Ritual Theory

Ervaren cultureel antropologe en niet-westers sociologe met meer dan 30 jaar ervaring binnen het publieke sociale domein bij de Gem. Amsterdam. Verder gespecialiseerd in Surinaamse geschiedenis, Afro-Surinaams erfgoed, diaspora, diversiteit, inclusie en diversiteit, gemeenschapsontwikkeling en kennisoverdracht. Bekend om het verbinden van onderzoek, beleid, educatie en maatschappelijke vraagstukken. • VWO (Atheneum A)/ Directie Schoevers opleiding/ Culturele Antropologie/Niet-Westerse Sociologie -VU en UvA/Train the Trainer/ Ambassadeur Diversiteit en Inclusie Gem. Amsterdam. Meer dan 30 jaar werkzaam binnen de Gemeente Amsterdam in functies gericht op sociale ontwikkeling, participatie, bewonersinitiatieven, diversiteit, inclusie en maatschappelijke ondersteuning. Ervaring met beleidsontwikkeling, projectcoördinatie, netwerkvorming en community building. Auteur van artikelen, essays en onderzoeksbijdragen over Suriname, identiteit, erfgoed en diaspora. Dichter onder het pseudoniem Chakuwa. Auteur van de dichtbundel DVO (Dichter, Vriendschap, Ode a/d Zwarte Vrouw). Lezingen over Trefossa, Surinaamse geschiedenis, cultureel erfgoed, Black History, diaspora-identiteit en emancipatievraagstukken voor onderwijsinstellingen, culturele organisaties en gemeenten.

The striking recumbent stone figure known as a chacmool is a defining feature of the Mesoamerican Terminal Classic and Postclassic, occurring not only at Chichén Itzá and Tula, where the largest number of figures is documented, but also in later Mexica and Purépacha cultures. While Maya examples are known from as far away as Quiriguá, Guatemala and Tazumal, El Salvador, chacmools are not a feature of Oaxacan or Gulf Coast cultures. Maya chacmools occur almost exclusively in Yucatan, where they are no longer produced during the Postclassic. Probably introduced at Chichén Itzá sometime after 900, the chacmool was adopted by other groups emulating the beliefs and cultural practices of that powerful and artistically innovative city. While the identity and function of chacmools are still poorly understood, at Chichén Itzá and elsewhere they are closely associated with human sacrifice and fire ceremonies, as well as serving as offering tables, temple guardians and ritual offerings, interred in platforms and temples. Much modified by the Late Postclassic, the chacmool still featured prominently in Mexica culture, demonstrating its staying power through several centuries and across a wide swath of Mexico and Central America. The enigmatic sculpture stands as a symbol of the movement of people and ideas in Mesoamerica during a period of profound cultural change.

Resumen: La impresionante figura de piedra yacente conocida como chacmool es un rasgo distintivo del Clásico Terminal y el Posclásico en Mesoamerica, presente no solo en Chichén Itzá y Tula, donde se documenta el mayor número de figuras, sino también en las culturas mexica y purépacha posteriores. Curiosamente, el chacmool no es característico de las culturas oaxaqueñas ni de la Costa del Golfo. Los chacmooles mayas se encuentran casi exclusivamente en Yucatan, donde desaparecieron durante el Posclásico. Probablemente introducido en Chichén Itzá después del año 900, el chacmool fue adoptado por otros grupos que emulaban las creencias y prácticas culturales de esa ciudad poderosa y artísticamente innovadora. Se conocen ejemplos mayas en lugares lejanos de Chichén Itzá como Quiriguá, Guatemala y Tazumal, El Salvador. (Hay otras figuras en la postura supina del chacmool entre los mexicas y en Costa Rica, pero les faltan rasgos esenciales del chacmool como la posición de la cabeza, o incorporan elementos polimórficos. Aunque probablemente derivan del chacmool, no las considero como chacmooles). Si bien la identidad y la función de los chacmooles aún son poco conocidas, en Chichén Itzá la mayoría se visten como los múltiples guerreros representados pintados y esculpidos en las paredes de todo el sitio. No son entidades sobrenaturales, sino imitadores de deidades, mediando entre los seres humanos y los dioses y entre espacios públicos y lugares sagrados. Podrían representar a ancestros, o quizás mecenas retratados porque dedicaron un templo o una ofrenda impresionante. En este sitio tanto como en otros lugares están estrechamente asociados con sacrificios humanos y ceremonias del fuego, además de servir como mesas de ofrendas, guardianes de templos y ofrendas rituales, a veces enterrados en plataformas y templos. Muy modificado durante el Posclásico Tardío, el chacmool aún ocupa un lugar destacado en la cultura mexica, demostrando su perdurabilidad a lo largo de varios siglos y en una amplia franja de México y Centroamérica. Esta enigmática escultura simboliza el movimiento de personas e ideas en Mesoamérica durante un período de profundos cambios culturales.

This Korean book, 건축자 바울: 공간, 시간, 의례(Paul the Builder: Space, Time, and Ritual in 1 Corinthians), offers a fresh reading of 1 Corinthians through three interrelated lenses: space, time, and ritual. It explores how Paul’s letter to the Corinthians shapes the new spatial and temporal realities of these believers and how the early Christian rituals that Paul interprets and presents dynamically contribute to the construction of this space-time in Christ.
August 2024 / Publisher: 도서출판 학영 / ISBN: 9791193931059

It is hardly controversial that the Eucharist 'gives' the Church, and the Church the Eucharist; also that, for Christians, the Eucharist is 'formative of' right practice (orthopraxia) at the individual and collective level. But this would puzzle many non-believers - not to speak of some of my fellow Evangelicals, who would see the Eucharist in merely personal and devotional terms. The sceptical might ask why & how either of these things should be true. This is socio-anthropological rather than properly theological territory.  So I shall attempt to give an answer, using a range of non-Christian ethnographic material, and also attempt to characterize the Eucharist against the background of other practices of socio-symbolic (i.e. sacrificial) practice.

