Tutelary Deity Research Articles

THE ‘LORD OF THE STONEMASONS’: PART II. ‘STANDING FIGURE WITH BETYLS’ AT PETRA

This paper presents the second type of representation of the ‘lord’ of the Nabataean stonemasons, a male figure standing with betyls. This type is found in five rock-cut reliefs in Petra, usually high in the walls of quarries or monuments. It is argued that, like the so-called ‘sword deity’ figures presented in Part I, this second type was also carved by the stonemasons as another representation of their tutelary deity, possibly Dushara. Study of these little-known figures reveals new information on the diverse depiction of Nabataean deities, as well as on the religious beliefs of the stonemasons at Petra.

‘The Old Gods Are Losing Power!’: Theologies of power and rituals of productivity in a Tamil Nadu village

AbstractSome Hindus are killing animals in larger numbers, more regularly, and in more spectacular fashions than they have ever done before. In contradiction of the ethnographic record asserting the diminishing significance of ritual killing since the nineteenth century, sacrifices to tutelary deities that had long been abandoned are being reactivated or enacted for the first time. However, such a counter-intuitive surge in the popularity of sacrifices is occurring at a time when the very deities to whom they are dedicated are apparently losing their potency. This seeming paradox, this article proposes, is an implication of both the entrenchment of electoral democracy and the material transformations accompanying economic liberalization in rural Tamil Nadu. In an electoral democracy, the political significance of tutelary deities—and consequently their charisma—has diminished. Their productive valence however, as exemplified in ritual sacrifices, has become ever more resonant in India's post-liberalization milieu, with its heightened sense of opportunity but also competitiveness and uncertainty.

Il nome segreto di Roma tra antiquaria ed esoterismo. Una riconsiderazione delle fonti

The secret name of Rome between antiquarianism and exoterismus Starting from a well known passage in the Saturnalia (3,9), where Macrobius describes the ancient, and probably cognate rituals of evocatio and devotio hostium, this paper scrutinizes some other Greco-Roman sources that deal either with the notion of a secret name or with a tutelary deity of Rome, whose knowledge and utterance was strictly prohibited, in order to forestall the danger of an enemy’s evocatio. Besides an obviously implied Redetabu, it is possible to argue for a political use of this motif – namely in the famous episode of Valerius Soranus, allegedly accused to have divulged the secret during the Social War or, later, of Stilicho, proditor arcani imperii. Finally, the discussion of Lydus’ De Mensibus 4,73, which apparently reveals the sacred and the mysteric names of Rome (stating that the city was also called Flora and Amor) allows us to examine in detail some more esoteric interpretations, concerning the probably bisexual nature of the tutelary deity, and offers a hint to present a little known Italian theatrical text about the Sacred Origins of Rome. Originally written in 1914 by a Sicilian nobleman, the representation of this work was made possible ten years later thanks to some neopagan and traditionalist intellectuals, in an attempt at reviving Roman traditions under the newly established Fascist regime. tommasi@flcl.unipi.it

Une inscription inédite de Fos-sur-Mer : la (vraisemblable) dédicace d’un nauclerus à la divinité tutélaire et au Génie de negotiantes subaediani

This article is the publication of an inscribed altar or pedestal coming from the ancient port of Fos-sur-Mer. After its discovery, probably in the late 1970s, in the Saint-Gervais cove (either in the so-called “ necropolis” area, or in the space taken up by the dredging works for the marina), it had been left in the Notre-Dame chapel in Fos. Since then, it has oddly remained unpublished. Despite the considerable degradations of the text due to water and lithophaga, the analysis of the inscription has allowed us to reestablish the dedication of a gift to the tutelary deity and ( ?) to the Genius of the negotiantes subaediani by a person who should have worked as a nauclerus corporatus. In this respect, this inscription can be considered as exceptional : why, in Fos, in the territory of the ancient colony of Arles, has one expressed oneself as nauclerus and not as nauicularius ? Did the naucleri and the nauicularii belong to the same corpus ? Insofar as the trading milieu of ancient Arles is still poorly understood, another equally remarkable characteristic concerns the identity of the dedicatees : this inscription is the first mention of an association of negotiantes subaediani in Arles. This benefaction is interpreted as a gift that emphasized and reinforced business relationships between two complementary professions.

