Ritual (Anthropology)

הסיבה שבעטייה החל הטקס המקורי נסתרת מעינינו, כפי שגם האופן שבו הקרבן ללא המזבח התגלגל למקדשים עם מזבחים שעליהם נזבח הפסח אינם ידועים לנו. במקרה זה, המסורת לא רק משמרת את העבר, אלא גם מתעדת את הרפורמות שחלו בה. במקרים אחרים, היא מסתירה את העבר, ומחליפה את זכרו בטקסים שיחסם אל האירועים שהולידו אותם נותר עמום, אולי במכוון.

MID-LENT (MIJINQ) AND THE FEAST OF THE FORTY MARTYRS OF SEBASTE IN THE ARMENIAN CHURCH AND FOLK CALENDARS
In the Armenian folk calendar Mid-Lent (Mijinq) and the feast of the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste belong to the winter-spring transitional season.
Mijinq is the 24th day of the Great Lent. At first, it was a feast of Spring Еquinox. It was later merged with Easter Holydays, gained 35-day mobility, moving between February 25 and March 22, but kept the customs and rituals of Spring Еquinox. Mijinq has never been included in the church calendar as a canonical feast, but at the beginning of the XIX century was fixed on the church calendar with the other dates of the national calendar. The feast of the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste is celebrated on Saturday after Mijinq. The life of these saints and their feast symbolize the death and resurrection, the beginning of a new life.
Therefore, this feast in the church calendar was placed in the middle part of the Great Lent, which is the border between winter (death) and spring (life). From Wednesday of Mijinq to the Saturday, the feast of the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste, corresponds to the fourth week of the Great Lent and represents a festive-ritual circle during it. Like other traditional feasts, it also has a rich ritual complex, with its essential stages (pre-festive, festive, after-festive) and components (the name of the feast cycle, feast liturgy, beliefs, repast tradition, pilgrimage, marriage rituals, rituals in memory of the deceased etc.).

Un misterioso rito, retaggio vivente di epoche remotissime, si rinnova ogni anno all’interno delle celebrazioni del carnevale di Castelnuovo a Volturno, in Molise. Un essere fantastico, Gl’ Cierv, furioso e selvatico Uomo Cervo, muore e rinasce ciclicamente, simbolo solare e della rigenerazione della natura, testimonianza viva di un antico mito cosmico-agrario. Seguendo le sue orme, un viaggio lunghissimo attraverso il tempo e lo spazio ci conduce in un reame magico nel quale sciamani in estasi, contadini e cacciatori sono i custodi dell’arcaico culto del dio cervo.

ENG: A mysterious ritual, a living legacy of ancient times, is renewed every year within the celebrations of the Castelnuovo a Volturno carnival, in Molise (Italy). A fantastic being, Gl ’Cierv, furious and wild Deer Man, dies and reborn cyclically, a solar symbol and the regeneration of nature, living testimony of an ancient cosmic-agrarian myth. Following in his footsteps, a very long journey through time and space leads us to a magical realm in which ecstatic shamans, farmers and hunters are the keepers of the archaic cult of the deer god.

Link per l'acquisto:
https://www.stamperiadelvalentino.it/product/luomo-cervo/

ISBN: 979-12-80721-08-2

Musical Culture and Art of the Arctic Peoples is  collection of scientific papers by Yu. Sheikin, O. Dobzhanskaya, Z. Ivanova-Unarova, S. Ode, T. Ignatieva, V. Dyakonova, L. Kardashevskaya. It consists 21 articles which are devoted to describing of musical instruments, different genres of musical folklore, ritual musical traditions and different aspects of musical culture of Arctic peoples (Evenks, Nganasans, Sakha, Yukaghirs and other Siberian peoples).
Papers are in English, French, German.
This is textbook for students of Arctic State Institute of Culture and Arts (Yakutsk).

