Ritual Functions Research Articles

Bones of Contention: Animals and Religion in Contemporary Japan by Barbara R. Ambros (review)

Reviewed by: Bones of Contention: Animals and Religion in Contemporary Japan by Barbara R. Ambros Ellen Schattschneider Bones of Contention: Animals and Religion in Contemporary Japan. By Barbara R. Ambros. University of Hawai‘i Press, 2012. 280pages. Hardcover $55.00; softcover $29.00. In Bones of Contention, Barbara Ambros examines a fascinating, relatively recent development in relations with domestic animals in Japan. Over the past three decades a significant sector of the Japanese public has begun to perform kuyō (Buddhist memorialization rites) for pets, especially dogs and cats. In some instances, bereaved owners have arranged for kaimyō (posthumous Buddhist names) to be given to deceased [End Page 309] pets, which are then memorialized within family butsudan. Ambros gives close attention to recent legal battles over attempts to intern pet remains in human cemeteries, as more owners increasingly come to term their animal companions “uchi no ko” (our child). She places this intriguing ethnographic material within a larger history of animal memorialization in Japan. She notes, for example, that in the early nineteenth century, whalers at times assigned posthumous death names to slaughtered whales and held memorial services for these nonhuman leviathans. She also recounts the familiar story of the loyal dog Hachiko, who in popular mythology stood vigil at the Shibuya train station for his late owner. As many anthropologists, historians of religion, and folklorists have long noted, animals have for millennia in Japan functioned as intermediaries between human and divine worlds and between the living and the dead. In the shishimai dance at the New Year, lion-like creatures “bite off ” impurities from spectators and confer longevity. Kitsune spirits, alternating between fox and human forms, transport people between conventional life and fantasy dreamworlds. Dragon divinities, or ryujin, themselves hybrid beings composed of elements from diverse animals, move between undersea depths and mountain peaks and help transport humans between mortal and immortal domains. Yet why, starting in the years of the Bubble Economy, should a good number of Japanese have come to memorialize something so prosaic as household pets? Ambros situates this phenomenon in the memorialization boom of the 1980s, in which a great range of nonhuman entities, from needles to dolls to eels, were subjected to such rites. Ambros argues that “. . . the hybrid status of pet memorial rites—their liminal place between human and animal mortuary rites . . . makes their study a compelling topic for inquiry” (p. 9). In the book’s opening chapter, Ambros juxtaposes premodern models of human-animal relations with contemporary transformations of animal symbolism. She notes that the admittedly modern notion of the “pet”—an animal taken into domestic space as a quasi-family member—expresses a substantial departure from earlier, rather functional relationships. At the same time she argues that there were ethical and sacral dimensions to the premodern management of the animal world: the killing and consumption of whales, for example, produced a lingering sense of obligation and anxiety. Early memorialization rites for whales can be thought of, in a sense, as anticipating modern practices of pet memorialization. Building on this insight, Ambros persuasively argues in chapter 2 that the early modern use of animals as resources in Japan cannot be accounted for in purely economic or technical terms; instead, this commodification was infused with religious sensibilities, although these by no means ensured the compassionate treatment of animals. Future researchers may wish to build on this argument and consider broader ways in which premodern representations of animals may have had, in a general sense, memorial or ritual functions. Might we think of many such practices as having bridged the conventional gulf between spheres of existence? For example, painting an image of a pair of hawks in a shrine or temple has for many centuries functioned as a form of [End Page 310] veneration, and in colloquial (if not strict doctrinal) terms as an act of kuyō. The composite figure of ryujin, predicated on the creative recombination of familiar animal elements (fur, scales, horns, claws, and so on), might in turn be conceived of as a kind of metamemorialization, geared toward allowing a whole host of beings to move through the great arc of creation and transmutation toward buddhahood. Chapters 3 and 4 are to...

Prayer, Politics, and Power in the Hebrew Bible

This essay applies current anthropological methods to selected texts in the Hebrew Bible in order to investigate the place of prayer within relationships of power. 1 Power does not simply exist as an ideal, but in the ability of humans to influence the actions of other humans. Ritual theorists have recently argued that, in part, ritual functions as a way that people negotiate, mediate and enact power within these relationships. A reading of prayer texts from the Hebrew Bible from this perspective casts new light on the role of prayer in the micro-politics of everyday life and reveals the way in which biblical authors attempted to tie this to Israel’s larger story.