Who Benefits? Religious Practice, Blind Women (Goze), Harugoma, and Manzai

It is often pointed out that religion centers on worldly (genze riyaku) and on practices allowing a petitioner to attain divine boons. Since high and low, rich and poor, young and old have always pined for such religious practice is easily viewed as a force unifying all social classes and strata. This article questions such a notion by examining the religious activities and performances of blind women (goze) of Echigo province (present-day Niigata prefecture). Like other itinerant performers, goze often performed songs linked to the procurement of this-worldly or practical benefits. One favorite was called harugoma, and was intimately linked to silk production; another was manzai, which ushered in good luck, health, and wealth during the New Year's season. This article presents annotated translations of these two goze songs and analyzes the social meanings of performances, both for performers and listeners. It demonstrates that the pursuit of this-worldly benefits through religious practice contributed just as much to the identification, maintenance, and reproduction of social differences as to social harmony and unification.KEYWORDS: Goze-manzai-harugoma-folk religion-folk music-genze riyaku- blind women(ProQuest: ... denotes non-US-ASCII text omitted.)It has often been remarked that religious life concerns itself far more with sacred practice than with dogma, belief, and theological ortho- doxy. Throughout history countless turned to local and imported gods to supply themselves with material or immaterial worldly (genze riyaku fi.uf fOiSr).1 Since even the shogun could not fully control the will of heaven, he prayed just as fervently for good luck and superior health as the ruined merchant. In the countryside, the village head and the village out- caste alike took talismans to be useful and effective. Both rich and poor offered what support they could afford to local temples, shrines, and festivals. Men and women appealed together to the tutelary god protecting kith and kin. Such evi- dence suggests that religious practice transcended barriers of political status, economic class, gender, age, and other social differences.The seeming homogeneity and harmony fostered by religious prac- tice led Yanagita Kunio to spend his life arguing for a unique religiosity of the Japanese people. In the 1970s the same notions motivated folklorists, including Miyata Noboru and others, to find in folk beliefs (minkan shinko) a traditional religion cultivated from the time of the birth of an ethnic group (Miyata 1970). More recently, the universality of the pursuit of worldly has inspired descriptions of religion as common to all classes and groups in soci- ety, including the elites (aristocratic, economic, religious) and ordinary people (Reader and Tanabe 1998, 29). To many observers the practices defining much of religion exemplify a national or ethnic spirit transcending time and place and the wisdom of everyday life that emerged from the sincere activities of the people (Miyake 2001, 213). Despite their dissimilar perspectives and arguments, such writers share the view that religious practice has served primarily as a force generating social unity, community, and harmony.Religious practice, particularly forms of it generating worldly benefits, has, however, also served to establish and reinforce qualitative social differences since ancient times. women, for example, were more likely to pray for safe birth then men and usually played smaller public roles in matsuri. The vil- lager engaging in silkworm rearing commissioned the local priest or traveling religionist to enact different rituals from those desired by the tenant who grew only rice. The landowner who thrived on sake brewing contributed lavishly to the local temple, while the water-drinking peasant could afford to donate but a penny. …

Milqart à Carthage et la politique barcide

Widely attested in the private sphere, where he appears to have been especially popular, the cult of Milqart in Carthage plays a particular role within the civic framework: his status as tutelary deity of the mother city, Tyr, and his functional proximity with Herakles, make of Milqart an important element of Carthaginian foreign policy. The Punic wars allow for an analysis of the way Milqart/Herakles’s personality serves the political and military objectives of the African metropolis, especially through the development of a Hellenistic policy: this, destined to adjoin the vital forces of the Greek world in the secular conflict which opposes Carthage and Rome, will reach its peak with the Barcids. This analysis reveals how Milqart’s image under the influence of the Heraklian iconography evolves in a martial sense under the Barcid’s perspective of a militarization of Carthage’s sociopolitical structure.

“Favoured by the Venerable Lord Paśupati” Tracing the Rise of a New Tutelary Deity in Epigraphic Expressions of Power in Early Medieval Nepal

The Paśupatināth temple in Kathmandu, dedicated to the deity Śiva Paśupati, is Nepal’s national shrine. The existence of this site and local Śaiva religious activities can be traced back to as early as the fifth century ce, but it was the ruler Aṃśuvarman (fl. 605–621) who first publicly declared his allegiance to the god of the main shrine by styling himself as “favoured by the Venerable Lord Paśupati” in his inscriptions. This allegiance would remain deeply implanted in the religio-political discourse of Nepal thenceforth. Mainly on the basis of the epigraphical record, this article investigates some historical and political processes responsible for shaping the links between Śiva Paśupati as a religious symbol and the ruling elite of Nepal in this early phase, a period in which powerful ministers gradually supplanted the royal elite. Thus, in the wake of Aṃśuvarman’s reign the Paśupatināth shrine had also risen to enough prominence to be included in the list of sacred Śaiva sites in the Indic religious scripture Skandapurāṇa.

