Choreographies of Shared Sacred Sites

Choreographies of Shared Sacred Sites PDF Author: Elazar Barkan
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 0231538065
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 437

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Book Description
This anthology explores the dynamics of shared religious sites in Turkey, the Balkans, Palestine/Israel, Cyprus, and Algeria, indicating where local and national stakeholders maneuver between competition and cooperation, coexistence and conflict. Contributors probe the notion of coexistence and the logic that underlies centuries of "sharing," exploring when and why sharing gets interrupted—or not—by conflict, and the policy consequences. These essays map the choreographies of shared sacred spaces within the framework of state-society relations, juxtaposing a site's political and religious features and exploring whether sharing or contestation is primarily religious or politically motivated. Although religion and politics are intertwined phenomena, the contributors to this volume understand the category of "religion" and the "political" as devices meant to distinguish between the theological and confessional aspects of religion and the political goals of groups. Their comparative approach better represents the transition in some cases of sites into places of hatred and violence, while in other instances they remain noncontroversial. The essays clearly delineate the religious and political factors that contribute to the context and causality of conflict at these sites and draw on history and anthropology to shed light on the often rapid switch from relative tolerance to distress to peace and calm.

Choreographies of Shared Sacred Sites

Choreographies of Shared Sacred Sites PDF Author: Elazar Barkan
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 0231538065
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 437

Get Book Here

Book Description
This anthology explores the dynamics of shared religious sites in Turkey, the Balkans, Palestine/Israel, Cyprus, and Algeria, indicating where local and national stakeholders maneuver between competition and cooperation, coexistence and conflict. Contributors probe the notion of coexistence and the logic that underlies centuries of "sharing," exploring when and why sharing gets interrupted—or not—by conflict, and the policy consequences. These essays map the choreographies of shared sacred spaces within the framework of state-society relations, juxtaposing a site's political and religious features and exploring whether sharing or contestation is primarily religious or politically motivated. Although religion and politics are intertwined phenomena, the contributors to this volume understand the category of "religion" and the "political" as devices meant to distinguish between the theological and confessional aspects of religion and the political goals of groups. Their comparative approach better represents the transition in some cases of sites into places of hatred and violence, while in other instances they remain noncontroversial. The essays clearly delineate the religious and political factors that contribute to the context and causality of conflict at these sites and draw on history and anthropology to shed light on the often rapid switch from relative tolerance to distress to peace and calm.

The Changing World Religion Map

The Changing World Religion Map PDF Author: Stanley D. Brunn
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 940179376X
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 3858

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Book Description
This extensive work explores the changing world of religions, faiths and practices. It discusses a broad range of issues and phenomena that are related to religion, including nature, ethics, secularization, gender and identity. Broadening the context, it studies the interrelation between religion and other fields, including education, business, economics and law. The book presents a vast array of examples to illustrate the changes that have taken place and have led to a new world map of religions. Beginning with an introduction of the concept of the “changing world religion map”, the book first focuses on nature, ethics and the environment. It examines humankind’s eternal search for the sacred, and discusses the emergence of “green” religion as a theme that cuts across many faiths. Next, the book turns to the theme of the pilgrimage, illustrated by many examples from all parts of the world. In its discussion of the interrelation between religion and education, it looks at the role of missionary movements. It explains the relationship between religion, business, economics and law by means of a discussion of legal and moral frameworks, and the financial and business issues of religious organizations. The next part of the book explores the many “new faces” that are part of the religious landscape and culture of the Global North (Europe, Russia, Australia and New Zealand, the U.S. and Canada) and the Global South (Latin America, Africa and Asia). It does so by looking at specific population movements, diasporas, and the impact of globalization. The volume next turns to secularization as both a phenomenon occurring in the Global religious North, and as an emerging and distinguishing feature in the metropolitan, cosmopolitan and gateway cities and regions in the Global South. The final part of the book explores the changing world of religion in regards to gender and identity issues, the political/religious nexus, and the new worlds associated with the virtual technologies and visual media.