У статті досліджується народний обряд зашивання рота живій жабі в контексті практик «магії зв’язування». На основі архівних матеріалів судово-слідчого походження доби Гетьманщини (Україна, XVIII ст.) проаналізовано особливості ритуалу, послідовність його виконання та місце в архаїчних суспільних уявленнях.
Для верифікації достовірності джерельних свідчень застосовано компаративний метод шляхом зіставлення українських матеріалів із сучасними та історичними прикладами аналогічних ритуалів у країнах Латинської Америки, Карибського регіону та Західної Європи.
Встановлено, що ця обрядова дія належить до практик «симпатичної магії» та застосовувалася як засіб символічного впливу на соціальні відносини, зокрема в межах судових і владних взаємин.
Зроблено висновок про реальне функціонування цієї традиції в народній культурі Гетьманщини та окреслено перспективи подальших міжкультурних досліджень даного феномену.

The existence of myths or folktales about origins among various communities and societies are subjects of academic discourse. These stories are observable among people, as they offer believers explanation that fulfill their cultural and spiritual needs. Academically, they provide valuable insights for comparative analysis. This article examines the origin stories prevalent among the Tamu (the Gurungs) of Nepal and the Naxi ethnic minority in China's Yunnan province. The Tamu story postulates their origin can be traced back to the mythical Khè Ku (nine paternal ancestors) and Mhā Ngi (seven maternal ancestors). Similarly, the Naxi story features nine paternal and seven maternal progenitors despite the fact that these communities being located in different countries and speaking distinct languages. While further studies are needed, the genetic affinity between the Naxi community and the Tamu community (and other indigenous nationalities of Nepal) suggests that the inhabitants of this region embody contemporary manifestations of a shared prehistoric lineage or horde.

The ideological agenda in translation, particularly in folklore translation, is a new concept. This essay, from a semiotic perspective, suggests that, in addition to the dimensions of linguistic competence and cultural knowledge, there is also a dimension of ideological agenda worth examining in translating folklore materials. To do so, this essay first sketches the ideas and theories in translation studies, and then points out that some folklore translations of Chinese concept of "race" and folktales helped create and/or reinforce the racist stereotypes against Chinese people and culture because of the hidden ideological agenda with colonialist and racist orientation, whether the translators/writers were conscious of it or not.

Review by Alberto Parisi of Burkhard Fehr and Panagiotis Roilos (eds.), Mythogenesis, Interdiscursivity, Ritual: Studies Presented to Demetrios Yatromanolakis (Brill, Leiden and Boston 2024), EIRENE, STUDIA GRAECA ET LATINA, LXI, 2025, I-II, pp. 286-287.

This _Essay challenges the taken-for-granted ‘celebratory paradigm’ that dominates scholarly understandings of national days. Drawing on comparative evidence from Central, Eastern, and Northern Europe, it argues that national days are frequently not occasions of unambiguous celebration but hybrid ritual formations that intertwine joy, commemoration, and mourning. To capture this ambivalence, the article advances the concept of commemobration, denoting national day rituals that blend celebratory performances of nationhood with solemn practices of remembrance and grief. The argument unfolds through a comparative analysis of national day ceremonies in Poland, Hungary, Finland, and the Baltic states. Particular attention is devoted to Poland’s Independence Day on 11 November, which exemplifies a conflicted commemobrative pattern shaped by historical trauma, political polarization, and the rise of illiberal populism. The analysis shows how state-centered commemorations coexist with, and are increasingly overshadowed by, nationalist counter-rituals such as the March of Independence, producing a ritual landscape marked by both heroic glorification and collective victimhood. By situating national days along a continuum ranging from celebration and commemoration to grief and mourning, the article reconceptualizes national days as complex ritual events. It concludes by arguing that national day studies should move beyond the sociology of celebration and nationalism studies to engage more systematically with memory studies and death studies.

This edited volume contains thirteen essays on homa, a ritual of votive offerings that are immolated in fire, often in a ritual hearth. While fire and its identification with the ancient Vedic fire-god Agni have been broadly retained, other elements of the ritual have been transformed over time and space. Homa Variations thus provides scholars an invaluable opportunity for historically longitudinal study of ritual change.

This paper attempts to situate ghosts as the figures of performative justice beyond the realms of religious and 'superstitious' practices in India and South Asia. Bhuta and Preta have their evocative and haunting presence in the world of beliefs in India and South Asia, more so in the imaginative landscape of the folk world. They have various names and manifestations based on their appearance, actions and sensibilities, from Chudail, Pandubba, Keechin, Jinn, Daiva and Bhootas. They function in the domain of senses and mark their affective presence through visible and invisible gestures. Though they differ from region to region and community to community, I focus on the presence of these figures among the marginalized communities who remain vulnerable. They are the figures who embody corporeal excess or lack – abnormality becomes their markers, thus also a critique of the appearance of abled bodies.
Attached here are a few glimpses of the paper

The royal cult at Late Bronze Age Ugarit employed a remarkable variety of ritual strategies. The majority of Ugaritic ritual texts were written to promote the king as the primary ritual actor, regularly silencing those who actually performed cult. The treatment of the king’s body is at the center of ritual performance where the king undergoes a washing ritual that is linked to his sacralizing and purification. The textualization of the rituals describes the king as the only actor who performs sacrifice. Surprisingly, there is never a mention of the head priest or any other priest engaging in sacrifice. The propagandistic aspect of this primary ritual strategy is clear to see.

