Ritual Kinship Research Articles

A Lotmanian semiotic interpretation of cultural memory in ritual

AbstractThis paper affords a Lotmanian cultural semiotic analysis of the inner workings of ritual embodying the mechanism of cultural memory. In this intersectional study, we propose treating ritual as anintegralsemiotic system in which the community follows a prescribed collective process to create religious or social meanings and to regulate the mechanism of cultural memory throughconcretesymbols in the forms of behavior, speech, gestures, objects, spatial structures, and so on. Three semiotic properties of ritual in relation to cultural memory are identified, namely, continuity, concreteness, and integrity, which are jointly responsible for the efficacy of ritual in cultural memory making, or to be specific, in the preservation, retrieval, and even reproduction of cultural memory. With these properties, ritual helps construct and maintain socio-cultural order and group identity in the community, by repeating itself and thus creating a sense of continuity through the preservation and retrieval of cultural memory. The key components in ritual are its diverse and polysemous symbols, which are seldom confined to a specific context, although they are indeed subject to the dominant symbol and the dominant meaning in a ritual when necessary. With an extraordinary degree of autonomy and not bound to any fixed context, ritual symbols can enter a ritual situation as its components but retain the freedom of leaving the ritual context at any time, like an unchained “spectator,” and permeating multiple contexts as self-contained units. It is precisely through these transferrable ritual symbols that the fragments of cultural memory are randomly dispersed in the semiosphere and carried to unexpected socio-cultural contexts, bridging the past, the present, and the future and creating new cultural memory.

CLASSIFICATION OF LEXICON OF WEDDING CEREMONIES IN UZBEK CULTURE

The article deals with the classification of some lexicon of wedding ceremonies used in Uzbek culture. There are some samples of Uzbek folklore lexicon being translated for study in foreign countries and particular characteristics of the units that represent various national ceremonies, weddings, and related rituals.

The Precious Scroll of the Blood Pond in the “Telling Scriptures” Tradition in Changshu, Jiangsu, China

The Precious Scroll of the Blood Pond is a newly discovered manuscript (copied ca. 1993), used in the “telling scriptures” tradition in Changshu, which represents ritualized storytelling based on the vernacular narrative texts called “precious scrolls” (baojuan). The local tradition of “telling scriptures” can be traced back to the 19th century, though it may have even earlier origins. While it has been generally accepted that precious scrolls had ritual functions in the late imperial period, little research has been done on the local varieties of this type of storytelling in connection with ritual practices. The material of the Precious Scroll of the Blood Pond from Changshu demonstrates how the Mulian story, widely known in China, has been adapted to the folk ritual of the afterlife salvation of a female soul through repentance of her sin of physiological impurity. While the related ritual in the neighboring Jingjiang on the northern bank of the Yangtze River has been thoroughly studied, the Changshu practice has received little attention of scholars so far. The Precious Scroll of the Blood Pond from Changshu demonstrates that the Mulian narrative was also associated with the ritual of “breaking the Blood Pond” in the Jiangnan areas, which also provides a new angle of evaluation of the Jingjiang tradition of “telling scriptures”. This article discusses relations between modern ritual practices and several variants of the Precious Scroll of the Blood Pond, mainly using fieldwork materials collected by the author in Changshu and adjacent areas in 2011–2018.

Frame Narratives Concerning the Chinese Origin of Divination and Geomancy in Mongolian Manuscript Texts

This paper introduces three Mongolian texts of various genres linked together by their frame narratives which all refer to Mongolian notions regarding the Chinese origin of divination, geomancy and related rituals. The frame narratives represent a rare component of Mongolian texts of these genres. The texts are published in transcription, with a translation, and compared to the corresponding textual tradition as well as to wider cultural context illustrated by instances from oral tradition.

Confucianism and Rituals for Women in Chosŏn Korea

This essay offers an analysis of the writing and practices of Song Siyŏl as a way to explore the philosophical concepts and philosophizing process of Confucian ritual in relation to women. As a symbolic and influential figure in Korean philosophy and politics, his views contributed to shaping the orthodox interpretation of the theory and practice of Neo-Confucian ritual regarding women. By demonstrating and analyzing what kinds of issues were discussed in terms of women in four family rituals, I delineate the ways in which Song Siyŏl positioned women in his ritualist metaphysics and to examine his philosophizing process.

