Official Rituals Research Articles

The Development of the Thunder God’s Image from the Tang to the Song Dynasty: The Case of Deng Bowen

Belief in the Thunder God has been important in China since ancient times. During the Tang Dynasty (618–906), the Thunder God was personified and incorporated into official rituals. Due to the increasing presence of Tantric Buddhism in China during the Tang Dynasty, in Daoism (particularly the Divine Empyrean lineage 神霄派), several Thunder Gods formed a military organization, among which Deng Bowen (鄧伯溫) was considered as a marshal who largely preserved the characteristics of the Thunder God from the Tang Dynasty, featuring traits of a half-human and half-bird. This study focuses on interreligious influences and aims to elucidate the logic that informs the evolution of the Chinese Thunder God’s image through Deng Bowen’s case. Through the analyses of iconography and text analysis, this study discusses how Deng’s image was blended with the image of the Hindu deity Garuda (迦樓羅), which was introduced to China during the Tang Dynasty through Tantric Buddhism. This study will also explore how Deng’s image evolved from before the Tang Dynasty to the period after the Song Dynasty and will indicate that the Tang Dynasty was a significant period for the development of Thunder God worship as well as its iconography.

Whose Victims and Whose Survivors? Polish Jewish Refugees between Holocaust and Gulag Memory Cultures

ABSTRACT Holocaust and Gulag studies are witnessing the belated emergence of the Soviet experience of Jewish escapees from Nazi-occupied Poland as a lieu de mémoire in its own right. Although not commemorated in official ritual, museum spaces, or memorial sites, the sheer mass of published testimonies by survivors of this experience far outweighs the previous lack of attention to the refugees’ story. It was the agency of the refugee survivors themselves which subsequently put their Soviet experience on the mnemonic map of World War II. This article discusses both the reasons for that lack of attention and the current growing interest in their accounts. It proposes a typology based on questions of victimhood and perpetratorship, analyzed through the contrast between the way the Jewish exiles in the USSR interpreted their experiences and how those who experienced the Holocaust directly interpreted theirs. The article thus asks, whose victims did the refugees consider themselves, the Germans’ or the Soviets’?

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.

Советские политические ритуалы и практики повседневности

The purpose of this article is the analysis of the Soviet political rituals and daily practices that developed under their influence. The methodology of the research is based on the general and special historical methods of cognition of the past involving the methods of socio-cultural and political anthropology. The scientific novelty of the paper consists in the fact that the role of various Soviet political rituals in establishing of the norms and practices of the Soviet daily life has been analyzed for the first time and the influence of the Soviet ritual culture in the Soviet regime strengthening has been found. Mass calendar holidays-rituals (October Revolution Day, Workers’ Solidarity Day) not only marked a new era in the history, but also leveled the sacredness of the Christian cycle (Christmas – Easter). Evolution of the formal organization of the Soviet ritual (from staging-imitation through carnivalization to monumental narrativization) and improvement of its semantic content (nomination – sacralization – monumentalization – memorialization) have been traced. From the beginning, festive commemoration was meant to form the Soviet identity, design the collective past and set the framework of collective memory. Official rituals gradually penetrated into the daily life (family and friendly holiday feasts, house cleaning, novelties purchase and greeting cards). Conclusions. From the beginning, the Soviet rituals were a reliable ideological weapon, an instrument of the communist indoctrination of the country’s population. Political rituals played a major role in legitimization of the Bolsheviks power, became an effective means of communication with society, enabled its consolidation within the framework of the Soviet political canon, minimized the social conflicts, leveled open dissatisfaction with the governmental authorities and assisted in the formation of ideological unanimity. Along with repressive methods, the Soviet political rituals served to create new political reality, enabled its acceptance by the masses of people, formed consciousness, encouraged relevant political actions and practices of the daily life.