A closer look at a handful of other ritual texts reveals six additional ritual strategies that present a more nuanced picture of royal cult. A second strategy has the king not as a ritual actor but rather as the beneficiary of cult. KTU 1.40, our best example of this strategy, describes a sacrificial ritual by the public at large with a focus on social well-being—including even immigrant communities. A third ritual strategy (best represented by KTU 1.119) combines the two above approaches, with both the king and the public as ritual actors. KTU 1.23 reveals how a fourth ritual strategy—involving non-royal actors with the monarchy as beneficiaries—sought to entertain audiences by combining ritual performance with mythic storytelling about how God and king are alike in providing agricultural abundance. A fifth royal ritual strategy (e.g. KTU 1,148; KTU 1.43) focuses on public relations where abundant feasts and ritual processions drew attention to the king as provider par excellence.  Divinatory texts represent a sixth ritual strategy in which the gods were thought to provide predictive windows allowing the king to act in his own best interests as well as those of his constituents. A seventh ritual strategy (KTU 1.161) with both the king and public as beneficiaries involves an altogether different category of imagined actors: the shades of deceased kings who are summed to participate in a mortuary sacrificial ritual that facilitates a double transition—that of the recently deceased king to the netherworld and the transition of his successor to the throne. The ancestral shades then bring well-being to royalty and public alike.

This expanded view of multiple ritual strategies reveals a comprehensive, multifaceted, and even pragmatic royal cult that in effect acknowledges that propaganda alone is not enough.

This seminar addresses the challenges arising from the specific case study of coffins from the Middle Kingdom of ancient Egypt (c. 2050-1700 BCE). These challenges confront established concepts in Western disciplines that are structured dichotomously and hierarchically, such as synchrony-diachrony, document-monument, and text-context. During the two days of this seminar, specific cases will be examined to illustrate these challenges, as well as the techniques and methods applicable both now and in the future.

The Lord's Prayer is a paradigm of early Christian practice and pivotal to a wide variety of theologies, exegeses, ethics, and church practice from the beginnings of Christianity to the present day. Read psychoanalytically, the brief ten-line prayer implicates the father, the sacred name, the siblings, the father's desire, forgiveness, existential anxiety, trial, deliverance from oppression, glory, and power. This essay is a psychoanalytically thick description of the prayer. A close reading of the Greek text reveals a metaphor for a future kingship, addressing a father and entangling themes of sublimation, castration, the symptom, perversion, neurosis, and psychosis; in short, the human condition. This essay argues that the discourse of the Lord's Prayer establishes a community with a father, implicating the supplicant to fulfill their infantile wishes, thought to exist in heaven, on earth. Footnotes reflect the author's best estimate of the level of detail required by the journal audience regarding Greek lexical semantics, historical and social context, alternative religious translation details, and specific psychoanalytic theory. More or less detail can be provided.

This document constitutes a metaphysical manifesto with general-philosophical supplements. The concepts presented in the manifesto are set forth without proofs, or with only a minimal number of them. Logical coherence and the internal integrity of the system itself serve here as a form of justification. It is anticipated that this manifesto will be updated and expanded. This manifesto serves as an extension and deepening of the work "The Essence of General Metaphysics". In that work, in addition to an attempt to ground the method of metaphysical modelling from nothingness and notes on phenomenology, the physical structure is formalized by means of a graph of sets (with binary relations) that recursively (and randomly at the level of a single set) negate themselves, thereby generating new sets and new structure; furthermore, through their self-negation they manifest the probable hierarchies of their emergence (which one most probably arose from which). This is likely the simplest variant of algorithmic generation. At the time of composing this manifesto, the author considers that this genuinely reflects physical structure at a very deep level; however, it most probably does not constitute the deepest structural level [see the section "Ontology", §5 - §5.3.2]. This may not be a critical point for formalization in the final theory (though doubts on this matter remain), just as, for instance, the meaninglessness of transmitting qualia through text is not critical. It is likewise not excluded that the problem of the causal self-reference "whole ⇄ part" may prove less intractable than it appears. By the time of writing this text, the author had attempted to resolve this problem and observed that it does not yield easily: he concluded that a composite approach -not purely theoretical, but also practical -would be more judicious, and resolved to observe what results from it. In this document, different theses vary in their degree of precision and speculativeness (because the conception continues to develop); however, the conceptual framework is highly determinate, with the exception of the problems identified in §5 - §5.3.2 of the "Ontology" section and in the "Current Self-Critique" section. It bears separate emphasis that, in developing this document, no particular stress was placed on maximizing definitional precision, since doing so would be counterproductive here; the primary aim was to convey the essence and logical structure of the metaphysical conception that the author currently holds.

The Puṣpacintāmaṇi is a 17th-century Nepalese digest (nibandha) that compiles authoritative citations on the use of flowers in Hindu worship (pūjā). This book provides a critical edition and translation of the Sanskrit text and its Newari rendering, along with botanical identifications of the flowers mentioned. Furthermore, it analyzes the historical and cultural context of the text, including its place in the Nepalese textual tradition and its relationship to other texts of its genre.

This is a reworked English version of the thesis “Von Blüten, Göttern und Gelehrten: Die Behandlung von pūjā-Blüten im Puṣpacintāmaṇi” (https://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bsz:15-qucosa-102174).

Dit artikel onderzoekt de historische trajecten, etymologische verschuivingen en rituele praktijken rondom de Afro-Creoolse verering van Sint Antonius van Padua (lokaal bekend als Sanantoni, Toni of Sarantonio) op Curaçao, met name tijdens de festiviteit Lele Toni. Waar de officiële hagiografie van de Rooms-Katholieke Kerk deze dertiende-eeuwse franciscaanse frater presenteert als een toonbeeld van intellectuele deugd en kuisheid, toont zijn transatlantische transpositie naar de Afro-diasporische gemeenschappen een radicale hermeneutische omvorming. Door de Curaçaose devotie aan te pakken als een analytisch ankerpunt, legt deze studie directe structurele, etymologische en kosmologische dwarsverbanden bloot met de Centraal-Afrikaanse Toni Malau-traditie uit het historische Kongo-rijk, de Creoolse festivals van de Kaapverdische en Santomeese archipels, en de syncretische manifestaties binnen de Afro-Braziliaanse (Exu Tranca Ruas) en Afro-Cubaanse (Eleguá en Lucero Mundo) religieuze stelsels. Geanalyseerd vanuit het perspectief van Afro-Creoolse geloofssystemen, openbaart de figuur van Sanantoni zich niet als een passieve overname van Europese hegemoniale iconografie, maar als een actieve, subversieve toe-eigening waarmee spirituele autonomie en kosmologische reciprociteit werden gewaarborgd onder de gewelddadige druk van de Caribische plantagesamenleving.