Chicken Delicacy and Chicken-Related Rituals: A Gateway to Understanding the Luhya

This article provides a detailed examination of the traditional Luhya people’s rituals involving chicken as a delicacy and an element of rituals. The aim of the study was to evaluate the significant place of such rituals in the present-day Luhya community. Traditionally, chicken served various functions, including settling family disputes, biding grandchildren upon visiting their relatives, and serving the purpose of the traditional ritual. Among the Luhya, a traditional ceremony and celebration cannot be meaningful without people having not only wafted but also tasted the delicacies of chicken. The elements of chicken rituals are based on a study of the chicken and the related rituals among the Bantu-speaking people of Western Kenya and Eastern Uganda in Africa. The study was inspired by the fact that the contemporary cultural context of chicken and rituals has undergone some transformation. Traditional practices were of a particular and rather narrow profile linked to appeasing the dead, source of food, especially ugali and chicken stew, identifying new sites for setting up a home, Olugala, and official inauguration of traditional ceremonies such as circumcision. It is this that has made Luhya to be mostly associated with chicken by other communities in East Africa. Equally, the chicken and rituals among Luhya are linked to the cultural performances and creative arts, which are understood, appreciated, preserved and practiced acceptably by the community hence accelerating the achievement of communal coexistence, and mutual national unity based on sound foundations of diverse cultural identities. The chicken rituals form the basic foundation of studies of the Luhya cultures. Traditional chicken slaughtering practices and their related rituals have become a valuable cultural identity with treasures if closely studied, researched, theorized and practiced. Therefore, this paper contributes an important avenue for a better understanding of the Luhya traditional culture and people.

Bringing the Dead Home: Hindu Invitation Rituals in Tamil South India

AbstractDrawing on long-term ethnographic fieldwork carried out in Tamil-speaking South India, this article presents one Hindu invitation ritual to return dead relatives known as pūvāṭaikkāri to the world of the living and install them as household deities. This two-day ceremony demonstrates that prevailing scholarly perceptions of death and what follows it in Hindu traditions have constrained our ability to appreciate other models for ritual relationships between the living and the dead. These vernacular rituals call the dead back into the world, convince them to possess a human host, and persuade them to be permanently installed in the family’s domestic shrine so they may protect and sustain living kin. Rather than aiming to irrevocably separate the dead from the living, these rites are instead oriented toward eventual conjunction with the dead and therefore reveal a fundamentally different picture than that articulated in the majority of Hinduism’s sacred texts and scholarly accounts.

Cocaine Rituals in Club Culture: Intensifying and Controlling Alcohol Intoxication

Clubbing is an important part of the nighttime economy, and cocaine use is, for some young people, an essential part of this clubbing culture. However, the interaction rituals around the use of powder cocaine in this context remain understudied. This study is based on qualitative interviews with young adult recreational cocaine users ( n = 28) and explores how they use cocaine in club settings, in relation to rituals and drinking culture. The analysis identified three main explanations for using cocaine: (a) unity with friends because of shared transgression, (b) the high as a “collective effervescence,” and (c) the possibility to control, extend, and intensify drinking to intoxication. These three explanations illustrate how cocaine rituals were deeply integrated in drinking-to-intoxication rituals, and how the illegality of cocaine use reinforced feelings of unity with friends. In the nighttime economy, cocaine use and its related rituals are used to intensify and control alcohol-fuelled partying.