Resumen: en los sistemas religiosos de inspiración afro, como el espiritismo cruzao, la santería, el palo monte y el vodou, entre otros, la oralidad ocupa un lugar relevante. Esto se puede apreciar en diferentes niveles, como la enseñanza de las tradiciones, las prácticas rituales y el quehacer religioso, aspectos que se encuentran íntimamente vinculados. Los mitos, las plegarias y los cantos que aparecen en la escena ritual vehiculizan las posibilidades de transformar la realidad fenoménica de los participan-tes. De aquí se desprende la idea de un decir-hacer, lo cual indica que la palabra no solo es nomina-tiva o enunciativa; la palabra es acción. Sin ella los objetos, las imágenes y las plantas utilizados con fines terapéuticos serían tan solo objetos desprovistos de poder. Así, a partir del trabajo etnográfico y narrativo basado en el trabajo de campo realizado en Cuba en 2013 durante una ceremonia de entrega de Olokun, se discutirá el lugar de la palabra dentro de la santería.

Palabras clave: decir-hacer, oralidad, patakís, religiones de inspiración afro, santería cubana

Sayaing-Doing in an Olokun Ceremony

SUMMARY In Afro-inspired religious systems such as Espiritismo Cruzao, Santeria, Palo Monte and Vodou, among others, orality plays a central role. This can be observed at different closely linked levels such as the teaching of traditions, ritual practices, and religious work the myths, prayers, and hymns that appear on the ritual scene support the possibilities of transforming the phenomenal reality of the participants. This gives rise to an idea of a saying-doing, which indicates that the word is not only nominative but also expository; the word is action. Without it, the objects, images and plants used for therapeutic ends would be simple objects devoid of power. Thus, drawing from the ethno-graphic and narrative work based on the fieldwork carried out in Cuba in 2013 during an Olokun ceremony, I will discuss the role played by the word in Santeria.

Keywords: Afro-inspired religions, Cuban Santeria, orality, patakís, saying-doing

Alevi inanç sisteminde dem, dolu gibi isimlerle adlandırılan ve Alevi cemlerinde önemli bir yere olan içki kültü üzerine oluşturulan ritüeller ve inanç pratikleri mevcuttur. Alevi inanç sistemindeki içki kültüne bazı yayınlarda değinilmiştir. Fakat bu yayınlar doğrudan konuya odaklanmadıkları için geneli ortaya koymaktan uzak bir tablo çizmektedir. Mevcut yayınların temel eksikliklerinden biri de görsel unsurlarla desteklenememiş olmasıdır. Bu çalışmada Anadolu ve Balkan coğrafyasında yerleşik Alevi topluluklarında yaşamaya devam eden dem merkezli ritüellerden tespit edilenler farklılıkları ile birlikte analiz edilerek sunulacaktır. Dem kültü merkezli icra edilen ritüellerden biri olan “Dem Geldi Semahları” makalede farklı yörelerden örneklerle görsel unsurlarla desteklenerek analiz edilecektir. Dem Geldi Semahları farklı yerleşim birimlerinde cem ritüeli içerisinde dem hizmeti ile birlikte icra edilen semah ritüellerinden birisidir. Çalışmada Türkiye’nin muhtelif yerleşim birimlerinde yaptığımız alan araştırmalarında kayıt altına aldığımız Dem Geldi Semahları, semahların icra şekilleri, ritüel içerisindeki yeri, icra edilen eserler ve notaları ile mukayeseli bir şekilde verilecektir. Analizlerde, sadece semah merkezli bir bakış açısı ile odaklanılmadan inanç zümresinin içki kültüne bakışı da gerekli yerlerde içki ile ilgili diğer inanç pratiklerine atıflar yapılarak ortaya konulmaya çalışılacaktır.

In the Alevi belief system, there are rituals and belief activities known as dem or dolu formed around the cult of drink which has an important place in the Alevi cems. Some publications have mentioned this cult within the Alevi belief system. However, those publications are far from revealing the overall of this subject because they aren’t focusing directly on the subject. Also, one of the basic lacks of available publications is that they don’t include visual elements. In this paper, determinations from dem based rituals that are continuing to live in the Alevi communities in Anatolia and Balkans, together with differences between them will be analyzed and presented. It will be made an analysis of “Dem Geldi Semahs”, one of the rituals that are dem based practiced, supported with examples from different regions and visual elements. “Dem Geldi Semahs” is one of semah rituals which are performed together with dem service within cem ritual on different locations. In the study, “Dem Geldi Semahs” which we recorded during our fieldwork on the various locations in Turkey, and the forms of semahs performance, its place in the ritual, musical works with notes will be presented comparatively. In the analyses, without just focusing on the semah basic aspect, it will be also presented the view of the belief community on the cult of drink by referring, when it is necessary, to other belief activities related to drink.