Il sovrano fantasma. Politiche dell'eterogeneo in Bataille e Leiris di Massimo Palma 29 Dal re del sacrificio al sacrificio del re. Critica della teologia politica in Der gerettete Christus di Werner Hegemann (1928) di Gabriele Guerra 51 Morte di Arlecchino re. Fantasia e potere di Fulvio Rambaldini 71 Interregnum. Il principio di continuità di Flavio Luzi 91 Al posto del padre. Fenomenologia del parricidio in Freud di Paolo Vinci

Abstract. – Rappaport (1999) saw the relationship between re-ligion and language as one of reciprocal causation. As symbol-ic communication, language is a prerequisite for the existence of religion. But language makes it possible to lie, which under-mines the trust that social life
requires. Religion counteracts the centrifugal force of the lie by sanctifying the principal tenets of the belief and social systems through ritual. I argue here that the key link between language and religion is not a consequence of the lie, but, rather, a consequence of language’s feature of
displacement, which radically altered early humans’ experience of time. [religion, language, displacement, episodic memory, mental time travel, narrative]

This monograph examines Virgil's Aeneid through the lens of ritual liminality, challenging the established 'optimist-pessimist' dichotomy. It reveals the epic not as a panegyric, but as a profound meditation on the brutality of existential transition and unresolved trauma. The author demonstrates how associative liminal imagery and narrative diversions generate a unique tension: while poetic devices propel the narrative towards an increasingly inevitable fate, they simultaneously create a space of perpetual potentiality. In this light, the Trojans' journey reflects the subaltern agency of a displaced people rather than a triumphant imperial quest. Their spiritual and gnostic transformation enables Rome to emerge as a 'Citadel of Heaven.' Crucially, the study reconsiders Magna Mater as a pivotal steward of fate-almost on a par with Jupiter. By anchoring ritual studies in a rigorous classical analysis of liminal symbolism, this work demonstrates the centrality of ritual liminal thinking in the poetic texture. It shows why the depiction of Aeneas and the Trojans, in all their bizarre otherness, remains hauntingly relevant for modern readers-offering fresh perspectives for forced migration, religious studies, and gender and identity.

Neuroscience, philosophies of embodied cognition, architecture theory, performance theories of perceptual oscillation, and other relevant theories are used to analyze how artists create affective scenographic environments, and how attendants (spectators) embody these environments. Attendant perception of a performance environment, according to these theories, can be characterized as action-oriented embodied cognition-an attendant perceives through physical action, including action on a neural level. Theories of embodied cognition are applied to case studies-theatre performances-that include examples from the author's work as a performance-maker and from the work of Socìetas Rafaello Sanzio, a company that has been instructive to the author's understanding of the encounter between self and scenography. Theories of neural mapping, neural reuse, James J. Gibson's theory of surface perception, metaphor theory, conceptual blending, the concept of haptic visual perception, and the physics of auditory perception are employed, in combination with detailed examples from the performances, to explain how an attendant somatically makes-sense-of/cognizes that which is encountered. Some common configurations from the history of Western scenography are discussed in order to further elucidate how and why an attendant might use existing cultural and personal image schemas to find meaning in the spatial arrangement of a given performance design. In addition, the performances examined, all of which encourage perceptual instability for the attendant, necessitate rethinking the notion of cognition in performance-not-knowing is as valuable a state as knowing. To this end the theory of neural reuse and philosophies regarding self-and-other, where other is extended to include nonhuman materialities, are employed in a later chapter to argue for the importance of non-cognition, a state of prolonged unknowing that

This article offers a first‑hand, ethnographic account of the Argungu Fishing Festival in Kebbi State, Nigeria – a UNESCO‑recognised intangible cultural heritage event. Moving beyond spectacle, the essay frames the festival as a living knowledge system in which fishing, farming, ritual, and ecological intelligence converge.

Drawing on immersion across four days, the paper examines how experienced fishermen read the river through subtle cues, how the Mawushe (ritual specialist) sanctifies the water and closes the mouths of crocodiles, and how the crowning of the Seriki Noma (King of Farming) recognises agricultural knowledge as integral to community survival. The narrative centres on a moment of rupture: the President’s late arrival, a premature gunshot, and seventy thousand fishermen entering the river before the ritual blessing – an omission that, in local belief, carries real consequence.

The essay also critically reflects on political branding, the treatment of documenters, and the festival’s negotiation between heritage and modern power. Ultimately, it argues that the Mantan Fada River is not merely a stage for spectacle but a teacher – holding memory, transmitting skill, and waiting for the next generation to learn.

In Shiʻi Islam, mourning is not a response to loss but a mode of spiritual formation. The annual commemoration of Imam Husayn's martyrdom at Karbala (680 CE) during Muharram-through majalis (mourning assemblies), matam (rhythmic lamentation), and public processionsconstitutes what Schubel (1993) identifies as a "root paradigm" through which communal identity and piety are generated, not merely expressed. Weeping for Husayn carries soteriological weight: Ayoub (1978) demonstrates that the faithful's lamentation enables participation in divine grace through the intercession of the martyred Imam. Azadari is thus not historical commemoration but ongoing redemptive practice. This paper examines how Shiʻi mourning traditions confront a dominant American cultural framework-shaped by Protestant sensibilities and capitalist productivity-that privatizes grief, pathologizes its prolongation, and demands rapid emotional resolution. Ariès (1981) traces the Western sequestration of death from public life, while Harris (2010) argues that capitalist social structures actively oppress the bereaved by imposing temporal constraints on mourning. Drawing on fieldwork among Shiʻi communities in South Florida-principally the Islamic Jaffaria Association (IJA) in Hialeah Gardens and the Ershad Center in South Miami-I analyze how practitioners navigate between religiously mandated public lamentation and American normative grief frameworks. Extending Doka's (1989) concept of "disenfranchised grief" beyond unrecognized relationships to encompass disenfranchised modes of mourning, I argue that Ashura observances-communal, embodied, cyclical, and deliberately public-are structurally marginalized by a culture that treats grief as a private problem to be resolved rather than a communal practice to be sustained.

