The Cultural and Historical Setting of the Shang

Author(s):  
Jonathan Smith ◽  
Yuzhou Fan

This chapter offers a basic historiographical overview of the Shang period and polity, with focus on the roles that general archaeological, specifically inscriptional, and received textual evidence have played in approaching the history, chronology, religious traditions, calendrical practices, material culture, and lifeways of the Shang and their cultural forebears. Special attention is paid to pyro-osteomancy plus inscription, a defining feature of Shang religious life. These “oracle bone inscriptions” testify to the use of divination by or on behalf of Shang royals to gauge the auspiciousness of circumstances and hypothetical courses of action relating to sickness and health, military campaigns, hunting expeditions, agricultural production, meteorological conditions, and much else, perennial and overarching question being the proper manner of presenting sacrifice to deceased ancestors.

Author(s):  
John Corrigan

This book is about religion and emotion. It explores the emotional component in religion within the framework of a certain tradition, focusing on emotion in new religious movements. There are essays on Judaism, Christianity, Hinduism, Japanese religions, Buddhism, and Islam. The book remarks on ways that emotion has been overlooked in the study of religious traditions, and how a focus on the emotional can lead to fresh understandings about how persons create, through religion, relationships with nature, deities, and each other. It also includes essays that address the emotion component in various areas of religious life, including ritual, gender, sexuality, music, and material culture. The book shows that emotional life is profoundly shaped by religion, and that religion, in turn, directs and reinforces the construction of emotional ideologies having to do with a wide array of behaviors. In addition, it addresses specific emotions such as ecstasy, love, terror, hate, melancholy, and hope.


This book offers a range of critical perspectives on the academic study of religion and emotion, in the form of syntheses, provocations, and prospective observations. The academic study of religion has recently turned to the investigation of emotion as a crucial aspect of religious life. Researchers have set out in several directions to explore that new terrain and have brought with them an assortment of instruments useful in charting it. This volume collects essays under four categories: religious traditions, religious life, emotional states, and historical and theoretical perspectives. In this book, scholars engaged in cutting edge research on religion and emotion describe the ways in which emotions have played a role in Buddhism, Christianity, Judaism, Islam, and other religions. They analyze the manner in which key components of religious life—ritual, music, gender, sexuality and material culture—represent and shape emotional performance. Some of the essays included here take a specific emotion, such as love or hatred, and observe the place of that emotion in an assortment of religious traditions and cultural settings. Other essays analyze the thinking of figures such as St. Augustine, Søren Kierkegaard, Jonathan Edwards, Emile Durkheim, and William James.


2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 221
Author(s):  
Jun Mawalidin

<p class="05Abstrak">Abstract</p><p class="06IsiAbstrak">The teachings of Islam for the Sasak people get a very high place in carrying out their daily religious life in accordance with the teachings of their religion. The purpose of this study is to analyze theoretical analysis on Islamic religious traditions that have existed in the Sasak community since the beginning of their entry, placing more emphasis on strengthening religious practices or rituals that at a glance place great importance on religious expression. This research method uses the library research method about the role of the Nahdlatul Wathan Islamic mass organization figure in Lombok. The results showed that Nahdlatul Wathan focused on three areas of development, namely education, social and da'wah. The presence of Tuan Guru on the island of a thousand mosques gives a different feel. Bahklan is a characteristic of society, its influence can be felt in various fields, not only in the field of education, in politics but also in the executive field. </p><p class="06IsiAbstrak"><strong>Keywords:</strong> Tuan Guru, Community, Lombok, Nahdlatul Wathan.</p><p class="061AbstrakIndonesia">Abstrak</p><p class="061IsiAbstrakIndoneia">Ajaran Islam bagi masyarakat sasak mendapatkan tempat yang sangat tinggi dalam menjalankan kehidupan keagamaannya sehari-hari sesuai dengan ajaran agama yang dianut. Tujuan dari penelitian ini adalah melakukan telaah teori analisis pada Tradisi keagamaan Islam yang terdapat di masyarakat Sasak sejak awal masuknya, lebih menekankan pada penguatan-penguatan amalan atau ritual keagamaan yang secara sepintas sangat mementingkan ekspresi keagamaan. Metode penelitian ini menggunakan metode <em>library research</em> tentang peranan tokoh ormas islam nahdlatul wathan yang ada di lombok. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa Nahdlatul Wathan fokus pada tiga bidang pembangunan, yaitu pendidikan, sosial dan dakwah. Kehadiran Tuan Guru di pulau seribu masjid memberikan nuansa yang berbeda. Bahklan merupakan ciri khas masyarakat, pengaruhnya dapat dirasakan di berbagai bidang, tidak hanya di bidang pendidikan, di bidang politik tetapi juga di bidang eksekutif.  </p><p class="05Abstrak"><strong>Kata kunci:</strong> Tuan Guru,<em> </em>Masyarakat, Lombok, Nahdlatul Wathan.</p>


Author(s):  
David Morgan

In recent years, the study of religion has undergone a useful materialization in the work of many scholars, who are not inclined to define it in terms of ideas, creeds, or doctrines alone, but want to understand what role sensation, emotion, objects, spaces, clothing, and food have played in religious practice. If the intellect and the will dominated the study of religion dedicated to theology and ethics, the materialization of religious studies has taken up the role of the body, expanding our understanding of it and dismantling our preconceptions, which were often notions inherited from religious traditions. As a result, the body has become a broad register or framework for gauging the social, aesthetic, and practical character of religion in everyday life. The interest in material culture as a primary feature of religion has unfolded in tandem with the new significance of the body and the broad materialization of religious studies.