Buddhist temples and ancestral halls: The reconstruction of native official rituals in western Yunnan

In the process of abolishing the native officialdoms of southwest China, the Ming court justified its actions by citing violations of ethical and ritual principles. During the Zhengtong 正統 period, offices of native officials in Heqing 鶴慶 were abolished and replaced with an office for centrally appointed imperial officials. These imperial officials turned Buddhist temples into Confucian schools and attacked local beliefs regarding living Buddhas. At the same time, local Confucian scholars advocated orthodox ritual in the name of doing away with improper ritual practice. In response, nearby native officials began cautiously handling political issues, and sought to legitimize the foundations for their status by conducting rituals in the classical Confucian tradition. The author examines the history of Lijiang 麗江 and Menghua 蒙化 Prefectures in Yunnan 雲南 and discusses how their native officials used the statuses of ancient nobles as they sought to establish Confucian rituals and temples corresponding to their status within the Ming bureaucracy. Several strategies are identified, including (a) building Buddhist temples, ancestral halls, and official shrines; (b) transforming mythical figures into protective deities by creating mountain and river rituals that conformed to ritual orthodoxy; and (c) establishing official genealogies and using textual methods to incorporate clan myths and legendary lineages into orthodox historical narratives, thereby strengthening the superiority of border native official lineages. By analyzing a series of actions of native officials in this process, the author explores the cultural strategies adopted by native officials to safeguard their prestige and local interests.

PRAGMACOMMUNICATIVE FUNCTIONS AND SEMIOTIC CODES OF CORPORALITY IN RITUALIZED COMMUNICATIVE PRACTICES

The article deals with the role and functionsof corporality as a pragmacommunicative phenomenon,as well as with the corresponding semioticcodes in the ritualized practices of modernAnglophone linguistic culture through the exampleof the official rituals of honoring the US anthemand flag

The origin and evolution of the concept of mixin (superstition): A review of May Fourth scientific views

ABSTRACTThis article explores the evolving connotations of the concept of “superstition” up to the establishment of “superstition studies,” in an examination of the process of secularization experienced by early modern Chinese thought under the impact of Western science. In traditional texts, the Chinese term mixin (迷信, literally “delusional beliefs”), modernly translated as“superstition,” carries diverse and variable meanings: aside from referring to the proper or improper content of ideas and beliefs, mixin also has political connotations, broadly referring to beliefs or behaviors differing from the official rituals. On an ideological level, the traditional concept of mixin refers to a category of thought opposed to Confucian concepts such as the cosmology of Heaven, Earth, and Man, or the idea that “for a man to sacrifice to a spirit which does not belong to him is flattery.” In the late Qing Dynasty, as the idea of “superstition” as opposed to “science” was introduced via Japan, the traditional connotations of mixin evaporated, and it merged with other neologisms. From the late Qing to the early Republic, the parameters of “superstition” were expanded to encompass anything at odds with “reason.” This was also a reflection of China’s shift from the “Classical Age” to the “Age of Science,” as Confucian concepts and scientific ideas successively served as the criteria for judging “superstition.” As of the present, a consensus has yet to be reached on how to distinguish between “religion” and “superstition.” This paper shall seek to clarify the connotations of mixin or “superstition” in different contexts and their connection to the changing times, which may aid in understanding the complex facets of this issue.

