Religious Processes Research Articles

Is tetrodotoxin intoxication the cause of "zombi voice" in Haiti?

Zombification, a magical and religious process in Haiti, has been scientifically studied and remains relevant. Originating from the convergence of African, Caribbean, and Christian rites, it involves a comatose trance, transforming individuals into living dead through Voodoo practices. Haitian zombies consistently exhibit a preserved expression marked by a nasal voice, a result of nasalization-using nasal cavities as resonators during phonation. The aim of this study was to ascertain the mechanisms through which zombification could impact the voices of the subjects. A comprehensive investigation was conducted using both primary and secondary sources. Primary sources involved direct or reported testimonies of individuals undergoing zombification, with audio or video recordings available from the collections of the Laboratory of Anthropology, Archaeology, and Biology (UVSQ/Paris-Saclay University), as well as on the internet. Secondary sources encompassed the entirety of existing literature regarding zombification in Haiti on one hand, alterations in the voices of subjects when mentioned on the other hand, and toxicological hypotheses or evidence available on PubMed/Medline and Google Scholar. Few post-zombification observations exist, but 20th-century studies clarified the physio pathological process, confirming its reality. Wade Davis demonstrated in 1983 that zombification results from poisoning, with effects ranging from reversible to fatal, implicating substances like tetrodotoxin and datura. Nasalization can be natural or pathological, affecting various phonemes. No mutilating acts or surgery have been reported related to Haitian zombification. The pharmacological characteristics of tetrodotoxin, coupled with testimonials, present a medical hypothesis elucidating the biological mechanism underlying nasalization in this context. Given that tetrodotoxin induces flaccid paralysis as a neurotropic poison, its neurological impact could account for soft palate paralysis or spasms. Additionally, the severe hypotension induced by tetrodotoxin may elucidate oral and pharyngeal necrosis.

Juridical Analysis of the Comparison of Different Religious Marriage Laws Based on the Adminduk Law Article 35 with SEMA No 2 Years 2023 Concerning Marriage Registration

Interfaith marriage is an issue that has not been resolved to date. In current practice in Indonesian society, interfaith marriage processions are generally carried out by carrying out the marriage with a religious procession each of which is followed by the prospective husband and wife or in the sense that there are two religious processes being carried out or only carrying out one religious procession or what generally happens is not carrying out religious processions at all so that it does not comply with Article 2 paragraph (1) of the Marriage Law regarding valid marriages. The legal research method used in this research is normative juridical research which is research carried out or aimed only at written regulations with the nature of descriptive analysis research which is a method that functions to describe or provide an overview of the object being studied. The data source used is secondary data with quantitative data analysis. The results of this research are the Hierarchy of Legislation in Indonesia. If it is related to the Civil Admin Law Article 35 with SEMA Number 2 of 2023, the legal force of SEMA has a lower hierarchy than the law. Therefore, it can be concluded that the provisions contained in the Administer Law cannot be changed by SEMA Number 2 of 2023. However, this SEMA still influences the direction for judges not to grant requests for inter-religious marriages.

Forgotten lives of 1984: Sikhs in Jammu and Kashmir

ABSTRACT This year marks forty years of 1984 anti-Sikh violence in India. Though the magnitude of killings was enormous in Delhi, however, other regions were also not left untouched. This paper aims to bring recognition of the heinous crime committed against Sikhs in Jammu and Kashmir. It examines violence against the Sikhs in different parts of Jammu and Kashmir specifically focusing on three major incidents- 1984 in Srinagar in Kashmir and Talwara in Jammu, followed by attack on Sikh religious procession in 1989 in Jammu city. This research maps the unseen and untold history of Sikhs living on the margins.

International Relations in the Conditions of Historical, Political and Religious Transformations in the Qajar State

The presented article examines the religious factor in the domestic policy of Catherine II and the Babid uprising in the socio-political life of the Qajar State. The influence of Russian foreign policy on the South Caucasus is explored; relations between Russia and the Azerbaijani khanates; foreign policy and diplomacy of Agha Mohammed Qajar and the Qajar princes. The historical, political and religious processes in the Qajar State from the late 18th to the mid-19th centuries are analyzed, echoing the modern situation in Iran, both in domestic and foreign policy. An objective study of these problems by an Azerbaijani scientist is a kind of contribution to the scientific thought of the Middle East. The history of the Qajar State in the context of the political interests of the state, interpreted with a religious factor, lifts the veil from the former theological experience of suppression of secular power by religious, which the Qajars had to reckon with in the late Middle Ages. The paradox is that this factor is present in modern Iran, which is why internal unrest occurs, which affects foreign policy relations with secular Azerbaijan, professing Shiism and other cultural countries. More recently, a series of events in the issue of the Azerbaijani-Armenian conflict and Iran’s support for Armenia sowed the seeds of hostility between Azerbaijan and Iran. But conceptual logic dictated an orientation towards peace and cooperation, the key factors of which were the strengthening of vector logical and economic ties under the North-South project along the western coast of the Caspian Sea and the launch of the Rasht-Astara railway line.

