of the dead. Fifteen likely ring cairns were noted in cairn groups on five ridges in SE Dyfed and on the Gower Peninsula. Although the position of ring cairns on these ridges to some extent overlaps that of other cairns, ring cairns tend towards locations particularly dominated by higher ground which are not so favoured by the other cairns. A range of structural elaborations was present amongst the ring cairns including kerbing, in-filled interiors, orthostats in the bank, and breaks in the ring possibly representing entrances.Two ring cairns adjacent to each other, GCRC I and II, on Cefn Bryn, Gower were excavated. GCRC I was a stony ring bank, originally with two entrances, one of which had been blocked in antiquity. It enclosed an open area at the centre of which was a pit containing a very little burnt bone. GCRC II comprised a ring bank of stone with inner kerb, against which was a pit containing earth and charcoal flecks. It certainly had one entrance, which was deliberately blocked perhaps at the same time as the interior was filled with stone to the level of the top of the kerb. The pit contents at the rings each gave mid-ind millennium be radiocarbon dates. It is possible that the pit fill at GCRC I came from an earlier burial elsewhere so the determination may not reflect the time of deposition at GCRC I.A case can be argued that ring cairns in the area were built for the public performance of ceremonial on the basis of the apparent absence of formal burial at GCRC I and II, and the structure and siting of the monuments suggesting their suitability as arenas. Ceremonial may have been connected with mortuary ritual, although undated evidence for early agricultural activity in the vicinity of the rings indicates a potentially wider social and economic context for their use. While aspects of the evidence for activity at the two excavated ring cairns may be paralleled at structurally similar monuments in N Wales and S W England, some variations in form and activity are apparent which could indicate differences of emphasis during the time they were in use across the region. Finally, ring cairns are not the only form of broadly contemporary monument to which a ceremonial role can be assigned, and the differences in monumental form could well reflect different ritual requirements, or even social distinctions though too little work has been undertaken as yet on possible social models for the region for this idea to be developed.

The Institutional Organization of Mississippian Religion

Symbolic objects for ceremonial display, or sacra, tend to be systematically related in their representational content to the cult institutions that produce and manipulate them. Cult organization is normally pluralistic among preliterate complex societies. Mississippian sacra suggest a triad of coexisting types of cult institution: (1) a communal cult type emphasizing earth/fertility and purification ritual, (2) a chiefly cult type serving to sanctify chiefly authority, and (3) a priestly cult type mediating between the other two, supervising mortuary ritual and ancestor veneration.

Ghosts and Ancestors in Medieval Chinese Religion: The Yü-lan-p'en Festival as Mortuary Ritual

Previous articleNext article No AccessGhosts and Ancestors in Medieval Chinese Religion: The Yü-lan-p'en Festival as Mortuary RitualStephen F. TeiserStephen F. Teiser Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by History of Religions Volume 26, Number 1Aug., 1986 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/463060 Views: 44Total views on this site Citations: 6Citations are reported from Crossref Copyright 1986 The University of ChicagoPDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:Noga Ganany Writing and Worship in Deng Zhimo’s Saints Trilogy, Religions 13, no.22 (Jan 2022): 128.https://doi.org/10.3390/rel13020128Mythily Subramaniam, Edimansyah Abdin, Janhavi A. Vaingankar, Rajeswari Sambasivam, Yun Jue Zhang, Saleha Shafie, Sutapa Basu, Chun Ting Chan, Chuen Seng Tan, Swapna K. Verma, Charmaine Tang, Hong Choon Chua, Derrick Heng, Siow Ann Chong Lifetime Prevalence and Correlates of Schizophrenia and Other Psychotic Disorders in Singapore, Frontiers in Psychiatry 12 (Mar 2021).https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2021.650674Donglin Zeng, Xiaogang Wu Exposure to suicide in residential neighborhood and mental distress symptoms in Hong Kong: A spatiotemporal analysis, Health & Place 67 (Jan 2021): 102472.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.healthplace.2020.102472Elsa Lau, Clayton McClintock, Marianna Graziosi, Ashritha Nakkana, Albert Garcia, Lisa Miller Content Analysis of Spiritual Life in Contemporary USA, India, and China, Religions 11, no.66 (Jun 2020): 286.https://doi.org/10.3390/rel11060286Olivier Ferrari Duean sip, théâtre de l’ethnorégionalisme sud. Les nomades de la mer et le cycle rituel du dixième mois dans la province de Phang Nga (sud de la Thaïlande), Moussons , no.2020 (Nov 2012): 101–120.https://doi.org/10.4000/moussons.1628 Edmund T. Gilday Dancing with Spirit(s): Another View of the Other World in Japan, History of Religions 32, no.33 (Oct 2015): 273–300.https://doi.org/10.1086/463338