Dancing for Uwí – Rituals and Ontologies on the Move

Dancing for Uwí (peach palm, Bactris gasipaes), a calendric ritual celebrated by the Shuar in the Ecuadorian Amazon region, forms part of a mainly animistic ontology, and has been reframed repeatedly during the past century in interaction with shifting historical, political and cultural contexts. The power field associated with Uwí is extensive, and encompasses life and death: on the one hand, Uwí stands at the centre of the ritualization of life, growth, procreativity and abundance; on the other hand, he embodies destructive agency, which has been linked with warfare and its diverse ritual frames. Uwí represents, at the same time, a significant dimension of a Shuar theory of life, as well as a figure within their theory of power, and is closely connected to conviviality and the good life. During the 1960s and 1970s Uwí was adopted and adapted by intercultural Catholic liturgy, and has acquired new ritual elements and new meanings in this context. In recent years, after large gaps between performances from the 1970s to the new millennium, Uwí and his celebration has been merged with the performance of indigeneity as part of intercultural politics in Ecuador. In this framework, the performance of an animistic ontology has been interconnected with the cultural turn in indigenous politics. This contribution explores several questions concerning ontological trajectories, as well as the relationship of ritual and cultural performances to historical developments and political issues.

The Ancient Near East: History, Texts, etc

The Ancient Near East:History, Texts, etc Christopher T. Begg Christopher T. Begg Catholic University of America 1783. [1st Millennium b.c. Babylonian Temple Rituals] Claus Ambos, "Babylonian Temple Rituals of the 1st Millennium BC," Cult, Temple, Sacred Spaces, 71-80 [see #2530]. My article deals with Babylonian temple rituals from the 1st millennium b.c. In it, I discuss the conception that the sanctuary, along with the cult image and the related rituals, had been created at the beginning of time by the gods themselves. I deal as well with the topic of the care and feeding of the gods in the temples by their human attendants. I likewise address the question of how human access to the divine abode was regulated and provide a short overview of the rituals of the cultic calendar in the above period. [Adapted from published abstract—C.T.B.] Google Scholar 1784. [Burial Rites for Neo-Assyrian Kings] Fabrice De Backer, "Le Roi est mort: Vive le Roi. Une base de réflexion pour le ritual funéraire royal néo-assyrien," RANT 17 (2020) 43-74. My paper presents a proposed reconstruction of the funeral rituals employed in the burial of Neo-Assyrian kings. In developing this reconstruction I make use of textual, visual, architectural, and material data in identifying and analyzing the various steps and actions involved, whether directly or indirectly in the burial process as well as the various sites where the king's corpse was prepared for burial. I likewise draw on ethnographical comparisons and the expertise of contemporary undertakers in formulating my hypothesis, which I hope may be of use to archaeologists who are looking forward to returning to the one-time territory of Assyria and resuming excavations there. [Adapted from published abstract—C.T.B.] Google Scholar 1785. [The Mortuary Chapel of the High Priest Hapuseneb (TT 67)] Tamás A. Bács, "A Theban Tomb-Temple: The Mortuary Chapel of the High Priest Hapuseneb (TT 67)," Discourse between Tomb and Temple, 11-39 [see #2523]. Hapuseneb was high pirest of the god Amun at Thebes during the reign of the female pharaoh Hatshepsut of the 18th Dynasty (see #1793), to whose inner circle of advisers and administrators he belonged. During his tenure, Hapuseneb oversaw the construction of his [End Page 670] own mortuary chapel (TT 67) which was left unfinished at his death and subsequently suffered much damage due both to human depredations and natural attrition. From the surviving remains of the structure's inscriptions and iconography, one feature stands out in particular, i.e., Hapuseneb's underscoring of his close association with and loyalty to Hatshepsut and his utilization of features of various Middle Kingdom temples and tombs, the latter feature serving to call attention to the high antiquity of the office exercised by him.—C.T.B. Google Scholar 1786. [Hittite Nocturnal New Moon Rites] Francesco G. Barsacchi, "'The King Goes Up to the Roof': Hittite Nocturnal Rites Performed during the New Moon," Cult, Temple, Sacred Spaces, 345-62 [see #2530]. On particular occasions, Hittite ritual practices might take place on the flat roof of sacred or profane buildings, which were perceived as the ideal setting for the carrying out of rites directed to celestial or astral deities. My paper analyzes selected examples of cultic activities taking place on a roof, before focusing on a particular group of texts describing a sequence of ritual actions performed by the Hittite king during the night in connection with the first appearance of the new moon. Many fragments of this group of texts are currently filed under the rubric CTH 645. Besides providing a general description of the above text corpus, my paper also addresses the debated issue of the possible relationship of these rites with the great monthly state festival. [Adapted from published abstract—C.T.B.] Google Scholar 1787. [Ostracon Deir el-Bahari Inv. No. F. 8941] Miroslaw Barwik, "Building the Temple 'To the North of the Royal Tomb'—Ostracon Deir-el-Bahari Inv. No. F. 8941," Discourse between Tomb and Temple, 41-54 [see #2523]. The partially preserved ostracon of B.'s title was...

