Set Of Rituals Research Articles

Awkward Rituals: Sensations of Governance in Protestant America by Dana W. Logan (review)

Reviewed by: Awkward Rituals: Sensations of Governance in Protestant America by Dana W. Logan Steven C. Bullock (bio) Keywords Protestantism, Rituals, Symbols, Benevolent societies, Freemasons, Catherine Beecher Awkward Rituals: Sensations of Governance in Protestant America. By Dana W. Logan. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2022. Pp. 192. Paper, $27.50.) In studying what she calls the "sensations of governance," Dana W. Logan's Awkward Rituals does not round up the usual suspects either in civic life—commemorations, cornerstone-layings, and fourth of July celebrations—or in traditional sacred spaces—church services, camp meetings, public sermons. Logan, a specialist in religious studies, looks instead at how religious Americans portrayed power in less public settings, in fraternal orders, benevolent societies, and domestic life. Logan's compact work, less than 125 pages of text, seeks to move beyond previous considerations of rituals. For more than a century, scholars have struggled to find paths and patterns in what Victor Turner called the "forest of symbols." Turner, Émile Durkheim, and Clifford Geertz held that rituals expressed the central values of their culture. Pierre Bourdieu and a variety of more recent scholars have considered embodiment, how performances, practices, and rituals shape the actor. Rather than looking at how rituals fit, however, Logan considers how they often failed. Rather than noting the richness, the thickness of her ceremonies, she finds them "awkward," thin, and uncomfortable both physically and symbolically. The problem, in her telling, is that these American rituals were rooted in earlier conceptions of power. Seeking to build hierarchical power, they became "incongruous" in a society that had rejected monarchy (2). America's "sovereign rituals," expressing as well as establishing power, spoke using the Renaissance European vision of the monarch's two bodies, the physical that can die and the political that cannot, a model, she suggests, that helps account for the increasing popularity of the corporation in post-Revolutionary America (2). These problematic monarchical forms enacted what she calls "contractions in [the] culture" (19). The book particularly focuses on four sets of rituals. The first discussion, about the secret ceremonies of the Freemasons, is most clearly tied to the larger argument. The Masonic fraternity, which she calls a "club for powerful white men," both retained monarchical values and looked toward new ideas of the social body, figuring its members as elites within a more equal society (21). Most of its rituals were performed in spaces where only Masons were allowed. All participated in the drama, creating [End Page 329] a theatrical performance without a separate audience. Although Logan underestimates the role of initiating new participants in these ceremonies, she interestingly highlights their use of "physical discomfort" (37). Logan next turns to benevolent societies, looking first at the annual national meetings of the American Bible Society. Such organizations, she suggests, formed a new sort of social body. At their "head" was a board of directors that controlled the society through private meetings that made decisions using carefully regulated procedures that Logan suggests were "a genre of performance" (57). The board then reported on their actions in public meetings in which the head spoke to and for the body, the society's "members." This is an intriguing perspective, opening up new ways of thinking about both the nature of membership in such organizations (in comparison with Masonic participation) and the role of meetings in governing. Another benevolent organization, the American Seaman's Friend Society, provides the focus of the third case study. The society sought to aid sailors through approved boarding houses, onboard libraries, and religious solidarity with sailors. Logan shows that its members (who were largely not mariners) felt inspired (or perhaps obligated) to use maritime language and metaphors to signal their solidarity with sailors. These often-awkward expressions were similar to the religious meetings that members conducted with sailors, meetings that, in Logan's view, unintentionally highlighted the distinction between the two groups—and revealed the limits of benevolent concern. Although members offered religious fellowship, they refused to create more lasting kinship ties with the targeted populations. The final study examines Catherine Beecher's directions for women overseeing a household in her Treatise on Domestic Economy (1843). Logan creatively considers Beecher's discussions of the...