First published in 1988, this volume redefined the anthropological study of menstrual customs. Examining cultures as diverse as long-house dwellers in North Borneo, African farmers, Welsh housewives, and postindustrial American workers, it challenged the previously widespread image of a universal "menstrual taboo" as well as the common assumption of universal female subordination that underlay it. Offering feminist perspectives on comparative gender politics and symbolism, the book has interested students and scholars in anthropology, women's studies, religion, and comparative health systems. Originally listed as a “Notable” book in Choice, it later won the first Most Enduring Edited Collection Prize, awarded by the Council for the Anthropology of Reproduction (a unit of the American Anthropological Association.). The book continues to be taught regularly around the world.

A deep study of the magical aspects of ritual, both anthropological, social as wel a psychological. Various models about how rituals works, how the mind deals with magic, how rituals help to overcome time and space limitations, can help in transformation. The importance of rituals as social, transformational, but also as magical acts. New theories about ritual efficacy, the nature of time, and how the mind deals with rituals. Endorsed by prof. Stan Krippner and Prof. Cees Hamelink. 820 pages, totally original vision on ritual.

In their annual festival in an eastern village of the Yucatan state, participants verbalized, discussed, and disputed two main understandings of Catholic commitment after a Catholic priest asked his parishioners to reconsider the effects of their ritual offerings. His teachings about compromiso signaled other ritualized practices, which compose the concept: promises and sacrifices. In direct contrast to the priest's teachings, local ritualists understand that solemn promises and sacrificial exchange work, however, as encompassments of the notion of commitment. On the other hand, the priest's notion of engagement with the sacred takes its main force from the representation of the work of dying of sacrificial victims. Overcoming an apparently insurmountable pair of opposites, ritual and sacrificial, he defines commitment as vicarious sacrifice, inaugurating for his audience a new representational dimension.

Rituales afrovenezolanos para pagar promesas de salud y alcanzar bienestar comunitario
La cultura de Venezuela se caracteriza por el crisol de sus tres principales afluentes históricos: el indígena, el ibérico y el proveniente de África occidental. A pesar de los 500 años de fusión, hasta el día de hoy hay zonas y tradiciones, donde prevalece el componente afrovenezolano. Debido a la condición inicial de esclavos, los afrodescendientes desarrollaron significativos rituales colectivos alrededor de sus creencias, muchos vinculados con la salud propia o de un familiar, que fueron insertos en contextos católicos.  En su connotación de religiosidad popular afrovenezolana se analizarán dos manifestaciones que en su mayoría se realizan alrededor de pagos de promesa por motivos de salud. Por un lado se examina un ritual de mucho recogimiento que con música instrumental, danza, vestimenta específica, teatralidad y alta simbología se lleva a cabo en las calles de viarios pueblos el día de Corpus Cristi bajo el nombre de Diablos de Corpus. Por otro lado se estudia la fiesta de San Juan que en una centena de pueblos se celebra con mucho fervor con tambores, cantos, bailes y ritos. Esas fiestas musicales además tienen un impacto de bienestar y unión para la comunidad, ya que allí logran vivir su identidad específica y representan un acto de resistencia a la globalización.
Basado en experiencias propias, observaciones y registros, entrevistas especializadas, estudios documentales se aclarará la correlación entre los aspectos de música, salud y ritual como factor identitario de los pueblos. El estudio incluye perspectivas musicológicas, antropológicas, históricas y de performance.