The 19th‐century Tlingit potlatch: a new perspective

The paper explores the meaning of the 19th‐century Tlingit memorial potlatch and explains some of the reasons for its centrality in the Tlingit sociocultural order. By drawing on existing accounts of this complex ritual and on data obtained during fieldwork in 1979–80 and 1984, the study focuses on the symbolism of ceremonial objects, ritual acts and discourse, as well as the interaction and relationships among actors. By treating the dead as active participants and by analyzing the role of the cultural values associated with them, the paper presents a more holistic interpretation of this ritual than previous works on the subject and suggests some implications of its findings for research on comparable ceremonies in other Northwest Coast societies. [mortuary ritual, symbolic analysis, potlatch, Northwest Coast, Tlingit]

Death and Digestion: The Symbolism of Food and Eating in North Indian Mortuary Rites

Death and Digestion: The Symbolism of Food and Eating in North Indian Mortuary Rites

Rites of the living, transformations of the dead

Huntington, Richard, and Peter Metcalf. Celebrations of Death: The Anthropology of Mortuary Ritual. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1979. xv + 230 pp. including maps, photographs, bibliography, and index. $34.50 cloth, $10.95 paper. Bloch, Maurice, and Jonathan Parry, eds. Death and the Regeneration of Life. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1982. x + 236 pp. including notes, bibliography, and index. $29.50 cloth, $8.95 paper.

T’ang Buddhist Encyclopedias: An Introduction to Fa-Yuan Chu-Lin And Chu-Ching Yao-Chi