The dead pig's photo album: Affective visual rituals in collective identity formation

Recent research on visually mediated activism has focused on visual practices as forms of political expression. Conversely, this article will demonstrate that visuality is not only used for protest mobilisation, but that it also plays a significant role in solidifying movement-internal collective identity through a set of distinct visual rituals that produce a shared understanding through affect. Based on an ethnography of everyday visual practices and social experiences of visuality (online and offline) in the Save Movement's ‘Pig Save’ protest events, we identify three forms of affective visual rituals: (1) witnessing; (2) mourning; and (3) semiotic rituals. We argue that these visual rituals are not only expressions of shared values, but construct collective political identity through backstage visual emotion work (affect).

Ritualization of Online Worship During COVID-19 Pandemic: A Case Study in GKMI ARK

The COVID-19 outbreak that first happened in the city of Wuhan, China on January 2020 did not take long until it reached other parts of the world and then declared by World Health Organization as a pandemic within two month. In Indonesia, Mr. President Joko Widodo urged every citizen to do academic, economical, and religious activities at home in order to slow the spread of the virus. Christian congregations are among religious groups that had been affected by government’s measures to reduce the Coronavirus transmission. While online learning and remote working have been known and practiced by some, online worship was imaginable by none. Located within the “red area” where Coronavirus transmission is high, Gereja Kristen Muria Indonesia Anugerah Rayon Kembangan (GKMI ARK) was among the first churches in Indonesia to switch from on-site to fully online worship. The pastor and elders gave new set of rituals for online worship, to which the congregation must adapt, regardless of their preparedness. Ritual can be broadly defined as a set of meaningful sequence of actions produced by ritualization. This paper aims to explore the ritualization of online worship of GKMI ARK congregation during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Consuming Islam: media, ritual, and identity in the making of a brotherhood

ABSTRACT Research on Islam and consumption focuses mostly on commercialisation of Islam. This article studies Islam-consumption interaction in the context of religious competition within Islam. It discusses the role of religious consumption in Pakistan where Islamic organisations belonging to different Sunni denominations seek to expand while maintaining ideological boundaries. Through an ethnographic study of Dawat-e-Islami, which belongs to the Barelvi denomination within Sunni Islam, it argues that religious consumption within the media and ritual settings of the organisation help to reify a subcultural, denominational identity. Capitalising on the cultural repertoires at its disposal, Dawat-e-Islami has commodified its call to Madina into artefacts, signs, symbols, and names and offered them for consumption to its followers through its media and ritual settings. Collective and expressive acts of consumption, enabled as such, serve to construct a unique, subcultural collective identity within Sunnism – the Madani Brotherhood. This brotherhood contributes to the expansion of DI’s Madani mission while guarding ideological boundaries. In the context of competing visions of Sunni Islam, collective and expressive acts of religious consumption reinforce symbolic and ideological boundaries.

