Ritual Theory

This case study examines the importance of rituals in understanding illegal behavior. Particular attention is given to the impact of stress-based symbolically ritualized events on individuals which may lead to mass homicide.

For a more lengthy abstract see the paper, i.e., Chapter.

This article combines the disciplines of textual/linguistic analysis, anthropology, and perceptual psychology to examine selected ancient Jewish mystical texts that claim to describe the praxis for ascents into heaven and encounters with angelic spirits in order to reconstruct the psychosocial context of these literary works. Specifically, the article examines Hekhalot or ''Divine Palaces'' texts that deal with hydromancy, giving attention to their mythic-symbolic assumptions, their described preparatory and triggering rituals, and their accounts of the ASC (altered states of consciousness) visions resulting from these rituals that are experienced by the practitioners. The article suggests that these accounts correlate with ASC practices identified in the literature and additionally suggests that although the mystical texts are written to resemble biblical accounts of revelatory experiences, the texts under consideration are more than works of fabulous imagination; they are literary artifacts of an actual ecstatic ASC praxis among the Jews of Late Antiquity. k e y w o r d s : water, ASC, Jewish, mysticism, ritual & i n t r o d u c t i o n The anthropologist Mary Douglas once observed that ''Unobtrusive symbols are the most potent of all.'' Such appears to be the case regarding the status of water 8 4 w a t e r a s a m e d i u m f o r a s c w a t e r a s a m e d i u m f o r a s c 8 7 w a t e r a s a m e d i u m f o r a s c 8 9

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.

Recent work  on the funerary chapel of Amenirdis I at Medinet Habu has proved her selections from the Opening of the Mouth ritual to be deliberately chosen and meticulously laid out on the walls of her funerary chapel such that the texts, which were inscribed in retrograde, commence at the doorway to the chapel and culminate on the innermost wall of the corridor surrounding her cella. This interpretation of the layout of OM scenes suggests that the scenes inscribed on opposite walls run parallel to each other and should thus be read concurrently rather than sequentially. While this theory differs from more conventional interpretations of the division of the ritual, it accounts for the scenes' layout, their retrograde direction of writing/ reading, and relates the scenes' textual content to their physical location on the walls of the chapel. A new system for numbering the various scenes of the Opening of the Mouth arose from this particular analysis of Amenirdis's texts. The new numbers incorporate the scenes' physical location on the monument on which they occur.

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.

It is a great honor to comment on Maurice Bloch's writings, as his work has been very inspirational to my youthful ethnography. A Marxist theorist with a Durkheimian style (Gellner 1999), as well as an indefatigable fieldworker, Bloch has been one of the most stimulating thinkers of religious persistence-or ritual persistence, one might say, given the trickiness of the word'religion (Bloch 2005). In this short article, I would like to develop what I see as

RESUMO O presente trabalho pretende apresentar uma discussão em torno da inserção no contexto turístico da prática de um ritual indígena. O Awê, ritual praticado pelos Pataxó da aldeia de Coroa Vermelha em Santa Cruz Cabrália-BA, será analisado ao longo do trabalho enfatizando a discussão em torno da eficácia ritual e sua relação com o turismo. Procura-se demonstrar que, no caso do Awê, a eficácia ritual é percebida em conexão com a eficácia turística do ritual. O trabalho foi realizado utilizando uma abordagem etnográfica que lança mão da observação participante como técnica principal. Utiliza-se também a pesquisa bibliográfica enfocando parte da produção etnológica sobre os Pataxó como fonte acessória de dados. Procurar-se demonstrar que a eficácia simbólica do ritual, percebida no caso do Awê como a capacidade de formular critérios de identificação, de autorepresentação e de representação externa, tem uma ligação intrínseca com a eficácia turística do ritual e sua propriedade de veicular e ampliar o conhecimento externo a respeito de sua existência. Essa propriedade comunicativa do ritual turístico teria por função legitimar alguns dos aspectos do ritual, notadamente sua eficácia na formulação de critérios de semelhança e diferença definidores da identidade.