Почонг: современные фабулаты о зомби в Индонезии

The paper about the Indonesian “zombie” pocong examines specific features of the ghost stories in Indonesia, tracks the etymology of the words hantu (“ghost,” “undead”) and pocong (“wrapped in shroud”), and includes a translation of a typical ghost story (“Pocong and a Cart Hawker”). It introduces the hitherto understudied material in Russia that counts only a small number of Indonesian and Anglophone works. The aims of this paper include collecting data about this mythological creature from Indonesian sources, studying the image of pocong and contemporary narratives about him, searching his closest parallels in the world folklore, and interpreting the meanings of the character discovered in modern Indonesian culture. For religious people, pocong is a symbol of the frailty of life. Some traditional Muslims in modern Indonesia practice pocong related rituals (“Pocong’s oath,” pesugihan). Nowadays, the image of pocong is demythologized as it circulates in urban flesh-mobs, pranks, and horror films. The typology of this scary image is surprisingly similar not to Muslim genies but to from Chinese hopping vampires. Modern zombie studies shed light on the genealogy of pocong as a walking dead. Todd K. Platts discusses the spectrum of potential underpinnings of the zombie that include racism, terrorism, class inequality, disintegration of a nuclear family, consumer culture etc that may be applied to pocong as well. Pocong symbolizes oppressed common folk and this image is frequently used in mass political protests. Interpretation of pocong as a marginalized figure is relevant for the folklore studies in Indonesia, as well as for the study of horror-discourse in general.

Vernacular Practice, Gendered Tensions, and Interpretive Ambivalence in Hindu Death, Deification, and Domestication Narratives†

AbstractThis article focuses on a Tamil Hindu woman named Aaru, who embodied the Goddess in possession performances from age thirteen, resisted marriage through her twenties, and committed suicide at twenty--nine. Grounded in ethnographic fieldwork and interviews with Aaru and her family conducted between 2006 and 2019, it analyses narratives concerning her untimely death, subsequent deification, and eventual domestication as a pūvāṭaikkāri. It highlights the hermeneutical challenges associated with three intersecting spheres: the dominant categories that shape the scholarly understanding of Hinduism; vernacular Hinduism as revealed in Aaru’s complex story; and the ethnographic research and writing process. I resist an arbitrary resolution of the gaps and seeming inconsistencies that abound in these accounts, arguing instead that we can enlarge and nuance our understandings of matters as diverse as ritual relationships with the dead, the nature of Tamil family deities, and the gendered tensions of the contemporary moment if we hold space for multiple interpretive possibilities. Indeed, Aaru’s case offers us significant resources for a fuller, more inclusive appreciation of the textures of vernacular Hinduism – Hinduism as it is experienced, lived, and practiced in particular places and contexts – and compels us to consider the limitations of prevailing interpretive paradigms and the fragmental and shifting nature of ethnographic knowledge.

Taxonomy of Buenos Aires Capitular Elite Network, 1776-1810

We analyze structural properties and visualization of a historical-data-constructed social network of the families with members in the Cabildo (city council) of colonial Buenos Aires. The data was obtained through the review of birth, marriage, and death records kept in various institutions and expanded from online genealogical sources. We find structural properties and visual presentations and also a link centrality analysis that shows that ritual relationship represents an important glue that held together with the network.