Author(s):  
Jean-Pierre Adam

The skilled work of the Roman carpenter (lignarius or tignarius faber) was essential to the construction of domestic and public buildings, creation of machines and structures for military purposes, and overcoming natural features. Composed in the 1st century bce, Vitruvius’s ten-book illustrated commentary on Roman architecture and architectural techniques, De architectura, comprises the primary textual evidence for the architectural techniques employed by Roman carpenters and engineers. In his various books, Vitruvius discusses the characteristics of different types of wood (supplemented by descriptions in Pliny’s Natural History); machines used on work sites, such as hoists and hydraulic machines; and covering frameworks for houses and the larger spans of basilicas and other massive public structures. For the latter, Roman carpenters devised the triangulated truss, a complex construction corroborated by surviving visual evidence. Archaeological evidence fills many gaps in Vitruvius’s coverage of practical carpentry methods and provides the only extant evidence for woodcutting and finishing implements, such as felling axes and handsaws. Houses at Pompeii and Herculaneum preserve traces of key carpentry techniques: timber framing, stairways, and load-bearing ceiling frameworks. The carpenter’s expertise also extended to shipbuilding and construction of strategic wooden bridges, most notably those erected during military campaigns under Caesar and later Trajan.


2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 5-11
Author(s):  
E. V Maksimova

The article is devoted to the peculiarities of ontological incompleteness of a human being in connection with the possibility of spiritual help from religious traditions. The author shows how the unified ontological substitution of spiritual existence with virtual reality is carried out in the global world. The article investigates the potential of interreligious dialogue in search for new forms of contact with the universal anthropological risks of virtualization, individualization and alienation of man from his spiritual needs. The experience of religious interaction, features of intra-religious life of communities and modern attitude of churches to each other and to people are analyzed on the basis of Religious Studies fieldwork in Russia, in the countries of Southeast Asia and the Middle East.


2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 123
Author(s):  
Syaifan Nur ◽  
Dudung Abdurahman

The development of Islam tend to shows the diversity according to the age and socio-cultural region of its adherents. This is the case with the development of Islam in the archipelago, which shows a diversity in the pattern of development of the teachings and religious aspects, along with the diversity of its society which includes various ethnicities and cultures. One such pattern of Islam is Sufism, the Islamic aspect which emphasizes the inner or esoteric aspects, based on the Sufi doctrine and comprehension. This paper focuses on the development of Sufism in the archipelago, viewed in terms of history, thought, and tarekat movements. The archipelago Sufism is studied in historical and socio-anthropological perspectives. Broadly speaking, it can be stated that Firstly, in the process of Islamization of the archipelago, Sufism acts as a media of Islamic society carried out by the Sufi in their preaching about the XIII century until the XVI century; Second, the development of Sufism in the archipelago in the XVII century until the XIX century experienced a shift in the pattern of development, role and movement. Their role is mainly to establish the spiritual aspect of religious life and development, but through the power and social communities of the tarekat they can also carry out social movements, especially in mobilizing the people’s struggles against Dutch colonialism in the nineteenth century. Finally, the Sufism of Nusantara (Archipelago) that is netted in tarekat movements continues to show its wider role in the twentieth century. Some tarekat communities not only maintain religious traditions that are spiritual, but also work in education, economics, and politics. Thus, the contribution of sufism is very beneficial to society in general, both in order to fulfill their spiritual needs and worldly life.[Perkembangan Islam selalu menunjukkan keragaman sesuai zaman dan wilayah sosial-budaya masyarakat pemeluknya. Sebagaimana Islam di Nusantara menunjukkan keragaman pola pengembangan ajaran dan aspek keagamaan itu adalah seiring masyarakatnya yang meliputi beragam etnis dan budaya. Salah satu pola keislaman tersebut adalah sufisme, yakni aspek keislaman yang lebih menekankan segi batiniah atau esoterik berdasarkan faham dan ajaran para Sufi. Tulisan ini memfokuskan pembahasannya tentang perkembangan sufisme di Nusantara, baik dilihat dari segi sejarah, pemikiran, maupun gerakan-gerakan tarekat. Sufisme Nusantara tersebut dipelajari dalam perspektif sejarah dan sosio-antropologis. Secara garis besar dapat dinyatakan, bahwa Pertama, dalam proses islamisasi Nusantara, sufisme berperan sebagai media pengislaman masyarakat yang dilakukan oleh para sufi dalam dakwahnya pada sekitar abad XIII hingga abad XVI; Kedua, Perkembangan sufisme di Nusantara pada abad XVII hingga abad XIX mengalami pergeseran pola pengembangan, peranan maupun gerakannya. Peranan mereka yang terutama memantapkan aspek spiritual bagi kehidupan dan perkembangan keagamaan, tetapi melalui kekutaan serta komunitas sosial tarekat juga mereka dapat melakukan gerakan sosial, khususnya gerakan-gerakan sosial yang dimobilisasi seiring perlawanan-perlawanan rakyat Nusantara terhadap kolonialisme Belanda pada abad XIX. Ketiga, Sufisme Nusantara yang terjaring dalam gerakan-gerakan tarekat terus menunjukkan peranannya yang lebih luas pada abad XX. Beberapa komunaitas tarekat bukan hanya mempertahankan tradisi keagamaan yang bersifat spiritual, melainkan juga bergerak di bidang pendidikan, ekonomi, dan politik. Dengan demikian, kontribusi sufisme akan sangat bermanfaat bagi masyarakat pada umumnya dalam rangka pemenuhan kebutuhan ruhaniah mereka.]