Undergoing an admission process (an initiation) can induce exaggerated feelings about a group, but there is little research about the role of rewards. This study replicated Aronson and Mills’ (1959) experiment. Seventy participants underwent either a severe initiation or a mild initiation. After the initiation, about half the sample received an extrinsic reward for merely completing the task. The remaining half did not receive an extrinsic reward. This was to vary the amount of dissonance. Initiation severity and reward condition had significant, noncrossing interactions. A reward led to higher group identity than no reward, supporting Levine and Moreland's (1994) group socialization model. A severe initiation did not lead to more group identity than a mild initiation; therefore, Aronson and Mills’ findings were not replicated. Interestingly, a mild initiation followed by a reward led to more group identity than a severe initiation followed by a reward. Another unexpected finding was that the extrinsic reward made no difference to group identity if the initiation was severe. Effects on ratings of the discussion were nonsignificant. Future research needs to establish how new group members ponder the severity of the admission process during the cost–benefit calculation preceding their identification with a group.

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.

Ritual has been studied from a variety of scholarly disciplines; as a result, it has been approached and defined in a myriad of ways. In a widely read encyclopedia article on "Ritual" published in 1968, the anthropologist Edmund Leach offered the somewhat dispiriting observation that "there is the widest possible disagreement as to how the word ritual should be used and how the performance of ritual should be understood." At that time, there was little consensus over what ritual is or what it does, if it does anything at all. 1 Ritueel is vanuit diverse disciplines bestudeerd en op veel manieren benaderd en gedefinieerd. In 1968 publiceerde antropoloog Edmund Leach een artikel waarin hij aangeeft dat er een discussie bestaat over hoe het woord ritueel moet worden gebruikt en hoe de performance van ritueel moet worden begrepen. 2 …, "ritual" is not a particular kind of discrete action, but rather a quality of action potentially available across a spectrum of behavior. Ritual, as a metacategory, includes both religious and nonreligious rites, the traditional and the new, the prescribed and the improvised, the human and nonhuman, and rubs up against a number of other cultural domains, such as play, games, performance, and theater. If ritual is action, it is also an idea, something we think with, and our exploration will move back and forth between these two dimensions. 3

New Religious Movements have intrigued scholars for decades. Oftentimes, people only research these groups when they find themselves at odds with their societies, resulting in a negative bias. This work presents a scientific approach that tries to answer the question: Why do new religions form? It tries to understand how humans interact with religious groups and their actions as a dynamic cognitive system.  At all points, this work intends to be interdisciplinary, incorporating religious scholarship, anthropology, sociology, and evolutionary psychology.  It proposes that specific types of religious leadership destabilize religious ritual systems in a specific way, which leads to the atrocities performed by some religious cults or to our great world religions.  This work defends the cognitive science of religion as the best approach currently being utilized to study such complex human phenomenon.

Building on Erving Goffman and Emile Durkheim, Randall Collins has demonstrated that situations have rules, processes, and constraints that are largely independent of more macro-social dynamics—this realm of action is referred to as the interaction order (Collins 2004; Goffrnan 1983). Collins's and Goffman's work on the interaction order illustrates how situations emerge and then shape and constrain action. We suggest this process of emergence and constraint can be further understood by explaining how action manifests as various types of involvement in situations. Specifically, we suggest that the different types of involvement manifest depending on how we focus our attention within situations. To understand how, why, and when we focus our attention, we must consider how cognition and emotion shape perception. Thus, we build on theories of cognition, emotion, and attention to explain how and when various sorts of social involvement emerge.

Artykuł przedstawia analizę rytuału-zjawiska wypełniającego życie ludzkie od zarania dziejów. Zamiłowanie do rytuałów jest jedną z głównych cech ludzkości. Każda społeczność wykształ-ciła pewne rytuały, ponieważ to one stanowią o postawie danej grupy wobec świata i życia oraz wyrażają jej podejście do kształtowania rzeczywistości, mając przy tym wiele wspólnych cech, gdyż częstokroć te same rytuały występują w różnych zakątkach świata. Dowodzi to ich niewątpliwej uniwersalności jako elementu ludzkiej kultury, bowiem towarzysząc wszystkim ważnym wydarzeniom religijnym i świeckim, są zarazem sumą osobistych emocji i przeżyć, mających swoje znaczenie i siłę sprawczą. Opierając się na badaniach Bronisława Malinow-skiego, Arnolda Van Gennepa, Victora Turnera, Mircei Eliade i innych, autor omawia genezę, typy i poszczególne elementy rytuałów (jest tu np. charakterystyka miejsc, gdzie odbywają się czynności rytualne) oraz ich-jakże wiele znaczący-wpływ na społeczności ludzkie. Istotne miejsce w niniejszym artykule zajmuje analiza psychologiczna zachowań-odbiegających od standardów zachowań występujących w "zwyczajnym" życiu-osób silnie angażujących się w praktykowany rytuał, szczególnie z punktu widzenia teorii biogenetycznego strukturalizmu.