THE SCULPTURES OF ALACAHÖYÜK: A Key to Religious Symbolism in Hittite Representational Art

This article presents a new interpretation of the monumental sculptured friezes of the Sphinx Gate of Alacahöyük in northern Anatolia, an important site of the Hittite Empire. Historical and cultural arguments support a date in the second half of the thirteenth century b.c.e. for the Sphinx Gate. On the basis of a comparison of the scenes with other representations in Hittite art, it is argued that the cult and hunting scenes reflect the concept of the main triad of the Hittite state pantheon: the sun-goddess, the storm-god, and the tutelary god of the countryside. At the same time, the lower frieze on the West Tower depicts the royal couple officiating, presumably during an actual local festival. An identification of Alacahöyük with the sacred city Arinna is proposed. The Alacahöyük sculptures may pertain to the Great Festival of Arinna, a festival attended by the royal couple.

ELIZABETH BERGMANN LOIZEAUX, Twentieth-Century Poetry and the Visual Arts.

MANY critical studies have used the emergence of film and photography to argue for a renewed emphasis on visual culture in the twentieth century; Loizeaux’s work brings this to bear on what might be seen as the archetypal form of the period, the ekphrastic poem, offering suggestive and spry readings on a series of (mainly American) twentieth-century poets. Although her six discrete chapters are neither historically chronological nor linked by an over-arching thesis, the effect is cumulative and illuminating. Each chapter is motivated by a distinct question and coupling of poets, but Loizeaux allows these interrogatives to resurface later in the book, so that Ted Hughes’ ekphrastic work is framed by the same concerns with gender as Marianne Moore’s. Loizeaux’s introduction outlines her interest in the social context and material production of the ekphrastic genre, and offers a useful delineation of the various types of ekphrastic poem, from those addressing the painting as a historical object, as in Robert Lowell’s sonnet ‘Sir Thomas More’, to those seeing the artwork as a tutelary deity, as in Sylvia Plath’s tributes to Paul Klee.

