Deathpower

Deathpower PDF Author: Erik W. Davis
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 0231540663
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 318

Get Book

Book Description
Drawing on extensive ethnographic fieldwork in Cambodia, Erik W. Davis radically reorients approaches toward the nature of Southeast Asian Buddhism's interactions with local religious practice and, by extension, reorients our understanding of Buddhism itself. Through a vivid study of contemporary Cambodian Buddhist funeral rites, he reveals the powerfully integrative role monks play as they care for the dead and negotiate the interplay of non-Buddhist spirits and formal Buddhist customs. Buddhist monks perform funeral rituals rooted in the embodied practices of Khmer rice farmers and the social hierarchies of Khmer culture. The monks' realization of death underwrites key components of the Cambodian social imagination: the distinction between wild death and celibate life, the forest and the field, and moral and immoral forms of power. By connecting the performative aspects of Buddhist death rituals to Cambodian history and everyday life, Davis undermines the theory that Buddhism and rural belief systems necessarily oppose each other. Instead, he shows Cambodian Buddhism to be a robust tradition with ethical and popular components extending throughout Khmer society.

Deathpower

Deathpower PDF Author: Erik W. Davis
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 0231540663
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 318

Get Book

Book Description
Drawing on extensive ethnographic fieldwork in Cambodia, Erik W. Davis radically reorients approaches toward the nature of Southeast Asian Buddhism's interactions with local religious practice and, by extension, reorients our understanding of Buddhism itself. Through a vivid study of contemporary Cambodian Buddhist funeral rites, he reveals the powerfully integrative role monks play as they care for the dead and negotiate the interplay of non-Buddhist spirits and formal Buddhist customs. Buddhist monks perform funeral rituals rooted in the embodied practices of Khmer rice farmers and the social hierarchies of Khmer culture. The monks' realization of death underwrites key components of the Cambodian social imagination: the distinction between wild death and celibate life, the forest and the field, and moral and immoral forms of power. By connecting the performative aspects of Buddhist death rituals to Cambodian history and everyday life, Davis undermines the theory that Buddhism and rural belief systems necessarily oppose each other. Instead, he shows Cambodian Buddhism to be a robust tradition with ethical and popular components extending throughout Khmer society.

Ritual Imagination

Ritual Imagination PDF Author: Hilde Nielssen
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004215247
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 341

Get Book

Book Description
Exploring the rich world of tromba spirit possession in eastern Madagascar, this book offers a fresh perspective on questions of how rituals work and how they affect and constitute human realities.

Rituals of the Imagination

Rituals of the Imagination PDF Author: Thomas Moore
Publisher: Dallas Institute Publications
ISBN: 9780911005035
Category : Myth
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Get Book

Book Description


The Body Incantatory

The Body Incantatory PDF Author: Paul Copp
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 0231537786
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 397

Get Book

Book Description
Whether chanted as devotional prayers, intoned against the dangers of the wilds, or invoked to heal the sick and bring ease to the dead, incantations were pervasive features of Buddhist practice in late medieval China (600–1000 C.E.). Material incantations, in forms such as spell-inscribed amulets and stone pillars, were also central to the spiritual lives of both monks and laypeople. In centering its analysis on the Chinese material culture of these deeply embodied forms of Buddhist ritual, The Body Incantatory reveals histories of practice—and logics of practice—that have until now remained hidden. Paul Copp examines inscribed stones, urns, and other objects unearthed from anonymous tombs; spells carved into pillars near mountain temples; and manuscripts and prints from both tombs and the Dunhuang cache. Focusing on two major Buddhist spells, or dhāraṇī, and their embodiment of the incantatory logics of adornment and unction, he makes breakthrough claims about the significance of Buddhist incantation practice not only in medieval China but also in Central Asia and India. Copp's work vividly captures the diversity of Buddhist practice among medieval monks, ritual healers, and other individuals lost to history, offering a corrective to accounts that have overemphasized elite, canonical materials.