WEDDING STAGES AND RITUALS AMONG THE INDIGENOUS ITAWES IN ISABELA, PHILIPPINES

The Itawes of Isabela have a unique culture which defines them as a people. Their marriage manifests their cosmology. This study was conducted to document the different wedding rituals of the Itawes and analyze their cultural significance. Data were gathered through observation, community immersion and non-formal interview among the elders. These were interpreted and presented to the elders for validation, after which, a revision was made to include their feedback. The study revealed that the Itawes have several marriage rituals and stages like tubad, mangatatawa, gumina or landay, entrega, boda (wedding ceremony), gala-gala, and dallut. However, tubad and mangatatawa are no longer practiced due to some practical reasons. The study further revealed that these wedding rituals manifest the communal characteristics of the Itawes as a group of people. All members of the community are encouraged to participate in the conduct of the rituals. Further, it was also found out that female Itawes are given high regard specially in preparing them for married life. The parents of the female ensures that their daughter will be given a better life after the wedding by their soon to be husband. It is the reason why the parents are testing the determination of their suitors through the conduct of mangatatawa and other related rituals. It is highly recommended that the Local Government Unit (LGU), the Department of Education (DepEd) and the academe must have an intervention for the promotion, conservation and preservation of these rituals for better understanding the Itawes unique culture.

Cosmology, identity and food related rituals among the Mandaeans

The Mandaeans are members of a Gnostic ethnoreligious group who live in Iran and Iraq. They have always been a small minority under the threat of cultural extinction. Recent wars and political unrest in their homeland have intensified the situation and accelerated the emigration and dissemination of the community. They practice elaborate religious rituals that revolve around the recurrent theme of bodily purity, including ritual concern for food and its preparation. On the one hand, using a Geertzian approach to the study of religion with ethnographic data, the mutual relationship between the food-related rituals, Mandaean cosmology and the formation of a “religious world” is considered. On the other hand, the very formation of a “religious world” can be seen as a social construction based on the historical experience and socio-political situation of the people. The ritual obsession with the purity of body and food symbolically represents a preoccupation with the purity and integrity of the community, while at the same time it re-establishes the boundaries of a distinct group identity in a threatening milieu. Therefore, food-related rituals not only symbolically represent Mandaean worldview and simultaneously set up a specific ethos for the people, but they also create and recreate this distinct identity.

ЧУДО В ВЕРНАКУЛЯРНОМ ИНДУИЗМЕ ЗАПАДНОГО РАДЖАСТАНА (ИНДИЯ): СЛУЧАИ И ОБОБЩЕНИЯ

The paper deals with the concept of miracle in the language and culture of the Jaisalmer district (Rajasthan, India). It is argued that a special understanding of miracle in that region is directly related to perceptions of the vernacular Hinduism prevalent in Rajasthan, which is based on mediumism. The concept of miracle, parco in Marwari (from the Old Indo-Aryan paricaya ‘acquaintance’), is a special cultural phenomenon that characterizes cases of unexpected manifestation of a deity or divine power outside the mediumship related rituals aimed at invoking the deity, and mostly not through a medium. The difference between parco in Marwari and camatkār in Standard Hindi is analyzed. Narratives on cases of parco related to the region under study are given as illustrative material.

BUDDHISM IN MODERN INDIA: ASSERTION OF IDENTITY AND AUTHORITY FOR DALITS (SOCIAL CHANGES AND CULTURAL HISTORY)

