Religious Object” Exhibition in the Context of Cultural Change and Covid-19 Social Distancing (Case studies of Khmer’s Nagar boat in the South of Vietnam) | Trưng bày hiện vật tôn giáo trong bối cảnh biến đổi văn hóa và giãn cách xã hội do Covid-19 (Trường hợp ghe ngo của người Khmer ở Nam Bộ, Việt Nam)

The museums, nowadays, facing to many challenges in religious objects exhibition. Especially, in the current context of Covid-19 pandemic and cultural change, regular methods of the museum exhibition expose many limitations. Through a case study of ghe ngo (the Khmer’s Nagar boat) exhibition at the Vietnam Museum of Ethnology (VME), this paper discusses some principles dealing with the religious objects in the museum, and outline some modern display methods that can contribute to improving the display efficiency of ghe ngo exhibition towards the museum sustainable development. Trưng bày hiện vật tôn giáo vốn đặt ra nhiều thách thức đối với các bảo tàng. Đặc biệt, trong bối cảnh Covid-19 và biến đổi văn hóa hiện nay, các phương thức trưng bày truyền thống thể hiện nhiều mặt hạn chế. Qua trường hợp ghe ngo của người Khmer đang được trưng bày tại Bảo tàng Dân tộc học Việt Nam, bài viết này thảo luận về việc ứng xử với hiện vật tôn giáo, tín ngưỡng trong bảo tàng, và một số phương pháp trưng bày hiện đại nhằm góp phần nâng cao hiệu quả trưng bày ghe ngo của người Khmer hướng tới mục tiêu phát triển bền vững bảo tàng.

FREEDOM OF CONSCIOUSNESS AND RELIGION IN UZBEKISTAN ON THE EXAMPLE OF THE ACTIVITIES OF RELIGIOUS OBJECTS AND PLACES OF RIGGUAGE

The article provides a scientific analysis of religious conflicts in the world and their resolution, as well as measures for constructive dialogue and peaceful coexistence and interfaith relations in the Republic of Uzbekistan.Today, about 94-95% of the population of Uzbekistan believe the religion of Islam. Based on this, educational centers and a place of pilgrimage of the religion of Islam function in all regions of the country.And also, the article examines the conditions created for believers of non-Islamic religions and their religious beliefs,who make up 5-6% of the population of Uzbekistan, the activities of religious confessions and the tolerance shown to them by the Uzbek people

Gun and Fire-Steel Flints, Gun Supplies of the 18th C. Annenskaya Fortress on the Lower Don

The Annenskaya fortress is a well-preserved star-shaped earthen bastion located on the right bank of the Don river near the Starocherkassk fortress. Near the Annenskaya fortress, there were unfortified Soldatskaya and Dolomanovskaya villages. The Annenskaya fortification mainly functioned from 1733 to 1760, while the pinnacle of its population (the garrison reached 9,000 people) fell at the Russian-Turkish war of 1735–1739. There were no archaeological excavations at the site, the picked-up findings were collected by various authors in 2000, 2003–2006. Among the findings, there are religious objects, military ammunition, household remains. Significant part of inventory amount gun and fire-steel flints, gun supplies (bullets). The analysis of these materials is the main purpose of the paper. The collection of gun flints includes intact samples (50 pcs) and fragments (22 pcs). Some of them (6 pcs) were preserved in lead clips. A significant part of the worn-out gun flints (22 pcs) were reused as tinderbox components to kindle a fire for domestic purposes. The most of gun and fire-steel flints are made of carboniferous flint raw materials (probably geological sources of the Upper Volga basin). The collection is complemented by lead bullets of two main calibers, i.e. of 8, 13–15 и 17–18 mm in diameter.

Village Kisiskhevi - the Best Resource for the Development of Cultural Tourism

Kakheti region is rich in abundance and diversity of tourist resources. The study and popularization of the tourism resources of each municipality is important for the cultural and economic development of both the region and each village. The article presents the multifaceted tourist opportunities in the territory of one of the ancient villages, Kisiskhevi, as a basis for tourism development. The unique cultural and religious objects in and around the village are analyzed, which make it possible to plan various tourist routes. Especially noteworthy is the "Ghvtismshoblis chalis" complex. The area "Nakaravnali" was an intermediate point on the road that passed through this valley. On the medieval roads, every thirty kilometers, there was a stop for a caravan or caravanserai, where the caravan rested. The diverse cultural heritage of the village of Kisiskhevi provides an opportunity to plan tourist tours of different types, complexity and themes (cultural, cognitive, religious, extreme, etc). The involvement in the routes of the ancient churches and monasteries will have a positive impact on the promotion of tourist resources.