Alice Dunbar-Nelson's Published Works: A Bibliography in Progress

Alice Dunbar-Nelson’s Published WorksA Bibliography in Progress Katherine Adams, Sandra A. Zagarell, and Caroline Gebhard We offer here a comprehensive bibliography of Alice Dunbar-Nelson’s primary works known to have appeared in print. Our listing begins with the four collections of her personal, belletristic, and non-belletristic writing produced by Akasha (Gloria) Hull, R. Ora Williams, and Eugene Metcalf in the 1970s and 1980s. It then presents, by genre, additional pieces published by Dunbar-Nelson in her lifetime. Some of this latter work is still accessible through libraries and digital archives. However, several of the newspapers and journals in which she published were never archived, and copies of certain works will only be available in the Alice Dunbar-Nelson Papers at University of Delaware’s Special Collections Library.1 To compile this listing we drew upon information provided in Williams’s 1976 bibliography and the Special Collections catalog at University of Delaware, as well as our own research. However, Dunbar-Nelson’s personal records, and especially the “itineraries” she kept— documentation of pieces accepted, rejected, and under review for publication2— indicate that more of her writing appeared in print than was previously believed. The hunt for such works is complicated by the fact that the writer published under several different versions of her name over the course of her career (we have provided the variants [End Page 254] she used for individual items wherever possible). Dunbar-Nelson may have also published pseudonymously. Her archive reveals that she submitted work under at least three aliases: Adele Morris, Monroe Wright, and Al Dane. But whether she ever published using one of these pseudonyms, or a different one, has yet to be determined. More discoveries may well lie ahead. Katherine Adams Tulane University Sandra A. Zagarell Oberlin College Caroline Gebhard Tuskegee University edited collections of dunbar-nelson’s writing An Alice Dunbar-Nelson Reader. Ed. R. Ora Williams. Washington, dc: UP of America, 1979. Google Scholar Give Us Each Day: The Diary of Alice Dunbar-Nelson. Ed. [Akasha] Gloria T. Hull. New York: Norton, 1984. Google Scholar [Metcalf, Eugene Wesley, Jr.] “The Letters of Paul and Alice Dunbar: A Private History.” Diss. U of California, Irvine, 1973. Ann Arbor: umi, 1973. Google Scholar The Works of Alice Dunbar-Nelson. Ed. [Akasha] Gloria T. Hull. 3 vols. New York: Oxford UP, 1988. The Schomburg Library of Nineteenth-Century Black Women Writers. Google Scholar poems “Delta Sigma Theta, National Hymn.” The Official Ritual of Delta Sigma Theta Grand Chapter. Washington, dc: Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, 1950. 192. [Alice Dunbar Nelson] Google Scholar “Let Me Live.” A. M. E. Church Review 35.1 (July 1918): 7. [Alice Dunbar-Nelson] Google Scholar stories “Edouard.” Southern Workman 29.6 (June 1900): 358–64. [Alice Dunbar] Google Scholar “Esteve, the Soldier Boy.” Southern Workman 29.11 (Nov. 1900): 631–37. [Alice Dunbar] Google Scholar “George Brenton, Artist.” Smart Set 6.1 (Jan. 1902): 129–34. [Alice Dunbar (Mrs. Paul Laurence Dunbar)] Google Scholar “The Heathen: A Christmas Story.” Tuskegee Student 32 (Christmas 1922): 6–7. [Alice Dunbar-Nelson] Google Scholar “Lesie, the Choir Boy.” Southern Workman 30.11 (Nov. 1901): 615–19. [Alice Dunbar] Google Scholar “The Little Mother.” Standard Union (Brooklyn) 19 Mar. 1900: 8. [Mrs. Paul Laurence Dunbar] Google Scholar “Science in Frenchtown— A Short Story.” Saturday Evening Mail 7 Dec. 1912: 8–9, 26, 27. Google Scholar “Tom.–An Incident.”Woman’s Era 3.5 (Jan. 1897): 11–13. [Alice Ruth Moore] [End Page 255] Google Scholar articles and essays “A Creole Anomaly.” Leslie’s Weekly 15 July 1897: 43. [Alice Ruth Moore] Google Scholar “Appointed, Some Points of View.” Daily Crusader (New Orleans) 2 July 1894. Google Scholar “The Big Stick.” A. M. E. Church Review 30.2 (Oct. 1913). 117–21. [Alice M. Dunbar] Google Scholar “The Black Farmers After Their Conference at Tuskegee.” Boston Evening Transcript 18 Mar. 1899: 18. [Alice Dunbar] Google Scholar “Hysteria: The Old Time Mass Meeting Is Dead.” Competitor 1.2 (Feb. 1920): 32–34*3 [Alice Dunbar Nelson] Google Scholar “Independent Opinions.” The Independent: Devoted to the Consideration of Politics, Social and Economic Tendencies, History, Literature, and the Arts 86.3522 (5 June...