T'ang Studies 3 (1985) T'ANG BUDDHIST ENCYCLOPEDIAS: AN INTRODUCTION TO FA-yUAN CHU-LIN AND CHU-CHING YAO-CHI S. F. Teiser Princeton University The study of T'ang Buddhist encyclopedias offers much to students of T'ang history and literature. Since they are arranged by category, merely locating entries in them involves an excursion into the T' ang Buddhist world-view. They are useful for those interested in Buddhist cosmology and for those interested in seeing how Empress Wu or state proscriptions fit into the Buddhist scheme of things. The two works introduced here, Fa-yuan chu-lin }~ ffl J;f ~ (Pearl Garden of the Dharma Forest) and Chu-ching yao-chi -t~ ~f ':f 11_ (Collection of Essentials from Various Sutras) by the seventhcentury monk Tao-shih ~ 1:!t , are well known for their length (100 and 20 fascicles, respectively), the breadth of sources I wish to thank Professors Alan Sponberg, Victor Mair, and the editors of T'ang Studies, especially Raoul Birnbaum, for their encouragement and for their criticisms of an earlier draft of this essay. The following abbreviations are used throughout: DNHKMJ Dai nihon komonjo, hennen monjo 1'-. a A- -1; ~i ~ .q:-::t.~ Tokyo: Tokyo teikoku daigaku, 1901-1940. K. Koryo De can gyon ~ J1t f', ~ £tZ. 生 Releasing life. 76 65 82 Saving from danger. 77 66-67 83-84 Grieving over suffering. 78 68 84-85 盂皇 囷 Karmic conditioning. 79 69 一70 85-87 輒 Receiving retribution. 80 71 88 才l, [Actions leading to] unpropitious and propitious retribution . 81 71 88-89 綠孟 The impediment of desire. 117 Sec. Fascicle T. SPTK Title Translated Title and Contents 82 83 84 85 86 87 72 72 73-79 80-85 86 87-89 89 90 90-96 97-102 102-03 104-07 The four modes of .birth. The ten fetters. The ten evil acts. The six perfections. Repentance. Taking the precepts. Precepts for laypeople monks. and 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 90 91 91 91 92 93-94 94 95 96 97 108 109 109 110 111 112-13 113 114 115 116 ~§? ~11J ~vj t ~1; ;;t1; ~ , ••1 M... $ .... ~ Breaking the precepts. Keeping the fast/feast. Lay-sponsored feasts for the sangha; maintaining vegetarian diet. Breaking the fast. Eating past noon; eating prohibited foods. [Karmic] rewards and punishments . Advantage and harm (as result of karma). Liquor and meat. Tao-shih's and others' comments on a liberal interpretation of bans on meat and liquor; gods' liquor. Impurities. Foods to be avoided; purity rules for personal cleanliness. Illness and pain. Sicknesses and healing. Giving up life (self-immolation for the salvation of others). Mortuary practices. Passage to death, mortuary ritual , sojourn in purgatory, rebirth . 118 Sec. Fascicle Title Translated Title and Contents T. SPTK 82 72 89 週7 生 The four modes of .birth. 83 72 90 十仔史 The ten fetters. 84 73-79 90-96 才悉 The ten evil acts. 85 80-85 97-102 , 大友 The six perfections. 86 86 102-03 樗討~Repentance. 87 87-89 104-07 受成 Taking the precepts. 88 89 90 91 92 90 91 91 91 92 108 . 109 109 110 111 視及成 令急 又厐＼ 疚魯 名五 貞令］ 利多 Precepts for laypeople and monks. Breaking the precepts. Keeping the fast/feast. Lay-sponsored feasts for the sangha; maintaining vegetarian diet. Breaking the fast. Eating past noon; eating prohibited foods. [Karmic] rewards and punishments . Advantage and harm (as result of karma). 93 93-94 112-13 潘肉 Liquor and meat. 94 94 95 95 96 96 97 97 113 114 115 116 瘟濁 漓苓 才全身 送終 Tao-shih's and others'comments on a liberal interpretation of bans on meat and liquor; gods' liquor. Impurities. Foods to be avoided; purity rules for personal cleanliness. Illness and pain. Sicknesses and healing. Giving up life (self-immolation for the salvation of others). Mortuary practices. Passage to death, mortuary ri 一 tual, sojourn in purgatory, rebirth . 118 Sec. Fascicle Title Translated Title and Contents T. SPTK 98 98 117-18 n.;~ Extinction of the Law (Dharma). Stages of dissolution, accompanied by decrease in lifespan, ordination of women; transmission of the Buddha's bowl. 99 99 118-19 *~ 't Miscellaneous essentials. Important terms, mouthwashing techniques. 100 100 119-20 -1~~CJ Traditions and records. -:j"'!! Basic...

Mortuary Ritual and Mortuary Remains

Previous articleNext article No AccessMortuary Ritual and Mortuary RemainsK. Maurer TrinkausK. Maurer Trinkaus Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Current Anthropology Volume 25, Number 5Dec., 1984 Sponsored by the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/203206 Views: 37Total views on this site Citations: 11Citations are reported from Crossref Copyright 1984 The Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological ResearchPDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:Malika TUKHTAYEVA GÖKTÜRK DÖNEMİ HAREZM GÖRSEL SANATINDA TÜRK KİMLİĞİ (TOK-KALE OSSUARI ÖRNEĞİNDE), Genel Türk Tarihi Araştırmaları Dergisi (Jan 2022).https://doi.org/10.53718/gttad.1038625Robert M. Rosenswig, Margaret L. Briggs, Marilyn A. Masson Burying the Dead during the Maya Postclassic period: Saxe, Binford and Goldstein’s continued relevance to mortuary analysis, Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 58 (Jun 2020): 101147.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaa.2020.101147Marco Milella, Claudia Gerling, Thomas Doppler, Thomas Kuhn, Matthew Cooper, Valentina Mariotti, Maria Giovanna Belcastro, Marcia S. Ponce de León, Christoph P.E. Zollikofer Different in death: Different in life? Diet and mobility correlates of irregular burials in a Roman necropolis from Bologna (Northern Italy, 1st–4th century CE), Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 27 (Oct 2019): 101926.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2019.101926Zita Laffranchi, Giuliana Cavalieri Manasse, Luciano Salzani, Marco Milella, Luca Bondioli Patterns of funerary variability, diet, and developmental stress in a Celtic population from NE Italy (3rd-1st c BC), PLOS ONE 14, no.44 (Apr 2019): e0214372.https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0214372James Pokines, Stephanie Baker Avian Taphonomy, (Aug 2013): 427–446.https://doi.org/10.1201/b15424-17Christopher B. Rodning Mortuary practices, gender ideology, and the Cherokee town at the Coweeta Creek site, Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 30, no.22 (Jun 2011): 145–173.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaa.2010.12.006Lynn H. Gamble, Phillip L. Walker, Glenn S. Russell An Integrative Approach to Mortuary Analysis: Social and Symbolic Dimensions of Chumash Burial Practices, American Antiquity 66, no.22 (Jan 2017): 185–212.https://doi.org/10.2307/2694605Susan D Gillespie Personhood, Agency, and Mortuary Ritual: A Case Study from the Ancient Maya, Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 20, no.11 (Mar 2001): 73–112.https://doi.org/10.1006/jaar.2000.0369H. G. M. Edwards, D. W. Farwell, D. L. A. de Faria, A. M. F. Monteiro, M. C. Afonso, P. De Blasis, S. Eggers Raman spectroscopic study of 3000-year-old human skeletal remains from a sambaqui, Santa Catarina, Brazil, Journal of Raman Spectroscopy 32, no.11 (Jan 2001): 17–22.https://doi.org/10.1002/1097-4555(200101)32:1<17::AID-JRS658>3.0.CO;2-1James Brown On Mortuary Analysis—with Special Reference to the Saxe-Binford Research Program, (Jan 1995): 3–26.https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-1310-4_1Kathryn Maurer Trinkaus Mortuary Behavior, Labor Organization, and Social Rank, (Jan 1995): 53–75.https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-1310-4_3