The Emergence and Evolution of the Study of Sport and Religion

The Emergence and Evolution of the Study of Sport and Religion Joseph L. Price When we begin to map the development and status of the interdisciplinary area of studies “sport and religion,” we find that its boundaries have been shaped by multiple, sometimes competing factors: the use of sporting metaphors to describe spiritual acts and, vice versa, the use of religious rhetoric to describe athletic feats; the embrace of sports as a means of outreach by faith communities; the exercise of sport as a spiritual discipline; theological reflections on the significance of play; ethical reflections on competitive violence and efforts to gain competitive advantages; and the function of sport as a civil religion, to name some of the most prominent cartographical entries. In short, the field has few straight lines and no right angles. As one way to locate the origin and plot the expansion of this interdisciplinary territory, let me intertwine the story of developments in my course “Sport, Play, and Ritual” (introduced in 1984 and offered 25 times before my retirement) with a broad survey of literature in the field, most of which has been issued during the history of my course. When I launched the course and published my first essay on the subject, I did not expect to devote a significant portion of my career to participating in the growth of this creative area of study. My interest in the possible relation between these two passions—religion and sport—had been whetted twenty years earlier when as an early adolescent I had been given a copy of The Goal and the Glory,1 a collection of devotionals by representative all-star athletes, including childhood favorites Bobby Richardson [End Page 17] and Rafer Johnson. At that time, I was unaware of the concept of “muscular Christianity,” an orientation toward faith and sports exemplified in the athletes’ testimonies. A decade later in a respectful, three-part series in Sports Illustrated, Frank Deford dubbed this blend of sports and religion as “Sportianity.”2 However, my enthusiasm for developing an academic course on sports and religion drastically differed from this evangelical ratification of sport. Instead, my interest had been piqued by several works on the theology of play, particularly those by Robert Neale,3 Harvey Cox,4 and Hugo Rahner.5 But the most significant work for stimulating my interest and the course was Michael Novak’s theological celebration, The Joy of Sports.6 Novak interprets Americans’ devotion to sport as one manifestation of civil region that involves a spiritual sense and set of religious rituals. Novak maintains that sports are liturgies without creeds and that they appeal to the human hunger for an experience of transcendence. In that regard he asserts that to experience victory is to taste immortality, and by contrast to experience defeat is to sample the certainty of death. He also identifies other ways that sports function as a religion. They offer a sense of sacred time and sacred space that occurs in a defined space where special rules apply and when governed by a different measure of time; an experience of suspense or mystery about the outcome of a game or performance; an athlete’s possible ascetic orientation in preparation for a quest toward a perfect performance; an experience of awe in response to unbelievable plays and beautiful, physical feats. Because of his penetrating theological analysis and his expansive consideration of [End Page 18] team sports, it is fair to credit Novak with having issued the charter for the academic study of sport as religion.7 During the development of my course, I teamed with a colleague whose expertise was in the sociology of sports. While we searched for resources to recommend to students, we were dismayed to learn that The Joy of Sports was out of print, but we were able to compile a bibliography of various works about the ancient Olympic games that were performed in honor of and for the entertainment of the gods, Native American rites like that of Black Elk’s account of Tapa Wanka Yap (throwing the ball), essays on Sumo wrestling that explained the sacred significance of salt rituals and the Dohyo, and various analyses of martial arts...

Reconsidering Context in Psychedelic Research: Rituals as Ancient Libraries of Knowledge

The outcomes of recent psychedelic research have been attracting more public attention in the media along with more private funding. This research is primarily being conducted in a clinically administered setting while attention to context has largely been ignored. Entheogens have been used by indigenous peoples in ritual settings as far as recorded history can be found. Modern clinical use has only been occurring within the last century. This leaves much to explore in terms of the context in which such a potent treatment has effect. This manuscript conceptualizes entheogenic spiritual rituals as ancient libraries of healing knowledge. It examines the therapeutic use of psychedelics from both the biomedical perspective of the diagnosis and treatment model contrasted with the ritual context. It discusses a number of explicit and implicit ritual attributes that may play a role in the healing process. Additionally, the manuscript identifies cultural assumptions of healing embedded in psychedelic study in favor of mechanistic causation that could be affecting a dismissal of the value of the ritual context. The paper proposes considerations for alternative research design philosophy along with the notion that spiritual rituals viewed as ancient libraries of healing knowledge may introduce hypotheses that current scientific bias is preventing researchers from realizing.

Conceptualizing the Central-Eastern European Memory Wars Through Mechanisms of Reciprocal Incitement

This article provides a framework through which to understand the emergence of the Central-Eastern European memory wars as a reciprocal process of illiberal inter-state signaling. It draws on a discursive and policy analysis of state and state-affiliated actors to capture the chain of mnemonic interactions that has facilitated a self-perpetuating cycle of reciprocal incitement in Central-Eastern Europe. I argue that Russia’s victory cult—the set of Russian discourses, rituals, practices, and policies associated with the mass remembrance of Soviet victory in World War II—emerged and developed not just parallel to but in direct, continual conversation with the mnemonic rhetoric and policies of Central-Eastern European states, with fateful consequences for the civil societies of Russia and its neighbors. I conclude by charting the expansion of the memory wars from Central-Eastern Europe to Western audiences and by outlining the mnemonic and policy implications of this broader conflict.