Las pilas del castro de Santa Mariña de Maside (Ourense ): hacia una tipología de los lugares con función ritual en la Edad del Hierro del NW de la Península Ibérica

In this article we pretend to review in detail the rock basins that appear in hillfort contexts. Our purpose will be to evaluate their possible religious function. Our interest will be focused on the Santa de Marina de Masidehillfort (Ourense) where several rocks with rectangular holes and different types of shapes are found. We will try to find a typology on Iron Age places with a religious ritual function throughout the comparison with other similar sites.

From the Sacred to the Secular: Ethnic Identity and Monetary Value embodied in Jewish Ceremonial Textiles according to the Pinkassim of Amsterdam

In the last quarter of the nineteenth century the Jewish intelligentsia developed a historical and scholarly interest in material objects of Jewish culture. In new exhibitions they organized, ritual objects that had been associated exclusively with religious observance, were moved to the public domain and divested of their purely religious ritual function. In a secular setting, Judaica became an expression of Jewish ethnic identity defined by its surrounding and religion, and evoked a new appreciation as objets d’art that implicitly assumed a monetary market value. This article examines whether this expression of ethnic identity and aesthetic and monetary appreciation developed first in the context of nineteenth-century secularism. By presenting three case studies based on written sources, I argue that ethnic and monetary value were already manifest in prior centuries and underline the value of written sources for an understanding of the social and cultural historical context of Jewish ceremonial objects.

Ancient use of the knuckle-bone for rituals and gaming piece

ABSTRACT The knuckle-bone has always had both a ritual function linked to the practice of divination and a profane use as a gaming piece for infants and adults. Knuckle bones from different animal species can be used, but sheep and goat (Ovis and Capra)and pig (Sus domesticus) generally prevail. These bones are small and can easily be handled together. Groups of worked and non-modified knucklebones have been discovered in several archaeological contexts in Italy. The most important evidence for the funerary use of these bones in Italy is undoubtedly represented by the thousands of knuckle-bones discovered in the cemetery of Locri Epizefiri, dated to the Hellenistic period. In recent times, large amounts of worked and non-modified knuckle-bones have been brought to light in the cemeteries of Le Grotte near Populonia (4th-3rd c. BC) and Poggio Picenze in Abruzzi (3rd-2nd c. BC). The zooarchaeological analysis of these samples and their comparison with other evidence can contribute to our understanding of se...

“Impossible Narrative Voices”:

“Impossible Narrative Voices”:

The Changes of the urban space in Seoul in the Late Chosun Dynasty - focused on Commercial Development

In the 18th century Seoul changed its urban culture in line with the transformation as a commercial city from the capital city of the medieval period. Accordingly, various types of areas with new functions had appeared. Along with the commercial development, the commercial center was expanded from one place at Sijeongsangga in Jongno to Chilpae, Yihyeon and Gyeonggang area. As citizens could have economic wealth and leisure culture, a kind of entertainment culture appeared together with the commercialization of entertainment and the amusement culture. And, a commercial agricultural area was formed at the suburban area. And the handcraft shops were formed collectively in Jongno, a center of commerce.<BR> Since the late 18th century, the center of Seoul urban space was a commercial area surrounding Jongnu. This area was an entertainment and commercial amusement area as well as handcraft production area. Areas outside the city wall became specialized for commercial agriculture and amusement zones. As such, the urban pace of Seoul was functionally divided according to the commercial development and the formation of urban culture. While the ritual functions including palaces, administrative offices, royal shrine and royal tomb remained, its significant status as a central place for the royal capital in the medieval tradition, citizens in Seoul enjoyed urban life based on commercial places.

Dating and Interpreting Desert Structures: The Enclosures of TheJudeanDesert,SouthernLevant, Re‐Evaluated

Enclosures, single large curvilinear structures, constitute ubiquitous relics of past human societies in marginal environments. Many enclosures suffer from severe scarcity of related artefactual and ecofactual remains, allowing only tentative assessments of their date and function. A case in point comes from theJudeanDesert,SouthernLevant, where several dozen enclosures were surveyed and described asChalcolithic cult sites. Using new research strategies, incorporating critical evaluation of previous surveys, test excavations and optically stimulated luminescence dating, we were able to date enclosures to a much broader time span than previously suggested, and reject their proposed ritualistic function.