Death and the History of Islam in Highland Aceh

Perhaps everywhere, death carries with it certain moral, aesthetie, and sociological imperatives: the soul must be cared for, the body must be buried, the social order must be reaffirmed. 1 Robert Hertz, in his essay on death of 1907, linked these three imperatives together in a strikingly effective model of death as passage, both spiritual and corporeal. Hertz drew primarily from Indonesian materials; Arnold Van Gennep, in an essay published two years later, incorporated Hertz' insights into a general theory of rites of passage. Hertz' conception of death has been particularly fruitful for students of Indonesia and other, related societies, as illustrated by its central theoretical position in two recent studies of mortuary ritual, .

Formal Performance: The Relations of Music, Text and Dance in Arnhem Land Clan Songs

The or manikay of Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory, Australia are realized by their Aboriginal owners in performance alone and are orally transmitted.1 These performances are formal in that they obey certain variable rules and achieve variable but consistent structures depending on the nature of the different performance occasions for which they are deemed appropriate (Clunies Ross 1983). The variability of their performance contexts, determined largely by ritual propriety, together with the fact that each performance of is a complex act which integrates performance elements expressed through several different media, has led us to the view that the description and analysis of such complex, orally transmitted standardized forms can only proceed by means of the collection and analysis of a variety of formal performance events.2 Manikay have been called clan songs because they constitute discrete sets of song-subjects which celebrate the behavior and characteristics of spirit beings, known as wangarr, who are thought to have affinities with particular Aboriginal clans or aggregates. Each manikay song has a particular wangarr as its subject. Manikay wangarr include natural species, like White Cockatoo and King Brown Snake, human-like spirits, inanimate resources and artifacts such as Wild Honey and Boomerang and celestial and weather phenomena, like North-West Monsoon. Manikay may be sung around the evening campfire for enjoyment, but their more formal purpose is to ritualize death in a series of elaborate mortuary rites, to celebrate boys' circumcisions and to accompany ceremonies of diplomacy called Rom. Djambidj is a manikay whose ownership is shared by a number of landowning units belonging to the moiety known as Djowunga (or Dhuwa among the Yolngu living farther east). Most of their estates lie near the mouth of the Blyth River in North-Central Arnhem Land, Northern Territory (Hiatt 1965: Ch. 2 and Meehan 1982: Chs. 2 and 3). Theoretically, all male members of Djambidj-owning clans may sing it, but in practice singing is the specialty of quite a small number of mature men. Djambidj-owning clans speak a number of Arnhem Land languages, chiefly Burarra, but also Nagara and Gunavidji. Farther east, near Milingimbi Mission, the thematically related manikay Gamalangga is sung by members of the

REVIEWS

Book reviewed in this article:Shamans, Mystics and Doctors: A Psychological Inquiry into India and Its Healing Traditions. Sudhir Kakar.Celebrations of Death: The Anthropology of Mortuary Ritual. Richard Huntington and Peter Metcalf.Death and the Regeneration of Life. Maurice Bloch and Jonathan Parry, eds.Drugs in America: A Social History: 1800–1900. H. Wayne Morgan.Patriarchy and Fertility: Japan and Sweden, 1880–1960. Carl Mosk.Naikan Psychotherapy: Meditation for Self‐Development. David K. Reynolds.Socio‐Medical Inquiries: Recollections, Reflections, and Reconsiderations. Irving Kenneth Zola.