Isegi vihmal on hing by Jüri Talvet

I camebacktotheSouthforgood. / And lostyouin mywake / for youdetested howI'd madeyouup whenitwas cold."Theleitmotif of this central theme manifests itself in thelastsegment ofthevolume, consisting ofhertranslation ofa poem titled"I am listening to Istanbul" (Istanbul'u Dinliyorum) byTurkish poet OrhanVeli Kanik,in which thepoethearsrather thansees his beloved city. Nevertheless, one wishes the poet'sconsciousness werenotthat bindingly immersed in herquotidianevents , butrather hadmanaged togleanfrom those autobiographical experiences some wider,transpersonal thematic concerns - makinguse of thepowerofpoetry to abstract and thusunify. Hopefully, sucha capacity, alongwitha betterhonedskill atrhyming (inthose rare moments whenfreeverseis abandoned ),willcome - as itdoestoall striving poets - with time. Christina Dokou University ofAthens, Greece Jean Métellus. La Main et autres poèmes. Paris.Janus.2010. 120 pages. €15. ISBN 978-2-912668-50-9 Thehandis a simplelimbuntilit getshurt.Suffering and recovery takeit through a rollercoasterof sensations, emotions, andthoughts. In La Main et autrespoèmes, a neurologist narrates the phenomenology of its pain,a poet singsthe elation ofitshealing, anda linguist devotes hisclinical attention tothe hand and fingers. JeanMétellus's three personae resonate inunison in this heroic portrait inwhich thepersonalized ,cognizant, feeling hand becomesthelocusofmemory, the matrix of being,and a founding myth in whichresidetheuniverse and the entirehumanexperience (seeWLT, July 2009, 38). La Main et autrespoèmesstarts withtwolongpartsdescribing the dramatic tribulations ofthesufferingand recovering hand.The first forty-seven pagesareentitled "The Painful Hand,"and thenextfortyfive ,"Respite."The muchshorter third andfourth parts, entitled "The Hand"and"TheFingers"twoand six pages, respectively - act as a coda,a reflection on and definition ofthehand'smany rolesthroughout history. Inviewofthis tightly woven structure, the subtitle"and other poems" seems superfluous unless thepoet meantto leave his work open to yetmorevariations. This "openness" ofthevolumeisechoed in theseamlesstransition between poemsin thefirst two units:they are separatedby no othervisible signbuta newpage.Moreopenness is visiblewithin each poemin the smoothglidingof one imageinto thenext. Inthispalimpsest ofthehand's tribulations, physicalillnessparallels spiritual torment. The incantations ofpaindevelopintoan ample symphony, its complex rhythms chronicling thepulsing oftheblood and thememory ofpastmistakes. Powerlessnessspreads fromthe handtothebody,from thesingular to thecosmic.Painis punishment, forcedidleness,"oily,slippery, or frigid, vicious, viscous, slimy" evil. It is a lessonin patience, teaching us to "saygoodbyeto one's shadowypast "andtoaccept itsscars.In theillness's dominant phase,respite is confined whilepain is infinite. Butrespite comes,first as a fragile "in-between," the bearerof good tidings. Itgrowsstronger, "majestically " soothingand healing,and singing "theindefatigable romance of happiness."Respiteis "walkingpoetry ," a celebration thatfrees "suffering words,"theoutstretched handofloveandofgreat deeds.Itis clarity ofmind, adversity overcome, a "tutelary god,"a savior. Thereturn to healthis a "brilliant lifesynthesis ,purity," freedom from mistakes. Respitebecomesinvincible in its serenity, triumphant modesty, and discretion. La Main et autrespoèmesis an epic struggle of good versusevil where suffering, notsin,isthemajor culprit. ItisthePromethean story of themaleheroichand,thatofwriters , rulers, andheroes, tormented by fateful suffering rendered in vivid images, conflicted results, dramatic actions, and acutefeelings. In the end a miracleoccursand healing chasesfearaway,erasesmistakes, renews energy, andmakes bodyand soulwholeagain.Oncedistorted by themonstrous, hallucinatory nightmareof pain, the fivesensesare nowengagedina jubilant paeanof timeless victory. Thislessonofhope, however, travels through theheightened awarenessof humanfrailty. Written before thedevastating 2009 Haitian earthquake, LaMainetautres poèmes couldhavebeeninspired toa greattellurian poetbythecompass ofhispremonitory intelligence. Alice-Catherine Carls University ofTennessee, Martin Juri Talvet.Isegi vihmal on hing.Tartu, Estonia. Tartu UniversityPress. 2010. 138 pages. E4. isbn 978-9949-19-549-7 In his new doublecollection, Isegi vihmal on hing(Even therainhas a soul),Jiiri Talvethas presented a dual authorial persona.As if it knowsTalvettheauthorfrom his previous collections, thelyrical self ofthefirst half speaksina soft, calm 721WorldLiterature Today iïiftliMHHNHii voice, engaging in dream conversations with his dead and living friends and family members.In such poems,theauthoris recallingtimes pastina dreamworld,whichistruer than factuallife.Like Prospero of TheTempest, he is enactingdreams. JuriPerler,the lyrical double in thesecond half,titledOo Hamlet, mu vend!(O Hamlet, my brother!), readslikea stepbackfrom thecalmness of a poet's late maturity.It is as if Shakespeare,aftercreating Prospero,whom Talvet'sown voice resembles in its forgivingcleverness , had returnedto the ethical restlessnessof his youthand given a new life to Hamlet in the incisive ,trenchant, indignant - but also irresistibly funny - outpourings of cynicalskepticism.Talvet's double, like Hamlet, is a man of Renaissance enlightenment outraged and incensed by what is unacceptable, because it is incomprehensible, in his ethical universe. His bursting angerhas a ringof Rabelaisian laughtertoit. Perler's diction resemblesthat ofHamlet, withitsself-conscious witticismsand...