Сведения о дуалистических ересях и языческих верованиях в "Шестодневе" Иоанна Экзарха

The article aims to present and analyze those passages of the Hexameron (Šestodnev) in which ‘heretics’, ‘Manichaeans’, ‘pagans’ or ‘pagan Slavs’ are mentioned. The fragments are compared with their Greek counterparts (as long as these exist); the Old Bulgarian texts (especially those that can be considered original additions or loose compilations) are utilized for interpreting certain elements of heterodox doctrines common to Manichaeism, Paulicianism, Massalianism and Bogomilism. The Old Bulgarian translation/compilation by John Exarch supplies important information on the cosmology, theological doctrine and liturgical life of the Neo-Manichaeans within the Byzantine- Slavic world. The original additions and passages that can be seen as loose translations or compilations testify to the relevance of anti-dualist polemics even in the later periods of the Byzantine-Slavic religious community. The old Gnostic and Manichaean concepts, adapted by later dualist heresies (as e.g. Massalianism and Paulicianism), coupled with Trinitarian and Christological deviations from the official dogma, infiltrate the 1st Bulgarian Empire and provide a hospitable environment for the appearance of Bogomilism. In this sense, the Old Bulgarian Hexameron turns out to be an important source of information on the predecessors of the ‘Bulgarian heresy’. The original additions and loose translations/compilations of certain passages uncover some ‘common areas’ characteristic of all medieval Neo-Manichaean doctrines: the dualist creation myth, the belief in Satan as God’s ‘first-born son’ and the related Trinitarian and Christological departures from the prescribed dogma. Especially noteworthy is the passage referring to the Trisagion (Trisvetoe). The rejection of particular elements of the Liturgy of the Faithful attests to the dualists’ more diversified attitude towards the official ritual – not an indiscriminate renunciation, but the exclusion of those elements that were considered to praise the Old Testament God and to be irreconcilable with the Neo-Manichaean beliefs concerning creation and forgiveness. The mentioning of a Slavic pagan sun cult should be analyzed not only in connection with the charges against Manichaeans and Slavs concerning idolatry, but also in a wider context of the refutation of antique astrological beliefs and soothsaying practices. The comparison of particular lexemes, phrases and larger textual units in John Exarch’s Hexameron on the one hand and the Sermon Against the Heretics on the other makes it possible to conjecture that Cosmas the Priest was familiar with his predecessor’s work and made use of it when composing his own anti-heretic text.

Emotion, Identity, and Death in the Greek Tradition and Beyond

The article examines emotion and identity in the Greek death cult to clarify certain contemporary political phenomena in the Mediterranean where the cult of the dead is a common cultural pattern. Why is this cult so persistent? What is the death cult and how does it manifest itself? The article delves into its importance in Greece, where the author has had several periods of fieldwork. To illustrate the persistence of this cultural pattern, its characteristic aspects are discussed. Festivals which are dedicated to deceased persons and domestic death rituals are compared with ancient sources. Based on this, a survey of the relationship between the death cult dedicated to deceased mediators, as it is manifested through laments, burials and the ensuing memorial rituals is made. Modern domestic rituals infl uence official rituals, and vice versa. A study of modern cult practices reveals many parallels with the official cult of the ancients, and suggests ways in which modern rituals can illuminate ancient rituals. The article seeks to demonstrate how new ideologies must be adjusted to older rituals and beliefs and how public and domestic rituals are connected. The article finally suggests how these similarities might represent a common way of expression within a larger geographical context.

A Tale Of a Dog: Medieval women organizing through myth and ritual

Scholars of management and organizational history have focused on work and organization as an activity that is paid-for and which takes place outside the home, thus rendering invisible much of what has been women's works of organization in the past.This article seeks to challenge that by presenting an account of a ritual undertaken by women in medieval France.A reading of the cultural symbolism of the ritual allows a glimpse into the material conditions of their lives and of the organizing for which they were responsible.The ritual allowed them to have a sense of control over lives which were precarious and where women were marginalized and excluded from the official rituals of the Church. The use of ritual, liminality, resistance by groups marginal to the focus of power and activities of sense-making and rationalization are all evident in this tale – and all subjects of ongoing debate and conversation between scholars of organization.