The Merging of the Sacred and the Profane

The Baha’i Faith has very few communal rituals. There is little structure or set form to the regular meetings of the community or to such ceremonial occasions as weddings and funerals. Furthermore, there are textual instructions in the authoritative texts of the Baha’i Faith that prohibit the creation of a clerical class and the development of rituals over time. If then ritual is an essential part of religion, what substitutes for ritual in the Baha’i community? To answer this question, this paper goes back to Durkheim’s functionalist ideas that ritual creates the boundaries between the sacred and the profane (or secular), and also creates a sense of awe and an experience of the community as a living reality, reinforcing the sense of unity and strengthening the community. With regard to the first of these functions, in fact the boundaries between the sacred and the profane are deliberately blurred in the Baha’i Faith, and all of space and time potentially sacralized; conversely, it could be said that much of what would be regarded in other religious communities as sacred space and sacred time is secularized. With regard to the second of these functions, if Durkheim’s analysis is correct, ritual is not essential to religion for its own sake, but rather on account of the unity and reinforcement of the sense of community that it creates. When we come to consider the Baha’i Faith, there are a number of other factors that create unity and a sense of community. First, there are doctrinal factors such as the doctrine of the Covenant. Second, there are psychological factors such as a common vision (oneness of humanity and world unity). Third, there is the camaraderie of working together to achieve that vision—a common pathway along which all Baha’is are travelling. In all, these factors appear to be sufficient to substitute for the function of ritual in the Baha’i Faith.

The Philosophical Function of Ritual and Scapegoat

The Philosophical Function of Ritual and Scapegoat

The extended religious phenotype and the adaptive coupling of ritual and belief

In this paper, we consider the idea that religion is a transsomatic adaptation. At the genic level, the religious system constitutes an extended phenotype that has been fashioned by natural selection to overcome socioecological challenges inherent in human sociality, primarily problems of cooperation and coordination. At the collective level, the religious system constitutes a cognitive niche. We begin our discussion focusing on the former and concentrate our attention on the “sacred coupling” of supernatural agency and ritual behavior. We detail the complex connections between genes, cognitive faculties, and their expression in religious contexts, followed by a discussion of how religious ritual functions to maintain relative social order. We conclude with a discussion about the relevance of niche construction theory for understanding the adaptive nature of religious systems.

Raising The Rock: The Importance of T. S. Eliot's Pageant-Play

T. S. Eliot's The Rock was written as part of a fundraising campaign to assist the Forty-Five Churches Fund to build new churches in London's suburbs. The pageant play has to-date received little critical attention partly due to the fact that it was a commissioned piece, and partly due to its undeniable flaws. A thoroughgoing reassessment of the important place the play holds in Eliot's oeuvre is therefore long overdue. I aim to show that an attentive re-reading of The Rock in its church setting is indispensable for gaining a full understanding of the development of Eliot's post-conversion ideas about community, tradition, and the ritual function of art.

The Dysfunction of Ritual in Early Confucianism by Michael David Kaulana Ing (review)