La Main et autres poèmes by Jean Métellus

I camebacktotheSouthforgood. / And lostyouin mywake / for youdetested howI'd madeyouup whenitwas cold."Theleitmotif of this central theme manifests itself in thelastsegment ofthevolume, consisting ofhertranslation ofa poem titled"I am listening to Istanbul" (Istanbul'u Dinliyorum) byTurkish poet OrhanVeli Kanik,in which thepoethearsrather thansees his beloved city. Nevertheless, one wishes the poet'sconsciousness werenotthat bindingly immersed in herquotidianevents , butrather hadmanaged togleanfrom those autobiographical experiences some wider,transpersonal thematic concerns - makinguse of thepowerofpoetry to abstract and thusunify. Hopefully, sucha capacity, alongwitha betterhonedskill atrhyming (inthose rare moments whenfreeverseis abandoned ),willcome - as itdoestoall striving poets - with time. Christina Dokou University ofAthens, Greece Jean Métellus. La Main et autres poèmes. Paris.Janus.2010. 120 pages. €15. ISBN 978-2-912668-50-9 Thehandis a simplelimbuntilit getshurt.Suffering and recovery takeit through a rollercoasterof sensations, emotions, andthoughts. In La Main et autrespoèmes, a neurologist narrates the phenomenology of its pain,a poet singsthe elation ofitshealing, anda linguist devotes hisclinical attention tothe hand and fingers. JeanMétellus's three personae resonate inunison in this heroic portrait inwhich thepersonalized ,cognizant, feeling hand becomesthelocusofmemory, the matrix of being,and a founding myth in whichresidetheuniverse and the entirehumanexperience (seeWLT, July 2009, 38). La Main et autrespoèmesstarts withtwolongpartsdescribing the dramatic tribulations ofthesufferingand recovering hand.The first forty-seven pagesareentitled "The Painful Hand,"and thenextfortyfive ,"Respite."The muchshorter third andfourth parts, entitled "The Hand"and"TheFingers"twoand six pages, respectively - act as a coda,a reflection on and definition ofthehand'smany rolesthroughout history. Inviewofthis tightly woven structure, the subtitle"and other poems" seems superfluous unless thepoet meantto leave his work open to yetmorevariations. This "openness" ofthevolumeisechoed in theseamlesstransition between poemsin thefirst two units:they are separatedby no othervisible signbuta newpage.Moreopenness is visiblewithin each poemin the smoothglidingof one imageinto thenext. Inthispalimpsest ofthehand's tribulations, physicalillnessparallels spiritual torment. The incantations ofpaindevelopintoan ample symphony, its complex rhythms chronicling thepulsing oftheblood and thememory ofpastmistakes. Powerlessnessspreads fromthe handtothebody,from thesingular to thecosmic.Painis punishment, forcedidleness,"oily,slippery, or frigid, vicious, viscous, slimy" evil. It is a lessonin patience, teaching us to "saygoodbyeto one's shadowypast "andtoaccept itsscars.In theillness's dominant phase,respite is confined whilepain is infinite. Butrespite comes,first as a fragile "in-between," the bearerof good tidings. Itgrowsstronger, "majestically " soothingand healing,and singing "theindefatigable romance of happiness."Respiteis "walkingpoetry ," a celebration thatfrees "suffering words,"theoutstretched handofloveandofgreat deeds.Itis clarity ofmind, adversity overcome, a "tutelary god,"a savior. Thereturn to healthis a "brilliant lifesynthesis ,purity," freedom from mistakes. Respitebecomesinvincible in its serenity, triumphant modesty, and discretion. La Main et autrespoèmesis an epic struggle of good versusevil where suffering, notsin,isthemajor culprit. ItisthePromethean story of themaleheroichand,thatofwriters , rulers, andheroes, tormented by fateful suffering rendered in vivid images, conflicted results, dramatic actions, and acutefeelings. In the end a miracleoccursand healing chasesfearaway,erasesmistakes, renews energy, andmakes bodyand soulwholeagain.Oncedistorted by themonstrous, hallucinatory nightmareof pain, the fivesensesare nowengagedina jubilant paeanof timeless victory. Thislessonofhope, however, travels through theheightened awarenessof humanfrailty. Written before thedevastating 2009 Haitian earthquake, LaMainetautres poèmes couldhavebeeninspired toa greattellurian poetbythecompass ofhispremonitory intelligence. Alice-Catherine Carls University ofTennessee, Martin Juri Talvet.Isegi vihmal on hing.Tartu, Estonia. Tartu UniversityPress. 2010. 138 pages. E4. isbn 978-9949-19-549-7 In his new doublecollection, Isegi vihmal on hing(Even therainhas a soul),Jiiri Talvethas presented a dual authorial persona.As if it knowsTalvettheauthorfrom his previous collections, thelyrical self ofthefirst half speaksina soft, calm 721WorldLiterature Today ...