Esztári Réka (1984) assziriológus, az ELTE BTK Assziriológiai és Hebraisztikai Tanszékének tudományos segédmunkatársa, valamint a PPKE BTK Történelemtudományi Doktori Iskola Eszmetörténeti Műhelyének doktorjelöltje; folyóiratunk szerkesztője. Kutatási területe a mezopotámiai nemi szerepek vizsgálata, a nőgyógyászati jellegű mágikus-orvosi források által alkalmazott tudományos módszertan, illetve a Kr. e. 1. évezredi ómenértelmezés metodológiája. el tőlem! 1 Egy rejtélyes hattusai rituálé értelmezési nehézségei R itkán olvashatunk arról az immár másfél évszázados múltra visszatekintő assziriológiai szakirodalomban, s kiváltképp az utóbbi évtizedekben, hogy nagynevű s a mezopotámiai mágikus szövegek kiadására és feldolgozására szakosodott kutatók ne tudjanak értelmezni egy olyan rituálét, melynek, noha számos helyütt töredékes, mégis nagyobb terjedelmű, összefüggő szövegrészei maradtak ránk. A teljességgel egyedinek modható, rejtélyes akkád nyelvű rítusleírás, mely a jelen tanulmány elsődleges szöveges forrása, éppen ilyen kivételt jelent. Szövege egy nagyobb, ráolvasásokat és rituálékat tartalmazó gyűjteményes tábla (KBo XXXVI 29) részeként őrződött meg mint annak legelső darabja. Noha a gyűjtemény egésze akkád nyelven, ékírással íródott, az ismert kéziratok nem az egykori Mezopotámia területén, hanem a Hettita Birodalom hajdani fővárosában, Hattušában (a modern Boğazköy) kerültek elő. 2 Ahogyan azt a KBo XXXVI 29 és duplikátumai példaértékű kiadását elkészítő Daniel Schwemer felvetette, az általunk ismert kompendium egy babilóniai eredetin, vagy esetleg több különböző, Babilóniából származó szövegen alapulhatott. Utóbbiakat nagy valószínűséggel valamikor a Kr. e. 15-14. század folyamán, Észak-Mezopotámiában jegyezhették le -ahogyan ez a számos nyelvtani sajátosság és hurri jövevényszó jelenlétéből is kiviláglik. 3 Miután ez a verzió eljutott a hettita udvarba, a helyi királyi írnokok -akik természetesen jól ismerték és használták mind az ékírást, mind az akkád nyelvet -másolni kezdték a minden bizonnyal nagy becsben tartott szöveget. 4 A gyűjtemény további darabjai alapján a benne foglalt ceremóniák általánosságban démonok és rosszindulató halotti szellemek által okozott ártalmakat hivatottak elhárítani. Az ilyen típusú szövegek Mezopotámiában az általunk jobbára ráolvasópapnak nevezett bajelhárító szakemberek (āšipu) tudományához kapcsolódtak, az ő szakkönyvtáraik részét képezték. 5 Ugyanakkor -kiváltképp az utóbbiak jól ismert műveivel összevetve -ez a bizonyos legelső rituálé több szempontból is egyedinek mondható. Sajnálatos módon -s a korábbi értelmezők mentségére mondva -a kompendium kezdetét csupán egyetlen kézirat őrizte meg (1. kép), és ez utóbbi, ahogyan a képen is látható, meglehetősen töredékes. Az első rituálé eredetileg mintegy 60 sort ölelehett fel -ebből 44 maradt ránk, változó mértékben ép állapotban. 6 Mind az eleje, mind a vége elveszett, s mivel a mágikus ceremóniák esetében rendszerint a szöveg kezdetén határozzák meg a tulajdonképpeni elhárítandó problémát, illetve a végén utalnak a rituális folyamat eredményére, ez esetben látszólag nem sok kapaszkodóval rendelkezünk a ceremóniát életre hívó probléma, a szöveg Sitz im Lebene tekintetében.

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.