This article traces the evolution of Limbo from its sacred origins as a funerary rite rooted in African cosmologies to its contemporary manifestations as commercial spectacle, athletic display, and global entertainment form. Through a personal ethnographic approach, I interweaves family oral histories, structured interviews, immersive fieldwork, and archival research to document how Limbo has transformed across spiritual, performative, and institutional contexts-from nighttime wakes in rural Trinidad to Carnival stages, circus arenas, and viral media platforms. Grounded in BaKongo cosmology and Africana ancestral practice, the study foregrounds Limbo's original function as a funerary technology designed to assist the soul's transition between earthly and ancestral realms. It critically examines the consequences of reversing the ritual's cosmological logic-particularly the symbolic shift from bar-raising to bar-lowering-and interrogates the pedagogical, spiritual, and cultural implications of this shift. Drawing on insights from key cultural figures including Julia Edwards, Torrance Mohammed, Emelda Lynch Griffith, and Thomas Talawa Prestø, the article offers a layered reflection on the tensions between tradition and innovation, ritual integrity and commodification, and sacred memory and global performance. Bending but Not Breaking is a call to cultural responsibility, reframing Limbo as a living ancestral technology whose survival depends on deliberate, ethically rooted adaptation.

Este artículo se propone dos objetivos. El primero es explicar de manera retrospectiva cómo llegué a trabajar entre 2002 y 2006 en tres proyectos distintos con las mujeres qom del oeste formoseño mientras era estudiante de la carrera de Antropología en la UBA. El primer proyecto se proponía investigar sobre diversos aspectos reproductivos y nutricionales en comunidades indígenas de Formosa, y los siguientes dos fueron proyectos implementados por dos ONG distintas (fundaciones), uno con el fin de promover capacidades para la gestión comunitaria del territorio
y el fortalecimiento de los derechos territoriales, y el otro para impulsar el desarrollo artesanal y la conformación de dos asociaciones de mujeres artesanas. Para ello, reviso un conjunto de reflexiones analíticas que volqué en trabajos anteriores sin publicar (Gómez, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2009).
El segundo objetivo es ofrecer algunas consideraciones e interpretaciones conceptuales sobre el rol gubernamental que vienen jugando, desde la década de 1990 en adelante, los actores no gubernamentales cuyos proyectos en el Chaco argentino se financian a través de un entramado complejo de fondos privados y estatales, en los que intervienen agencias de cooperación internacional, entes privados y programas del Estado.

This paper presents The Mid-Air Corridor and the Sixth Pentacle of the Sun as a full Layer III expansion of John Henry Douglas III’s original Wind-Gated Coherence Field. The study treats the Mid-Air Corridor as a reconstructable spiritual-mathematical architecture built from geometry, trigonometry, calculus, algebra, node mapping, residual solvency, airflow routing, and threshold-based render logic. Rather than placing symbolism before structure, the manuscript argues that spiritual interpretation becomes strongest when it is constrained by measurable mathematical form.

The paper first preserves the Layer I-II framework: a bounded circular field, a twenty-four-node coordinate system, visible anchor measurements, residual calculations, coherence scoring, and PASS / BUFFER / HARD-HALT gate logic. It then develops a Layer III reading in which the same mathematical structures become spiritual functions. The circle becomes a veil of containment, the rings become discernment layers, the core becomes the render point of committed gnosis, the residuals become spiritual friction, and the Z-ratio becomes the gate that determines whether a signal may appear, remain buffered, or be halted.

The Sixth Pentacle of the Sun is used as a comparative overlay and observational perspective, not as proof of historical derivation. Through this overlay, the paper examines shared symbolic grammars of circle, triangle, center, inscription, concealment, solar visibility, and regulated manifestation. The manuscript also includes an applied Layer III example using Raphael, Gabriel, and Caspiel as an aerial discernment triad, showing how archangelic and archdemonic functions may be interpreted through the same mathematical gate structure. The final argument is that spiritual communication can be read as mathematical communication when geometry, motion, number, pressure, threshold, and coherence become the disciplined language through which hidden meaning enters human perception.

Pianiste-Aristokrate e Tingullit Në qytetin e gurit, Gjirokastër, aty ku historia dhe heshtja ndërthuren si një partiturë e lashtë që i ka mbijetuar kohës, lindi Dhurata Lazo, pianiste që ka përshkuar skenat e botës, por që në thelb ka mbetur gjithmonë e ankoruar në një notë të vetme: Gjirokastrën. Lidhja e saj e fortë me vendlindjen dhe kthimet e saj të shpeshta janë një kthim prustian, ku koha nuk rikthehet si e shkuar, por si ndjesi e gjallë. Gjithçka nis në Gjirokastër, në moshën gjashtëvjeçare, kur ajo fillon rrugëtimin me pianon. Mësimet e para i merr me Lefteri Qamo, Kreshnike Karaulli dhe dirigjentin e muzikologun Roland Çene. Në një kohë pa piano në shtëpi, ajo ndërton botën e saj muzikore si një univers të brendshëm, ku mungesa shndërrohet në hapësirë krijimi dhe imagjinata bëhet instrumenti i parë. Më pas vijon në Tiranë, në Liceun Artistik, me profesoreshën Nikoleta Nako, dhe në Akademinë e Arteve, nën drejtimin e Prof. Anita Tartari, si dhe në muzikën e dhomës me profesorin e saj Robert Radoja.