Ritual Imagination

Ritual Imagination PDF Author: Hilde Nielssen
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004223878
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 340

Get Book

Book Description
Ritual Imagination is a study of spirit possession and ritual dynamics. Based on fieldwork in eastern Madagascar, Hilde Nielssen shows how tromba possession works as a flexible and fluid force, whose ritual imaginary playfully draws together elements from radically different cultural and social domains, thereby constituting human realities and creating ways of relating to changing and disjunctive circumstances. Tromba's strength lies in its fluid capacities to relate to ongoing social change by altering its own practices, while at the same time continuing to heal person and cosmos. The book critically addresses the still dominant perspective in anthropology, where rituals are understood as representations of culture and society. Using tromba as a pivotal case in the critique of ritual as representation, this book offers a fresh perspective on ritual and spirit possession.

W. B. Yeats and the Ritual Imagination

W. B. Yeats and the Ritual Imagination PDF Author: Kathleen Wiegner
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 508

Get Book

Book Description


The Art of Family

The Art of Family PDF Author: Gina Bria
Publisher: iUniverse
ISBN: 1462057608
Category : Family & Relationships
Languages : en
Pages : 193

Get Book

Book Description
It is not the lack of time that crushes our family lives; it is the lack of presence, overwhelmed as we are with the tasks, anxieties, and guilt of being in a family. Between working, housecleaning, and parenting, how do we carve out a minute for ourselves? How can we give ourselves to our spouses and children in the conditions we find ourselves in? Gina Bria writes, This is how: by being presentnot in every moment [were tired enough!]but in key daily activities such as play, spiritual discussions, tender physical attention, and little daily rituals that can see us through the pace of life today to a strong, coherent, lived family life. With a warm, compassionate tone, anthropologist, nutritionist, and public speaker Gina Bria provides ideas for creating families that withstand the pressures of modern society. The key is creating a personal family culture around the domestic rituals associated with family, such as making your home your true haven from the outside world, really understanding how to play with your children and in your marriage, caring for each others bodies (young and old!) and finding a spiritual path to travel together. In essence, Gina Bria shows us how to assign meaning to everyday tasks, which builds a family that withstands conformity, rejection and conflict.

Pastoral Imagination

Pastoral Imagination PDF Author: Eileen R. Campbell-Reed
Publisher: Augsburg Fortress Publishers
ISBN: 1506470068
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 277

Get Book

Book Description
Pastoral Imagination: Bringing the Practice of Ministry to Life informs and inspires the practice of ministry through "on the ground" learning experienced in a variety of ministry settings. Each of the fifty chapters explores a single concept through story, reflection, and provocative open-ended questions designed to spark conversation between ministers and mentors, among ministry peers, or for personal journal reflections. The book is closely integrated with the author's Three Minute Ministry Mentor web resource.

Media and Ritual

Media and Ritual PDF Author: Johanna Sumiala
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 0415684323
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 162

Get Book

Book Description
This wide-ranging and accessible book offers a stimulating introduction to the field of media anthropology and the study of religious ritual. Johanna Sumiala explores the interweaving of rituals, communication and community. She uses the tools of anthropological enquiry to examine a variety of media events, including the death of Michael Jackson, a royal wedding and the transgressive actions which took place in Abu Ghraib, and to understand the inner significance of the media coverage of such events. The book deals with theories of ritual, media as ritual including reception, production and representation, and rituals of death in the media. It will be invaluable to students and scholars alike across media, religion and anthropology.

Ritual Embodiment in Modern Western Magic

Ritual Embodiment in Modern Western Magic PDF Author: Damon Zacharias Lycourinos
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351329952
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 228

Get Book

Book Description
In the Western world, magic has often functioned as an umbrella term for various religious beliefs and ritual practices that seek to influence events by harnessing supernatural power. The definition of these myriad occult and esoteric traditions have, however, usually come from those that are opposed to its practice; notably authorities in religious, legal and intellectual spheres. This book seeks to provide a new perspective, directly from the practitioners of modern Western magic, by exploring how a distinctive mode of embodiment and consciousness can produce a transition from an ‘ordinary’ to a ‘magical’ worldview. Starting with an introduction to the study of magic in the Western academy, the book then presents the author’s own participant observation of five ethnographic case studies of modern Western magic. The focus of these ethnographic case studies is directed towards ideas and methods the informants employ to self-legitimise and self-represent as ‘magicians’. It concludes by discussing the phenomenological implications and issues around embodiment that are inherent to the contemporary practice of magic. This is a unique insight into the lived experience of practitioners of modern magic. As such, it will be of keen interest to scholars of the Occult and New Religious Movements, as well as Religious Studies academics examining issues around the embodiment and the anthropology of religion.