scholarly journals At vandre i takt: Om paraders og processioners rituelle betydning

2017 ◽  
pp. 14
Author(s):  
Anders Klostergaard Petersen
Keyword(s):  
Social Bonding ◽  
Ritual Studies ◽  
Hunter Gatherers ◽  
Urban Forms ◽  
Biological Basis ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Efficacy ◽  
History Of Religions ◽  
History Of ◽  
Different Origin

English abstract: The purpose of this essay is to cast light on a previously under-acknowledged phenomenon in the history of religions and the phenomenology of religion. First, I suggest a heuristic typological distinction between parades and processions. Potentially, the differentiation between the two may be linked to a different origin and partly to a different intrinsic relationship to two diverse types of religion. Whereas parades are inherently related to hunter-gatherers’ forms of religion and cosmic and global types of religion, processions, I surmise, are intrinsically related to urban forms of religion. The distinction, however, is of the nature of an idealtype. Secondly, I include a trajectory of scholarship in ritual studies that has not featured largely in the history of scholarship on ritual in either anthropology or the study of religion. I argue that parading and joint processions may give us a clue to the social efficacy of ritual and its biological underpinnings: Doing the drill enhances social bonding. My point is of a basic Durkheimian nature, but I take Durkheim a step further by undergirding his ritual and cultic understanding with a primatological and biological basis. Dansk resume: I artiklen retter jeg opmærksomheden mod to forhold. For det første foreslår jeg en typologisk skelnen mellem parade og procession og argumenterer for, at de har baggrund i to forskellige religionstyper. Mens processionen hidrører fra by- eller arkaisk religion og forudsætter templet og offerinstitutionen som religionens omdrejningspunkt, er paraden knyttet til jæger-samler-religion, men får en renæssance i kosmos- og globalreligion. For det andet inddrager jeg en forskningstradition inden for ritualstudier, som underligt nok ikke har spillet nogen fremtrædende rolle i den antropologiske og religionsvidenskabelige ritualforskning, men til gengæld er betydningsfuld i den sociologiske litteratur. I tæt sammenhæng med mine aktuelle forskningsinteresser argumenterer jeg for, at der i denne tradition ikke alene ligger et betydeligt potentiale for at forstå ritualers socialt positive (og lejlighedsvis negative) betydning, men også deres basalbiologiske grundlag. På sin vis forsøger jeg i artiklen at underbygge den durkheimske grundopfattelse af kultur, samfund og religion med et biologisk primatologisk fundament. Heri ligger ingen kritik af Durkheim; men derimod en udvidelse og underbygning.

The Study of Yoruba Religious Tradition in Historical Perspective

Numen ◽  
1993 ◽  
Vol 40 (3) ◽  
pp. 240-273 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacob K. Olupona
Keyword(s):  
Belief Systems ◽  
Religious Tradition ◽  
Religious Studies ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Religious Traditions ◽  
The Arts ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of Religions ◽  
History Of ◽  
Conducting Research

AbstractThis essay presents an overview of past and recent scholarship in Yoruba religion. The earliest studies of Yoruba religious traditions were carried out by missionaries, travellers and explorers who were concerned with writing about the so called "pagan" practices and "animist" beliefs of the African peoples. In the first quarter of the 20th century professional ethnologists committed to documenting the Yoruba religion and culture were, among other things, concerned with theories about cosmology, belief-systems, and organizations of Orisà cults. Indigenous authors, especially the Reverend gentlemen of the Church Missionary Society, responded to these early works by proposing the Egyptian origin of Yoruba religion and by conducting research into Ifá divination system as a preparatio evangelica. The paper also examines the contributions of scholars in the arts and the social sciences to the interpretation and analysis of Yoruba religion, especially those areas neglected in previous scholarship. This essay further explores the study of Yoruba religion in the Americas, as a way of providing useful comparison with the Nigerian situation. It demonstrates the strong influence of Yoruba religion and culture on world religions among African diaspora. In the past ten years, significant works on the phenomenology and history of religions have been produced by indigenous scholars trained in philosophy and Religionswissenschaft in Europe and America and more recently in Nigeria. Lastly, the essay examines some neglected aspects of Yoruba religious studies and suggests that future research should focus on developing new theories and uncovering existing ones in indigenous Yoruba discourses.