Anders anders lesen Versuch eines imaginären Gesprächs über die Verleihung des vierten Günther Anders-Preises für kritisches Denken an Guillaume Paoli 2024 G.A.: Was gibt es, dass du mich anrufst? G.O: Was würdest du sagen, wenn jemand behauptet: "Anders zufolge ist ,nur das Falsche das Richtige!'" A: Das war nicht ich. O: Ich weiß. A: Du darfst nicht immer alles glauben, was irgendwer über mich sagt. O: Das ist mir bewusst, seit einmal sogar in Wikipedia zu lesen war, Du hättest Eatherly als den Piloten ausgegeben, der Hiroshima bombardiert hat. Diesmal war es aber kein Irgendwer, sondern einer der besten Kenner Deiner Schriften, wenn nicht der beste. A: Wikipedia ist also tatsächlich ganz unverlässlich. O: Im Gegenteil: Als ich ihn aufgeklärt hatte, beeilte sich der Wikipedianer, es selbst zu berichtigen. Auch sonst funktioniert dort die Eingangskontrolle recht gut und macht die online-Enzyklopädie sehr zuverlässig. Übrigens ist der nämliche Lapsus auch einer leibhaftigen Frau Univ.-Prof. unterlaufen: Zwei Jahre, bevor sie in die Jury des Anders-Preises 2024 berufen wurde, hatte Petra Gehring im Rundfunk ganz arglos bekannt: Mein persönliches Lieblingsbuch ist der Briefwechsel von Anders mit Claude Eatherly, dem Piloten, der die Bombe abwarf, in gewisser Weise dem Menschen, der den Auftrag hatte, den Knopf zu drücken oder auszulösen. Und dieser Briefwechsel ist interessanterweise doch eher vergessen-vielleicht werden Briefwechsel heute nicht mehr so gerne gelesen-den würde ich auf jeden Fall empfehlen.

This paper is a prepared response to John D. Brey’s paper, following an invitation to offer feedback, constructive criticism, or alternative perspectives, and to contribute to the ongoing scholarly discussion. This paper offers a constructive response to the proposal that ritual forms can disclose meanings exceeding the explicit understanding of their original participants, using circumcision as a test case. It summarizes Brey’s two-part thesis (ritual as sign and as generator of meaning, with symbolic correspondences that may become clearer in later horizons of knowledge) and affirms the essay’s strengths in embodied hermeneutics, rhetorical clarity, and methodological guardrails against anachronism. It then sharpens the central metaphor by distinguishing possible senses of “ritual knowledge,” clarifies how the argument shifts among models of meaning (preserved, generated, invited), and recommends greater precision and citation support for anatomical/embryological claims. Finally, it encourages alternative framings (ritual as durable semiotic technology and participation as tacit knowing) while flagging likely objections concerning projection, teleology, and gendered symbolism.

Labor strikes are a potent form of protest, empowering dissatisfied workers to challenge workplace power dynamics. On Monday, September 23rd, 2024, Unite Here Local 274 Aramark workers refused to enter the workplace after their employers refused requests for higher pay and better healthcare - a historic event as the first in American history to involve all (three) sports stadia in a major city. Many activities occur at labor strikes, including marching, chanting, singing, sign-holding, physical blockade, "scab" (temporary replacement worker) shaming, and news interviews - a highly emotional environment. This research paper seeks to understand the cognitive foundations of emotional arousal at labor strikes that are associated with music and sound produced by striking laborers. The unpitched chants heard at the Unite Here Local 274 Aramark strike are examined via melograph analysis, ITPRA theory, BRECVEMA framework, embodied cognition, and the identification of discrete musical structures associated with dimensional models of affect, psychoacoustics, and traits of political propaganda song. Previous research (in the form of scholarly journal articles and peer reviewed scholarly texts) on music and emotion, political/organizational theory, psychoacoustics, embodied cognition, strong experiences with music (SEM), and music perception are summarized and built upon. Addressed are those elements of unpitched chant which might be responsible for high arousal, negative valence emotions on the picket line. Ultimately, the paper will present observations regarding a possible mechanism with which collective political chants elicit strong emotional experiences towards the goal of impacting labor negotiations during a labor strike.

The paper aims at reconstructing the decorative use of baked bricks in relation either to buildings of official or private destination in early 7th century BC Nineveh, also highlighting some aspects of Sennacherib's decorative program inside royal buildings and city gates. Specific building choices enact a visual performance of kingship, thus contributing to the affirmation of Sennacherib's royal identity and exercise of power. The identification of different brick types and of their distribution inside buildings sets the foundation for integrating them within the material culture framework, highlighting their contribution to the creation of social identities underlying the circulation of brick types within the city borders, focusing on the actors involved in the actualisation of the building act.

Liminality is an interesting but neglected theory. It helps us in understanding the mental process during a lethal condition like life threatening disease. The present study is an attempt to revisit and explore the wider implications of liminality. The main contributors in this field were Arnold Van Gennep and Victor Turner. Voluminous research has been produced on the basis of theory of liminality. Liminality is applied in the management studies, in Mathematics, in research process, in teaching and even in glass making. In psychology, social sciences, folk studies, in academia, in understanding the condition of the Diaspora, the refugees, the migrants, the immigrants, in terms of buildings, landscapes, modern life, pregnancy, adulthood, even in bungee jumping and adventure sports, etc., liminality has added a new lease of understanding. Liminality has played a pivotal role in understanding the phases of development of a society

Online team games extend beyond mere digital entertainment. They serve as platforms for learning and social connection, where players from diverse backgrounds and social contexts collaborate to tackle challenges, solve puzzles, and achieve shared objectives. Within these virtual adventures, affective computing emerges through collaborative efforts, the elation of shared victories, and solidarity during moments of setback. These environments seamlessly blend individuality with collective experiences, forging unforgettable bonds that transcend digital boundaries. The educational-social approach of online team games fosters essential skills like communication, leadership, and effective group work, contributing to the development of conscious and collaborative citizens. The intervention unveils the outcomes of a focus group conducted among Italian youth workers in northern Italy exploring the use of online entertainment gaming to enhance street education initiatives. I giochi di squadra online vanno oltre il semplice intrattenimento digitale. Servono come piattaforme per l'apprendimento e la connessione sociale, dove giocatori provenienti da contesti sociali e background diversi collaborano per affrontare sfide, risolvere enigmi e raggiungere obiettivi condivisi. All'interno di queste avventure virtuali, il calcolo affettivo emerge attraverso gli sforzi di collaborazione, l'euforia delle vittorie condivise e la solidarietà nei momenti di difficoltà. Questi ambienti fondono perfettamente l'individualità con le esperienze collettive, creando legami indimenticabili che superano i confini digitali. L'approccio educativo-sociale dei giochi di squadra online favorisce competenze essenziali come la comunicazione, la leadership e il lavoro di gruppo efficace, contribuendo allo sviluppo di cittadini consapevoli e collaborativi. L'intervento presenta i risultati di un focus group condotto tra gli operatori giovanili italiani del Nord Italia che ha esplorato l'uso dei giochi di intrattenimento online per migliorare le iniziative di educazione di strada.