Memory and tradition of the Bhojpuri diaspora: the socio-cultural aesthetics of Phagwa celebration

ABSTRACT Phagwa symbolises the triumph of good over evil. The celebrating spirit of Phagwa and carnivalesque imagery draw on the mischievous and playful spirit which mocks authority, subverts power relationships, and creates a new world. This carnivalesque setting of Phagwa serves as a metaphor where people from different cultural groups join the religious procession to show solidarity. The Phagwa carnival is characterised by the spirit of possibilities, renewal, the tearing down of old forms, and the creation of new bonds & identity. The carnival of Phagwa is a performative ritual of cultural resistance and awakening, claiming space, and celebrating freedom from any kind of oppression. This paper looks at the Phagwa ritual in the diaspora that helps in understanding the importance of the memory of the past and how this festival of the Overseas Hindu community bridges the gap between different cultural groups and forefronts the message of unity in diversity.

Materials on the History of the Orthodox Church in Siberia and the Far East in 1986

The article provides various statistical data on the history of Orthodoxy in Siberia and the Far East in 1986. The information presented in the documents of the State Archive of the Russian Federation (SARF) is interesting from the point of view of Orthodox history. On the one hand, this is a time of perestroika and glasnost, when information on religious teachings, among other things, was widely covered; on the other hand, not all statistics on religious processes were reflected in available scientific publications. The research is based on the fundamental principles of historical science (objectivity and historicism), general scientific and special scientific methods of cognition. We draw a conclusion that the documents in question are the richest statistical source on the history of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROCh) in Siberia and the Far East. The analyzed statistics complement the information available today. The data presented indicate the uneven development of Orthodoxy in different regions at the time under consideration. In some subjects of the RSFSR in Siberia and the Far East, there were quite a lot of active religious buildings of the Orthodox Church and clergy, in some there were few of them. From our point of view, this is due to the presence or absence of diocesan leadership in the regions, the number of the population, and the peculiarities of the development of Orthodox religiosity in the Soviet post-war period. The importance of further work with sources within the subject field of the study is noted. We focus on the necessity of comparative research in order to reconstruct the most comprehensive history of Orthodoxy in Siberia and the Far East.

Psychological and Biological Aspects of “Without-Body Bereavement”: Reflections at COVID-19 Pandemic Time

Grief is an individual, family, and social psychological process following the death of a loved one, during which the pain caused by loss follows several stages that will lead to the reorganization and acceptance of the mourning event. In this article, we will examine some elaboration processes that can allow for an analysis of the cultural, social, and religious processes and structures as a consequence of the “grief without a body,” namely, the mourning by the relatives who have experienced the loss of a loved one without being able to ritualize the social function of the funeral because of the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic. Furthermore, some biological and neurological processes that modulate and allow for the mourning process will be synthesized.

Characteristic features of Reformation in Hungary and the Formation of the Unitarian (Anti-Trinitarian) Church in Transylvania in the Second Half of the 16th Century

This article examines the peculiarities of the Reformation process in the Hungarian territories, followed by the formation of a Unitarian (Anti-Trinitarian) church in Transylvania in the 16th century. The study aims to identify the specific features and periodization of this process in the said area. The first feature is the complex ethnic composition of the population, which led to political and religious opposition and the strengthening of state power by certain ethnic groups that adopted Protestant religious doctrines. The second feature is related to the complex military-political situation in Central Europe in the 16th century: the disintegration of the Kingdom of Hungary, the annexation of parts of the disintegrated kingdom by the Ottoman Empire, which led to several major Austro-Turkish wars and constant border skirmishes. This resulted in the emergence of various vassal formations and the use of interfaith conflict as a means to achieve success in military-political confrontations. The third feature, closely related to the previous ones, is the strengthening of magnate clans, which, in the context of weak government and a challenging international situation, became independent political forces significantly influencing the religious processes in the country. These characteristics of Reformation in the Hungarian territories led, in the second half of the 16th century, to a substantial expansion of Protestantism supporters and an increase in the number of Protestant denominations. In the small, frontier, vassal state of the Eastern Hungarian kingdom under the Ottoman Empire, the widest religious freedom in Europe was granted. A few years later, a Unitarian (Anti-Trinitarian) Christian church was established, receiving equal rights with all other religious denominations. It continues to exist in Hungary and Romania. This study will be of interest to the researchers of history of Reformation and religion in general.