Volunteer Fire Brigade (OSP) Firefighting Sports Competitions in the Context of Key Problems of Contemporary Rural Poland

Volunteer Fire Brigades (OSPs) are the most numerous and widespread category of rural nongovernmental organisations in Poland. The emergency rescue focus of their activity is conducive to undertaking initiatives in the field of sports, i.e. projects aiming to improve the physical fitness and technical skills of volunteer firefighters. Firefighting sports competitions are the main form of sports rivalry among firefighters. Due to the fact of their long-time and regular organisation, team character, complying with a set of strict rules and rituals, and also the fact that this is rivalry between teams representing local communities that neighbour one another, they are a social and cultural phenomenon in which the problems of today’s rural Poland come into focus. Based on field research completed just before the COVID-19 pandemic and an overview of the literature, the author sets out to identify the functions of firefighting sports competitions in local systems. Considering the scale of the OSP organisation and the fact that it is permanently rooted in rural Poland, the paper may be considered a contribution to the discussion on effective ways of promoting physical culture outside urban centres.

‘For Everyone Born, a Place at the Table’

Abstract This paper elucidates the understanding of the bond between Liturgy and Diaconia. Liturgy and Diaconia are often considered two distinct practices in the daily life of the Church; one a set of rituals confined to the inner circle of Christians, the other a service to people in need, both in- and outside the Church. This contribution explores an encounter between the two by investigating experiences of Eucharist Celebrations during the Sanctuary in the Bethel Chapel, The Hague (Netherlands) in 2018/2019. The article briefly introduces the case of the Sanctuary, then describes and analyzes the results of interviews with pastors and finally formulate conclusions on the relation between Diaconia and Liturgy.

The Production of the Book of Mormon in Light of a Tibetan Buddhist Parallel

The Production of the Book of Mormon in Light of a Tibetan Buddhist Parallel

Cosmopolitical Performances: Enacting authority and ordering the world through spatial music in the pre-contact Andes

Archaeomusicological efforts to reconstruct tonal sequences, musical genres, and musical experiences of the pre-contact Andes face great challenges given a lack of written musical notation. We suggest that a sociomusicological approach focusing on the “social organization of resources, makers, and occasions of musical performance” (Feld 1984: 383) offers an alternative analytic more amenable to standard archaeological reconstruction. This emphasis on production, organization, and shared social space also sheds light on the historicity of performance, its social context, and its political implications. In fact, musical performances in many contemporary Andean communities express cosmological principles that underpin authority and enact principles of political organization in charged ritual settings. The highly spatialized and kinesthetic nature of these performances function as key elements, mapping performance spaces onto cosmopolitical landscapes. We seek neither to project this model into the past nor to identify its origins. However, we argue that a sociomusicological approach attuned to social space allows us to identify similar elements of musical performances in the Andean past while exploring the role of musical performance across broader sociopolitical contexts. Without reducing music to its politics or explaining political organization through music, we suggest that studying both together offers important insights.

Embroidered and Woven Towel (Rushnyk) as part of Cultural Code of Bride’s Traditional Costume