Le tasfih (littéralement « fermage », « scellement ») est un rituel profane de protec-tion de la virginité féminine auquel se soumettent par deux fois certaines jeunes filles tunisiennes, obtenant ainsi le statut de msafha: avant leur entrée dans la puberté (séquencefermeture) ; et avant leur entrée dans la conjugalité (séquence ouverture). Pratiquées en mi-lieu urbain et rural, des variantes du rituel coexistent. C’est dans un contexte familial et féminin qu’une opératrice (mère, tante, grand-mère, matrone, voisine, etc.) effectue une légèreincision sur le genou, recueillant le sang avec sept fruits secs. À chaque ingestion, l’enfant doit alors prononcer une formule d’engagement impliquant l’impuissance sexuelle de tous lesprétendants avant son mariage : « je suis un mur, et le fils d’autrui un fil ». La veille des noces, la jeune femme offre sa virginité en inversant la formule.

Federica Manfredi nasce a Milano nel 1985 e si laurea in Antropologia Culturale ed Etnologia all'Università degli Studi di Torino nel 2009. I suoi studi la portano a Ranchi (India), dove realizza un documentario sui diritti violati delle minoranze locali. Dopo un master in Migrazioni, culture e psicopatologie al Policlinico Agostino Gemelli di Roma, si trasferisce in Svizzera e lavora agli studi di genere per la difesa dei diritti delle donne e dei bambini. La passione per i viaggi e le culture lontane le ha permesso di maturare uno spiccato interesse per le tradizioni e i modi di vivere di ogni popolo, compreso quello civitavecchiese che ha voluto omaggiare con questo lavoro di ricerca indipendente.

Abstract: The Saussurian adagio according to which linguistics is "le patron général de la sémiologie" is well known. To a certain extent, the verbal and non-verbal may be subjected to a common, semiolinguistic scheme of investigation. For instance, a fundamental phenomenon in the history of cult(ure)s – the transition of collective expression patterns from sacer ludus to ludus aestheticus – may be described in a semiological metalanguage. Thus, we intend to illustrate, by resorting to a choreographic corpus, the relevance of certain semiological concepts, traditionally applied to verbal objects:
·        “desemantization”/ “resemantization”: a relevant opposition, in our opinion, for the transformation of the choreographic language along with other structures of society;
·        “mutability” and “immutability” of the sign: a paradoxical condition for the subsistence of not only verbal, but also choreographic language;
·        the Saussurean principle of “alteration through continuity”;

    Key-words: dance, desemantization, gesture, (im)mutability, language, resemantization, ritual, sign, Saussure, theatre.the Saussurean concept of “shifting” the semiotic relation; in our opinion, shifting the original relation (ritualistic, magic-religious) between the choreographic significant and signifier is a symptom of the gradual “aestheticization” or “theatricalization” of choreographic “language”.

One of four known ancient Maya books, the Grolier Codex depicts different manifestations of Venus; the column of glyphs on the left of each panel records days in a 104-year Venus almanac. These plaster-coated bark-paper pages, carbon-dated to the 13th century, represent only half of the 20-page original. This article is an excerpt of pages 98-99 from the March 1990 National Geographic Magazine article "America's Ancient Skywatchers" by John B. Carlson with a numbered photographic arrangement of the Grolier Codex depicting the author's discovery that Codex pages 10 and 11 are actually two parts of the same "page 10".  Carlson clarifies the identities of Venus deities depicted in the Grolier Codex from a comparison of images from the Cacaxtla murals and links the images of the Grolier Codex with ancient Maya astronomically timed ritual warfare and sacrifice. (Grolier Codex photographs: Enrico Ferorelli; Mural photograph: Bob Sacha)

This article has been posted on Academia.edu as part of the Grolier Codex Project of the Center for Archaeoastronomy under the directorship of John B. Carlson, Ph.D.  The Grolier Codex Project seeks to further advance the study of the Maya Grolier Codex.

In the past two decades, the art of label writing has become a popular subject of debate among museum practitioners. A traditional, more authoritative approach has changed into a cultural approach were visitors are considered equal partners and the language used in texts suits an informal and personal conversation. Teenagers, however, remain underrepresented in museums and little has been written about labels targeting this audience and the way young people read museum text. The aim of this research is to provide answers to these fundamental questions.