the Kongzi jiayu (9.9, 15.2). While it may appear in Analects 13.18 that Confucius places family feeling above social justice, Huang argues that in fact there is no dilemma here: the son should conceal the father’s wrongdoing in order to be able to ‘‘gently admonish’’ the father in an atmosphere of family intimacy that will allow the father to take seriously the admonishment and change his ways. Thus the purpose of Confucius’ advice is to preserve both the family relationship and social justice in the long run, by increasing the probability that the father will not commit such crimes in the future. This, in my view, is an excellent solution to the problem, a solution that goes beyond the troubling statement in the Analects and takes into account the broader meanings of filiality. Confucius: A Guide for the Perplexed is true to its title in that it addresses some of the points from classical Confucian thought which can be philosophically troubling. The argumentation not only refers to but engages with an enormous body of literature, ranging from Confucius and Aristotle to Chinese commentators over a span of 2,000 years, and extending to modern and contemporary Chinese and Western philosophers. While it will not take the place of a historical survey of Confucius or Confucianism, I would highly recommend it for any college or university-level class in early Chinese philosophy. JOSEPH A. ADLER Kenyon College MICHAEL DAVID KAULANA ING, The Dysfunction of Ritual in Early Confucianism. New York: Oxford University Press, 2012. 285 pp. US$35 (pb). ISBN 978-0-19992491 -2 In this work, Michael Ing shows how the Liji 禮記 [Book of Rites] recognizes and explains the fact that rituals sometimes fail to achieve their intended aims (the ‘‘dysfunction of ritual’’). He argues that both preventable and unpreventable failures in rituals are a central concern throughout the Liji and applies ritual theory’s focus on failures of rituals to the cases one finds in early Confucianism, arguing that these Confucian examples can augment our understanding of both Confucian ritual and the nature of ritual generally. Ing carefully specifies his audience: the fields of ritual studies and Confucian ethics (p. 16). He does not offer a comprehensive study of this text nor does he aim to offer an ethnographic account of early Chinese ritual performance (p. 8); rather, he offers a stimulating interpretation of what the Liji and other early Confucian texts say about the issue of ritual failure. In the first of eight chapters, Ing presents the view that, in the Liji, rituals are ‘‘scripted performances enacted by human beings for the purposes of ordering the world’’ (p. 18). He examines different conceptions of ritual in the Liji and introduces his terminology for the different functions of ritual. Interestingly, Ing refers to ritual participants as ritual ‘‘agents,’’ which for most ethicists connotes a more individualistic, autonomous understanding of ritual participants. In chapter 2 he describes ‘‘ritual dysfunction,’’ offering a typology of the different ways in which a ritual can fail to achieve the desired outcome and different BOOK REVIEWS 161 kinds of ritual agents. Readers should use caution here; since the term ‘‘dysfunction’’ (unlike ‘‘failure’’) suggests that something is faulty or abnormal —as opposed to simply incomplete or imperfect—references to ‘‘dysfunctional ’’ rituals may bring to mind something more serious than rituals that sometimes fail to produce the desired outcome. Ing’s primary concern is the Liji’s discussion of ‘‘unpreventable failures in efficacy,’’ or cases in which rituals fail to produce the desired outcome regardless of how good ritual agents are at modifying rituals in different circumstances to ensure their continued success—something he terms ‘‘fluency.’’ Chapter 3 offers a critique of how scholars of Confucian ethics have understood ritual failure. Ing argues that contemporary interpreters of Confucianism tend to erroneously interpret early Confucian views of the junzi 君子 as invulnerable, precluding, for instance, the ‘‘possibility that the virtuous agent might choose a right action but be left with despair, or that he might be confronted with failure and be unable to untangle the agencies involved’’ (p. 77). Instead, Ing argues that early Confucian sages were often deeply anxious and distressed when their rituals...

Urban music from Kosovo and Metohija in the researches of Serbian ethnomusicologists up to the second half of the twentieth century

Folk music of Serbs from Kosovo and Metohija is considered to be archaic in popular discourse. From the scientific side, that is supported by the ethnomusicological printed and sound recordings, which are one of the first sources about Serbian music folklore. Ethnomusicology in Serbia is based on the results of music ethnography of the nineteenth and the twentieth century, and because of that, it is primary focused on rural tradition. Also in the last years’, popular music arrangements of some of these songs are often, whereby music from Kosovo and Metohija is usually perceived as the rural heritage. Nevertheless, music recorded during pioneer ethnomusicological fieldworks in Kosovo and Metohija is mostly noted in the cities, in organized “unauthentic” situations, and the performers were craftsmen, traders and teachers. Although in the latter ethnomuscological literature music classification according to the ritual background was common, the most of the songs recorded on Kosovo and Metohija have not (strict) ritual function and subject matter. The analysis of the Kosovo and Metohija songbooks of the eminent ethnomusicologists from Serbia proved that urban folk music was very present in the field, but troublesome for regular ethnomusicological classification and interpretation, and also that there were several informants with urban settlement who performed for these ethnomusicologists plenty of folk songs. Since the first half of the twentieth century, these ethnomusicological results have had great result on the popularization of Kosovo and Metohija music heritage. The main goal of this paper is to point on unjustified marginalization of the urban folklore at the ethnomusicological discourse, to illuminate the approaches of the pioneers in ethnomusicology in Serbia to the music heritage which has special significance not only in expert framework and to discuss the role of ethnomusicologist in the creation of the notion of “folk song”.

The Form and Function of a Biblical Blood Ritual

Abstract There is a consensus in current research that Levitical law never requires blood to be tossed upon the upper surface of the altar. This conception has reinforced—and has been reinforced by—an understanding that yhwh is never to be offered blood. However, it appears that according to several priestly texts, the blood of many sacrifices, including wellbeing, whole-burnt and reparation offerings, is to be tossed upon the upper surface of the altar.