2020 ◽  
Vol 222 ◽  
pp. 06023
Author(s):  
Elena Kolomeeva ◽  
Anna Kharitonova ◽  
Natalia Zaruk

The article contains regions differentiation on competitiveness of agricultural production taking into account meteorological conditions. Regions with favorable and unfavorable conditions of agriculture were identified. The direct competitiveness dependence of subjects of the Russian Federation on the climate factor is revealed; in the future it will allow to determine ways of increasing productivity and efficiency of agricultural activities and will increase the competitiveness of individual regions. In each group, the most and least competitive subjects for crop production and livestock are identified.


Author(s):  
Sarah E. Dees

Native American religious traditions encompass a diverse array of beliefs, practices, and features of material culture and society that reflect and shape individual experiences and communal life among Indigenous communities in what is today the United States. While Native American religious traditions have long been the subject of scholarly inquiry, a field of study dedicated specifically to this topic only emerged in the mid-20th century. Because historical sources describing Native religions often wove ethnocentric biases or anti-Indian sentiments into descriptions of Native beliefs and practices, present-day inquiry requires critically reflexive interpretation of primary sources and attention to insiders’ perspectives. Today, scholarship on Native American religions draws on numerous methodological approaches to explore key features of these traditions, including ceremonies, stories, philosophies, art, and social institutions. While these features vary greatly by religious community, practitioners of Native religions often emphasize the significance of land and the environment, their cultural heritage, and relationships between humans and non-human entities, spirits, and ancestors. Many practitioners of Native American religions would resist the notion that a “religious” or “spiritual” realm can be separated from “secular” aspects of society or culture; thus, in addition to focusing on constitutive features of the religious beliefs and practices themselves, an understanding of Native American religions requires attention to broader social and cultural issues, including politics, law, health, and education. Furthermore, just as Native traditions were dynamic prior to the 15th century, they have been shaped by contact with non-Native religions and cultures since the first instances of European colonization. The historical conditions of European and Euro-American settler colonialism and encounter between Native and non-Native communities necessitate attention to issues such as Christian missionization and the ensuing Indigenous responses to Christianity, U.S. federal Indian policy, legal battles over Native American religious freedom and self-determination, and the place of Native religions in mainstream U.S. culture. While these themes and issues illuminate some shared features of Native American religions, the unique histories and characteristics of specific communities necessarily subvert efforts to articulate a simple, comprehensive definition of “Native American religion.” And, while knowledge of the past is essential for understanding Native American religions, a historical focus in itself is insufficient if it ignores the ongoing presence of Native American religious expression. Practitioners of Native American religions today emphasize religious continuity as well as creativity and change, blending long-standing historical traditions with more recently established religious innovations.


Author(s):  
Philippa Adrych ◽  
Robert Bracey ◽  
Dominic Dalglish ◽  
Stefanie Lenk ◽  
Rachel Wood

Images of Mithra begins with the seemingly simple question: what’s in a name? With a history of use extending back to Vedic texts of the second millennium BC, derivations of the name Mithra appear in the Roman Empire, across Sasanian Persia, and in the Kushan Empire of southern Afghanistan and northern India during the first millennium AD. Even today, this name has a place in Yazidi and Zoroastrian religion. But what connection have Mihr in Persia, Miiro in Kushan Bactria, and Mithras in the Roman Empire to one another? Over the course of the volume, specialists in the material culture of these diverse regions explore appearances of the name Mithra from six distinct locations in antiquity. In a subversion of the usual historical process, the authors begin not from an assessment of texts, but by placing images of Mithra at the heart of their analysis. Careful consideration of each example’s own context, situating it in the broader scheme of religious traditions and ongoing cultural interactions, is key to this discussion. Such an approach opens up a host of potential comparisons and interpretations that are often sidelined in historical accounts. What Images of Mithra offers is a fresh approach to figures that we identify as ‘gods’, and the ways in which they were labelled and depicted in the ancient world. Through an emphasis on material culture, a more nuanced understanding of the processes of religious formation is proposed in what is but the first part of the Visual Conversations series.


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