This article discusses the conditions of the genesis of the nineteenth century Wayana whip-dance, aiming for what Terence Turner coined “ethno-ethnohistory”, through the method of Neil Whitehead’s “ethnography of historical consciousness”. This study outlines an indigenous historical consciousness of the social present in Guiana as related to events from the past, by means of the entanglement of things, places, and people related to this whip-dance ritual. The article discusses the Eastern Guiana whip-dance as a social field of interaction in three regions and three time periods: (1) the Upper Maroni Basin (French Guiana and Suriname) in the early twenty-first century; (2) the Franco-Brazilian Contested area (today’s Brazilian Amapá) in the nineteenth century; and (3) a posited origin of this ‘mythstory’ at the Lower Amazon in the sixteenth century. Rather than conducting a study of a ‘lost tradition’, these three case-studies will provide insight into the process of how Wayana indigenous people have managed their histories of first contact in Guiana through ritual performance and the materialization of the evil spirit Tamok.

רבים מאלה הקשורים למורשת היהודית אך לא רואים את עצמם מחויבים הלכתית חווים קושי רב לנוכח ברית המילה. מאמר זה מציע פתרון אפשרי לטווח הארוך, ופתרון מפורט לשלב הביניים: כיוון אפשרי להתמודדות בטווח הארוך הוא 'מדרש' שיתקבל עם הזמן ויאפשר את המשך קיום מצוות/מנהג המילה תוך שינוי אופן ביצועו. פתרון-הביניים הוא להמשיך לעת עתה לקיים את האקט הכירורגי של הסרת העורלה, אך לפצל בינו לבין האירוע החגיגי והרחב. את היבטי "קבלת הפנים" מוצע לממש באירוע נפרד, "שמחת בן", בנוכחות החברים והמשפחה המורחבת, ולראות בו את האירוע המרכזי של קבלת היילוד לחיק המשפחה, הקהילה והעם. באירוע זה יש מקום ליצירתיות ולעושר של תכנים מהמסורת היהודית וכן מהתרבויות הפרטיקולריות המאפיינות את הקהילה. פתרון-ביניים זה מאפשר לבודד משתנים, שאולי יאפשר בשלב הבא בחינה מחדש של עצם המילה – בדרך לפרשנות מחודשת ברוח חז"לית של אקט זה.

I recently had the opportunity to review Alex Gibson’s thought provoking volume, 'Enclosing the Neolithic: Recent studies in Britain and Europe'. That review, to which the reader is directed for further commentary, identified as a weakness the uneven spread of regional case studies, and in particular the omission of studies from the West Country, Wales and North West England, which are so important in understanding the Irish Sea Zone. The aim of this paper is to address this with regard to the material from the North West of England, and in particular Cumbria. This paper is therefore meant to be read in conjunction with Gibson’s edited volume.

Desde los años 80 la presencia de musulmanes (españoles e inmigrantes) en España, se ha incrementado de forma considerable. Para todos ellos el Ramadán es la expresión más clara de su pertenencia a la Umma. El Ramadán constituye un proceso ritual festivo caracterizado por una doble dimensión: un sentido religioso, síntesis de las prácticas y creencias del Islam, que implica la expresión pública de esas convicciones, y un carácter lúdico-festivo en el que la comunidad cobra relieve.

Este libro versa sobre teatro e indígenas en México. Explora cuatro modalidades de representación a lo largo de la historia: aztequista y su variante neo-aztequista, indigenista, campesinista y la auto-representación del teatro indígena contemporáneo. Cuatro derroteros que nos permiten comprender cómo es que el teatro expresa y vive el tema de la identidad étnica; cómo es que la vida ritual impacta la forma de hacer teatro en las

Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies / Yusof Ishak Institute, Temasek History Research Center, Temasek Working Paper Series, No. 1, 69 p.
https://www.iseas.edu.sg/articles-commentaries/temasek-working-paper-series