[From the introduction].
The Reb gong Vale  is a densely populated high-altitude agricultural oasis that runs north-to-south for approximately twenty kilometers through the northeastern Tibetan Plateau, surrounded by barren pastoral hills that rise to rocky snow-capped peaks. The majority of the vale's residents self-identify as Tibetan, but this population contains considerable diversity along religious, sectarian, and linguistic lines. We explore how the linguistic diversity of the region might have been maintained despite communities sharing a common identity, being engaged in inter-communal ritual networks, sharing common trade and pilgrimage sites, and living in close proximity in the absence of geographical barriers. Given their contiguity and interconnectedness, what enabled certain communities to remain distinct from nearby populations? Under such circumstances, how did relatively small communities maintain distinct languages? What prevented them from being linguistically assimilated into the Tibetan population?

Se analiza el universo de ideologías, prácticas y representaciones cosmológicas asociadas por los chané del noroeste argentino con el ámbito del monte. Se describen etnográficamente fenómenos como la división conceptual del espacio; la relación de la categorización espacial con la división sexual del trabajo y las relaciones de género; el protocolo ritualizado de conducta para con los seres del monte y los dueños tutelares de las cosas; la ambigüedad simbólica del ámbito del monte; el juego de analogías y paralelismos entre las representaciones montaraces y la estructura social (redes de parentesco, alianza, reciprocidad y redistribución, ideologías del liderazgo y la propiedad, etc.). Se discute la discriminación analítica de matices exegéticos en diversos contextos simbólicos, semánticos y experienciales en los cuales las acciones y los enunciados de los chané adquieren cotidianamente su sentido y su inteligibilidad. Se demuestra, finalmente, que el conocimiento del monte no conforma un registro abstracto de datos espaciales, biológicos o geográficos sino una auténtica percepción cultural de la realidad.

Taking the example of the Basel carnival Fasnacht, the paper shows in what way ritual can maintain the impression of being traditional and unchan-ging, and yet be open to changes and innovations. As the basic conceptual framework we use the notion of liminality, which Victor Turner identified as the creative moment of ritual. In Fasnacht, this liminal dimension appears in two degrees. The carnival as such represents a reflexive liminal counterpart to the standard social structure, yet it is itself also highly structured and bound by conservative traditional rules. As a reaction to this, there arises within Fasnacht a second-order liminality in the form of the so-called wild Fasnacht, which turns the official anti-structural Fasnacht rules upside down once again, testing their validity. While the carnival structure offers a regulated opportunity for questioning everyday social behaviour, wild Fasnacht questions even this regulated manner of questioning as such, opening space for its reflection and modification. We use detailed examples to demonstrate how the subtle dialectics of structure and antistructure keeps the tradition of Basel's Fasnacht alive and allows it to evolve without destroying its aura of traditionality.

https://www.centrodeestudiosandaluces.es/publicaciones/el-mito-de-la-tierra-de-maria-santisima-religiosidad-popular-espectaculo-e-identidad

El volumen ‘El mito de la tierra de María Santísima. Religiosidad popular, espectáculo e identidad’ explora los mitos que sustentan el arraigo de la religiosidad popular en la Andalucía del siglo XX, y ahonda en los conflictos religiosos, políticos y culturales que la han convertido en un fenómeno caleidoscópico y muy rico, objeto de múltiples usos y apropiaciones por parte de diversos sectores sociales.

Entendida como uno de los elementos fundamentales de la identidad andaluza, la religiosidad popular es analizada en este ensayo de historia cultural por el investigador y profesor de la Universidad de Extremadura César Rina Simón, prestando especial atención a las celebraciones de Semana Santa, ya que la hegemonía de esta fiesta, que consciente o inconscientemente marca el resto del calendario festivo y social de toda la comunidad autónoma, la ha convertido sin duda en todo un icono identitario.

“Más que los hechos del pasado, me interesa lo que la sociedad reconoce como su pasado –sus  mitos y sus ritos–, así como los mecanismos de apropiación política, religiosa e identitaria que se han asentado sobre una continua (re)invención de la tradición o exaltación de la particularidad local”, señala el autor. Con este punto de partida, y más allá de su dimensión festiva, fundamental como elemento cohesionador de los colectivos que participan en ella, el historiador se adentra en la conformación de estas tradiciones populares desde su invención romántica –tiempo del que procede precisamente el concepto de la tierra de María Santísima– hasta la actualidad.

