Ritual Activities Research Articles

Laterality: a sideways look at ritual

AbstractMuch study of ritual has focused on demarcated spaces and times of performance, and the often spectacular features of such collective behaviour provide rich resources for analysis of formal, symbolically dense action. This article shifts attention to dimensions of ritual events that entail zones of ambiguous, diffuse, or limited engagement where the boundaries between participant and non‐participant, viewer and viewed, may be unclear. Focusing on visits to the English pilgrimage site of Walsingham, I examine multiple modalities of participation through analysing the relationships among observing, engaging in, and narrating ritual action. In doing so, I develop a lexicon for the study of performances whose ethnographic profile does not stand out in sharp relief. Key terms for my analysis are ‘laterality’ (as opposed to liminality) and ‘penumbra’ (as opposed to centre).

Geochemical soil analysis of sequential ritual and residential floors from the Maya site of Holtun

This research elucidates the changing function of some of the earliest types of monumental architecture in the Maya world, the E-Group, using ICP-MS soil chemistry analysis of associated floor surfaces at the site of Holtun, Guatemala. E-groups are architectural assemblages first appearing during the Middle Preclassic period that are associated with public, ritual activities, such as marking important celestial and agricultural events. Our methodology targeted sequential, stratigraphic plaza floors in the E-Group compound at Holtun to examine changing activities through time. Residential patio surfaces were also sampled as a comparison to public, ritual activity. Our results suggest that activities related to food production and consumption are visible in sequential plaza floors of the E-Group, and the locations of some of these activities changed over time. Moreover, activities and locations revealed through soil chemical analysis also differed somewhat from those in residential patios, suggesting different patterns of use in public versus private spaces.

Rock is Dead, Long Live Rock

Kilmartin Glen’s rock art and built structures suggest activities dedicated to decentring human individuality and agency, paradoxically through heightened sensory experience. This process of “losing oneself” in time and place may be understood in terms of Object-Oriented Ontology (OOO), rejecting subject–object relationships in favour of a “flat ontology” of object–object relations in which life or sentience receives no privileged status. OOO’s explication of metaphor, rooted in a schema of essence and appearance, and further supported by cognitive linguistics, serves as a basis for erasing not only the distinction between the literal and metaphorical but also, with additional consideration of the implicate order as described by physicist David Bohm, the organic and inorganic. Taken together, these approaches allow us to understand ritual activity involving music and contact with “dead” stone at astronomically significant moments as a method of “attunement” to the continuity between terrestrial/celestial and animate/inanimate, consistent with contemporary efforts to reconcile classical and quantum physics as it confronts the subjunctive nature of reality itself.

The Concept of Water Exaltation in The Subak

Objective: A contribution to a better understanding of Balinese subak farming rituals through symbolic and mythological analysis of the water breeding and preservation concept. The symbolism and mythology in the concept of water exhalation in subak ritual as a visual communication of humans, God, and the environment will be examined in this qualitative descriptive study with an ethnographic approach. Method: The implementation of THK philosophy as the foundation for a high spirit of cooperation, as well as the existence of ritual activities as a unifying element for members of the subak organization, has the potential to sustain the subak existence. Meanwhile, in the Balinese people's cosmos, natural, religious, and cultural attributes are interconnected through the traditional and Subak systems, and their properties are still fully functional. They have even lasted for thousands of years. Result: Farming rituals in Subak are forms of nonverbal communication that have manifested as tangible symbolic actions involving interpretations and perspectives on the lives of the Balinese agricultural community. Balinese farmers perform several rituals during one rice planting cycle. Conclusion: The mapag Toya ritual is part of religious practice as a concept of exaltation and preserving water as a source of life, a symbol of purity, a means of cleaning, a means of expelling disease, and a means of communication that connects humans with the Creator and ancestors.