New immigrants have already changed Philadelphia's cultural scene—particularly in urban neighborhoods. This brief uses three types of evidence— a small-area database of cultural participation, a survey of residents of North Philadelphia and Camden, NJ, and a survey of artists living or working in the metropolitan area—to explore migrant cultural engagement. Taken together, SIAP’s evidence on artists and cultural participants paints a portrait of migrants and foreign-born residents who are positively oriented toward cultural expression but frustrated by institutional, spatial, and socio-economic barriers. Can culture serve as a means of linking new Philadelphians to other social institutions? Disciplines Civic and Community Engagement | Social Policy | Urban Studies and Planning Comments The Culture and Urban Revitalization project was a collaboration between SIAP and The Reinvestment Fund (TRF), a community development financial institution, with support by the Rockefeller Found...

The effectiveness of ritual is a major anthropological question. In this paper, I challenge some of the explanations anthropologists have provided to such a question and I attempt to formulate an original theorization of ritual as metaphor. The proposed hypothesis is grounded in two inspiring concepts: Ernesto De Martino's idea of “dehistorification” as the main technique of the ritual and Bruce Kapferer's “virtuality” as its proper dynamic dimension. Drawing on these theoretical foundations and a direct ethnographic experience and conceiving of ritual as a practice rather than as a symbol, I propose to regard it as a particular practice of metaphorization that is not representative of reality but effective on it.

Despite Southern Baptist Churches of New Mexico cooperating in mission, education, purpose, and aligning with “The 2000 Baptist Faith and Message,” the way in which each local autonomous church incorporates theological truths in corporate worship and practice remains largely unstudied. This qualitative research project examines the diverse methods employed in theological education and their implications, considering variations in liturgical and worship styles, be they traditional, blended, or contemporary. In response, and guided by survey replies of pastors and worship leaders in the Southern Baptist Churches of New Mexico, the results reveal the challenges, process, application, and importance of choosing songs and elements for corporate worship that help in establishing ministries that are firmly grounded in the theological and doctrinal truths contained in the “2000 Baptist Faith and Message.”  Additionally, the findings of this research provide essential and crucial insights and information for other pastors, worship leaders, and churches, enabling them to gain insight into developing new or additional methods, processes, or practices to teach and equip their local congregations with theological and doctrinal truths. Moreover, this study’s outcomes are expected to benefit students and those who serve in leadership positions of discipling, mentoring, training, and teaching within local churches, ministries, and those called to vocational ministry.
Keywords: theological truths, education, corporate worship, teach, equip

Esta tesis es resultado de seis años de investigación colectiva en el sitio arqueológico La Ferrería. Sin embargo, los análisis, interpretaciones y omisiones que hay en el texto son mi responsabilidad. A través de las siguientes líneas quiero agradecer a quienes, de una manera u otra, me han ayudado a lo largo de este proceso. En primer lugar, agradezco a la UNAM y al Posgrado en Estudios Mesoamericanos por, una vez más, abrirme las puertas a la educación gratuita del más alto nivel a través de seminarios y coloquios donde tuve la oportunidad de compartir diversos puntos de vista con profesores y compañeros, cuyos trabajos y comentarios ampliaron mis horizontes. Agradezco a mi comité tutor por ayudarme a delimitar la investigación y acompañarme en los años en que la tesis se fue formando y transformando. Al Dr. Antonio Reyes por invitarme a Durango y darme entera libertad para diseñar y desarrollar un proyecto de investigación arqueológica en La Ferrería. También por hacerme parte del Catálogo de Lugares Sagrados, con el cual tuve el privilegio de aproximarme al Gran Nayar, más allá de la literatura especializada. Al Dr. César Villalobos por las asesorías de tesis y de la práctica profesional, por las pláticas constantes sobre nuestro amado noroeste y por involucrarme en su equipo de investigación universitaria. Al Dr. Alfonso Grave por sus observaciones sobre mi texto, por darme confianza en el proceso de escritura y apoyarme, tanto en lo académico como lo personal, desde hace más de quince años, cuando recién egresé de la licenciatura. Al Dr. Roberto Flores por sus enseñanzas en el seminario de arqueosemiótica de la ENAH y por impulsarme a experimentar otras formas de analizar la materialidad arqueológica. Al Dr. José Luis Punzo por sus atinados comentarios durante el examen de candidatura y por incluirme en su equipo de trabajo en Durango, en el ya lejano 2007. A la Dra. Elena Mazzeto, por aceptar leer y comentar mi investigación a pesar de apretadísima agenda. Un agradecimiento especial al Dr. Arturo Guevara † por compartirme su conocimiento y valiosas experiencias de los años que trabajó en La Ferrería. Atesoro sus correos electrónicos, llamadas, textos y las cartas que me hizo llegar, escritas de su puño y letra. Gracias a mi familia del Centro INAH Durango por su apoyo incondicional dentro y fuera de la oficina y la zona arqueológica. Evocaciones de un mundo trazado en las rocas. Análisis interdisciplinario del sitio arqueológico La Ferrería, Durango.