Siguiendo la estela de los antropólogos andaluces que en los años setenta abrieron una vía para cuestionar los tópicos historiográficos que relacionaban sin resquicios religiosidad popular y élites conservadoras y poderes establecidos –Isidoro Moreno, Salvador Rodríguez Becerra, Paero Gómez, Rafael Briones, Juan Agudo, Javier Escalera Reyes y Demetrio Brisset, entre otros– Rina expone los múltiples niveles de significación de la fiesta, así como sus usos políticos, su importancia en los horizontes locales y su consolidación como motor turístico y económico.

Consciente de la paradoja de que a mayoría de las hermandades y rituales hayan sido fundadas y desarrollados en el siglo XX, aunque se autodescriban como fenómeno barroco, el autor de este volumen se centra fundamentalmente en los tres momentos en los que se produjo el auténtico “boom” de las cofradías: los años veinte, ligado al regionalismo y como respuesta a los fenómenos migratorios que estaban transformando la fisonomía de las ciudades; la posguerra y el franquismo, un régimen que se apoyó en la religiosidad popular para legitimarse y, por último, la transición y el proceso autonómico andaluz que convirtió los rituales populares en baluartes identitarios. Como colofón, aborda la enorme masificación que ha sufrido el fenómeno religioso andaluz y las consecuencias que esto ha tenido en los últimos años.

מאמר זה דן בטקס במוזרותו החידתית של ריטואל יצירת הגולם אצל המקובלים הראשונים. בריטואל זה נוצר הגולם דמוי האדם באמצעות אדמה ושמות קדושים, בטכניקה הנגזרת מ"ספר יצירה". בחלקו הראשון של המאמר מוצג ההיסוס הפרשני בדבר טבעו של ריטואל הגולם כאירוע מיסטי-אקסטטי או מאגי-אונטולוגי, תוך התמקדות בכתבי גרשם שלום. בחלק השני מובהר כי ההיסוס בין המיסטי למאגי (השואל האם הגולם אכן מונפש באמת או שהנפשתו היא אירוע נפשי אקסטטי) נובע מטבעה היסודי של דמות הגולם כדמות טקסטואלית לימינלית ופנטסטית. החלק המסכם מפרש את מיפגן ריטואל יצירת הגולם כאירוע אמנותי תיאו-פואטי, בהתאם לתפיסת האמנות של מרטין היידגר בספרו "מקורו של מעשה האמנות".

L’article se propose de définir les articulations entre les rites et la construction de l’identité dans l’œuvre de Joujou Turenne, conteuse, comédienne, danseuse et scénariste haïtienne, contrainte à l’exil au Québec dans les années 1970. Il s’agit d’observer comment les contes de Joujou Turenne se laissent interpréter comme textes ouverts où l’exil en diaspora québécoise peut être perçu comme un rite de passage vers une identité (post)moderne dont les repères sont sans cesse à réinventer. Dans la première partie, on interroge le parcours artistique de Joujou Turenne avec l’appui des théories de Arnold Van Gennep sur les rites de passage et des concepts de Victor Turner relatifs à l’anthropologie de la performance. La deuxième partie est consacrée à l’analyse de certains contes de Joujou Turenne afin d’y repérer des techniques nouvelles qu’elle développe au Québec pour adapter le conte haïtien traditionnel au contexte diasporique postmoderne.

How do ‘new’ and ’old’ Islamic actors in contemporary Albania define religious legitimacy, the nation and religious otherness? This chapter uses Olivier Roy’s analytical distinction between accommodationism and neo-fundamentalism as a compass to navigate through Albania’s complex religious landscape by exploring different sets of beliefs promulgated by a selection of Islamic groups (2010).  These are the Muslim Community of Albania, which represents ‘official Islam’ , and ‘mainstream’ Sunni Muslims, who are typically accommodationist. I also analyse a Sufi subgroup thereof, which is equally accommodationist, but in a slightly different manner. As a neo-fundamentalist counterpoint, I explore the ideas of a competing organisation composed of Salafi imams.

Accommodationism means that the bond between religion and a specific territory and culture of origin is tight. In this context, ‘culture’ refers to Albanian historical tradition and the language-based, secular nation-building project engineered by modernising state elites since the early 20th century. Neo-fundamentalism, conversely, is a globalised form of religion that emphasises the gap between faith and culture. As such, it represents a reformatted, exportable form of religiosity, which stands in contrast to cultural ethno-national ways of being Muslim. Neo-fundamentalist religious identity is faith-based, and seeks to ground itself solely upon explicit religious norms, at least in principle. Accordingly, these believers make their religiosity visible through a global uniform of religious markers detached from the surrounding culture.