The Taoists of Peking, 1800-1949: A Social History of Urban Clerics (review)

Reviewed by: The Taoists of Peking, 1800-1949: A Social History of Urban Clerics Brian R. Dott (bio) Vincent Goossaert . The Taoists of Peking, 1800–1949: A Social History of Urban Clerics. Harvard East Asian Monographs, 284. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Asia Center, 2007. xv, 395 pp. Hardcover $49.95, ISBN 0-674-02505-9. Vincent Goossaert's study of Taoists in Peking is a detailed and fascinating analysis of the interactions within and among clerics, institutions, and the laity. This work should be of interest not only to scholars of Chinese religions, but also to those who study urban history and urban networks. An expert social historian, he pieces together information from a wealth of diverse sources to answer questions about Taoist clerics well beyond the original purposes of any individual source. Among the primary sources he uses are many inscriptions, writings by Taoists from the period, and government surveys of temples conducted during the Republican era. Goossaert does a superb job of building upon numerous Chinese, Japanese, as well as Western-language secondary works. In particular, Goossaert's study builds upon and is influenced by Holmes Welch's classic The Practice of Chinese Buddhism (1967) and Susan Naquin's impressive work Peking: Temples and City Life, 1400–1900 (2000). At the outset Goossaert does away with a number of intellectually clumsy dichotomies that had became prevalent throughout many twentieth-century studies of China. Like most scholars of Chinese religions today, Goossaert sees the decisions made by communities or individuals in search of religious services to be quite complex: "Their choices hinged on socioeconomic, ideological, and theological considerations much more complex than an elite/popular dichotomy can suggest" (p. 7). In addition, he does not believe that there was a clear demarcation between the so-called secular and sacred in the lives of most residents of Peking. Furthermore, he does not see the lack of a centralized Taoist institution as a sign of decline or weakness, a point often made by PRC official institutions. Goossaert places Taoist clerics in their social context within Peking through examination of five different categories of Taoists: the monks of Baiyun guan, court Taoists, eunuch-monks, temple clerics, and mendicants. Documentation impacts the depth of analysis of these different types of clerics, with mendicants, not surprisingly, being the group about which we know the least. Analysis of the other four groups is done in detail. One way that Goossaert analyzes these groups is through their identification as either Quanzhen or Zhengyi. Baiyun guan is the paramount Quanzhen institution not just for Peking, but arguably throughout northern China. Indeed, Goossaert demonstrates that the monks, and especially the abbots, of Baiyun guan saw the temple as a national institution. A number of other interesting trends among Peking Taoists can be seen through Quanzhen [End Page 213] and Zhengyi affiliation. The temple with the largest number of resident clerics and with the largest holdings was Baiyun guan, a Quanzhen monastery. One of the most popular temples in the city, the Dongyue miao, was staffed by Qingwei Zhengyi Taoists. Taoists in Peking originally from northern China were pre-dominantly Quanzhen, while those from the south were predominantly Zhengyi. While official rituals drew on both traditions, the Manchu court showed a decided bias toward Zhengyi Taoists. Most temple clerics, those who served the majority of the population, were Quanzhen. Goossaert argues that while there was certainly competition between Quanzhen and Zhengyi clerics, there was also a great deal of cooperation. He provides a number of examples of clerics from both traditions jointly performing rituals. Like many scholars of China, Goossaert finds examining lineages is essential to understanding how clerics fit into society, for "it was through the lineage that clerics were socialized and placed within the networks and structures of Chinese religion" (p. 25). Indeed, "family vocabulary shaped all relationships within the clergy" (p. 26). Prestige and authority were directly linked to a particular cleric's lineage. While there is certainly a fair amount of rigidity associated with lineages—for example, the strict adherence to lineage poems for determining ordination names—there was also some room for innovation. An example of this is seen in the creation of a Quanzhen...

Christian symbol and ritual: an introduction

Existing books on Christian and the sacraments tend to presuppose a good acquaintance with Roman Catholic thought and practice. Today, however, even at Catholic institutions students tend to lack even a basic knowledge of Christian ritual. Moreover, for many modern people the word ritual carries negative connotations of rigidity and boredom. In this accessibly-written book two noted authors offer an engaging introduction to this important topic. Their goal is first to demonstrate that celebration, and symbol are already central to the readers' lives, even though most do not see their actions as symbolic or ritualistic. Once this point has been made, the book connects central Christian symbols to the symbols and rituals already present in the readers' lives. The Christian theology of symbol, ritual, and sacrament is thus placed in the context of everyday life. The authors go on to discuss such questions as how rituals establish and maintain power relationships, how official rituals are different from other popular Christian rituals and devotions, and how Christian rituals function in the process of human salvation. Their lively yet solidly grounded work will appeal to intelligent lay readers and discussion groups, as well as being useful for courses in and the sacraments at the undergraduate and seminary level.