This study explores the intersection of the Olojo festival and the Ooni of Ile-Ife in Yorubaland, focusing on extramundane communication. Through sacred rituals, ceremonies, and artifacts, the research reveals how the festival facilitates communication between the physical and metaphysical realms. Using ritual theory and a qualitative research approach, the study examines the role of rituals in enabling communication between humans and supernatural entities. The findings show that the festival creates a liminal space for extramundane communication through Gbajure chant, Aare crown, Osirigi drums, and Ewo songs. This allows the Ooni and participants to connect with the divine and

This essay develops the concept of orthogonality as a structural alternative to binary opposition in cultural, political, and psychoanalytic analysis. Drawing on Jacques Derrida’s critique of hierarchical oppositions and extending beyond Claude Lévi-Strauss’s structuralism, it introduces ethnotopology as a framework in which cultural forces operate as vectors within a multidimensional space rather than as antagonistic pairs. In this space, relations are defined not by negation but by “union without intersection”—a condition in which entities influence one another while maintaining distinct trajectories.

Through examples ranging from celestial mechanics to political rivalry, from myth (Rumi’s mosquito and the wind) to literature (The Walrus and the Carpenter), and from ritual (Jean Rouch’s Les maîtres fous) to psychoanalysis (Lacan’s Kant avec Sade), the essay demonstrates that rivalry is not reducible to opposition. Competing forces—such as Democrats and Republicans, colonizer and colonized, or duty and jouissance—do not negate one another but converge toward shared spaces while remaining structurally non-identical.

By reinterpreting cultural systems such as Lévi-Strauss’s culinary models (raw/cooked) through orthogonal extensions (honey/tobacco), the essay argues that meaning and social dynamics unfold through parallel, intersecting yet non-collapsing dimensions. Ethnotopology thus reframes conflict, coexistence, and desire as topological phenomena, where tension is sustained without resolution and structure replaces synthesis.

кандидат філологічних наук, доцент, доцент кафедри туристичного супроводу Університет Ататюрка ORCID ID: 0000-0001-9196-7118 У статті проаналізовано символіку чисел у народних казках України та Туреччини. Вивчення чисел у жанрі казки дозволило виявити культурні паралелі та відмінності у жанрі казки двох різних народів. Доведено, що числові символи є важливою частиною фольклорної спадщини, адже вони не лише структурують наративи, але й відображають світогляд, релігійні уявлення та моральні цінності суспільства. Числа 3, 7, 12 та 40 у різних фольклорних системах набувають особливих значень, які передаються через казки та легенди. Аналіз частотності та ролі кожного з цих чисел в українських та турецьких казках дає підстави вважати, що числова символіка виконує сакральну та комунікативну функцію. Зокрема, число 3 в обох культурах асоціюється з повнотою, завершеністю та циклічністю, однак має свої культурні особливості: в українській традиції воно часто позначає завершення етапів чи випробувань, а у турецькій-успіх після двох попередніх спроб. Число 7 у фольклорі України та Туреччини також є сакральним і символізує магію та таємничість, об'єднуючи небесне і земне. Однак якщо в українській культурі воно поєднується із духовною гармонією, то в турецькій набуває рис божественної сили. Число 40 рідше зустрічається в українській казковій традиції, однак у турецькому фольклорі воно займає особливе місце і асоціюється із процесом очищення та символізує період оновлення. Порівняльний аналіз показує, що числова символіка у казках України та Туреччини, попри схожість окремих мотивів, має свої унікальні особливості, зумовлені релігійними і соціокультурними впливами. Символіка чисел у фольклорі цих народів формує багатий світ образів, що служить важливим каналом збереження національної ідентичності та передачі культурної пам'яті з покоління в покоління. Дослідження дозволяє краще зрозуміти історичні, релігійні та соціальні взаємозв'язки між двома народами, розкриваючи як універсальні символічні мотиви, так і культурну специфіку. Ключові слова: українська народна казка, турецька народна казка, символіка чисел, символ, фольклор.
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Nepal is more than just a travel destination-it's a deeply spiritual land where ancient traditions, sacred landscapes, and living faith come together in a way few places on earth can match. Nestled in the lap of the Himalayas, this country has long been a refuge for seekers, pilgrims, monks, and travelers searching for inner peace. From centuries-old temples resonating with chants to quiet monasteries perched on misty hills, every corner of Nepal offers a chance to slow down and reconnect with yourself. If you're planning a mindful escape, these spiritual destinations provide not just sightseeing, but a transformative experience.

In this article I analyse the late medieval wall paintings in Rymättylä
Church (Finland), dated 1514. I focus on the wall paintings in the
porch and the large Last Judgement painting on the east wall of the
nave. The porch, considered a liminal zone, serves as a transitional
area that marks the boundary between the secular outside world and
the sacred interior of the church. I argue that the morality motifs
and the Mother of Mercy motif depicted in the wall paintings in
the porch prepared the viewers to enter the church and see the Last
Judgement scene in the nave. The themes of bad morals and mercy
in the images of the porch played an important role in reinforcing
the passion history of Christ and the salvation of the soul at the Last
Judgement. Via images, the porch played a crucial role in reinforcing
the shared Christian worldview, as individuals passing through it
symbolically renew their commitment to this worldview. Drawing
on the theories of liminality, as well as art historian Paul Binski’s ideas
on cathedral portals, the article situates the porch within the
broader context of medieval art, highlighting the societal functions
of images therein.

This paper explores service interaction in the culturally sensitive bereavement situations using a sociological lens, which focusing on the role of emotion in behavioural meaning-making. This study will adopt Nirvana Johor, Malaysia as a case study context to examine the relations among engagement, emotional experience, and behavioural intention in a taboo service environment. Although the research has been done before on the dynamics revolving around hedonic situations, little attention is paid on high-involvement bereavement services. This conceptual paper proposes a sociologically grounded framework to understand behavioural meaning-making in bereavement service interaction focusing on sociological, service-dominant logic, relationship marketing, and experience economy. In this case, the interpretivist qualitative methodology will be used to comprehend how emotional and cultural factors influence meaning construction. It further outlines potential qualitative directions for future empirical research in culturally sensitive service environments. This research will add to the sociological and social psychological literature, by taking the discourse of emotion, engagement and consumer culture to bereavement services in Malaysia.