War on Sacred Grounds

War on Sacred Grounds PDF Author: Ron E. Hassner
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 0801460417
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 243

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Book Description
Sacred sites offer believers the possibility of communing with the divine and achieving deeper insight into their faith. Yet their spiritual and cultural importance can lead to competition as religious groups seek to exclude rivals from practicing potentially sacrilegious rituals in the hallowed space and wish to assert their own claims. Holy places thus create the potential for military, theological, or political clashes, not only between competing religious groups but also between religious groups and secular actors. In War on Sacred Grounds, Ron E. Hassner investigates the causes and properties of conflicts over sites that are both venerated and contested; he also proposes potential means for managing these disputes. Hassner illustrates a complex and poorly understood political dilemma with accounts of the failures to reach settlement at Temple Mount/Haram el-Sharif, leading to the clashes of 2000, and the competing claims of Hindus and Muslims at Ayodhya, which resulted in the destruction of the mosque there in 1992. He also addresses more successful compromises in Jerusalem in 1967 and Mecca in 1979. Sacred sites, he contends, are particularly prone to conflict because they provide valuable resources for both religious and political actors yet cannot be divided. The management of conflicts over sacred sites requires cooperation, Hassner suggests, between political leaders interested in promoting conflict resolution and religious leaders who can shape the meaning and value that sacred places hold for believers. Because a reconfiguration of sacred space requires a confluence of political will, religious authority, and a window of opportunity, it is relatively rare. Drawing on the study of religion and the study of politics in equal measure, Hassner's account offers insight into the often-violent dynamics that come into play at the places where religion and politics collide.

Sacred Space in Israel and Palestine

Sacred Space in Israel and Palestine PDF Author: Marshall J. Breger
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136490337
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 448

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Book Description
Religion and religious nationalism have long played a central role in many ethnic and national conflicts, and the importance of religion to national identity means that territorial disputes can often focus on the contestation of holy places and sacred territory. Looking at the case of Israel and Palestine, this book highlights the nexus between religion and politics through the process of classifying holy places, giving them meaning and interpreting their standing in religious and civil law, within governmental policy, and within international and local communities. Written by a team of renowned scholars from within and outside the region, this book follows on from Holy Places in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: Confrontation and Co-existence to provide an insightful look into the politics of religion and space. Examining Jerusalem’s holy basin from a variety of perspectives and disciplines, it provides unique insights into the way Jewish, Christian and Muslim authorities, scholars and jurists regard sacred space and the processes, grass roots and official, by which spaces become holy in the eyes of particular communities. Filling an important gap in the literature on Middle East peacemaking, the book will be of interest to scholars and students of the Middle East conflict, conflict resolution, political science, urban studies and history of religion.

Rascally Signs in Sacred Places

Rascally Signs in Sacred Places PDF Author: David E. Whisnant
Publisher: Univ of North Carolina Press
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 600

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Book Description
David Whisnant provides a comprehensive analysis of the dynamic relationship between culture, power, and policy in Nicaragua over the last 450 years. Spanning a broad spectrum of expressive forms-- including literature, music, film, material culture, and broadcast media--the book explores the evolution of Nicaraguan culture, its manipulation of political purposes, the development of and response to cultural policy by a variety of groups and constituencies, and the role of culture in other policy sectors.

Sharing the Sacra

Sharing the Sacra PDF Author: Glenn Bowman
Publisher: Berghahn Books
ISBN: 0857454870
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 196

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Book Description
“Shared” sites, where members of distinct, or factionally opposed, religious communities interact—or fail to interact—is the focus of this volume. Chapters based on fieldwork from such diverse sites as India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, China, Turkey, Morocco, Tunisia, and Vietnam demonstrate how sharing and tolerance are both more complex and multifaceted than they are often recognized to be. By including both historical processes (the development of Chinese funerals in late imperial Beijing or the refashioning of memorial commemoration in the wake of the Vietnam war) and particular events (the visit of Pope John Paul II to shared shrines in Sri Lanka or the Al-Qaeda bombing of an ancient Jewish synagogue on the Island of Djerba in Tunisia), the volume demonstrates the importance of understanding the wider contexts within which social interactions take place and shows that tolerance and intercommunalism are simultaneously possible and perpetually under threat.