The Establishment of <I>Rinji</I> _??__??_

Rinji _??__??_ is a member of the Hosho _??__??_ group of documents. Hosho was a letter-form document that was written by servants or lower-ranking officials that was used to convey the proclamations of higher authorities to lower authorities. Rinji was mainly reserved for imperial orders. This paper considers the processes that established Rinji, as well as the reasons behind Rinji's importance in the eleventh century.First, it is important to focus on how imperial orders were transmitted during the eighth century. Documents from Shosoin _??__??__??_ show us that orders from emperors, cloistered emperors and empresses were initially transmitted orally by those who first received the order. After oral transmission, officials then transcribed the order, so as to convey it to others. There seem to have been few documents dictated directly by an emperor, cloistered emperor or empress. It should also be noted that the documents made for the transmission of imperial orders were not necessarily in letter-form.During the period under the statutory system (Ritsuryo-sei _??__??__??_), transmissions of imperial orders were usually carried out by Naishi-no-tsukasa _??__??__??_. A number of documents from Shosoin were recorded from the dictations of female attendants and nuns during this period. In the ninth century, imperial orders were transmitted by Naishi-sen _??__??__??_. At that time, Naishi _??__??_ made oral transmissions of imperial orders, and in many cases it was after this oral proclamation that male officials issued documents concerning the imperial order.In the first year of the Konin-period (810), the office of Kurodo _??__??__??_ was established in the wake of the revolt of Kusuko _??__??__??__??_. The office of Kurodo expanded in size and function from the end of the ninth to the beginning of the tenth century, and as a result, the exclusive functions involving communication between the emperor and officials moved from the Naishi to the Kurodo.From the tenth century onwards, many cases can be found where the Kurodo were transmitting imperial orders and mediating messages to the emperor. Although in many cases these transmissions were made orally, there are some examples that show the Kurodo had documented imperial edicts in letters. Letters written by the Kurodo are quoted in some diaries dating from the middle of the Heian period. In the diary ‘Gonki’[_??__??_] for example, Kurodo's letters concerning imperial orders were occasionally referred to as ‘oose-gaki’_??__??_, which suggests that the documents were written in the style of a letter from a higher to a lower authority. Also, the diary ‘Shoyuki’ [_??__??__??_] quotes letters in which the Kurodo wrote imperial orders with detailed instructions on business. On the other hand, later Rinji seldom contained such detailed instructions. Moreover, the letters of the Kurodo found in ‘Gonki’ and ‘Shoyuki’ do not include the same closing phrases as seen in Rinji. On the other hand, the diary ‘Sakeiki’ [_??__??__??_], which was written during the period of Emperor Go-Ichijo _??__??__??_, referred to letters that contained the same closing phrases as Rinji.The documents that were specifically known as Rinji originate in the reign of Emperor Go-Ichijo. Earlier Rinji resembled the letters of the Kurodo quoted in the previously mentioned diaries, since both had contents that were twofold - the private rituals of the emperor himself, and the official rituals and ceremonies held within the imperial court. Therefore, it appears that the style of Rinji as a document was established during the reign of Emperor Go-Ichijo.

Why Devise, Why Now? Why New Zealand?