Observations on the Scolarly Study of Religions as Pursued in some Muslim Countries

Numen ◽  
1998 ◽  
Vol 45 (3) ◽  
pp. 235-257
Author(s):  
Jacques Waardenburg
Keyword(s):  
Social Role ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Sociological Research ◽  
Muslim Countries ◽  
The Social ◽  
Islamic Thought ◽  
History Of Religions ◽  
History Of ◽  
Role Of Religion ◽  
Positive Climate

AbstractThe article examines the study of religions at scholarly institutions in Muslim countries. As far as Islam and Islamic thought is concerned, both traditional and overly ideological approaches are problematic from a scholarly point of view. With regard to the study of religions other than Islam, interesting initiatives have been taken in several countries. Difficulties on a practical level include a lack of good handbooks in the “Islamic” languages, while books published in the West are mostly too expensive to acquire. Training in the languages of the various religious Scriptures is virtually absent. History of religions or religious studies have rarely been institutionalized. The study of some religions is seriously handicapped by political conflicts.Among the positive developments at present is, first, the increased interest in “religions” among students and the general public. The historical, anthropological and sociological research carried out in several Muslim countries pays attention to the social role of religion. A number of Muslim students enrolled at Western universities take courses in religions.The conclusion contends that the medieval tradition of Muslim studies of other religions could be a source of inspiration for the future. What is still much needed are competent staff, material facilities, a positive climate for intellectual pursuits, technical training in the study of texts, facts and meanings, and mental training for the pursuit of scholarly truth are needed. While perhaps acting as catalysts, Western models should not enjoy absolute authority. The author considers the pursuit of knowledge which is useful both to Muslims and to the scholarly community at large as most important.

scholarly journals The ARPANET Into the Internet: A Tale of Two Networks

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 37 ◽  
Author(s):  
Noel Packard
Keyword(s):  
Social Construction ◽  
Contemporary Literature ◽  
Intelligence Community ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Working Relationship ◽  
Origin Stories ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of ◽  
Internet History ◽  
Different Origin

The Internet is a split civilian and military entity in physical and social construction. Investigating this split entity in all its manifestations is an important venture, but this study explores the split social construction of the ARPANET’s reported history. ARPANET/Internet literature shows a division between literature that does and does not include the history of the intelligence communities (IC) working relationship with the pre-privatized ARPANET. Two different genres of literature are discussed, charted in a Table and compared to aspects of the ARPANET’s known and reported developmental and privatization history. Different origin stories are discussed in a general way; then a pattern in the literature is explored, namely, how illegally and libelous spy data gathered in 1960s intelligence community (IC) operations and processed through the pre-privatized ARPANET, is acknowledged in indirect or secondhand ways, when ARPA demonstrated feasibility of the ARPANET ; while after pyritization the literature acknowledges IC spying through the commercialized Internet in firsthand and direct ways. The study examines how earlier and contemporary literature continues contesting the role that 1960s IC spy data played in demonstrating the feasibility of the ARPANET; a prerequisite test for the privatization of the ARPANET. Findings indicate ARPANET histories have excluded direct reporting about how ARPA and the IC demonstrated ARPANET’s feasibility prior to privatization. The conclusion is that understanding history about how ARPA and the IC demonstrated ARPANET’s feasibility, makes it easier to comprehend reports about how the Internet serves counterinsurgency purposes. The study confirms ongoing debates about the social construction of Internet history. 

Non-Traditional Modern Advaita Gurus in the West and Their Traditional Modern Advaita Critics

2013 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 6-37
Author(s):  
Phillip Charles Lucas
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
The Other ◽  
Advaita Vedanta ◽  
The West ◽  
Religious Traditions ◽  
Natural Processes ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of Religions ◽  
History Of