Pengembangan Daya Tarik Wisata Melukat Sebagai Intangible Heritage di Kabupaten Gianyar

The potential for spiritual tourism in Bali, especially in the Gianyar district, is very high, bearing in mind that the traditions and culture of most people in Bali have never been separated from the concept of tri hita karana. Gianyar as one of the regional cultural icons with very thick customs. Spirituality as a community identity is still preserved and passed down from generation to generation from ancestors to the present day. Since the last two decades, the need for spiritual tourism has been increasingly in demand by foreign and domestic tourists. Melukat is a symbol of the Balinese ritual system which is believed to invoke safety, health, welfare and cleanse the body and spirit so that humans can purify themselves to carry out their daily activities peacefully and peacefully. The tourist attraction of melukat has not been specifically regulated in local regulations. Bali Province No. 5 of 2020 concerning Standards for Implementing Balinese Cultural Tourism. If spiritual tourism is not managed properly by local village managers, these destinations can easily be damaged and polluted by tourists who do not understand the sacred meaning of these destinations. Therefore the specific target of this research is to see how the regulation regarding melukat spiritual tourism as a research method used is an empirical research method to find out if there are gaps that occur in the application of these regional regulations in the field. While the problem approach used, namely the statutory approach, conceptual approach, analytic approach. The results of the research show that the development of the spiritual tourism attraction of Melukat has not been optimally implemented in several places because there is no adequate information on the history, functions, program of annual ritual activities at the Melukat DTW, as well as provisions and entry ticket categories for foreign, domestic, and student tourists. and researchers who can be accessed online through a special spiritual DTW website.

Tropes and Isotopes: A Relational Approach to Mobility in the Nordic Bronze Age

This paper introduces the concept of multi-locality as a relational approach to past gendered mobility and identities. Multi-local individuals are identified through strontium isotope analyses when the isotopic ratios are seen to change over the course of an individual life. The study is focused on the social institutions intersecting with mobility and a wish to examine how mobility is related to age and gender in multi-local individuals. A focus on when and why mobility occurs in life adds a much-needed social perspective on mobility to supplement the current dominating focus on provenance. By introducing five cases of multi-local individuals from the Nordic Bronze Age, it is demonstrated that several social institutions could cause age-related gendered mobility patterns. It is proposed that many of these institutions were shared between the gender categories of female and male, such as marriage, fosterage, trade and socio-political mobility (e.g. ritual activity and xenia). In conclusion, it is suggested that additional kinship models could be considered for the Nordic Bronze Age in addition to the predominantly accepted model of patrilocal exogamy.

Cult and Architecture in the Chalcolithic Period of the Southern Levant: The Case of En-Gedi and Teleilat Ghassul

We studied the architectural remains of two Chalcolithic (Ghassulian) cultic complexes at En-Gedi and Teleilat Ghassul Area E in order to trace aspects of the architectural planning principles and methods involved in their design and construction. Architectural Formal Analysis has brought to light hitherto unnoticed spatial relations between architectural elements that seem to have structured the ritual activity at the two sites. The discerned geometric regularities imply that specific mathematical knowledge and the same set of design principles and methods were used in the planning of both complexes. The emerging pictures of highly structured ritual and of the use of geometry in Ghassulian cultic production may be used to support suggestions regarding some sort of cultic establishment (priesthood) during the Chalcolithic Ghassulian.

Metalworking in Cultic Spaces: The Emergence of New Offering Practices in the Middle Bronze Age Southern Levant

This article addresses the relationship between metalworking and cultic space in the Bronze Age Southern Levant, tracing the earliest evidence of metallurgical activities within Southern Levantine temples to the beginning of the Middle Bronze Age. This coincides with the appearance of a series of new cultic traditions in the region, including the large-scale dedication of votive offerings in temple settings. It is demonstrated that the local production within cultic venues was not intended primarily for the production of objects to be circulated outside the temple but mainly for the manufacture of goods to be used and offered during ritual activities conducted in the cultic spaces themselves.

Late-Medieval Animal Remains in Grave-Like Pits: A Case Study of Rituals in 15th-Century Finland

DURING ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXCAVATIONS at the site of Kärsämäki manor garden in Turku, SW Finland, the team found clusters of oblong pits resembling human graves in an area between the manor and a late-medieval village. No human remains were recovered from these pits; instead, some of them contained bones of domestic animals (cattle, horse and pig). The radiocarbon dates of the animal bones placed them roughly in the 15th century. This paper analyses the Kärsämäki faunal material using a taphonomical and contextual approach. The questions for which answers have been attempted concern the nature of the site and the interpretation of the animal deposits. The results suggest the presence of selected animal parts in certain pit features was a result of deliberate placement. Deposition of animal remains into grave-like pits have been recorded at other late-medieval sites in Finland, but the bones themselves have not been radiocarbon dated. The Kärsämäki site seems to be a location for different types of ritual activities involving animal remains.