Why Devise, Why Now?Why New Zealand? Peter Falkenberg (bio) Coming to New Zealand from Germany in the 1970s, I encountered a theatrical scene that was very conventional, colonized by British expectations of repertory theatre and a Shakespearean kind of rhetorical performance, with received pronunciation—a kind of theatre that was not a specifically New Zealand theatre. There was some specifically national New Zealand theatre in content, but its form remained mainly locked into colonial models, and what I saw did not reflect what one would have been experiencing in Europe and the United States at the same time. In my view, New Zealand theatre served to represent middle-class domination and British colonization. When I was asked to make theatre here, I tried to counterbalance this colonization with another kind of colonization by bringing in European, continental texts and physical theatre methods—starting with King Ubu, Dada, and Surrealist theatre—trying to emancipate the theatrical scene from this kind of British theatre and, through these "antitheatrical" texts, to create a tabula rasa in order to be able to start anew. But to do theatre that is rooted in this country, I felt that the only way was to work with writers from here—or better, directly with the actors, to find out what they were actually contributing in terms of performance/text. For me, this was a search as well as research, a way of finding out about New Zealand. At the same time, I had gone through a sort of delayed culture shock. Everything that initially seemed familiar, provincial, and boring somehow did not quite fit; it became strange, unheimlich. What at first appeared to be civilized—more English than the English, as Christchurch prides itself to be—showed glimpses of being shockingly not. In Pakeha (i.e., European) New Zealand I perceived a kind of exoticism in reverse. Fierce and strange Maori war dances I could understand, as I expected them to be that way, but I did not expect the dominant white culture on closer inspection to be so strange and opaque in its own right. In order to understand, I began to work with master texts of colonization, with Robinson Crusoe and the Bible, and reading them closely I found them also strange and opaque (Crusoe: A Lapsarian Mass In Twelve Movements and Samson Airline). They are supposed to be familiar to us, but when we go back to them they don't read as we remember them or think they ought to read. They are boring, obsessed with propriety and minutiae, at the same time that they are fierce, savage, and unheimlich. Like the people I met in New Zealand, they don't quite fit against the image. I also began to see my actors as texts—as familiar but also very strange embodiments of colonization. Devising theatre in New Zealand became for me an act both of investigation and of provocation and communication. [End Page 39] I started to work with Maori artists to explore the other side of the colonial equation. I put a European provocation to my Maori collaborators and left them to create their own aesthetic response. In a collaborative, bicultural opera, Footprints/Tapuwae . . . Return of the Native,which brought Wagner's Ring into collision with Maori myth, I created a structure in which people or cultures could talk to without necessarily understanding each other, using two completely different languages, performance practices, and theatrical companies, juxtaposing, echoing, but never fusing. In New Zealand people don't reveal themselves easily, even if you know them for a long time. In devising work they have a chance to overcome their native reticence without becoming too personal. Devising theatre acknowledges an ongoing process of coming to understand where one lives, a reciprocal way of finding out about an Other who is not necessarily revealing itself as Other. In New Zealand, the dominant culture values conformity or sameness. The exotic difference of the Maori is primarily displayed as decoration for official rituals or tourists. But it's not the exotic Other that I want to explore, but the exotic disguised as familiar, that doesn't know it is Other. Perhaps instead of conforming to...

“Our creator who art in heaven:” Paradox, ritual, and cultural transformation

Contemporary organizations are typically marked by conflicting interests and contradictory demands on individuals. It is important to understand how these tensions are managed in everyday ways. Ritual, and the adaptation of official ritual is one way in which individuals may negotiate the paradoxes of their culture and accomplish cultural transformation. Analysis of qualitative data from three communities of Benedictine women reveals that by adapting ritual members resist church‐imposed identities of women as rightly excluded, subordinate, and disempowered. By resisting these identities, sisters reinforce the transformation of their own culture; and by doing so in the presence of outsiders, they make an argument for the transformation of the larger culture of the church.

The King in Lima: Simulacra, Ritual, and Rule in Seventeenth-Century Peru

The King in Lima: Simulacra, Ritual, and Rule in Seventeenth-Century Peru

Une analyse critique de l'histoire du Shōugyōhō et du Kujakukyōhō : rites ésotériques de la pluie dans le Japon de l'époque de Heian