The Modern Advaita movement has undergone a split between two factions: one remains committed to a more traditional articulation of Advaita Vedanta, and the other has departed in significant ways from this traditional spiritual system. Over the past fifteen years, the Traditional Modern Advaita (TMA) faction has launched sustained and wide-ranging criticism of Non-Traditional Modern Advaita (NTMA) teachers and teachings. This article identifies the main themes of TMA criticisms and interprets their significance using insights from the social sciences and history of religions. I suggest that some reconfiguring of the Advaita tradition is necessary as it expands in transnational directions, since the structures of intelligibility from one culture to another are rarely congruent. Indeed, adaptation, accommodation and reconfiguration are normal and natural processes for religious traditions expanding beyond their indigenous cultural matrices. In the end, the significant questions for Advaita missionaries to the West may be how much accommodation is prudent, how rapidly reconfiguration should take place, and what adaptations are necessary for their spiritual methodology not only to survive but also thrive in new cultural settings.

History of Religion

2020 ◽  
pp. 91-108
Author(s):  
Lester L. Grabbe
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
History Of Religion ◽  
Short Overview ◽  
Israelite Religion ◽  
Present Generation ◽  
The Social ◽  
Ancient Israel ◽  
History Of Religions ◽  
History Of

This chapter discusses (1) the general discipline of the History of Religions; then, in line with the focus of the volume as a whole, (2) it moves to developments in the study of the History of Ancient Israel; finally, (3) it gives a short overview of the History of Ancient Israelite Religion. The History of Religions movement is traced through the 19th and 20th centuries, especially as it influenced study on the History of Ancient Israelite Religion. The changing methods and results of the History of Israelite Religion in different periods of study are noted, culminating in the general approach of the present generation. Some of the main writers, works, and influences are mentioned and their contributions (whether positive or negative) are briefly summarized. The contribution of the social sciences is brought in.

Primatology of Science: On the Birth of Actor-Network Theory from Baboon Field Observations

2017 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 83-105
Author(s):  
Nicolas Langlitz
Keyword(s):  
Network Theory ◽  
Dominant Species ◽  
18Th Century ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
Human Populations ◽  
Hunter Gatherers ◽  
Actor Network ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of ◽  
Original Question

This article situates actor-network theory in the history of evolutionary anthropology. In the 1980s, this attempt at explaining the social through the mediation of nonhumans received important impulses from Bruno Latour’s conversations with primatologist Shirley Strum. In a re-articulation of social evolutionism, they proposed that the utilization of objects distinguished humans from baboons and that the use of a growing number of objects set industrialized human populations apart from hunter-gatherers, enabling the formation of larger collectives. While Strum’s and Latour’s early work presented baboons as almost human and suggested that we moderns had never been modern, the Anthropocene has reawakened curiosity about the original question of anthropology: how do modern humans, including modern scientists, differ from premoderns and animals? This 18th-century question is gaining new significance and urgency as we recognize our transmutation into a super-dominant species. But the answer might not lie solely in the use of more objects.

Drawing Down the Moon

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Radcliffe G. Edmonds III
Keyword(s):  
Social Contexts ◽  
Classical Antiquity ◽  
The Moon ◽  
Literary Traditions ◽  
Greco Roman ◽  
The People ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of Religions ◽  
History Of ◽  
Insight Into

What did magic mean to the people of ancient Greece and Rome? How did Greeks and Romans not only imagine what magic could do, but also use it to try to influence the world around them? This book provides the most comprehensive account of the varieties of phenomena labeled as magic in classical antiquity. Exploring why certain practices, images, and ideas were labeled as “magic” and set apart from “normal” kinds of practices, the book gives insight into the shifting ideas of religion and the divine in the ancient past and in the later Western tradition. Using fresh approaches to the history of religions and the social contexts in which magic was exercised, the book delves into the archaeological record and classical literary traditions to examine images of witches, ghosts, and demons as well as the fantastic powers of metamorphosis, erotic attraction, and reversals of nature, such as the famous trick of drawing down the moon. From prayer and divination to astrology and alchemy, the book journeys through all manner of ancient magical rituals and paraphernalia. It considers the ways in which the Greco-Roman discourse of magic was formed amid the cultures of the ancient Mediterranean, including Egypt and the Near East.