The Iconographic Program of the Sculptures of Alacahöyük

Abstract The iconographic program of the sculptured friezes flanking the Sphinx Gate of Alacahöyük is analyzed based on numerous representations in Hittite art that may contribute to the understanding of the context and meaning of these carvings. It is argued that the cult and hunting scenes reflect the concept of the main triad of the Hittite state pantheon—Sun-goddess, Storm-god and Tutelary God, combining it with the new ideology of kingship of the later phase of the Empire period, which stresses the special ties between the king and the Tutelary God of the Countryside. Simultaneously, the lower frieze on the West Tower depicts the royal couple officiating at a cult ceremony presumably during a real local festival. Concerning the identification of Alacahöyük with one of Hittite holy towns, Arinna appears the best candidate. In fact, texts relating to the cult from Arinna enable us to interpret the Alacahöyük sculptures. These sculptures might represent the celebrations during the Great Festival in Arinna, which—as we know from the texts—was attended by the royal couple. There are historical and cultural arguments for dating the Sphinx Gate complex with its sculptures to the second half of the 13th century BC.

Grški pojem države

Ta sestavek je uvodni del raziskave o Aristotelovi politični filozofiji s posebnim ozirom na njegovo razumevanje demokracije. V prvem paragrafu podajam štiri definicije države, kakor jih moremo razbrati iz Aristotelove Politike, iz psevdo-Platonih Definicij, iz Antologije Janeza Stobeja in iz Velikega etimološkega leksikona, Etymologicum Magnum. V drugem paragrafu "Sinonimi za polis" podajam kratek popis grškega besedišča za državo. V tretjem paragrafu podajam pojem grške države skozi opis petih konstitutivnih elementov: 1. ozemlje, 2. ljudje, 3. vlada, 4. religiozno-mitološka utemeljitev polisa ter 5. antična država in pojem suverenosti. Razpravo zaključuje kratka opomba o odnosu med posameznikom (družbo) in državo v antiki.

Le culte impérial à Salamine

During the Roman period at Salamis, evidence for a cult of the Emperor and a cult of Zeus raises the question of the origin of the latter from the time of the foundation of the city. The archaeological and textual testimony is reviewed ; the various phases of the history of the city are defined ; the link uniting the cult of the tutelary god of the city and the emperor’s cult is analyzed ; in conclusion this paper will review the different parts of the town where such a double cult has been successively established.

Deities, cults and kings at Vijayanagara

The purpose of this paper is to examine aspects of Hindu worship at Vijayanagara, which formed the capital of an empire from the mid-fourteenth century to ad 1565. While the earliest cult was that of a local goddess known as Pampa, this deity was absorbed in the pre-empire period into the pantheon of the great gods of Hinduism, through her marriage to Virupaksha (a form of Shiva) who soon superseded her in importance. Virupaksha was chosen as the tutelary deity of the Vijayanagara kings and state but, even after the collapse of the empire, the temple dedicated to him survived as the main cult centre at the site. There were other Shaiva deities as well such as Bhairava, Virabhadra and Ganesha, though Vaishnava cults were not prevalent at the site till the early-empire period. The earliest Vaishnava deity to be incorporated at Vijayanagara was Narasimha. The cult of Rama and the development of the Ramayana myths associated with the site was an early fifteenth-century phenomenon. In the sixteenth century, other Vaishnava deities, such as Vitthala, Krishna, Tiruvengalanatha and Ranganatha, gained in popularity. The paper also touches upon the cults of lesser divinities, folk deities such as Hanuman and Yellamma, and on the archaeological evidence of other religions such as Jainism and Islam at Vijayanagara.

Exorcism and Money: The Symbolic World of the Five-Fury Spirits in Late Imperial China (review)