This article deals with the history of two esoteric Buddhist rituals for causing rain in Japan during the Heian Period (794-1192): the Shōugyōhō and the Kujakukyōhō. One generally states that the former has been established by the founder of Shingon, Kūkai (774-835), in 824, and the latter by the founder of the Daigoji temple, Shōbō (832-909), in 908. The first execution of both rituals was held at the Sacred Spring Park Shinsen.en, located southeast of the Imperial Palace of the capital. Scholars agree on the fact that, from the 10th century, both rituals were performed regularly to pray for rain in times of drought, the Shōugyōhō always at the Shinsen.en, the Kujakukyōhō sometimes at other places too (the Tōji temple, the palace). However, unlike the Shōugyōhō, which aimed exclusively at making rain, the Kujakukyōhō had many other merits: dispelling calamities, averting aggression, bringing good fortune, etc. The plurality of its merits, together with a growing faith in the power of the 'Great Queen of Peacocks' (Mahāmayūrī/Kujakumyōō) among the court by the end of the 11th century, are considered to be the main reasons why the Kujakukyōhō gradually surpassed the prestige of the Shōugyōhō which eventually disappeared afier 1117. The above outline roughly depicts the opinion shared by many scholars today. However, though we do not of course deny the role the Kujakukyōhō played as a ritual for praying rain as such, we strongly doubt that, before the end of the 11th century, the court did consider the Kujakukyōhō as an official ritual for bringing rain. We showed that this ritual was never performed at the Shinsen.en, and that before 1082 it was just used in a few cases as a ritual which was merely secondary to the Shōugyōhō, after it had already begun to rain. We also pointed out that it is only after the Kujakukyō-midokyō ceremony (by which one recites the Kujakukyō sūtra at the Shinsen'en) was established (1065), that the Kujakukyōhō (the esoteric ritual based on the same sûtra) became an official ritual for causing rain (from 1082). In other terms, our study defines the shift from the Shōugyōhō (praying rain to a Dragon King) to the Kujakukyōhō (praying rain to the Queen of Peacocks) not as a gradual process starting from the 10th century, but as a rather quick change which took place between the end of the 11th and the beginning of the 12th century. This article is the result of two kinds of research. The first one focused on the legend saying that Kukai prayed for rain, using the Shōugyōhō in 824. Although many scholars have acknowledged it as a legend, their explanations on its origins lack persistence. We showed that the legend was used so as to protect the position of the Shōugyōhō in the Shinsen'en, from its first performance in 875 to its second in 891. Therefore we thought it highly unlikely that the court would have ordered a ritual other than the Shōugyōhō to be performed at the Shinsen'en after 891. The second one consists in a careful analysis of sources dealing with our rituals. We often found some similar stories about a ritual in these sources, with some differences in the dates and in the nature of the ritual though. By using the oldest (and most reliable) source as a reference, we could understand that most of the executions of the Kujakukyōhō mentioned before 1082 are merely wrong and arbitrary interpretations of older sources. Further study also revealed that in other cases (notably the ones related to the monk Kangū [884-972]), the execution of the Kujakukyōhō was actually not meant to bring rain. The key problem in our analysis of the sources was the Kiuhō shiki, written by the monk Kanjin (1084-1153) in 1117. Far from recording objectively events related to rain prayers, Kanjin seemed to have struggled to prove the superiority of the Kujakukyō sūtra over the Shōugyō sûtra which had lost the favour of both the court and the monks. He tried to show that monks such as Shōbō and Kangū had performed the Kujakukyōhō after they had failed to make rain using the Shōugyōhō. In the following centuries, other monks positively adopted Kanjin 's point of view, which explains why the history of these two rituals has been misunderstood until now.

Television news is government news in Taiwan patterns of television news sources selection and presentation

Based on a content analysis of evening newscasts by the three television stations in Taiwan, this study examines the patterns of news sources selection and presentation in television news. The results of this study show that television news relies heavily on government officials who are primarily middle‐aged men in executive positions located in the capital city of Taipei. These findings suggest that the central government officials in Taipei appear to be the primary definers of social reality. TV news portrays only a very limited view of the society. In conclusion, this study suggests that with the management and content tightly controlled by the state, Taiwan's television news consists primarily of official rituals.

The Voter's Natural Bent

purpose of letting a voter make a record of his opinions on the candidates and the issues that he has been listening to and thinking about for a long time and relating them to a sense of himself and the community he lives in. The official ritual of standing within the isolated polling booth helps the citizen focus his impressions and makes him give them direction. To do this he must think of something beyond his own skin and bones; he is reminded that he is not living alone. He uses his vote for the state, the public-not for a private interest. Grover Cleveland well said: Your every voter, as surely as your chief magistrate, exercises a public trust.