----- ABSTRACT: Borneo has so far remained marginal in studies on Southeast Asian peoples and tigers. While the tiger is not known to exist in Borneo today, it has a significant reality in historical traditions, oral literature, myths, beliefs, and rituals. This study combines various materials about Borneo, with a primary focus on its central regions, in order to, ultimately, try to shed light on ancient belief systems and the modalities of their evolution through time and cultural contact. It first surveys the local Felidae species, the names given to the tiger, and the presence of tiger body parts among villagers. Then, it reviews representations of the tiger in oral literature, its value as a symbol of martial manliness and, locally, its standing as a culture hero, and looks at religious beliefs, the tiger’s ambivalent nature, and its function as mediator between humans and spirits. Focusing on rituals, it then stresses its benevolence (initiation, redemption, purification), as well as its sinister facets (punishment for breach of taboos), both meant to warrant a ‘cool’ socio-cosmic balance. Next, it investigates the historical role of one chieftain named Tiger who, urging forest nomads to settle down and farm, was instrumental in the emergence of a new ethnocultural cluster’s identity, and it explores the modalities of the myth-generating conflation of historical elements with religious beliefs. Finally, it scrutinizes the tiger’s complex relationship with the moon and thunder, hinting at the pre-existence among former nomads of non-dualistic beliefs in a ‘tiger-moon-thunder’ set of deities and, touching briefly on the ‘thunder complex’ question, it stresses ambiguity and variability, reflecting the systemic cultural plasticity and singular cultural histories of these societies. Due to the study’s broad spectrum, a large reference list is appended.

In this article, I argue that folk ritual provides a privileged site for the creation of cultural intimacy in Taiwan, specifically during pilgrimages in honor of the folk goddess Mazu. Sharing cultural intimacy allows the participants to develop a framework of meaning with which they imagine – and put into practice – a community based on the geographical contours of the island. Following Sandria Freitag’s work on colonial India, I interpret pilgrimages as public arenas in which the participants experience a sense of their collective belonging and cooperate to sketch a vision of the national imaginary. Annual Mazu pilgrimages constitute the biggest and most popular such spaces, which is one of the reasons for why they have become stages for political representation and contestation. After situating the Mazu pilgrimages in the trajectory of Taiwanese history, I will trace their progressive integration into political processes and community imagination on the island. Finally, I will draw theoretical conclusions regarding the production of the spatially imagined community through shared ritual experience.

In this paper, I explore the question of hospitality as a ritualizing process for coping with the arrival of migrantstrangers in todays globalizing world. Hospitality provides a set of practices to lessen the threat of difference. Even as it is a universal cultural mode for coping with strangers, each nation-state undertakes specific forms and practices. Through institionalized forms of welcome to a new nation-state seeks to minimize the risk of the stranger-guest. Further research should explore the situated dynamics of hospitality and national ideological formations and policy practices.

Description and analysis of a Lakota ritual performance staged in 1991, where heated debate broke out between the dance organizers, who included non-Lakota dancers and critics who advocated more narrow restrictions on participation.  At issue was the capacity of ritual practice to revise social borders and reconstruct established norms, patterns of association, and sentiments of belonging.

Considering the concept of power in capoeira, an Afro-Brazilian ritual art form, Varela describes ethnographically the importance that capoeira leaders (mestres) have in the social configuration of a style called Angola in Bahia, Brazil. He analyzes how individual power is essential for an understanding of the modern history of capoeira, and for the themes of embodiment, play, cosmology, and ritual action. The book also emphasizes the great significance that creativity and aesthetic expression have for capoeira’s practice and performance.

Session Ü. VALK, L. GUZY: Insecurities and uncertainties at the margins of institutionalised religions: ghosts, monsters, witchcraft and other dangerous matters

“Pagan” masks in contemporary European winter festivals, popular Frazerism, and the search for festive authenticity (and its heritagisation)

Many winter festivals and public rituals throughout Europe reveal an interesting characteristic: the usage of masks and costumes with monstrous and/or zoomorphic features. These events occur in contexts that are or were traditionally Christian (especially in Catholic areas), although they have also been undergoing significant secularisation in the last few decades. In spite of these Christian or secular frameworks, these rituals and the masked figures that characterise them are very often described as “pagan”, “Dionysian”, “pre-Christian”, “very ancient”, and the like.
This paper intends to highlight the symbolic sources of these phenomena and discuss what are or could be the historical factors that led to these rather striking and apparently incongruous forms of religious or pseudo-religious conceptualisations and practices as well as the social needs to which they seem to respond today. To achieve these heuristic goals, several concepts will be operationalised and discussed, such as “ritualisation”, “popular Frazerism”, and “heritagisation”, and others.