Reviewed by: Exorcism and Money: The Symbolic World of the Five-Fury Spirits in Late Imperial China Paul R. Katz (bio) Qitao Guo . Exorcism and Money: The Symbolic World of the Five-Fury Spirits in Late Imperial China. Institute of East Asian Studies, University of California at Berkeley, China Research Monograph 55. Berkeley: The Regents of the University of California, 2003. 227pp. Paperback $18.00, ISBN 1-55729-077-6. Qitao Guo's study of a group of exorcistic deities known as the Five Furies (Wu-chang ) successfully explores the complex factors underlying the growth of communal religious traditions in late imperial China. The book's topic is a challenging one, as relatively little data exists on the Wuchang, and the history of their cult remains murky to this day. Guo is eminently qualified to conduct research on these deities, however, having written a Ph.D. thesis on Mulian operas in late imperial Huizhou (Anhui), which was also the area of China where the Wuchang cult flourished. His efforts have resulted in a work that clearly shows the Wuchang to be "Janus-faced" deities that could be represented as either ghosts or gods. In exploring the significance of this highly ambiguous cult, Guo focuses on what he defines as processes of "integration" and "gentrification" promoted by local elites, arguing that "By containing the demonic deity within a hierarchical pantheon, local elites managed to maintain their control over popular religious symbols, as well as over the common folk" (p. 9). In order to trace the historical development of the Wuchang, Guo relies on a wide range of sources, including scripts of Mulian operas, liturgical texts and paintings used for the worship of Anhui deities, and ethnographic accounts of Wuchang ritual dramas by scholars like Tanaka Issei and Mao Gengru . Exorcism and Moneyis divided into two main parts. Part 1, "Integrating Local Exorcism: The Evolution of the Symbolic World of the Five Furies," consists of three chapters. The first traces the origins of the Wuchang to ancient Nuo exorcistic rituals and Taoist liturgical traditions that arose during the Song dynasty, especially those featuring the exorcism of the Five Plague Spirits (Wu Wenshen ) and the worship of martial gods like Wen Qiong (Marshal Wen) and Zhao Gongming (Marshal Zhao) (pp. 29-30, 34-39). Guo makes the important observation that the Wuchang were worshipped as subordinates of Marshal Zhao, a factor that appears to have contributed to the growth of their cult (pp. 37-38). Chapter 2 focuses on the historical development of the Wuchang cult in light of religious policies implemented by the founding emperor of the Ming dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang or Ming Taizu (1328-1398, r. 1368-1398). At the beginning of his reign, the emperor incorporated Wuchang into the cult of the state banner ( qidao), an act, Guo argues, that signaled "an imperial sanction [End Page 105]for popularizing the deity" (p. 41). Guo maintains that the actual popularization of the Wuchang did not commence until the mid-Ming and was due to a complex combination of factors, including socioeconomic and cultural conditions that allowed communal religious traditions to flourish as well as policies designed by Taizu to reform communal religious traditions, particularly the nationwide state sponsorship of temples/shrines to the City God (Chenghuang ) and the Earth God (She or Tudi ) and the establishment of Altars to the Vengeful Spirits (Litan ) at the county level. Chapter 3 contains a lengthy analysis of how Taizu's policies were transformed at the local level in Anhui, thereby contributing the to growth of the Wuchang cult. Guo places particular emphasis on what he terms the " ji er mingzhistrategy," which he glosses as "borrowing [official titles] to name [locally worshipped deities]" (p. 8). In effect, Guo argues, local elites both promoted and controlled communal religious traditions by "camouflaging" tutelary lineage deities with official titles originally intended for state-approved deities (like the City God), while also "subordinating" potentially illicit cults to the above-mentioned tutelary deities (pp. 58-59). He examines how ji er mingzhiprocesses shaped the growth of the Wuchang cult by presenting a case study of an extremely complex cult to a Guangde (Anhui) hero named Zhang...

Transformation of Communities in Depopulation in Kanda District of Downtown Tokyo

This study aims to explain the transformation of the community with the decrease of the population in Kanda district in the ward of Chiyoda, located in central Tokyo. In this study, the spatial unit of community is designated as the territory of choukai, and its higher unit is designated as the district of public elementary school. The decrease of the population, which began in the 1950s, has resulted in the increase of unused classrooms called “akikyoushitsu” in the public elementary schools located in and near the central business district of Tokyo. As a solution for that problem, a policy of changing public elementary schools into community centers through opening those facilities to the public has been undertaken. Choukai, which is a basic voluntary social association of urban residents, is also forced to shrink its size mainly due to out-migration of the population. They have been mostly young generations who have moved out the district. This out-migration has led to aging of residents and board members of choukai. The festival for ujigami, or tutelary deity, has been the main event of choukai and it has played an important role to maintain friendship among the residents. However, it is becoming more difficult to keep up the number of people needed to hold the festival. With transformation of resident structure and associations, the landscape of the district is also changing mainly because of rebuilding and remodeling. Many cases of rebuilding from one-story shop-houses into multi-story commercial buildings on an individual basis have been observed in Kanda district. It is estimated that the local community, which has been based on choukai, would be changed into a part of a much broader association consisting of united-choukai and other voluntary associations, and that the public elementary school could become a base of activities of those organizations as a community center.