Религиозность в пространстве видеоигр

The study of video games in the context of religious studies of popular culture is one of the fastest growing fields. Here the interests of researchers of games, media, modern religious processes, youth and many other fields of research intersect. In this article we will turn to how the “effects” paradigm manifests itself in the field of video games, an approach to the study of popular culture through the prism of its influence on a person or society as a whole. Here the tradition of phenomenological and structuralist research turns out to be important, and the main conclusion is the danger, some destructive potential of games. The strong influence of video games on the minds is noted not only by researchers, but also by representatives of religious organizations that specifically create computer games for educational, missionary and, generally speaking, entertainment purposes.An alternative to such a focus is being sought and found by researchers from the interdisciplinary field of studying video games and religion, which is already developing in the 21st century. There is a study of communities of gamers, the narratives they create, and research from the field of social psychology and even aesthetics. Video games are no longer perceived only as a carrier of an idea that is potentially dangerous and has a one-sided impact on the consumer, but rather as a space of co-creation, interaction and active participation of all involved - the players, their environment, those who create the games. This field can be a source for new research in the field of contemporary religious processes.

Art and Pediatric Orthopaedics: Repin and Inclusiveness.

A famous painting of the 19th century, by Ilia Repin, of a religious procession depicts the pageantry of the event but also draws the attention of the viewer to the exclusion of a disabled child from the festivities.

Pluralism in Religious Life in Indonesia: Tolerance in Gorontalo and Manado Regions

This paper concentrates on religious life in two regions, namely Manado and Gorontalo. In this paper, it is found that plural life is very tolerant among religious people as evidenced by the lack of religious conflicts, both in Muslim-majority areas in Gorontalo and Muslim minorities in Manado. The problem in this paper is how the religious process takes place and is lived by the Muslim minority community in Manado, and how the Muslim majority community interacts with non-Muslim minority groups in Gorontalo, as well as how the differences between these two environments survive in a harmonious interfaith environment. To analyze the problem, qualitative analysis is used with observational data collection methods, interviews, and documents. Research findings show that religious life in Manado and Gorontalo as pluralist areas seems tolerant, but the tolerance is pseudo. This is because most people in both regions choose to live in the same settlement with followers of the same religion and do not mingle with different religions.

ДЕСЕКУЛЯРИЗАЦИЯ ИСЛАМА «СВЕРХУ» В КАБАРДИНО-БАЛКАРИИ: 1940-Е ГГ. – НАЧАЛО XXI В.

The study is about Kabardino-Balkaria’s state policy toward Islam from the Great Patriotic War until the beginning of the twenty-first century. Desecularization “from above” is used as the main conceptual approach of the study. This approach is viewed as a state-controlled, rather than a grassroots movement led, rebirth of religion from private to public space. It is noted that the growing Islamic mobilization, being also under the influence of external political technologies, required the Soviet and Russian state to create a “top-down” desecularization strategy in order to avoid the emergence of autonomous centers of violence and separatism. Ultimately, despite changes in the political regime since the middle of the 20th century not only had the state kept re-ligious processes within certain limits, sometimes using authoritarian methods, but also integrated existing potential into a productive political agenda, be it ensuring internal security and stability or foreign policy strategies.

