Private Rituals Research Articles

Honoring the moment of death: Lived experiences, practices, and rituals of internal medicine residents

Given the limited information on physicians’ practices at the time of pronouncing a patient’s death, this study aimed to learn about the prevalence and purpose of internal medicine residents’ practices, the obstacles to performing them and how they can be overcome. Responses to a questionnaire were analyzed using logistic regression, to compare respondents who did and did not have a ritual. Twenty-one interview transcripts were thematically analyzed. A total of 151 physicians responded to the questionnaire; 35 (22.3%) reported performing a private ritual at the time of patient death. Religious participants were 2.97 times more likely {CI: 1.18–7.41} to perform a ritual following a patient’s death. Three main themes were found, indicating residents’ need to pause and perform a practice to honor the patient, express their humanity, and cope with the overflow of emotions. Senior staff should support opportunities for residents to honor the moment of death.

INTERRITUALITY SEBAGAI MEDIUM KOMUNIKASI LINTAS AGAMA: BELAJAR DARI SEMBAHYANG KING HOO PING UMAT KHONGHUCU DI SEMARANG

For more than thirty years, the existence of the religion of Khonghucu was not recognized by the New Order government. During Abdurrahman Wahid's presidency, the government issued a regulation recognizing the religion. Soon afterward, the Khonghucu community actively engaged in various interreligious communication practices to maintain interreligious harmony. Interestingly, Khonghucu community in Semarang established practice of interreligious communication through the King Hoo Ping prayer ritual. In that annual prayer, religious leaders are invited to actively participate in the private ritual of the Khonghucu community. This kind of interrituality practice can be a medium for interreligious encounter and communication. Using Marianne Moyaert's concept of interrituality, this paper aims to describe the interritual practice of King Hoo Ping interreligious prayer. This paper wants to examine how the host's religious hospitality can turn strangers and outsiders into being guests in the host's ‘religious house’.

Kön, makt och social (o)ordning

Recension av: Laura Stark-Arola. Magic, Body and Social Order. The construction of gender through women's private rituals in traditional Finland. Helsinki: Finnish Literature Society 1998. (Studia Fennica Folkloristica 5.) 331 s., ill.

Geheimnis und Verborgenes im Mittelalter: Funktion, Wirkung, und Spannungsfelder von okkultem Wissen, verborgenen Räumen und magischen Gegenständen

Geheimnis und Verborgenes im Mittelalter: Funktion, Wirkung, und Spannungsfelder von okkultem Wissen, verborgenen Räumen und magischen Gegenständen

Many-faced Bes. Ancient Egyptian terracotta figurines from the collection of the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts

The article examines four terracotta figurines depicting the ancient Egyptian god Bes and his female counterpart Beset, acquired by Vladimir S. Golenischev in Egypt and kept in the storages of the Department of the Ancient Orient at the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts. The analyzed objects are diverse in their topics, form and functional purposes, testifying to the great popularity of this ‘minor’ deity in Graeco-Roman Egypt; all objects are included in the context of domestic worship of the god Bes. They served as a “link” between temple festivals and domestic worship, and could also be placed in a burial place as grave goods or could be brought to a temple as votive offerings. Bes and Beset guarded and helped a person during periods when he faced the forces of chaos – in a time of sleeping, illness, in childbirth, during the war. Bes and Beset were considered the protectors of childhood and motherhood, promoting conception and successful childbirth. Bes was associated with the different borderline states of human health and the period of a person’s transition to another world. The images of Bes do not come from temple theology, but from the context of domestic, private rituals; Bes remains entirely a “popular” god, the part of a daily life cycle of the population of Graeco-Roman Egypt. These multifaced quality is one of the secrets of the incredible popularity of Bes, whose figurines spread along with the Greeks and Romans throughout the oecumene down to the Black Sea region.