Natural Matter

Studies of lived religion have shown that from the perspective of the early modern laity, stark divisions between religion, magic, and superstition were largely absent from daily life. This chapter establishes how the division of ‘religious’ objects from secular or ‘magical’ objects in the early modern period is problematic. In particular, it shows how amulets made from natural matter, such as gemstones and animal teeth, can be reintegrated among religious objects. The evidence of amulets and rings reveals the connections of the cosmos, showing how men and women used these items to negotiate the divine and to control the ‘exigencies of daily life’. There was logic to how the divine could work through these tiny shards of stone or animal matter. From a lay perspective, the use of amulets and precious stones was not ‘enchantment’, but part of a developed belief structure that located the divine in the natural environment and that was tied to natural philosophy.

Fracturing Universal Christianity

It has widely been assumed that religious objects were quickly associated with different confessions during the Reformation period. However, the unique environment of Prague enables the conditions, speed, and clarity of this process to be tested. This chapter pushes beyond previous historiography that has focused on mono-confessional contexts to examine the confessional specificity of devotional material cultures. The multiconfessional environment of Prague in the first decades of the seventeenth century enables an examination of the role of material culture in the creation of distinct confessional identities. Prague thus provides a fascinating context in which to study the process of fracturing medieval Christianity along confessional lines. It sustained an environment of what might be called ‘multiple options’ well into the seventeenth century. Three factors that shaped this confessional context are examined: survivalism of pre-Reformation devotional modes, the impact of Utraquism, and the persistence of confessional flexibility. A detailed examination of prayer beads in the inventories and as extant objects provides a microcosm through which to understand confessional identities at ground level. Close up, qualitatively, the records reveal them to be part of a spiritual world of endless possibilities and devotional options, but quantitatively, from a distance, they reveal a striking pattern of plural confessions and religious change.

Religious Heritage and Nation in Post-Vatican II Catholicism: A View from Quebec

With Quebec’s croix de chemin (wayside crosses) as a jumping off point, I explore the importance of heritage creation as the province transitioned away from pre-Vatican II Catholicism in the 1960s and 1970s. I include two ‘sites of memory’: fieldwork with contemporary cross caretakers and archival materials from a major government-funded inventory of the crosses in the 1970s. Heritage professionals have generally implied that Catholic objects lose their sacred meaning to become objects of nation-building, while caretakers view them as still-active objects of devotional labour. Regardless, I find that both parties view themselves as laying claim to “modern” ways of interacting with religious objects, while also assuming that a cohesive national identity rests in part on promoting a rural Catholic past. More broadly, I argue that neither side can be fully understood without attention to the convergence of three trends in the 1960s and 1970s: Quebecois and other emergent nationalisms, Catholic liberalization, and the rise of an international heritage industry.

Global Catholicism in Seventeenth-Century Prague

The histories of early modern religion and trade have both benefited from the global turn in recent years. This article brings the two fields together through the study of religious objects in Prague in the seventeenth century and shows ways in which religion and religious practice were entangled with new commercial and artistic ventures that crossed regional and international borders. Among the possessions of seventeenth-century Prague burghers were religious objects that had come from exotic lands, such as a “coconut” rosary and a ruby and diamond “pelican in her piety” jewel. These objects were made in multiple locations and traded to satisfy a new demand for items that could aid and display devotion as well as act as markers of wealth and confessional identity. Through this study of religious objects, Central Europe is revealed to be an important locale to the global history of the early modern period.

Destruction, Death, and Drama: Narratives of Religiocide in the Hebrew Bible

This article analyzes active strategies for dismantling religion and discusses their role in religion demise. The aim is to throw light on how the dramatic and violent narratives of religion demolition stemming from different religious groups factor into processes and understandings of demise. I focus on religious change in the Hebrew Bible, analyzing aspects of two narratives that thematize an active dismantling of religious practices: (1) the story of the competition on Mount Carmel between the prophet Elijah and the Baʿal prophets in 1 Kings 18, involving the prophet’s mockery, denigration, and eventual killing of his religious opponents; and (2) the “reform” of King Josiah in 2 Kings 23 that involves the king instigating several different forms of destruction of religious objects and cult sites and the killing of priests deemed illegitimate. Analyzing how the dismantling activities are portrayed, I suggest that the dramatic narratives about dismantling religion form part of cultural memory in the Persian era, not in the eras they purport to depict. I discuss which roles dismantling strategies play in the narrative, and how they played a role in the identity building processes leading from ancient “Israelite” and “Judean” lived religion toward early forms of “Judaism” in the Persian era as performative group-internal communication supporting enclave characteristics. My key suggestion is that narratives about religion demolition should be taken into account in discussions of religious demise more broadly. Narratives of religion demolition are often spectacular, dramatic, and violent, and they can play important roles in forms of religious identity formation and cultural memory, especially by making apostasy appear risky within the in-group. Thus, they influence both processes of demise and understandings of religious demise in transformation processes.