The purpose of the article is to study the specific role of the embroided towel (rushnyk) as a key element of women’s wedding clothing in the context of its cultural code; outlining the concept of cultural code in terms of decorative art and people’s worldview; to determine the role of the embroidered towel (rushnyk) in women’s wedding costume. The methodology of the study is based on the principle of historicism, systematicity and author’s objectivity. General scientific methods of analysis, analogies, modeling, and systemic analysis have also been used. Scientific novelty. The article reveals for the first time the specifics of the embroidered towel (rushnyk) as an element of cultural code of women’s wedding clothing of the Ukrainian people. The role of the embroided towel (rushnyk) in a traditional costume of a bride is outlined as one of its key elements having a protective meaning, considering its use as personification of a belt. The reasons for such rituals are explained. Conclusions. By analysing particular items of decorative and applied arts (embroided towels, costume elements), as well as a set of rituals and examples of oral folk arts related to the topic of the study, it has been proved that the embroidered towel (rushnyk) in wedding rituals of the Ukrainian people plays an important role precisely in terms of using it as an element of cultural code of the bride’s clothing. A number of examples reveal the ways of tying it to a bride and a groom, as well as other participants of the ceremony. For this purpose, wedding pictures and illustrations depicting brides and grooms in traditional festive costumes were used. They included, in particular, illustrations of wedding clothing of young people from Kherson county of Kherson province, costumes of newly married couples from Novhorod-Siverskyi county of Chernihiv province, a picture of a wedding in the village of Borovykove, Cherkasy region (mid‑20th century).
 Key words: cultural code, embroidered towel (rushnyk), traditional costume of a bride, women’s clothing, belt, ornament, Ukrainian traditional costume, traditions.

Performing African Studies at El Colegio de México: neoliberal colonialism and the globalectical South

ABSTRACT By analysing a talk by Ngugi wa Thiong’o at Colmex in Mexico City as an academic performance, and his memoir of the early 1960s at Makerere University in Kampala, I explore different ways of engaging with Africa as subject/object of knowledge, in classic colonialism and neoliberal colonialism, in Latin America and in Africa. In my first case study, analysing the Colmex event as an academic performance means to approach it as a set of naturalised rituals, which turn out to be symptomatic of neoliberal colonialist epistemic outlooks. In my second case study, I analyse Ngugi’s memoir as a set of narrative strategies that critically engage with classic colonial education in Africa. In each case study, I concentrate on the relation between place and perspective, a relation central to Ngugi’s theoretical formulations in Globalectics. The analysis of performative, literary and theoretical instances of the relationship between place and perspective allows me to interrogate the implications of the Colmex African Studies programme as placed in the global South but without a global South perspective. Travelling between continents, epochs and genres, I aim to assess the role of ‘neoliberal colonialism’ for a global South study of Africa today.

Blue fibers found in dental calculus from Maya sacrificial victims

AbstractSurveyed in 2008–2010, the Midnight Terror Cave contains the comingled remains of at least 118 Maya sacrificial victims from the Classic Period (250 CE–925 CE). In order to determine what the victims were consuming, microscopic analysis was carried out on dental calculus. Given the minimal calculus present, calculus from three teeth from one area of the cave (operation V) and three teeth from another area (operation VIII) was each combined to create two samples for analysis. Samples were sent to the PaleoResearch Institute for analysis where they were examined for pollen, phytoliths, starches, and other inclusions.Aside from organic components, both samples were found to contain blue fibers. We were able to exclude contamination as explanation for their presence. Given the time frame needed to encase the fibers within calculus, the fibers were introduced several days or weeks prior to death. The unusual color of the fibers could be attributed to Maya blue; a unique pigment used mainly in ritual settings. A few possible answers exist as to how the fibers were introduced to the victims' mouths. The fibers could be from consuming a blue‐dyed pulque. They could also have been introduced during utilitarian activities or through some form of dentistry. Another possible explanation is that the fibers were present after using gags as the victims were paraded from town to town, then to the sacrificial site.

Является ли этническая культура социальным институтом?

The article analyzes approaches to the study of social institutions in their broad and narrow sense, with a focus on the sociological interpretation of institutions and institutionalization. The significant functions of a social institution and the conditions for its formation in response to a social request are determined. The understanding of culture as a generic concept for ethnic culture is fixed and the rationale for the institutional interpretation of culture is given. The author comes to the conclusion that ethnoculture can be regarded as a social institution both in a broad sense (as a set of norms, rules, traditions and rituals that regulate the life and behavior of people), and, at a modern stage of development, in a narrow sense (ethnoculture is institutionalized in specific political (ministries of culture), social (public organizations), cultural (theaters, libraries), educational (schools, colleges, universities) structures that perform the function of cultural transmission, which was previously carried out mainly in the institution of the family, and is now diversified into various organizations) . The institutional understanding of ethnic culture allows us to reveal cultural dilemmas, track the structural and functional transformations of ethnic cultures and the specifics of their interaction with other social institutions of our time.