고려시대 별기은(別祈恩)의 성격과 제행(祭行) 형태

This article dealt with the Byeolgieun(別祈恩)’s ritual aspect that was practiced in the whole Goryeo Dynasty. Byeolgieun was a ritual ceremony held by government and royal family in the various Gibokcheo(祈福處；a place for invoking a blessing) such as the palace, temple, mountains, rivers, and shrines etc. As Byeolgieun was the ritual representing the Goryeo Dynasty, which recognized the existence of various divinities, Byeolgieun was performed on the basis of several ideological grounds throughout the Goryeo Dynasty. According to the flow of time, it showed each ideological tone depth progressed and so Byeolgieun’s Buddhistic·Taoistic ceremony shaped in the early, middle Goryeo period, while Shamanistic tendency was stronger in the Late Goryeo period. There seems that the first Byeolgieun recording can be discovered in Byeolryegije(別例祈祭) of SImu 28, Choe Seung Ro(崔承老)’s Sangsomun(上疏文) when King Seongjong(成宗) period. Byeolgieun had already an established interpretation, that is “Eumsa(淫祀)”, means different from ritual processes and rites. But it could figure out that rites aspect regarding to the early Goryeo period Byeolgieun through trying to a new interpretation of exceptional rites such as Byeolryeyeondeunghoe(別例燃燈會)·Teukseolinwanghoe(特設仁王會). Hereafter under the unstable domestic and international conditions, Byeolgieun, which was gradually becoming more formationed and prevailed as national ritual after the establishment of a national organization related to ritual practice, GIeunsaek(祈恩色)·Byeolryegieundogam(別例祈恩都監), then from the word “Byeolgieun” being called to Gieun (contracted form) started to expand, not only in the capital town and palace but conducted ceremony in local area. As entered Yuan(元) intervention period, through the dispatch of those who are in charge the officer, Oesangieunbyoelgam(外山祈恩別監) and Gieunsa(祈恩使), Byeolgieun started to be performed in local Myeongsan(名山；authorized mountains) and temples. Oesanjegosa(外山祭告使), who performed confucianstic Sancheonje(山川祭；rites of authorized mountains and rivers), concurrently served as Oesangieunbyoelgam. When they went to the local Myeongsan for performing rites, they conveyed a decree of amnesty of the king to the local prisoners and they did lots of bad activities by using the high position as national rites officials. These Sancheonje style of Byeolgieun, Oesangieunbyoelgam conducts in the temple of the Myeongsan, can regard as the transition period before type was fixed from Buddhistic·Taoistic ceremony to Shamanistic ceremony in the Late Goryeo period. From the early 13th century, gradually appearing the Mudang(巫堂；shaman)’s ceremony much more prevailed by shamanistic trend since Yuan intervention period. In the Late Goryeo period, Mudangs participated in the politic issues directly or indirectly and using these current situation, Mudangs’ descendants and relatives took the higher status. Therefore Mudangs’ positions were much higher and Byeolgieun was fixed Shamanistic ceremony. Because Mudangs, who charged in GiuJe(祈雨祭；ritual for rain) and several private rituals in and out of the royal family, conducted the national rituals much more than ever, preventing Shamanism theory appeared. And In this circumstance, in order to distinguish “Gieun” in the previous system and separate Shamaniistic ritual formation, “Byeol” was added again then named “Byeolgieun”. Confucian scholars’ intense criticism against Shamanistic Byeolgieun, carried over Joseon, continued. Moreover several Confucian transformation made an attempt, but still remained Shamanistic ceremony.

The Making of a Plaza: Public Spaces and Marketplaces at Tenam Puente, Chiapas, Mexico

This study investigates the shifting meanings and practices inscribed on the Main Plaza at the ancient Maya city of Tenam Puente. Plazas are fundamental features of ancient Mesoamerican cities that were important sites for civic activities such as mass spectacles, ceremonies, private rituals, feasting. More recently, certain plazas have also been documented as permanent or periodic marketplaces. New radiocarbon dates and stratigraphic test excavations provide evidence for several important transformations in the built landscape of Tenam Puente’s Main Plaza, including renovations to the site’s principal ballcourt, a large filling and resurfacing event, and a significant addition to the plaza’s volume for the purpose of building a semi-enclosed marketplace plaza. These results provide insight into the evolving nature of public space at the site, from a focus on private rituals and dynastic rule, to an emphasis on mass spectacle, commercial activity, and civic engagement.

La construcción de una plaza: espacios públicos y áreas de mercado en Tenam Puente, Chiapas, México

This study investigates the shifting meanings and practices inscribed on the Main Plaza at the ancient Maya city of Tenam Puente. Plazas are fundamental features of ancient Mesoamerican cities that were important sites for civic activities such as mass spectacles, ceremonies, private rituals, feasting. More recently, certain plazas have also been documented as permanent or periodic marketplaces. New radiocarbon dates and stratigraphic test excavations provide evidence for several important transformations in the built landscape of Tenam Puente’s Main Plaza, including renovations to the site’s principal ballcourt, a large filling and resurfacing event, and a significant addition to the plaza’s volume for the purpose of building a semi-enclosed marketplace plaza. These results provide insight into the evolving nature of public space at the site, from a focus on private rituals and dynastic rule, to an emphasis on mass spectacle, commercial activity, and civic engagement.