The Grolier Codex is discussed in the context of the archaeoastronomy of the ancient Americas on pages 98-99 of the March 1990 National Geographic Magazine article "America's Ancient Skywatchers" by John B. Carlson. One of four known ancient Maya books, the Grolier Codex depicts different manifestations of the planet Venus; the column of glyphs on the left of each panel records days in a 104-year Venus almanac. These plaster-coated bark-paper pages, carbon-dated to the 13th century, represent only half of the 20-page original. A numbered photographic arrangement of the Grolier Codex depictes the author's discovery that Codex pages 10 and 11 are actually two parts of the same "page 10".  Carlson clarifies the identities of Venus deities depicted in the Grolier Codex from a comparison of images from the Cacaxtla murals and links the images of the Grolier Codex with ancient Maya astronomically timed ritual warfare and sacrifice. (Grolier Codex photographs: Enrico Ferorelli; Other photos: Bob Sacha)

This article has been posted on Academia.edu as part of the Grolier Codex Project of the Center for Archaeoastronomy under the directorship of John B. Carlson, Ph.D.  The Grolier Codex Project seeks to further advance the study of the Maya Grolier Codex.

Attached: Introduction, Notes on Contributors.
This collection of articles is a thoughtful examination of the history, function and place of emerging rituals. The discussion goes beyond academic assessment and acknowledgement of the absence of meaningful ritual to focus on the different ways people are responding to the call for ‘new rituals’. It recognises the extent to which sincere ritualisation is essential to the physical, psychological and spiritual health of individuals, family groups, organisations and even society as a whole.
Contributors: 13 authors, 15 transdisciplinary fields:

- Ellen Dissanayake, hon. PhD, an independent scholar focusing on 'the anthropological exploration of art and culture’. Seattle, Washington, USA
- Matthieu Smyth, PhD, Ritual Anthropologist, Professor at the University of Strasbourg.
- Robert C. Scaer, M.D., Neurologist, Psychologist, currently retired from clinical medical practice. Louisville, Colorado, USA.
- Jeltje Gordon-Lennox, M.Div, Psychotherapist and Celebrant Trainer, Ashoka Association, Geneva, Switzerland.
- Andrés Allemand Smaller, journalist and secular celebrant in Geneva, Switzerland.
- Christine Behrend, marketing and consumer behaviour researcher and a secular celebrant in Pully, Switzerland.
- Isabel Russo, Head of Ceremonies at The British Humanist Association, London, UK.
- Michael Picucci, PhD, Psychologist, licensed psychotherapist, New York City, USA.
- Joanna Wojtkowiak, PhD, Cultural psychologist, Assistant professor at the University of Humanistic Studies, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
- Lindy Mechefske, journalist and food-writer in Kingston, Canada.
- Irene Stengs, PhD, Cultural Anthropologist, Senior Researcher Fellow at the Meertens Instituut, Co-editor of Anthropological Journal Etnofoor, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
- Gianpiero Vincenzo, MA, sociologist, islamist, art critic and novelist; Professor of sociology at the Fine Arts Academy of Catania in Sicily, Italy.
- Jacqueline Millner, PhD, is Associate Dean Research, Sydney College of the Arts, The University of Sydney
- Ida van der Lee, ritual artist, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Publication date: early 2017

A metalwork hoard dated to the Wilburton phase of the later Bronze Age, found at Barway close to the Isle of Ely in the Cambridgeshire Fens, is reported. Consideration of the hoard, in the context of later prehistoric hoarding in the local landscape, reveals that particular sorts of artefacts were associated with particular places in the landscape. In particular a strong association between later Bronze Age hoards and causeways connecting the Isle of Ely to the outside world is identified, and an interpretation suggested. This study demonstrates the potential of a detailed contextual approach for providing a more nuanced understanding of later Bronze Age metalwork deposition that moves away from a simplistic wet-dry dichotomy.