Sacred Places

Sacred Places PDF Author: Philip Carr-Gomm
Publisher: Quercus Books
ISBN: 9781847242402
Category : Pilgrims and pilgrimages
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Includes sites from Africa, Middle East, Europe, The Americas, Oceania, and Asia.

The Politics of Sacred Places

The Politics of Sacred Places PDF Author: Nimrod Luz
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1350295744
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 241

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Book Description
The Politics of Sacred Places is a study of the socio-political dimensions of sacred sites in Israel–Palestine, drawing on over 20 years of in-depth ethnographic research which introduces cutting-edge theories on secularization, struggles for recognition, and diversity issues. This book focuses on contemporary sacred sites and their socio-political meanings for minorities within a hegemonic and a secularizing state-system. It argues that sacred places provide a space that is less scrutinized by the state and where alternative visions of the socio-political may be produced. A plethora of sites and case studies are examined, including the rural shrine of Maqam abu al-Hijja in the lower Galilee, the Mosque of Hassan Bek in the heart of Tel Aviv-Jaffa and the most disputed sacred place in the region, the Haram al-Sharif in Jerusalem. These sites are explored through mostly a phenomenological lens and in various contexts, from the individual body to the global. This book offers a critical-analytical study of the socio-political aspects of sacred sites in contemporary societies within the broader understanding of scale and the spatial turn in the study of religion.

Shared Sacred Sites

Shared Sacred Sites PDF Author: Karen Barkey
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780692123379
Category : Jerusalem
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
There could be no better illustration of coexistence than the extensive history of religious sites shared by members of different beliefs and backgrounds. Chronicles of the three Abrahamic religions are full of examples of cohabitation, hospitality, and tolerance despite a world torn apart by cultural, ethnic, and spiritual struggles. Maps of the Mediterranean and Near East are strewn with shrines that have long been the sites of convergence for prayers, wishes, and contemplation, yet their origins of sharing differ. Often local populations perceive a benefit of another group's sacred space, either recognized by open-minded leaders who preach unity or by members of different religious groups who share said space for pragmatic reasons. Our contemporary world contains numerous cases of such crossings, many of which are documented in this catalogue. Shared Sacred Sites is published on the occasion of the eponymous exhibition, which was organized as a contemporary "pilgrimage" in Manhattan through three venues. At The New York Public Library, the exhibition shares the history of the Holy Land with a look at Jerusalem as both holy city and center of pilgrimage for three faiths. The Morgan Library & Museum brings an altogether different aspect of the story of coexistence in a display of the celebrated Morgan Picture Bible produced in Paris around 1250, which offers the most exquisite visualizations of the events of the Old Testament. The Graduate Center of The City University of New York gathers contemporary examples compiled by an international team with various explorations and experiences in sanctuaries, presenting a medley of artifacts, contemporary art, multimedia, and photographs.

Sacred Sites, Sacred Places

Sacred Sites, Sacred Places PDF Author: David L. Carmichael
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1135633274
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 326

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Book Description
Sacred Sites, Sacred Places explores the concept of 'sacred' and what it means and implies to people in differing cultures. It looks at why people regard some parts of the land as special and why this ascription remains constant in some cultures and changes in others. Archaeologists, legislators and those involved in heritage management sometimes encounter conflict with local populations over sacred sites. With the aid of over 70 illustrations the book examines the extreme importance of such sacred places in all cultures and the necessity of accommodating those intimate beliefs which are such a vital part of ongoing cultural identity. Sacred Sites, Sacred Places therefore will be of help to those who wish to be non-destructive in their conservation and excavation practices. This book is unique in attempting to describe the belief systems surrounding the existence of sacred sites, and at the same time bringing such beliefs and practices into relationship with the practical problems of everyday heritage management. The geographical coverage of the book is exceptionally wide and its variety of contributors, including indigenous peoples, archaeologists and heritage professionals, is unrivalled in any other publication.