Situation of Religious Communities in the USSR National Autonomies in 1985-1991: The Case of the Khakass Autonomous Region

The authors consider the situation of religious communities in the Khakass Autonomous Region in the context of the state-religious policy of the USSR during the period of perestroika in 1985-1991. The study was carried out on the basis of the records of state Soviet, party institutions and religious associations stored in the National Archive of the Republic of Khakassia and the State Archive of the Krasnoyarsk Territory, as well as regulatory documents. In the course of the research it was established that in Khakassia, as well as throughout the country, from 1985 religious life was intensified. At the same time, the Commissioners of the Council for Religious Affairs under the Council of Ministers of the USSR for the Krasnoyarsk Territory characterized the religious situation in Khakassia as turbulent from the 1960s and asked for a dedicated post for this national autonomy. It was found that the largest part of the religious communities in the region belonged to different trends of Protestantism, although there were also followers of Orthodoxy, Catholicism, and Islam. In Protestant communities there was an increase in missionary work, and in some cases they wanted to avoid contacts with authorities. The liberalization of the state policy was not always adequately reflected in the actions of the authorities of the Khakass Autonomous Region. There was found relationship between ethnic and religious processes. It was noted that Khakassians tended towards Pentecostalism and Jehovah's Witnesses; representatives of German and Polish nationalities tended towards the communities of Catholics, Lutherans, and Seventh-day Adventists. In addition, in the region there was recorded an increase in the preaching activities of religious leaders from Sweden and the United States.

Forging Communal Space: Negotiating Streets and Practices in Delhi, 1922–65

This paper examines space-making in the Jangpura-Bhogal locality of Delhi by documenting communal conflicts in the late 1920s and 1950s. First, it addresses the production of a Hindu religious space by disavowing Muslim ritual practices under a colonial regime seeking to control religious conflict. Second, it unpacks the diverse mechanisms used to produce a Sikh political space during a nascent postcolonial state’s management of linguistic subnationalisms. Grounded in power relations and cohesions around multiple social registers, these variegated spatial claims were made through political and religious processions, petitions and physical violence. These communal geographies highlight the importance of neighbourhood histories.

Inner Healing, Embodied Emotions, and the Therapeutic Culture of Christian Healing Ministries

Abstract This address explores the relationship between pentecostal experience and pentecostal rituals and practices. Specifically, it will investigate this relationship through an analysis of healing and deliverance. This exploration takes place in three parts. First, it offers a description of the role, practices, and experience(s) of healing in Christian Healing Ministries. Second, it provides a theoretical orientation for analyzing and understanding the social and religious processes that are occurring in the ministry. Finally, it offers some theological and personal reflections on conducting this kind of research and their implications for the study of Pentecostalism.

From traditional flower fair to “degenerate temple” to modern exposition: The local politics and spatial improvement of Qingyang Palace in Chengdu (1906–1937)

Prior to the Sino-Japanese War of 1894–1895, arguments for transforming cities’ traditional saihui (賽會, ‘religious processions’) into modern expositions frequently appeared in newspapers, and in 1906, the inland city of Chengdu took the lead in putting this into practice. Unlike expositions in other cities, which were either held at factories or in parks, or put on exhibitions at newly constructed venues, the Chengdu Industrial Exposition was reborn from the Qingyang Palace (青羊宫 Qingyang gong) Flower Fair, which had a long-standing history. Officials began holding industrial expositions at the former site of the Qingyang Palace Flower Fair during the period of the New Policy of the late Qing Dynasty, to revitalize industry and commerce and furthermore in the hopes of achieving the objectives of transforming folk customs and improving society. During the Republican period, the Sichuanese government was controlled by warlords, and the industrial exposition was suspended and reinstated several times, but due to the inertia of folk tradition, the flower fairs were consistently held as they had been before. As a space for temporary public exhibitions in the early modern era, the Qingyang Palace Industrial Exposition not only became a field for the exhibition of and chess games between different wills to power due to the concentration of the city’s principal capital forces and agents of power, but furthermore became a focal point for social relationships due to attracting social commentary and a high degree of attention from the media through widespread participation by merchants. From the late Qing Dynasty to the Republic, in the course of officials holding industrial expositions at and promoting the spatial improvement of Qingyang Palace and Erxian Temple, the pulsation of early modern trends of thought, treachery in local politics, the deep roots of traditional customs, and multilateral chess games between social forces surged, engraving the difficult process of the modern metamorphosis, reshaping and growth of a traditional inland city.

Expert Assessments of the Religious Process in Modern Kazakhstan

In modern Kazakh society, the role and significance of religion as a social institution has been rethinking for three decades. The article presents expert perceptions and assessments of the modern religious process in Kazakhstan, which are reconstructed and interpreted in the context of sociological monitoring data conducted by the authors. The features of expert perception and understanding of the religious process are revealed. A SWOT analysis was carried out, recommendations for the implementation of state policy in the field of religion were conceptualized, taking into account the secular type of state and religious diversity.

