On the Mythical Origin of Yajñopavīta

Purānas which get written in accordance with the Vedas recreate the āstika ethos in a completely different social, temporal, and geographical context. Devānga Purāna dated to around 1532 CE and written after the social revolution in Kalyana in the twelfth century reaffirms the strength of the Vedic tradition by embracing the liberal and esoteric elements in Upanishadic thought. In this essay I look at the formation of Vedic ethos by focusing on a mythological narrative concerning the origin of yajñopavīta. I claim that the yajñopavīta was invented to intensify the will to non-knowledge.

The Orientation of the Kofun Tombs

The Kofun period of the history of Japan—between the 3rd and the 7th century AD—bears its name from the construction of huge, earth mound tombs called Kofun. Among them, the largest have a keyhole shape and are attributed to the first, semi-legendary emperors. The study of the orientation of ancient tombs is usually a powerful tool to better understand the cognitive aspects of religion and power in ancient societies. This study has never been carried out in Japan due to the very large number of Kofun and to the fact that access to the perimeter is usually forbidden. For these reasons, to investigate Kofun orientations, simple tools of satellite imagery are used here. Our results strongly point to a connection of all Kofun entrance corridors with the arc of the sky where the Sun and the Moon are visible every day of the year; additionally, these show an orientation of the keyhole Kofun to the arc of the rising/shining Sun, the goddess that the Japanese emperors put at the mythical origin of their dynasty.

Host Plants Association with Longhorn Beetles of Food Value: Traditional Knowledge of the Guaraní as Cultural Identity Keepers

The study of plant-insect interactions and how cultural groups perceive and manage them constitutes one of the interests of ethnoentomology. This work describes the association between host plants and longhorn beetles (Order: Coleoptera; Family: Cerambycidae), an important food among the Guaraní peoples of the province of Misiones, Argentina. Different management methods of host tree species are analyzed in order to promote the rearing of larvae for edible use. We also discuss a story about the mythical origin of cerambicids relayed by the Ava Chiripa Guaraní community. We reflect on the importance of the local worldview in the maintenance of ancestral practices, such as the cultural tasks involved in slash-and-burn agriculture and the intimate knowledge of biological relationships between the cerambycids and their woody host plants.

‘The evil of our collective soul’: Zombies, medical capitalism and environmental apocalypse

Though frequently comprehended as a vehicle for social satire or post-cultural speculation, zombie fictions also demonstrably mobilize the climatic unease of the current Anthropocene. Focusing in particular upon Max Brooks’s 2006 novel World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War, this article considers the complex politics which have frequently underwritten a mythical origin for pandemics in the Othered East, and their contemporary reproduction in western concerns regarding unregulated surgery and the capitalism of human tissue. The article then proposes that the deterioration of human culture consequent upon the fictional zombie pandemic interrogates the contemporary understanding of integrated nationhood and problematizes the dichotomy structured between geographically stable and refugee populations. The sudden eclipse of the competitive Anthropocene by a mindless Zombicene brings not renewal for a planet no longer supporting agriculture and industry but rather a hastening of perceived environmental collapse, where unregulated hunting and the uncontrolled burning of natural resources accelerate climatic deterioration, imperilling further the survival of residual humanity. As a type of apocalyptic fiction, the zombie narrative thus poses questions with regard to the persistence of conventional human behaviours, even in a post-capitalist environment, where the political concepts structuring nationhood have come to function as little more than a memory.

Repetitions

Here Glissant distinguishes between ‘atavistic’ and ‘composite’ cultures. The former are based on the ideas of a sacred ‘Genesis’ and of ‘filiation’, i.e., an uninterrupted line of descent. ‘Composite’ cultures are creolized, based on a mixture of cultures and with a historical (i.e., formed by colonization) rather than mythical origin: what he terms a ‘digenesis’. But not all multi-ethnic societies are composite: the USA is an example of a culture in which the different groups remain separate.

Struktur Sosial Politik Kerajaan Loloda di Antara Minoritas Islam dan Mayoritas Kristen Abad Xvii-Xx

Abstrak Loloda adalah sebuah kata atau konsep yang terkait dengan suatu tempat, bahasa, etnik, mitologi, masyarakat, kerajaan, dan agama, dengan sejarah panjang yang masih kabur. Loloda secara bahasa adalah bahasa orang-orang Loloda, etnik adalah suku bangsa Loloda, mitologi adalah mitos asal mula keberadaan orang dan raja-raja yang pernah menjdi penguasa tertinggi di kerajaan Loloda yang tidak terlepas dari tradisi-tradisi lokal masyarakatnya. Loloda adalah suatu komunitas masyarakat yang telah sejak berabad-berabad yang lalu mendiami sebuah wilayah geografis yang luas. Loloda adalah salah satu kerajaan yang berada di kawasan Laut dan Kepulauan Maluku bagian utara yang cenderung belum dikenalLoloda dan Moro, oleh kebanyakan ahli dianggap adalah dua kerajaan yang sejauh ini belum diketahui kapan terbentuknya. Namun untuk Loloda sendiri menurut beberapa tradisi lokal mengatakan bahwa secara politis kerajaan ini sudah ada sejak tahun 1220 (abad ke-13), sedangkan Moloku Kie Rahayang terbentuk berdasarkan perjanjian Moti/Traktat Moti dan terkonfigurasi pula ke dalam Motir Staten Verbond1322-1343, secara bersamaan baru muncul pada 1320-an (abad ke-14).Sejak abad ke-15 (1486)---Loloda is a word or concept associated with a place, language, ethnic, mythology, society, empire, and religion, with a long history that is still vague. Loloda in the language is the language of the people Loloda, ethnic tribes are Loloda, mythology is the mythical origin of the existence of people and the kings that ever menjdi highest ruler in the kingdom Loloda which is inseparable from the traditions of local communities. Loloda is a community of people who have since many centuries ago inhabited a vast geographical area. Loloda is one of the kingdom which is in the Mediterranean region and northern Maluku Islands which tend not dikenalLoloda and Moro, by most experts consider these two kingdoms which so far is not yet known when the formation. But for Loloda itself according to some local traditions say that politically this kingdom has existed since 1220 (the 13th century), while Kie Rahayang Moloku formed by Moti agreement / treaty Moti and configured into the inner Motir Staten Verbond1322-1343, simultaneously emerged in the late 1320s (the 14th century) .Since the 15th century (1486)

Lovo, rock images, and mythology in the Land of the Kongo

In Kongo Central, rock art sites stretch from Kinshasa to the Atlantic coast and from northern Angola to southern Congo-Brazzaville. Preliminary research revealed one coherent entity situated north of the Kongo kingdom: the Lovo Massif, presently inhabited by the Ndibu, one of the Kongo subgroups. Comparison of the ethnological, historical, archaeological, and mythological points of view confirms that certain Kongo ritual and symbolic aspects are pre-Christian and refer to cosmogony, anthropogony, or narratives associated with the mythical origin of death. Investigating rock images allows us to better understand the link between the images, the myths, and their repercussions on the life of the Kongo today.