This paper reviews the evidence for Neolithic burial practices in SE Arabia, focusing in particular on sites in the Ja'alan region of eastern Oman. Attention is given to the nature of material buried with human remains, including jewellery and, most interestingly, the bones and shells of green turtles in the burials of Ra's al-Hamra 5 and 10. The paper concludes with a discussion of the possible evidence for "necrophobia" at the 5 th millennium BC Neolithic necropolis of Suwayh 1.

The Grolier Codex (Codice Maya de Mexico, CMM) is discussed in the context of the archaeoastronomy of the ancient Americas on pages 98-99 of the March 1990 National Geographic Magazine article "America's Ancient Skywatchers" by John B. Carlson. One of four known ancient Maya books, the Grolier Codex depicts different manifestations of the planet Venus; the column of glyphs on the left of each panel records days in a 104-year Venus almanac. These plaster-coated bark-paper pages, carbon-dated to the 13th century, represent only half of the 20-page original. A numbered photographic arrangement of the Grolier Codex depictes the author's discovery that Codex pages 10 and 11 are actually two parts of the same "page 10".  Carlson clarifies the identities of Venus deities depicted in the Grolier Codex from a comparison of images from the Cacaxtla murals and links the images of the Grolier Codex with ancient Maya astronomically timed ritual warfare and sacrifice. (Grolier Codex photographs: Enrico Ferorelli; Other photos: Bob Sacha)

This article has been posted on Academia.edu as part of the Grolier Codex Project of the Center for Archaeoastronomy under the directorship of John B. Carlson, Ph.D.  The Grolier Codex Project seeks to further advance the study of the Maya Grolier Codex.

Інститут мистецтвознавства, фольклористики та етнології ім. М.Т.Рильського НАН України Упорядники: д.істор.н. Марина Гримич, канд.істор.н. Олена Брайченко Київ 2015 Рекомендовано до друку Вченою радою Науково-дослідного інституту українознавства МОН України (протокол №4 від 7 липня 2015 р.) та Вченою радою Інституту мистецтвознавства, фольклористики та етнології ім. М.Т.Рильського НАН України (протокол № 5 від 23 червня 2015 р.) Рецензенти: доктор історичних наук Володимир Курочкін доктор історичних наук Арсен Зінченко Науковий збірник з нагоди вшанування 70-річчя з дня народження та 45-річчя наукової діяльності професора Валентини Борисенко / упоряд. д.істор.н. М. Гримич, канд. істор.н. О. Брайченко. -Київ : Дуліби, 2015. -248 с. ISBN 978-966-8910-99-9 До наукового збірника увійшли праці сучасних українських етнологів про життя та наукову біографію відомого українського етнолога Валентини Кирилівни Борисенко. Окрема частина опублікованих праць стосується весільного обряду, вивченню якого дослідниця присвятила значну частину свого життя. Призначається для науковців гуманітарних і суспільних дисциплін, студентів гуманітарних факультетів та широкого кола читачів. УДК 392.34(082) ББК 63.5я43 УДК 392.34(082) ББК 63.5я43 Н 34 Н 34

The author in her article investigates the rules, norms and practices of gift-giving at weddings in Ghimeș (Romania). She presents local people’s experiences about gift exchange at weddings and the way they interpret the process of gift giving and reciprocation, what calculations precede the compilation of guest lists, what factors are taken into consideration when people accept or reject wedding invitation and in what way they calculate the proper sum of money to be given as gift to the young couple. The return of gifts does not take place automatically in each case, the indebted party is not always asked to reciprocate, and not every indebted guest accepts invitation and returns the gift. The author has reconsidered the local norms of gift-giving at weddings relying upon Marcel Mauss’ model of gift exchange (1925). She wondered to what extent this model elaborated on premodern societies can be applied to societies in the 21st century. She observed gift giving at weddings on her
fi eld site in Ghimeș between 2007 and 2016, and points out that beyond the trinity of giving, accepting and reciprocating fixed by Mauss, some other factors also have to be taken into consideration as not all practices and norms of local gift exchange at weddings can be described with these three acts, which might call for a supplementation and further elaboration of the model.