In the Albanian Islamic context, the theoretically informed labels, neo-fundamentalist and accommodationist, roughly correspond to the ‘Albanianist’ versus the ‘Salafi’ forms of Islam. To some extent, this resonates with mainstream distinctions adopted in Albania and in the Balkans. A popular Albanian term for Muslims associated with neo-fundamentalist forms of Islam is ‘fanatic’ (fanatik). Accommodationism is commonly related to ‘old’ forms of Islam, which many be deemed as local, rooted, and European as well as tolerant and moderate. Neo-fundamentalism, conversely, refers to certain ‘new’ forms of Islam, i.e. those perceived to be imported, transnational, alien, ‘fanatic’ and a threat to local religious customs. This cultural distinction between what are deemed acceptable and unacceptable forms of Islam is often politicised and securitised. As I will show, the association between neo-fundamentalism and violence is not necessarily correct, and the Salafi community under scrutiny here can be defined as pacifist and purist (Wiktorowicz 2006). These two formats, moreover, clash and merge together as different local actors seek to recast and legitimize their respective positions.

Rituale in der Schule haben Konjunktur, was zahlreiche Veröffentlichungen in Form von Werkbüchern, Arbeitshilfen, Internetseiten, aber auch wissenschaftlichen Publikationen nahelegen.  Zu denken ist hierbei sowohl an die (kirchen-)jahreszeitlich adäquate Gestaltung des Schulalltags wie auch an rituelle Elemente für Unterrichtsstunden. Der Schulgottesdienst  reiht sich hier ebenso ein wie Stilleübungen im Deutschunterricht oder der Morgenkreis. Gemeint sind unterbrechende und rhythmisierende Phasen am Tag und in der Woche genauso wie intervenierende und strukturierende Methoden der Unterrichtsstundengestaltung. Eine besondere Rolle nehmen Rituale in reformpädagogischen Konzepte, wie z.B. dem Marchtaler Plan ein.
Im Kontext der Frage, welche Bedeutung Rituale in der schulpädagogischen bzw. -didaktischen Diskussion einnehmen, wird geklärt, was ein Ritual ist bzw. sein kann. Hierbei ist die Fülle an Ritualdefinitionen wahrzunehmen und zugleich über Kontext, Struktur und Funktion von Ritualen in der Schule nachzudenken. Abschließend werden Hinweise zur Praxis von Ritualen in der Schule geboten. Beleuchtet werden zu arrangierende Strukturen eines Rituals, die Eröffnung von Erfahrungsräumen und die Rolle von Lehrkräften als Ritualakteure.

While philosophy and religion were never sharply distinguished in China, what we now call Chinese philosophy incorporated, theorized, and sometimes opposed practices and views that can reasonably be called religious. These included questions about cosmogony, the problem of evil, and the relationship between human beings and the divine. Philosophers were also concerned with common aspects of religion that are now often neglected in philosophy, such as ritual and divination. Finally, the disagreements between different ways and different philosophies led to reflection on pluralism and its value. All of these fit generally into the category of philosophy of religion.

LOUIS-VINCENT THOMAS (1922-1994) commence sa carrière sur le continent africain et y étudie tout à tour les systèmes de pensée, les représentations, la notion de personnalité, les idéologies, les mythes, les rites et les symboles. Une idée-force résulte de ces premiers travaux : « La mort n'est pas le contraire de la vie mais peut-être sa condition fondamentale ». Dès lors, la question de la finitude devient le cœur de ses recherches, mêlant diverses disciplines, approches et thématiques. Et c'est ainsi que l'initiateur de la thanatologie, voyageant dans les chemins de l'imaginaire, de la science-fiction, des obsessions, du quotidien, des corps et des mythologies, a tissé une science et un art de la mort dans la vie.
Plus de vingt ans après sa disparition, nous proposons d'effectuer un retour sur l'œuvre féconde de ce penseur pluriel et insaisissable. Par la rencontre des trois générations – tous domaines confondus – qui lui ont succédé, cet hommage vise à percevoir les résonances de son héritage et les empreintes de sa personnalité, de son itinéraire et de ses recherches. Le présent ouvrage réunit donc des contributions hétéroclites en donnant la parole à ses élèves, ses proches et collègues, mais aussi à celles et ceux qui, sans l'avoir connu, poursuivent à leur manière les chemins que l'anthropologue a ouverts.