Begging for Rain: Economic and Social Effects of Climate in the Early Koryŏ Period

Abstract As in other premodern societies, the economy and society of Koryŏ Korea (918–1392) were greatly affected by climatological phenomena, particularly rain and drought. However, climate played a critical role in the early formation of Koryŏ, especially in reinforcing a sociocultural belief system that supported monarchical authority. The kings utilized a “menu” of rituals designed to appease Heaven and create favorable climate conditions, which legitimated the temporal and spiritual power of the king. The different rituals can be categorized as personal rituals, private rituals, and public rituals. While climate crises threatened the economic and social stability of Koryŏ society, they were also opportunities for the Koryŏ rulers to display and reaffirm their supreme economic and juridical authority. The kings demonstrated their power by reducing corvée labor and taxes, postponing or eliminating monastery construction, and commuting judicial punishments. While weather and climate were natural phenomena, the social responses to weather were encapsulated in a ritual system that reinforced both the personal responsibility of the king and popular belief in the power and authority of the king to affect the physical and metaphysical environment.

Eloquent Plasticity

Abstract This paper explores Namahage of Akita Prefecture as it assumes three different instantiations: 1) enactment as a private ritual within individual households on New Year’s Eve; 2) performance as a public festival at a shrine in mid-February; and 3) celebration as an “element” inscribed on UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. I argue that in the first instance, Namahage is part of a vernacular religious “structure of feeling” in which religious elements are inseparable from community life; in the second instantiation, religion is more explicit and codified; and in the third iteration, religion is only vaguely articulated. Tracing the “same” tradition through different forms provides insight into the changing needs of communities and into the dynamics of change itself. With this in mind, I propose a model called hrönirism through which to broadly conceptualize notions of change and difference within traditions such as matsuri.

How Does Religion Affect Giving to Outgroups and Secular Organizations? A Systematic Literature Review

Although religious giving represents the largest sector of charitable giving in the US, its overall impact on social welfare has been questioned, pointing to the possibility that the majority of funding might stay within the religious community, with little benefit to outgroups or secular charity. Despite multiple studies showing a positive relationship between religion and secular and outgroup giving, some empirical findings show a negative or non-significant relationship. By employing a systematic literature review, the current study explores theories and empirical evidence to provide an integrative framework that identifies the mechanisms and directions through which religion affects giving to outgroups and secular organizations. The study also compares the major five religious traditions and giving to outgroups and secular organizations. The study finds that religious teachings, norms, values, social network, and private rituals, determine the direction of the relationship between religion and giving to outgroups and secular organizations. The study concludes that, despite the dominant positive relationship between religion and giving to outgroup and secular organizations, there remains heterogeneity among the studies based on their location, operationalization of religion and secular giving, and methodology used. The study also poses some implication questions and points out future research directions.

Thin Attachments: Writing Berlin in Scenes of Daily Loves

Thin Attachments brings personal memoir to bear on an affective geography of Berlin. In scenes of daily loves, the city’s queers and Sufis, saints and strangers, lovers and research-partners cross paths at work, in cafes, at mosques, online, and in bed. Queer, migrant, and the religious are returning figures that coagulate in private rituals of be/longing and scenes of public intimacy. Insofar as thin stands for spectral depth and emotional traffic, it performs the task of engaging politics of time, sex, and religion in the city not in antagonistic terms but as critically coincident. Similarly, attachment in this work is that figure of affect, which brings us tad closer to the knowledge of how we might long and belong in shared unfamiliarity; of how ostensibly straight pasts and queer futures, sex and saints in Berlin constitute continuums otherwise implausible; of how delicacies of religious ritual echo precarities of queer love. The result is a body of non-linear fragments that discover the sparse and surprising ways in which longings of places and people intersect and in so doing summon the city as though it were a crafty djinn, shapeshifting between its material, virtual, and imaginal forms.