African Art Reinstallation

The museum has for years maintained a reputation for housing one of the best university collections in the country as well as for being a major stop for African-art enthusiasts. Clearly the new installation proposes to visitors that they see even familiar objects in new ways. Not only are visitors provided information based on new research, but they are also forced by the new installation contexts to conduct their own individual inquiries into the formal and conceptual aspects of the objects. At the entrance to the main gallery, one is confronted by two elegant pairs of sculptures: Yoruba Elefon masks from the workshop of Agbonbiofe and male and female Igbo figures, possibly from the Awka area. The wall-text description of the latter as is questionable, since they are primarily tutelary deities to which devotees made regular votary offerings. A visitor familiar with Igbo sculpture, I suspect, might confuse these, as labeled, with the Ugonachomma display figures also from

Religion in Roman Egypt: Assimilation and Resistance

Religion in Roman Egypt: Assimilation and Resistance, by David Frankfurter. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1998. Pp. xvi + 315. $49.50. Late antique has usually served as a backdrop against which other things could be charted: the emergence of Christianity or the nature of Roman imperialism, for example. Frankfurter takes what is still a relatively untrodden path and instead studies late antique from the inside out, so to speak. By focusing on changes in practices between about 100 and 600 C.E. Frankfurter examines how Egyptian responded to the changing circumstances-political, cultural, economic, and clerical-- in which it found itself The resulting book is rich in information that has been largely overlooked by historians of late antique Mediterranean religions and provocative in its use of theoretical models drawn from cultures as distant from the shores of the Nile as rural South America. The theoretical model to which Frankfurter returns most often is Robert Redfield's tradition-little tradition, which Redfield first developed to study the ways in which Christianity (a tradition, i.e., one espoused by the educated and more urbanized populace) and pre-Christian, indigenous practices of the Yucatan (which constituted a little tradition, i.e., one found predominantly in rural areas) affected one another. Similarly, Frankfurter is interested in the tensions between Christianity and pre-Christian Egyptian practices. Although he examines both the centrifugal forces, which drew people away from the urban centers where Christianity could be found, and the centripetal forces, which drove them away from villages toward urban centers, he is particularly interested in the former, and over the course of the book portrays late antique as centered in the individual, the family, or the small group-a portrayal by which I am persuaded, and which, moreover, I think holds true for many other cultures. To be niggling for a moment, I wish that Frankfurter had done more comparing of late antique to its Mediterranean neighbors in this respect. Contrary to his statement that Egypt itself was different from other Mediterranean cultures that underwent great social and political changes in the Roman period (p. 7), he could have extended his analyses by placing, for instance, the Egyptian rejection of nationally integrated worship of a deity and tendency toward multiple regional shrines alongside of our evidence for regional shrines in ancient Greece. Another thesis to which Frankfurter returns throughout is that religion in ancient and peasant societies is nothing if not the active negotiation of life (p. 9), and some of the most interesting parts of the book demonstrate this, A good example is his discussion of the metamorphosis of the god Bes from a rather humble tutelary deity of pregnant women and babies to a postmortem protector of dead infants, thence to a protector of the dead Osiris and finally, from there, into a famous oracular god, replacing Osiris himself at Abydos's Memnonion (pp. 124ff. and pp. 169ff.). The chain of logic uniting these evolutionary steps is not altogether clear, as Frankfurter acknowledges, but the fact that it happened is fascinating nonetheless. …

Regional Characteristics of the Belief in the Kanamura Betsurai Shrine between the Inner and Outer Areas

In this paper, I have tried to clarify the regional differences in the mode of people's belief in the Kanamura Shrine between the outer and inner areas of its religious sphere. In the Toyosato district, a typical district of the inner area, Kanamura religious associations (ko) do not function as autonomous religious groups and are dependent upon other religious or administrative organizations, while the majority of the individual believers used to pray for the safety of soldiers before the war, and now pray for the safety of their own families. People in this area worshipped the Kanamura Shrine not only as an efficacious deity but the tutelary status of the shrine. One of the factors causing people to regard the Kanamura Shrine as their tutelary deity is the close connection between the local communities and the shrine through the distribution of amulets and ceremonies in addition to people's visits to the shrine. In the Yoshikawa district, a typical district of the outer area, there are few individual believers but the Kanamura associations in this district have their own managers and members, and function independently of the «ujiko», or other religious organizations. It is cleared that people in this area worshipped the Kanamura Shrine not as the tutelary deity but as a removed efficacious deity.