Polycode Representation of Kinesthetic Phrasemes: Metaphorical and Semiotic Perspectives

The study is devoted to the analysis of somatic metaphor in the political communication, considered as a syncteric metaphorical-semiotic structure, which serves as one of the ways to encode ideological, cultural, evaluative, emotional, argumentative and other types of meanings. The necessity for a detailed analysis of the implementation of the actional code in the media political space was dictated by the need to study the mechanisms of interaction between kinesthetic and linguistic signs as powerful means of persuasion and effective impact on the readership. The study is based on an integral semiotic approach which involves the use of semantic-cognitive analysis, discourse analysis, content analysis, methods of contextual interpretation and conceptual metaphorical modeling, as well as the involvement of interdisciplinary information of the fields of cultural studies, sociology, psychology of communication and political science. The material of the study is represented by electronic mass media analytical and news reports on the political subjects with the focus on verbal and non-verbal somatisms. It was found that the system of archaic ideas and ritual actions determines the metaphorization and symbolization of related and free phraseological formations, the origin of which is due to the markedness of the elements of the non-verbal body code. Intercultural analogy and pragmatic parallelism of non-verbal and verbal representations of somatic units along with semiotic interpretation of the original meaning is revealed. Differences in communicative pragmatics and axiology of somatisms identical in structure and content in the intercultural aspect are characterized. Techniques for constructing the external and internal syntax of the actional code are described, models for assembling kinesthetic phrasemes into gestalt are demonstrated, and algorithms for unpacking/decoding of their meaning are demonstrated. The synergy of verbal and actional languages of communication in the construction of a cognitive-linguistic picture of the political world is noted.

FORMATION STAGES OF FESTIVE RITUAL ACTION IN THE CULTURAL LIFE OF KAZAKHSTAN

This article reviews the basic formation stages of festive ritual action in the cultural life of Kazakhstan. Generations to generations of Kazakh have always revered and highly valued their national customs and traditions. It is difficult to describe all the traditions and customs followed by Kazakh people in one scientific work, thus a brief introduction to stages of festive ritual actions, beliefs and customs are dealt with in this article. One of the main traditions of the Kazakhs, which has now become a feature of the national character, is hospitality. Hospitality, in Kazakh society, is considered the main duty - to receive guests from the bottom of the heart. The guest is the most important and most desired person in Kazakh society. It is customary to feed him the most delicious food and do everything to make him feel safe and comfortable. The primary aim of the research is to identify the cultural value of transformed traditions by reviewing the historical background of festive ritual actions. However, the national identities that served as a basis for the occurrence of generalized rules and principles of public relations (tradition), fortunately, are confined not only to representatives of the Kazakh people. Therefore, the basic stages of festive ritual actions formation and widespread authentic customs, and traditions of nomads in the Kazakh steppe are widely studied by authors.

The symbolic meaning of the Akkatere tradition for the indigenous people of the Kajang community

This research aims to describe the empirical reality surrounding the implementation of unique traditions. Unique because Akkatere (cutting hair) is claimed as a ritual activity that is aligned with the implementation of the pilgrimage. All individuals or families who have performed Akkatere are considered to have performed the pilgrimage. This research is qualitative with a phenomenological approach. Data sources include village heads, traditional leaders, and community leaders who understand this tradition. Methods of data collection include observation, interviews, and documentation. Data analysis techniques are carried out through data reduction, data presentation, and drawing conclusions. The results of the study show that the Akkattere tradition is carried out by individuals who are economically capable, of traditional descent, and still obedient to the tide. The implementation process begins with apparungrungi and ends with the distribution of dallekang. The meaning of the Akkattere tradition includes; rituals of worshiping God, respecting ancestors, respecting customs, strengthening ties of friendship, and giving alms.

Strategy for Preserving the Culture Existence of Bali-Hindu In the Midst of Majority Cultural in Praya Lombok

This study aims to conduct a study related to the strategies implemented by the Bali-Hindu community in maintaining the cultural existence amidst the majority culture implemented by the Sasak people in Praya city, central Lombok. This research was designed in a qualitative interpretive manner in order to find answers to the formulation of the problems posed. Based on the results of this study, four contestation arenas were found which were part of the strategy to maintain Balinese cultural identity in responding to the vortex of the majority culture. First, improving the quality of education among the younger generation of Hindus. Second, strengthening cultural awareness through non-formal and informal education systems. Third, planting religious values through religious ritual activities. Fourth, acculturation of Balinese culture with Sasak culture. Fifth, strengthening the economic system of Hindus.