: Celebrations of Death: The Anthropology of Mortuary Ritual . Richard Huntington, Peter Metcalf. ; Death and the Regeneration of Life . Maurice Bloch, Jonathan Parry.

: Celebrations of Death: The Anthropology of Mortuary Ritual . Richard Huntington, Peter Metcalf. ; Death and the Regeneration of Life . Maurice Bloch, Jonathan Parry.

Gender Distinctions in Monteros Mortuary Ritual

The recent literature on religious ritual, however varied and complex, seems to fall into two major camps: one emphasizing a state of liminality or reversal, a temporary suspension of the behavioral norms and expectations that guide daily existence; and the other illustrating a consonance betsveen ritual representations and the cultural symbols that dominate everyday life. In this paper I present a situation in which the second type of interpretation would seem, at least on the surface, to apply. Mortuary rituals in southeastern Spain appear, from what we might call a Geertzian perspective, to have operated both as models of and models for prevailing male and female roles (Geertz I 966; Ortner I 97 8). Traditionally, and until the middle I970S, not only did key gender symbols receive condensed, exaggerated expression in mortuary ceremonies, but also ceremonial participants were constrained in the performance of ritual duties by their adherence to gender-exclusive rules. Similarly, ceremonial change in southeastern Spain has proceeded apace with social change. In the period when gender distinctions were most socially pronounced they were an essential feature of mortuary rites; as these distinctions have become muted in everyday life, so too are they gradually disappearing in ritual. An overview of mortuary ceremonies in this part of the world, then, would lead us to conclude either that ritual change mirrors fundamental social change or that it anticipates social change by providing the progressive segments of society an outlet for patterns that will later become more widespread. In this paper I intend to demonstrate why this conclusion, despite its appealing simplicity, is deceptive. By examining several types of mortuary ritual specifically funerals and All Saints' Day-I wish to show the inadequacy of tracing modifications in male and female ceremonial behavior simply to changes in everyday gender norms and expectations.

Celebrations of Death: The Anthropology of Mortuary Ritual.Richard Huntington , Peter Metcalf

<i>Celebrations of Death: The Anthropology of Mortuary Ritual.</i>Richard Huntington , Peter Metcalf

Celebrations of Death: Tha Anthropology of Mortuary Ritual. RICHARD HUNTINGTON PETER METCALF

Celebrations of Death: Tha Anthropology of Mortuary Ritual. RICHARD HUNTINGTON PETER METCALF

: Celebrations of Death: The Anthropology of Mortuary Ritual . Richard Huntington, Peter Metcalf.

: Celebrations of Death: The Anthropology of Mortuary Ritual . Richard Huntington, Peter Metcalf.

Celebrations of Death: The Anthropology of Mortuary Ritual.

Celebrations of Death: The Anthropology of Mortuary Ritual.

The Identity of the Dead. Aspects of Mortuary Ritual in a West African Society.

M. Jackson — L'identité des morts: aspects des rites mortuaires dans une société d'Afrique occidentale. Les rites mortuaires sont assez généralement reconnus comme constituant un aspect social du travail de deuil. Deux traits spécialement frappants à cet égard sont, d'une part, la façon dont le deuil est assumé ou simulé par des personnes non immédiatement affectées, d'autre part, la façon dont son expression est temporellement déplacée et socialement contrôlée. L'étude montre comment les Kuranko manipulent l'affect pour résoudre, entre autres, les problèmes naissant de la contradiction entre continuité sociale et discontinuité personnelle ; la séparation entre l'identité physique concrète du défunt et son identité culturelle ; la dialectique entre le concept du mort-objet et celui du mort-sujet. Les rites sont étroitement liés à la position sociale du défunt et les funérailles constituent en quelque sorte un psychodrame collectif reproduisant la structure totale de la société.