ОСНОВНІ ВІДОМОСТІ ПРО ДАВНЬОЕЛЛІНСЬКІ ФІМІАТЕРІЇ ТА ЇХ ПРИЗНАЧЕННЯ

The paper looks at the ancient Greek thymiateria and aims at finding data in literary, epigraphic and visual sources that would cast light on the use of thymiateria in private and public rituals of the VIІ th century BC – IVth century AD. Systematic collection of data and its comparative historical analysis were in the core of the methodology. Among the main methods of analysing the collected sources, one should mention empirical, analytical, structural-typological and iconographical methods. A thymiaterion (an incense burner) is firstly mentioned in the Vth century BC in Herodotus’ Historia. In centuries to come, the panhellenic name of thymiaterion would dominate and enter to Roman and Germanic languages. This device was used solely with fire, charcoal or heated pebbles to burn aromatic compounds, incense and aromatic plants and flowers in particular. Thymiateria didn’t have any fixed shapes or sizes. In narrative sources, they were also named bomiskos, libanotis (libanotris), escharis, tripodiskos etc. In this paper, I examine the basic constructive elements of thymiateria. As visual sources and lyric poetry suggest, they were used in the archaic period. The earliest instance of the use of thymiateria in the ritual practice date late to the VIth century BC in the Phanagoria of the Bosporus. The thymiateria is depicted on mostly in mythological scenes on the Athenian red-figure pottery late of the Vth – IVth centuries BC found in Panticapaeum and in the surrounding area. The Greek iconography of mythological scenes on the vases was clear for the locals. The majority of visual, numismatics and epigraphic sources that reveal the use of thymiateria on the Bosporus are dating to the IVth–ІІth centuries BC, when they were spread in Hellenistic Greece and, especially in sanctuaries of Delos. Although aroma was an essential part of thymiateria culture, only Orphic Hymns cast light on the use of particular incenses (in pure form or in compound) for each gods or heroes. One important question persists: which aromas were burnt in thymiateria and from which countries were they brought to Greece? From literary sources, we know that plant-based aromas, namely incense and myrrh were brought from South Arabia and Syria. Thymiateria were used during rituals in sanctuaries and temples, during religious processions, funerals, symposiums and wedding that were accompanied by aromatic smoke. The present essay should be regarded as a starting point for the further in-depth study of thymiateria from the Northern Black sea region and Olbia in particular.

Jaguar and puma captivity and trade among the Maya: Stable isotope data from Copan, Honduras.

From Moctezuma’s zoo to animals kept in captivity at Teotihuacan, there is increasing evidence that Mesoamericans managed wild animals for a myriad of purposes. The present study situates ritualized animal management of highly symbolic fauna in the broader context of Classic Mesoamerica by examining another core site, the Maya center of Copan, Honduras (A.D. 426–822). In this study, we identify two animal populations among the faunal remains from public and private rituals spanning the Copan dynasty. One population, with diets heavily composed of atypically sourced C4 inputs indicative of artificial feeding, corresponds with the felids interred in Altar Q and Motmot caches. The second population is composed of felids and felid products bearing a predominance of C3 signatures indicative of a more natural dietary regime. As with Copan deer, species-specific δ18O variations within these felid populations further substantiates the postulation that an expansive faunal trade network operated throughout the greater Copan Valley and beyond. Animals routed from sites of capture into the mesh of this network would have been processed into pelts, venison and other secondary goods or delivered alive to centers of state power for ritual usage and display. Our data reveal that at Copan, wild animals were routinely brought into intimate contact with human settlements to be managed and physically manipulated in a variety of ways in order to fulfill ritual and symbolic purposes.

Private Rituals

62 WLT MAY–AUGUST 2017 livingston : gabriel padhilha Private Rituals by Shauna Osborn between landscape and the female body: earth sand stones plants flowers blood a silhouette digging molding carving space visible & tactile between the body and the land: one obsessive act female force after-image within the womb optical indexes memory-traces ancient stone circles individual desires splendid imperative like Cézanne’s apples – satisfied not static subjective earth what desire Shauna Osborn is an award-winning Numunuu (Comanche) / German mestiza artist, researcher, and wordsmith. Her debut poetry collection is called Arachnid Verve. She was recently named national director of the Native Writers’Circle of the Americas.You can find her online at shaunamosborn.wordpress.com. What Shivers Since the Wheel Forgave Us by Chip Livingston Our stuck tongues screamed louder In Alabama, words hung in a rhythm Reservation hands could basket Tied back rocks rose, picked Tarnished cigarettes unsupervised Between tucked tobacco choruses The stick figure beautifully contorted Across drum and caught motioning Toward a post authentic Grinning the undressed words To out-sparked historians Trading them the dance we packed For breakfast, hands out-fished Bent past our crane feathers And Oklahoma over there imagined Stretched and carved and reported Magic from god dollars Thought + thought + thought No promised sounds abundant Bays silent, the rinsed spirit singing Chip Livingston is the author of the novel Owls Don’t Have to Mean Death (Lethe, 2017); a story and essay collection, Naming Ceremony; and two poetry volumes, CrowBlue , Crow-Black and Museum of False Starts. Chip teaches in the MFA programs at the Institute of American Indian Arts and Regis University. cover feature new native writing ...