In the Lotus Sutra (the first Sutra introduced into China and Vietnam from India), the Buddha is described as the most respected and loved creature who walked on two feet. This was precisely the reason why Dalits in India have started the Navayana Buddhism or the Neo- Buddhist movement which is a very socially and politically engaged form of Buddhism. For Dalits, whose material circumstances were very different from the ainstream upper castes, the motivation always remained: to learn about suffering and to reach its end, in each person‘s life and in society. Many of them have turned to Dhamma in response to the Buddha‘s central message about suffering and the end of suffering. Previously lower-caste Hindus, the Indian Buddhists in Nagpur converted under the olitical influence of Babasaheb Ambedkar, the author of India‘s constitution, to denounce caste oppression. They became Buddhist for political and spiritual reasons, and today, the implications of their actions continue to unfold in many ways. Their belief in the four seals of Buddhism – All compounded things are impermanent, All emotions are the pain, All things have no inherent existence and Nirvana is beyond concepts, have made them renounce the atrocities and injustice of Hindu savarnas which were carried on since last many centuries. It is well known that Buddha began his investigation into the mysteries of life by his acute awareness of the painful aspects of his immediate experiences. His encounter with the disease, old age, death, and its sorrowful effects were instrumental in developing a whole philosophy based on the fact of suffering (duḥkha).In his book The Buddha and His Dhamma, Dr. Ambedkar has proposed his concept of Navaya Buddhism which was not very similar to the mainstream traditional Buddhism. His idea was more to discard the practices of karma, rebirth in an afterlife, or related rituals and to use religion in terms of class struggle and social equality. He adopts science, activism, and social reform as a form of Engaged Buddhism. Many critics have identified this phenomenon as a synthesis of the ideas of modern Karl Marx into the structure of ideas by the ancient Buddha. ―Whenever the ethical or moral value of activities or conditions is questioned, the value of religion is involved; and all deep-stirring experiences invariably compel a reconsideration of the most fundamental ideas, whether they are explicitly religious or not.‖ (Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics). This paper tries to discuss the role of Buddhism in Modern Indian social problematic reference to context.

Facilitating grief: An exploration of the function of funerals and rituals in relation to grief reactions

The loss of a loved one through death is usually followed by a funeral and engagement in various grief rituals. We examined the association between the evaluation of the funeral, the use of grief rituals and grief reactions. Bereaved individuals from the Netherlands completed questionnaires, six months and three years post-loss (n = 552/289). Although the funeral and rituals were considered helpful, no significant association between evaluation of the funeral and usage of grief rituals and grief reactions was found. More insight in the engagement in rituals will ultimately serve bereaved individuals to cope with loss.

Ритуал і драма

The purpose of the article is to study the nature of the ritual relationship and theater on the example of the Muslim ceremonial theatrical performance of the Ta’zijah – the Shi’i passion play. The chosen problem caused the broad context of the study. In particular, the author draws attention to the peculiarities of the combination of ritual and theater in ancient Greece, as well as in the European and American culture of the twentieth century. In addition, the specificity of ritual and theater connections in other cultures, including Chinese and Japanese, is monitored. Considering the ancient ritual action in terms of theatricality and perception of the seen, the researcher turns to the artistic practice of the American avant-garde theater of the 1960’s and 70’s. Particular attention is paid to the influence of the Muslim ritual theater on the European theatrical culture of the twentieth century: the famous director Peter Brook’s impression from the revival of the ceremony in Iran in the 1970’s. At the same time, the author insists that Ta’ziah is practically impossible to adequately perceive outside the social, cultural and religious context. One of the reasons for this is that viewers become part of the action as well as performers, while a detached skeptical public cannot take part in the action which is deprived of faith. Focusing on contemporary non-religious tendencies in European and American theaters, the researcher comes to the thought of the German theater critic Ericks Fischer-Licht, who views non-rationality in the context of contemporary performative culture. In this regard, he resorted to the general characteristics of performative, outlining the ideas of Antonina Arto, Jerzy Grotowski, Peter Brooke and others. The research methodology is mainly based on the comparative method, which involves comparing the archaic rituals of different cultures from the ancient to the Far Eastern, as well as the features of the combination of ritual and theater in these events. An important theoretical basis for the study was the work of the performance theorist Richard Schehner and his mentor Anthropologist Victor Turner. In addition to cultural anthropology, the researcher uses the theoretical works of contemporary European theater critics, in particular Ericks Fischer-Lichte advocating the exclusive influence on the spectator of the ritual performance of the Ta’ziah. The novelty of the work. For the first time in a complex way involving a broad context, using a comparative approach, based on cultural anthropology and based on the study of art, the connections of ritual and theater have been investigated on the example of the Muslim ceremonial theatrical performance of the Ta’ziah. Conclusions. We have shown that ritual and theatre are not identical, though they may be similar.

Ritual Kinship in some Calendar Celebrations. A Case Study of the Celebration of Epiphany in Macedonia

Ritual Kinship in some Calendar Celebrations. A Case Study of the Celebration of Epiphany in Macedonia