Jaką rolę odgrywają starsi Izraela w tekstach przedstawiających epokę Mojżesza?

The article presents the importance attributed to the term “the elders of Israel” by biblical authors. Exegesis of the relevant passages reveals in this expression some kind of social elite, separated from the rest of the common crowd, which, however, does not undertake any initiatives on its own, remaining absolutely faithful to the leader of the people and supporting him in action for the good of the community. Elected by the congregation for the purpose of organizing life within the community they also perform some ritual functions. As representatives of a sinful people before God, on behalf of that people “the elders of Israel” beg forgiveness for transgressions and by unquestionable obedience become guarantors of Israel’s courage in difficult circumstances. In situations of rebellion they also, as guardians of God’s law, manifest the value of all of God’s commandments. As participants of exceptional events they become a link between the secular community and the holiness of God. Keywords

Just Recycled? A New Light on Roman Imports in Central Germany According to the ‘Central Little Farmstead’ of Frienstedt, Thuringia

Between 2000 and 2003, near Frienstedt, Kr. Erfurt, in central Germany, a settlement, graves, and what is presumably a cult site from the Roman Iron Age, were partly excavated. The habitation of the settlement started at the end of the first century AD, and ended around 400 AD. From the middle of the third century, ten inhumation graves were set out, surrounding a Bronze Age graveyard in a loose circle with a radius of about 120 metres. Two of these are little chambers of a ‘princely couple’. In the centre of the site are several shafts with a presumed ritual function. About 1,500 bronze fragments show a distinct connection with the Roman Empire in the third century, possibly in part due to Germanic soldiers recruited by the Roman army.

Complejo Arquitectónico Cerro Mercachas: arquitectura y ritualidad incaica en Chile central

In this paper we discuss Inca occupation in the central zone of Chile, through the study of the biggest imperial site so far known in the area: the architectonical complex of Cerro Mercachas. An intra-site analysis was able to identify a linear and tripartite spatial organization of the site. Together with the scarce material culture identified, we suggest a ritual function for this site, related to festivities surrounding Inca metropolitan calendar or, at least, the observation of the December solstice and the Cerro Aconcagua cult. The overall archaeological context suggests a sporadic use of the site and by a limited number of individuals. This implies an exclusive ritualism for a selected few. Seen at a regional level, the high visibility of the site integrates this exclusive ritualism into the daily landscape of local populations, thereby reproducing the strategies of social construction of space that Tawantinsuyu executes in other areas. This new spatial order creates difference and hierarchy with local ritual spaces, thereby materializing a strategy of integration and exclusion between Tawantinsuyu and local populations. With these results we discuss the administration model traditionally used to understand Inca occupation in Central Chile.

Media jako forma przedstawień zbiorowych polityki i jej teoriopoznawcze uwarunkowania

The paper touches upon the issue of media behavior in the market of public communication and the epistemological determinants of the process of media imaging of political reality. Consequently, it becomes feasible to distinguish two types ofmessages: one focused on information and the other concentrated on overt or covert persuasion. Thus, the author emphasizes the ritual function of the media, which meets the needs of average recipients as well as those of commercialized media. Therefore a certain interaction ritual of the media that takes place between them and their audience points to the media as entities dynamically responding to changing circumstances and aware of their own potential to create reality.

ARCHITECTURAL TYPOLOGY AS THE TOOL OF DESIGNING MODERN CULTURAL-LEISURE THE CENTER

Сonsumer society - so often name model of a modern society. Scheme consumptions-expenditure-debts describes such type of life. The new typology of the public center trading moll and comprehensive advertizing became its icon. However, probably that the world of ruling principles of the market sometime will change, on change other reference points will come.Business invents new requirements and creates pseudo-values. In traditional cultures the most valuable to the person simple things. Spaces arent created in a city for these simple vital things. The problem of their shortage can be solved architectural means - creation modern cultural-leisure the centres. Designation of the general typology of such center prematurely, because we, probably, will come to new, while unknown typology as a result of the analysis. Typology will create and fill this center. Their names and function will be invented and interpreted again.Possible principles of designing are allocated in our hypothesis and it is allocated three ways of using with such tool as architectural typology: 1) a way of symbols; 2) a way of filling of space different and mixtures new typologies, and also ritual functions; 3) a way of mixture of old typologies.