Dynamics of convivial affective atmospheres

This article examines the dynamics of affective atmospheres in explaining compelling touristic service experiences. Extending affect-theoretical research, we theorize and examine the role of affective bodily encounters through which convivial atmospheres are (re)produced. Based on multi-sited ethnographic research in iconic Club Med resorts, our findings emphasize the spontaneity and fragility of convivial affective atmospheres, meaning they are difficult to control, but also how their ongoing “bubbling” is shaped by materiality, ritual activities, and temporality. We contribute by (1) developing the concept of convivial affective atmosphere, and by (2) offering a theoretical framework that helps advance research into the affective entanglement and dynamics of atmospheres in tourism. Finally, we critically discuss what service providers can do to facilitate and re-produce convivial atmospheres.

The Ritual Music, Culture and Nature of the Chiswa harvesting among Babukusu of Western Kenya

Termite harvesting remains an important ritual and cultural activity in the Bukusu community of Western Kenya. Termites are a delicacy that people enjoy. Harvesting the termites takes different approaches as will be discussed in this article. The paper will, however, focus on one mode that makes use of a musical stimulus to attract the termites into a trap. In this article, I will venture into showing how this ritual of termite harvesting is an important part of the intangible cultural heritage of Babukusu. Further, I will seek to demonstrate how music can be central to interspecies communication. It is also envisaged that this article will contribute to the literature concerning ecomusicology, a new field of study that is in the process of developing definitions and terminology as well as conceptual understanding. This article drew data from field research I carried out in Bungoma County in 2017. Using ethnographic approaches, I interviewed participants during the harvesting rituals. Further data was gathered through participant observation. It is important to note that I come from this community and have over time participated in the ritual. Some of the information in this document is based on my position as an insider who has participated in this ritual over the years.

The Role of Ritual in Children’s Acquisition of Supernatural Beliefs

This study investigated how observing the ritualisation of objects can influence children’s encoding and defence of supernatural beliefs. Specifically, we investigated if ritualising objects leads children to believe those objects might be magical, buffering against favouring contrary evidence. Seventy-nine children, aged between 3 and 6 years, were presented with two identical objects (e.g., two colour-changing stress balls) and tasked with identifying which was magical after being informed that one had special properties (e.g., could make wishes come true). In a Ritual condition, an adult acted on one of the objects using causally irrelevant actions and on the other using functional actions. In an Instrumental condition, both objects were acted on with functional actions. The children were given a normative rule relating to the use of the objects and an opportunity to imitate the actions performed on them. A second adult then challenged their magical belief. Ritualistic actions increased the likelihood of children attributing magical powers to the associated object but did not affect resistance to change or adherence to normative rules. However, children who engaged in ritual actions protested more when the magical belief was challenged. Our findings suggest that rituals can play an important role in shaping children’s perception and defence of supernatural beliefs.

Censing in the funeral and memorial rites (vernacular religiosity of the Russian-Komi-Permyak borderland)

Church censing ritual — fumigation with incense or its substitutes — is widespread in folk culture. It plays a particularly important role in funeral and memorial rites, where the fumigation is usually carried out in order to ritually purify people, space and objects that have been in contact with the deceased. However, the significance of this ritual is not equal in different local ethnical traditions: in some communities, it is simply recommended, while in others it is of a prime importance. The accessibility of this ritual action for people also varies. In some traditions, only religious specialists (the priest and his assistants) can perform this ritual, in other traditions, anyone can do it. The article is concerned with vernacular forms of censing. The culture of Yurlians — Russians living in a different ethnic (Komi-Permyak) environment, and the culture of the northern (Kochevsky) Komi-Permyaks neighboring them, are among the traditions with a developed mythological semantics of censing. The main research data are materials collected during the fieldwork carried out in 2013–2017 and 2022 in the Northern Prikamye, in the Rus-sian-Komi-Permyak borderland. The study is based on the structural and functional analysis of the rituals. It has been revealed that the locations of censing in the structure of traditional funeral and memorial rites partially coin-cides with church prescriptions, however, vernacular fumigation with incense is of more intense character; around it, a kind of “mythology of censing” develops, and dialectal ritual terminology is formed. Сensing fulfills not only typi-cal cleansing and apotropaic functions, but it also acts as a way of mediation between the living and the dead — it “wakes up” the souls, invites them to a ritual meal, guarantees the availability of food, etc. Special folklore formulas addressed to beings-intermediaries between the living and the dead (angels, wind, etc.) provide the realization of this function. Individualized versions may arise from the ritual, which adapts to the new life realities.

