Designing dolls according to Youkai stories and Shinto beliefs in Eastern culture

<p>Contrary to the contemporary views on the function and complex mastery skills of an object, the Eastern world puts more emphasis on the value of the object is in its inner spirit. This view is based on Shinto beliefs, where everything is spiritual and valuable. My project undertakes a case study of the relationship between humans and things. This is done by building on the uses of Shinto beliefs to design an object that initiates a narrative. More specifically dolls. Thus, invites a relationship and engages the belief that objects have souls. The dolls which I designed are an intersection of the spirit world and reality. By providing a process that facilitates the traditional Youkai story base on Shinto beliefs and how it has developed in modern society. In promoting participant engagement through design methods and processes, this project discovered a new vision of forming meaningful relationships between humans and objects empowers the true value of an object. This project visualizes participant experiences created an exploration of a narrative that contains the spirit.</p>

Designing dolls according to Youkai stories and Shinto beliefs in Eastern culture

<p>Contrary to the contemporary views on the function and complex mastery skills of an object, the Eastern world puts more emphasis on the value of the object is in its inner spirit. This view is based on Shinto beliefs, where everything is spiritual and valuable. My project undertakes a case study of the relationship between humans and things. This is done by building on the uses of Shinto beliefs to design an object that initiates a narrative. More specifically dolls. Thus, invites a relationship and engages the belief that objects have souls. The dolls which I designed are an intersection of the spirit world and reality. By providing a process that facilitates the traditional Youkai story base on Shinto beliefs and how it has developed in modern society. In promoting participant engagement through design methods and processes, this project discovered a new vision of forming meaningful relationships between humans and objects empowers the true value of an object. This project visualizes participant experiences created an exploration of a narrative that contains the spirit.</p>

Nilai-Nilai Shintoisme pada Perbedaan Warna dan Bentuk Gerbang Dunia Dewa di Awal dan Akhir Film Spirited Away Karya Studio Ghibli

Spirited Away is an animation made by Ghibli Studio on 2001 under Hayao Miyazaki direction. This movie awarded as The Best Animation by The 75th Academy Award. This movie tells about the journey of Chihiro, the protagonist who’s been “spirited away” to the spirit world. There’s a significant difference on the visual and surounding of the scene when Chihiro went inside the spirit world through the gate in the beginning of the movie and when she’s back from that world at the ending. Even it’s pretty clear that it is the same place, but the gate, the colors, material, and the environment seems to be different. This visual generate a long controversy, include of how excactly the story end. Question arise of the significant distinction on the visual of the gate between the scenes, like why on the beginning the color of the gate is red with some characteristic of Shinto’s Temple architectural, but then the gate at the ending is white and made from stone piles. Hayao Miyazaki as creator of the movie has never explicitely answer the question on this matter. This qualitative study using visual examination method on colors and material of the gates, from the perspective of Shinto’s and Japanese architecture, to know the reason behind the importance of differentiating the visual of the gates in the beginning and the ending of the movie.

The non-romantic idea of nature in African theology

In many ways, the African world view and African theology are closer to nature than Euro-American theology is. This can be seen, for example, in its emphasis on holism and interconnectedness, and its inclination to consider all natural objects to be inhabited by the spirit world. This article argues that this closeness to nature should not be confused with a Romantic reverence for nature. Since the 19th century, Romanticism has been very influential in the Euro-American idea of nature. Nature came to be seen as something that is both good and valuable in itself. The conception of nature that is dominant in African ways of thinking is very different: nature is seen as potentially threatening and, at best, ambivalent; and respect for nature and living in balance with nature is judged by the extent to which they help humans to live successfully. In this article, a theological and philosophical clarification of these two contrasting conceptions of nature is combined with qualitative anthropological analysis of the way Zambian pastors speak about nature in their sermons. These two approaches together bring out the often-misinterpreted non-Romantic idea of nature in African theology.Contribution: This article clarifies the important idea of nature within the context of African theology. It brings out how the meaning of holism and sacredness in African settings differs from the meaning of these ideas in Western eco-theological contexts. Hereby, it untangles important confusions in the field of eco-theology.

Acculturation and Traditional Mortuary Rites of the Nawfia of Southeastern Nigeria

This ethnography explores the traditional mortuary rites of the Nawfia, an Igbo group of Southeast Nigeria, aiming to understand the mortuary rites of the Nawfia, how and why it has changed and the factors responsible for the changes. The main data collection strategy was participant observation that began in April 2014. It was supplemented with in-depth interviews and focus group discussions. The study found Christianity as a major acculturative factor that has altered almost all the facets of the traditional mortuary rites of the Nawfia Igbo. Furthermore, mortuary rites do not only reinforce social solidarity among the Nawfia Igbo people but also according to what the Nawfia people believe, enable the deceased to attain his rightful position in the spirit world.

The phenomenology of psychedelic therapy

‘The phenomenology of psychedelic therapy’ provides a selective overview of experiences commonly reported by those who take psychedelics in controlled and structured settings, such as clinical trials and religious rituals. The first half of this chapter reviews a variety of typical changes to perception and the sense of self. The second half reviews qualitative evidence concerning patients’ impressions of the therapeutic process. Patients who receive psychedelics in clinical trials sometimes, but not always, describe non-naturalistic metaphysical epiphanies concerning the existence of a cosmic consciousness, spirit world, or divine Reality. More commonly emphasised are experiences of psychological insight, beneficial changes to self-representation, intense and cathartic emotional experiences, and feelings of connectedness and acceptance. This evidence provides initial clues that psychedelics’ therapeutic effects may not be due entirely to the induction of non-naturalistic metaphysical ideations.

COVID-19 burial guidelines in Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS)

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a considerable impact on mundane daily tasks and significant cultural practices, including funerals and burials. Growing up, I observed that death in my family is a well-respected cultural process. It is believed that those who departed into the spirit world will be joining the living dead in the afterlife. For the deceased to be welcomed into the spirit world in the traditional sense, families perform specific rites of passage rituals during the burial. This is an important exercise to avert the wrath of the spirit world on the bereaved family. Attention to detail during these rituals is vital to assist the bereaved family in expressing their grief while simultaneously showing respect to the spirit world. As a nonpractising sangoma, I had observed traditional funeral and burial processes long before the outbreak of the pandemic and understood their importance. While the pandemic shook traditional burial processes and made some rituals impossible, I found comfort in the knowledge that indigenous knowledge systems (IKS) could be used to appease the spirit world. In this article, I explain how IKS can assist bereaved families during funerals and burials to avert the wrath of the spirit world and find closure.