Toward a Methodology for Identifying Ritual in the Archaeological Record: A Case Study from the Southern Levant

Ritual cannot be studied in a vacuum. It is a process that differentiates and gains meaning in its role within its broader social system. This article addresses a major methodological issue in the archaeology of ritual, that there is no consensus on how to interpret ritual in past cultures. This study develops a methodology for identifying ritual in the archaeological record, one that is broadly applicable to archaeological contexts in different regions and combines theoretical approaches to ritualization with methods from household archaeology. To understand ritual’s function within a social system, it must be contextualized against the entire repertoire of a group’s activities. Thus, spatial analyses of all finds throughout different spaces must be conducted in order to reconstruct the range of past human behaviors in different types of spaces. This approach creates a well-founded platform for investigating use variability among ritual and nonritual spaces, and how ritual differentiates itself from other actions. As a case study, this methodology is applied to the Middle and Late Bronze Age southern Levant. The findings shed new light on our understanding of religion in the region, including the primacy of large-scale consumption in public ritual contexts. Contrasting contemporary houses and palaces, little on-site storage and food preparation is detected in ritual settings. The social, anthropological, and religious implications of the divergences identified between ritual and nonritual action and contexts are far-reaching, including the discovery of a hitherto undetected religious ethos and bringing into question whether southern Levantine temples were considered houses of gods.

Saul M. Olyan. Violent Rituals of the Hebrew Bible

Saul M. Olyan. <i>Violent Rituals of the Hebrew Bible</i>

КЫРГЫЗ ЭЛИНДЕГИ КЫЗ БЕРҮҮ, УУЛ ҮЙЛӨНДҮРҮҮГӨ ТИЕШЕЛҮҮ КААДА-САЛТТАРГА БАЙЛАНЫШТУУ ФРАЗЕОЛОГИЗМДЕР

This article examines the phraseological expressions of the Kyrgyz people associated with the customs of marrying off girls and marrying off the son, which is a set of rituals associated with the life and economic activity of the people. The phraseological expressions associated with the tradition of giving away girls in marriage and marriage of the son such as bel kuda boluu, beshik kuda boluu, kolun suroo, soykko saluu, ala kachuu, astyna tushuu, achuu basar, kulduk uruu, kebez bailoo, otko kiyiry, juk korsotor, sut aky, etc. are analyzed. The analysis of these phraseological expressions showed that some traditions have changed within the framework of modern customs, some went out of use, and some are still widely used and continue to exist.

WEDDING CEREMONIES OF NUROBOD DISTRICT

This article discusses wedding ceremonies in Nurabad district. Each nation has its own set of rituals and customs. The Uzbek people also have their own ethnographic history. The wedding ceremonies of the Uzbek people are especially important in the traditions. In this article, we will explain Uzbek traditions through wedding ceremonies in Nurabad district.

Strange Seeds: Ethnohistorical Testimonies of the Clandestine Culture of Sacred Plants in Colonial Ecuador

AbstractThe “plant turn” in anthropology, while controversial, has led to a renewed focus on how humans relate to different species of plants. In this article, I aim to contribute to our knowledge of human‐plant relationships by analyzing how historical actors used sacred plants in past ritual settings. I study criminal and civil cases involving shamans in late colonial Ecuador, with a focus on plant use. Legal records from 1782, 1793, 1800, and 1802 reveal information about the use of fragrant plants believed to have transformative properties, the use of entheogens for non‐visionary purposes, and even the incorporation of the sacred wanduc (Brugmansia sp) into the punishment of one shaman. This plant‐focused approach to the reading of ethnohistorical documents provides a history of particular plants as they were used by individual actors in specific geographic and historical contexts, and sheds light on people’s understanding of human‐plant‐spirit relationships.