USD $77.00
Browse results
Traces of a Forgotten Ritual in Ancient Myths and Legends
Author:
The first book that deals with the territorial cults of early Japan by focusing on how such cults were founded in ownerless regions. Numerous ancient Japanese myths and legends are discussed to show that the typical founding ritual was a two-phase ritual that turned the territory into a horizontal microcosm, complete with its own ‘terrestrial heaven’ inhabited by local deities.
Reversing Mircea Eliade’s popular thesis, the author concludes that the concept of the human-made horizontal microcosm is not a reflection but the source of the religious concept of the macrocosm with gods dwelling high up in the sky.
The open access publication of this book has been published with the support of the Swiss National Science Foundation.
Reversing Mircea Eliade’s popular thesis, the author concludes that the concept of the human-made horizontal microcosm is not a reflection but the source of the religious concept of the macrocosm with gods dwelling high up in the sky.
The open access publication of this book has been published with the support of the Swiss National Science Foundation.
Traces of a Forgotten Ritual in Ancient Myths and Legends
Author:
The first book that deals with the territorial cults of early Japan by focusing on how such cults were founded in ownerless regions. Numerous ancient Japanese myths and legends are discussed to show that the typical founding ritual was a two-phase ritual that turned the territory into a horizontal microcosm, complete with its own ‘terrestrial heaven’ inhabited by local deities.
Reversing Mircea Eliade’s popular thesis, the author concludes that the concept of the human-made horizontal microcosm is not a reflection but the source of the religious concept of the macrocosm with gods dwelling high up in the sky.
The open access publication of this book has been published with the support of the Swiss National Science Foundation.
Reversing Mircea Eliade’s popular thesis, the author concludes that the concept of the human-made horizontal microcosm is not a reflection but the source of the religious concept of the macrocosm with gods dwelling high up in the sky.
The open access publication of this book has been published with the support of the Swiss National Science Foundation.
Series:
Aries Book Series, Volume: 33
Author:
Mꜣꜥt ‘Maat’, Death and the Afterlife
Abstract
This study sets out to demonstrate how in classical and traditional Afrikan thought one’s afterlife on physical and spiritual planes is thought of as being commensurate with one’s adherence to 
Mꜣꜥt ‘Maat’ in terms of lived practice rather than simply as an abstract ideal. As such, we will interrogate textual examples from classical 
Kmt ‘The Black Nation/Land of the Blacks’ and attested lived examples from contemporary Afrika among the Kasena-Nankana with brief references to other cultural-linguistic groups. We demonstrate there is a shared understanding from the classical to the contemporary in terms of how one’s body is treated and how one’s experience in the afterlife is conceptualized. We find that conceptions of the afterlife have influenced how Afrikans engage 
Mꜣꜥt ‘Maat’ as praxis.
Abstract
Genemuider bovenstem is a particular style of psalm singing, originating from the town of Genemuiden in the Netherlands, in which a higher voice is added to the Genevan melody of the psalms. It has roots in liturgical contexts, and has been designated as Intangible Cultural Heritage. This article discusses the construction of singing communities in Genemuider bovenstem psalm singing as performed both in the Sunday worship practices of strictly Reformed church communities, and in collective regional singing events on weekdays that receive financial and practical support from the Dutch government. We present the results of empirical research in Genemuiden, demonstrating the existence of a mutually reinforcing overlap between church communities and the publics who attend psalm-singing events. Our work serves to further nuance extant theories that suggest that the eventization and heritagization of religious practices lead to a diminution in the status of church communities and of their control and ownership over their practices.
Author:
Abstract
This article examines the use of a WhatsApp chat group by Dutch and Belgian Muslim women (born or converted), who are considering or made hijra (religiously inspired migration to a Muslim country) to Morocco. I argue that WhatsApp plays a crucial role in facilitating and narrating these women’s migration by providing a support network and shaping a gendered sense of community and religious belonging. Drawing on theories of religion and gender, migration, and digital media, I conceptualize WhatsApp in the context of hijra to Morocco as a social practice of homemaking that helps alleviate the precarious conditions these women find themselves in. This article also illustrates the complex entanglement of offline and online realities by highlighting how my interlocutors’ interactions in this WhatsApp group foster a trans-local Muslim ‘sisterhood,’ that informs their offline practices and experiences of hijra to Morocco.
Author:
Abstract
Over the past decades, Judaism and Jewishness have been subject to transformation and more fluid boundaries. This article looks at women’s conversions to Judaism in Germany. Analyzing differing biographical trajectories, the article shows how individuals negotiate their desire to become Jewish, which is often closely related to an experience in Israel and a Jewish partner. Arguing that the context makes the conversion, I show how desires and negotiations are deeply entangled with the socio-historical context of German society as well as with the erotic and sexuality. I demonstrate how becoming Jewish presents a way of symbolically distancing oneself from biographical experiences of difference, which are negotiated in and through the conversion. As these conversions are not uncontested, I also show how becoming part of Jewish socialities evokes a negotiation of one’s positionality at the intersection of gender and religion.