Community as a category of empire: ‘The work of community’ among Burmese Indians in Myanmar

ABSTRACT In this article I argue that ‘community' is a category that is inextricably bound up with the historical development of the British empire. It was in this context that modern social theory took root, including, eventually, publications on community in anthropology and sociology that profoundly influenced nineteenth- and twentieth-century thought and that continue to shape everyday understandings of the category within and beyond academia. I first elaborate what type of work the category ‘community' was intended to do in the British empire. I then introduce two key figures who were responsible for designing, distributing and implementing two contrasting imperial theories of community. Subsequently, I sketch the migratory history of the category following the ancestors of today's so-called ‘Burmese Indians' across the Bay of Bengal from India to Burma. The final part of the article presents the repercussions ‘community' has in contemporary Myanmar, drawing on recent legislation around ‘race and religion’ as well as my own ethnographic data from religious processions of ethno-religious minorities who find themselves in a subaltern position vis-à-vis the Buddhist majority population and an ethnonationalist state.

Systemic Pressure of the United States on the Russian Orthodox Church in the Ideological and Geopolitical Confrontation

The paper represents the interim results of a study conducted by the Russian Expert School Research Centre and reveals the politics, as well as scientifi c and expert mechanisms, used by the United States when applying the religious factor for geopolitical purposes. It also examines the way the United States exploits the religious agenda to put the direct political pressure on Russia. The purpose of the study is to identify the mechanisms used by the United States to deliver international pressure on world Orthodoxy and the Russian Orthodox Church. In 1998, the USA adopted the Law on International Religious Freedom, which secured the right of the USA to interfere with religious processes occurring in other countries. For the practical implementation of this law, the United States established an extensive network of governmental institutions, as well as non-governmental structures, formally independent from the government but closely related to it, that would provide ideological, political and administrative support in this area. These institutions and structures involved off icials, scientists, experts, journalists, religious leaders and theologians interested in promoting American national interests. In the 2000s, the weakening of the international infl uence of the Russian Orthodox Church and the weakening of Russia’s role as the centre of world Orthodoxy became the key direction for the international religious policy of the United States. The USA used the Patriarchate of Constantinople as the main tool to split the Russian Church and world Orthodoxy. The strongest strike intended to reduce the infl uence of the Russian Church was infl icted by the United States in Ukraine, where, after the coup d’etat 2014, the сanonical Orthodox Church (Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate) found itself in the most vulnerable position. The United States has launched a system struggle against the Russian Orthodox Church, which includes theological, expert and media levels, as well as events of direct (administrative and physical) pressure on the Moscow Patriarchate parishes. The United States aims the global vector of this activity at dividing and weakening world Orthodoxy, and the local one — at destroying historical spiritual ties between Orthodoxy in Russia and Orthodoxy in Ukraine.

The confrontation between European secularisation and Russian Orthodox fundamentalism: Main causes and consequences for modern society

The relevance of the subject under study lies in the problem of church-state relations in the struggle for power at the national and international levels. In this regard, the purpose of this study was to investigate the negative and positive impact of religious factors on the international environment and within individual states. To fulfil this purpose, phenomenological and hermeneutical research methods were used. The findings of this study suggest that the fundamentalist movement emerged as an alternative to modernity, which was widespread in European countries in the early 20th century; the origin of religious fundamentalism from traditional conservatism was proved, and modernist and postmodernist forms of Orthodox fundamentalism were covered. It was proved that Orthodox fundamentalism, as a utopian ideology, emerged due to the transformation of theories of science about the system of views and ideas regarding the existence of the world. It was proved that one of the reasons for the popularisation of Orthodox fundamentalism was the unification of the Orthodox in the post-Soviet space. Fundamentalist ideas were used as a political and ideological technology to mobilise social groups to support secular and church authorities. The neoclassical theory of secularism, which argued that religion would gradually disappear from people’s lives with the development of science and technology, was highlighted. It was proved that spirituality and divinity for Europeans is a rational choice of religion. A comparative characterisation of the specifics of European secularisation and Russian Orthodox fundamentalism in the modern world was carried out. The study found that in European countries believers assess the religious influence on their lives as low, while believers in countries where Russian Orthodox fundamentalism is professed believe that the influence of religion on their lives is high. The practical significance of the study is to create conditions for internal reflection and reproduction of one’s own religious identity separately from the state. In addition, the study of religious processes demonstrated in this paper can be used in the comparative analysis of other religious ideologies between which there is a confrontation