Religion, Nature, and Ambiguous Space in Ancient Mesopotamia: The Mountain Wilderness in Old Babylonian Religious Narratives

Numen ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 63 (4) ◽  
pp. 347-382 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Feldt
Keyword(s):  
Social Space ◽  
Narrative Form ◽  
Direct Communication ◽  
The Social ◽  
Old Babylonian ◽  
History Of Religions ◽  
History Of ◽  
Ancient Mesopotamia ◽  
Literary Narrative ◽  
Natural Domains

This article discusses the nexus of religion and nature by means of an investigation of the mountain wilderness space in ancient Mesopotamia. Drawing inspiration from theories of social space and the field of religion and nature, it pays special attention to the mediality of the sources embedding the wilderness space by analyzing the literary-narrative form of a set of Old Babylonian, Sumerian religious narratives related to the deities Inana and Ninurta and the heroes Lugalbanda and Gilgamesh. Contrary to previous research, which has seen the mountain wilderness as a dangerous and inimical chaos region, this article argues that the mountain wilderness is also ascribed benign connotations and functions. It is a wild and dangerous region, but it is also naturally abundant, primeval, and harbors forms of agency and force. It is an arena for magical transformation, heroic acts, and for direct communication with the deities. It is thus a more ambiguous space than has previously been recognized, and it should be understood in the context of the social space of the scribal milieu. Finally, the article suggests that cosmology studies and the relationships between natural domains and deities, in the general history of religions, are reconsidered in light of theories of social space and in light of the mediality of the sources.

The Power of the Impure: Transgression, Violence and Secrecy in Bengali Śākta Tantra and Modern Western Magic

Numen ◽  
2003 ◽  
Vol 50 (3) ◽  
pp. 269-308 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hugh Urban
Keyword(s):  
Social Role ◽  
Physical Universe ◽  
Political Implications ◽  
The Social ◽  
Aleister Crowley ◽  
History Of Religions ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Comparative Study ◽  
Tantric Ritual

AbstractSince their first encounter with the complex body of texts and traditions called "Tantras," Western scholars have been simultaneously repulsed and horrified, yet also tantalized and titillated by the deliberate use of normally impure and defiling substances in Tantric practice. Yet, with a few exceptions, they have made little headway in interpreting the deeper religious and social role of impurity, either in Tantric ritual or in the history of religions generally. This paper compares the role of ritual impurity and transgression in two very different traditions, widely separated both historically and geographically: the Śākta school of Tantra in Bengal (focusing on the 16th century brāhman, Kr⊡nānanda Āgamavāgīśa) and modern Western magic (focusing on Aleister Crowley and the Ordo Templi Orientis). Specifically, I look closely at the manipulation of impure bodily substances—such as blood, semen and vaginal fluids—in sexual rituals and animal sacrifice. By playing off of these two examples in a kind of metaphoric juxtaposition, I hope to shed some new light on the role of impurity, transgression and secrecy in both cases and also in the comparative study of religion as a whole. Adapting some insights from Georges Bataille and Michel Foucault, I argue that the ritual use of impurity has much larger social and political implications, as a means of harnessing the tremendous power that flows through the physical universe, the human body and the social body alike.

France's "War on Sects": A Post-9/11 Update

2008 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 104-120 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan J. Palmer
Keyword(s):  
Social Control ◽  
Religious Freedom ◽  
Public Policies ◽  
Field Research ◽  
Socialist Party ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of Religions ◽  
History Of

This is a report on the latest developments in the "cult wars" in France. The anticult panic caused by the Solar Temple group suicides and murders has, after thirteen years, died down, and a more moderate government has replaced the Socialist Party. The old government-sponsored Ministry to Fight Sects (MILS) has been replaced by MIVILUDES (Mission interministrielle de vigilance et de lutte contre les drives sectaires), which adopts a more circumspect approach towards the secte problem. On the basis of my findings from field research conducted in the spring of 2006, I argue that the social control efforts that targeted NRMs in the 1990s have not abated, but merely shifted tactics. Interviews with distinguished French academics clearly illustrate that their expertise in the relevant fields of sociology and history of religions is deliberately ignored by officials, and they are even punished for voicing their scholarly opinions regarding public policies towards les sectes. The new, covert threat to religious freedom posed by the About-Picard Law (2001), which was designed to target secte leaders who brainwash, is analyzed after investigating its first application to a tiny group called Nééo-Phare.

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