Roman festivals in the Greek East: from the early empire to the Middle Byzantine Era

Part I. Festivals in the Greek East Before Constantine: 1. Greek city festivals in the Imperial age 2. Roman festivals in Eastern cities Part II. Roman Festivals in the Greek East After Constantine: 3. Theodosius' reform of the legal calendar 4. Contested festivals in the fourth century 5. The Lupercalia from Augustus to Constantine Porphyrogennetos 6. John Malalas and ritual aetiology 7. The Brumalia 8. Kalendae Ianuariae again, and again 9. Christian liturgy and the Imperial festival tradition Part III. Christianity and Private Ritual: 10. Christian incubation 11. Magic in a Christian Empire Epilogue. The persistence of festivals and the end of sacrifices.

Accounting for rituals and ritualization: The case of shareholders’ associations

This paper uses ritual theory to examine the participation of shareholders’ associations in rituals and ritualization within social spaces. We focus on how the interconnectedness between private rituals (private investor meetings) and public rituals (AGMs and courts) produce psychological and functional benefits for shareholders’ associations. We explore the strategic acts used by shareholders’ associations in ritualization. Our study reveals that the participation of shareholders’ associations in each ritual plays a significant role in reducing conflict and maintaining harmony. Regarding ritualization, our study shows that some shareholders’ associations use a form of gamesmanship to gain strategic advantage in audit committee nominations at AGMs.

IReligion: Religious Elements of the Apple Phenomenon

Abstract: This article utilizes Durkheim’s definition of religion to demonstrate the religious dimensions of the Apple phenomenon and by doing that aims to assert the presence of religiosity outside of its conventional sphere. The analysis of Apple consists of four elements of Durkheim’s definition—community, beliefs, sacred, and rituals. The devotees of Apple’s community base their beliefs on notions of individuality, creativity, and counterculture, and this system of beliefs is supported by a mythos surrounding Apple’s history and Steve Jobs’s life. The Apple brand itself is the most sacred symbol of the community, protected by the taboo of criticism. The products act as religious fetishes to Apple devotees, and Apple stores function as temples. Followers perform public pilgrimages to store openings and Apple conferences, and private rituals of product unboxing.

Rituales funerarios y de duelo colectivos y privados, religiosos o laicos

My Docthoral Thesis carried out with religious subjects from different creeds and with non religious individuals found that participation in collective funerary rites and in private rituals –religious or secular - allow the mourners to say good bye and accept the death of their deceased loved ones (Paez et al., 2007)..Funerals and bereavement rituals allow the symbolic expression of feelings and thoughts, assist the mourners to cope with loss, and promote their recovery from bereavement (Pargament, 1997; Yoffe, 2012c.).

AFTER THE <em>FLÂNEUR:</em> TEMPORALITY AND CONNECTIVITY IN WILHELM GENAZINO'S <em>BELEBUNG DER TOTEN WINKEL</em> AND <em>DAS GLÜCK IN GLÜCKSFERNEN ZEITEN</em>

Drawing on current debates on the effects of a new ‘culture of immediacy’ in the digital era, this articles analyses Wilhelm Genazino’s poetics of temporality. While the modern flâneur was still a sovereign subject capable of transforming fleeting impressions into moments of quasi-metaphysical vision, his contemporary successor is a stray self roaming an illegible urban jungle in search of intimacy. Genazino’s figures discover their non-contemporaneity with the contemporary as a creative resource that allows them to exercise temporal sovereignty in an era that is otherwise ruled by the hectic just-in-time ideology. Retreat into melancholy, the performance of private rituals, the fabrication of stories, the technique of the prolonged gaze and slowness emerge as five tactics of resistance through which Genazino’s protagonists achieve temporary anchorage in a run-away world. For Genazino literature necessarily rehabilitates the self’s Eigenzeit, thereby restoring interiority and intimacy as essential conditions of cultural connectivity.