Articulating relational rurality amidst urbanization: Agency, spatial paradox and the de/reterritorialization of lineage landscapes in contemporary rural China

AbstractThis paper seeks to offer a nuanced understanding of how the rural responds to and speaks back to the urban in the context of increasingly blurred rural‐urban landscapes. The prevailing theorizations remain entrenched in an intellectual impasse that still treats the rural as a residual space or a reactive actor besieged by external urban forces. Using lineage spaces as an empirical lens, this paper delves into rural geographies of lineage landscapes in post‐reform China by articulating rural agencies in more active, non‐lineal ways. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in rural Wenzhou, southeast China, this paper argues that the articulation of rural voices amidst China's urban modernity unveils a spatial paradox of landscape de/reterritorialization at the dimensions of discourse, practice and (trans)locality. We first reveal how official rural discourses de‐territorialize and lessen lineage groups' control over their symbolic buildings while simultaneously opening up opportunities for them to mobilize officially‐sanctioned discourses to expand lineage spaces and reterritorialize their power. Second, we show how villagers embrace the de‐territorializing practice of landscape commodification, which becomes a crucial source of finance for them to perform ritual activities at specific festivals, thereby re‐asserting rural collectivism, sociality and sacredness. Third, we unpack the trans‐local dimension of rural de/reterritorialization by exploring how villagers forge lineage‐based rural networking that transcends space‐time, which paradoxically reinforces the spatial claim for territorializing rural power that is demarcated from urban/modern orientations. We further argue that these multiple spatial processes of rural de/reterritorialization challenge a reactive or neatly‐divided account of rural agency during its engagement with urbanizing relations and processes. In all, this paper offers a more complex, paradoxical account of relational rurality in a rapidly urbanizing China, and foregrounds an agenda towards more ‘inclusive’ rural studies.

Islam and the Struggle for Multiculturalism in Singkawang, West Kalimantan: Local Ulama, Theological-Economic Competition and Ethnoreligious Relations

This study explores the dynamics of multiculturalism in Singkawang, the most tolerant city in Indonesia. It surprises every scholar studying conflicts as the city can adequately manage conflicts. It was evidenced by the cessation of the deadly conflict, the Sambas 1999 in the city, and by the establishment of ethnocultural groups inherited since the Dutch colonialism that generated pseudo-multiculturalism, in which all ethnic and religious communities have been tolerant but exclusive and fragile to conflict. Fortunately, as the champ of economic but socio-political competition, the Chinese have an ancestral tradition of sharing their wealth considerably. This is with no regard to either the profane or sacred places or their Muslim counterparts' social or ritual activities. Supposedly, instead of refusing "infidelity" contributions, local ulama appreciate and, in return, struggle to promote the substitution of pejorative calls of Chinese with Tionghoa. In conclusion, theoretically, economic welfare is the mayonnaise poured over Singkawang's "Salad Bowls," maintaining its conducive but pseudo-multiculturalism.

REMOTE SENSING ANALYSIS IN THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL CONTEXT OF LICODIA EUBEA (CATANIA)

Abstract. Archaeological research conducted at the site of Marineo, in the territory of Licodia Eubea (CT, Sicily, Italy), has revealed the existence of a group of evidence dating back to various periods, from the Neolithic to the Middle Ages. Particularly important is the presence of caves, documented through archaeological excavations at the end of the 1980s, subsequently resumed from 2017 to today. These caves were used for ritual activities, especially during the Middle Bronze Age (1450–1250 BC). The existence of numerous combustion structures associated with remains of a meal, as evidenced by remains oan f animal, and human bones in a secondary position, suggests the funerary value of the caves. Until now, however, data were missing on the identification of the settlement inhabited by communities that used caves. During the last archaeological excavation campaign, images and orthophotos were acquired through the use of drones. In this way, through the study of these images, it was possible to identify new anomalies in areas not yet investigated and placed in the vicinity of the caves. Surveys carried out in the area, have confirmed the presence of remains of walls belonging to curvilinear and oval structures. These structures are probably parts of the settlement connected to the caves whose exact location was not known until today. To support the excavation activity, GIS and remote sensing applications were implemented for predictive and postdictive analysis using only free and open source software and satellite images.