yes / The aim of this article is to give an overview of some of the key dimensions of variation in cultural and religious rituals during the immediate period after a death and in the longer term, in order to inform service delivery in multi-cultural societies. For each area we give examples of different customs, and consider their functions and possible impact. Dimensions considered in the immediate period after bereavement are: The time and space given to formal rituals, expression of feelings, assertion of status and disposal of the body. In the longer term, we look at variations in remembering the deceased and in continuing bonds. Throughout we consider the interplay between individual responses and the person¿s cultural and religious context. Our objective is to provide an accessible introduction for practitioners new to working with bereavement and provide a succinct reference point for more experienced bereavement workers. / Full text made available 1st May 2014 at the end of the publisher's embargo period.

No / This study explores the bereavement process and continuing bond in Pakistani Muslims with the focus on how culture and religion influence these processes. Ten participants were interviewed and their transcribed interviews were analyzed using a grounded theory approach. Three main domains were identified from the narratives expressed by the participants: death and the process of grieving, continuing the link with the deceased, and influencing agents. The findings indicated that Pakistani Muslims maintained their link with the deceased through cultural and religious rituals, such as performing prayers, reciting holy verses, talking and dreaming about the deceased, doing charity, visiting graves, and arranging communal gatherings. The prime purpose of many of these practices was the forgiveness of the deceased. Grief reactions seemed to be determined by the nature of death, prior relationships with the deceased, reaction of society and gender of the bereaved. Religion provided a strong basis for coping and adjustment of the bereaved, through rationalizing and accepting the death. This study has important implications for counselors and family therapists who can use religious affiliations to reduce the impact of loss and complicated bereavement.This study explores the bereavement process and continuing bond in Pakistani Muslims with the focus on how culture and religion influence these processes. Ten participants were interviewed and their transcribed interviews were analyzed using a grounded theory approach. Three main domains were identified from the narratives expressed by the participants: death and the process of grieving, continuing the link with the deceased, and influencing agents. The findings indicated that Pakistani Muslims maintained their link with the deceased through cultural and religious rituals, such as performing prayers, reciting holy verses, talking and dreaming about the deceased, doing charity, visiting graves, and arranging communal gatherings. The prime purpose of many of these practices was the forgiveness of the deceased. Grief reactions seemed to be determined by the nature of death, prior relationships with the deceased, reaction of society and gender of the bereaved. Religion provided a strong basis for coping and adjustment of the bereaved, through rationalizing and accepting the death. This study has important implications for counselors and family therapists who can use religious affiliations to reduce the impact of loss and complicated bereavement.

This study explores the silencing of familial spaces in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Purple Hibiscus. It probes into how the familial space is invested with religiosity: how ritual and norm structure and silence familial spaces and how transcendence from these spaces can be achieved through elements of laughter, music and sexuality. The study uses post-colonial theories, concepts of familial ideology and familial theory to read the text. The introductory chapter provides a politico-historical background of the text, then a literary historiography of how the familial trope has been used in African literature with special focus on Achebe. The chapter also outlines the theoretical framework of the study while anticipating the issues to be dealt with. Chapter two focuses on how the familial space is invested with religious rituals and how these silence the familial space. Chapter three examines how augmentation out of the silenced familial spaces works through elements of laughter, sexuality and music. Chapter four investigates the family as a portrait of the state and most significantly how these two institutions are portrayed to be in a complex relationship. The study’s conclusion is that the family can be used as an alternative site for discourses of marginality and can give a nuanced critique of the postcolony.

A syncretic religion born in the 1930s in the Amazonian jungle, Santo Daime today is an international flag-bearer in the evolving New Religion Movement (NRM) landscape. Shamanic power, nature veneration, universal love and the quest for a transcendental divine experience thanks to the psychoactive indigenous plant medicine ayahuasca define the Santo Daime allure for a new middle class disenchanted with capitalism. Church acculturation issues in Miami are linked to a rigid and grueling ritual, pervasive Catholic ethos and a lack of internal bureaucracy leading to declining membership threatening the very survival of the church in Miami. Research methods include ethnographic work, literature review, personal interviews and the exegesis of sacred hymns or hinarios. Relaxing the ritual military ethos and improved marketing on the New-Age religiosity marketplace among others would help Santo Daime acculturate better in Miami, an ideal incubator city for evaluating the melting-pot of migrant, Latin American and Caribbean religions into this region.

No description available.

The thesis in its first part describes the evolution of rituals in general from the anthropological point of view. The focal topic of the thesis is an attempt to explain the reasons for arising of other non-Christian rituals in the course of history, with special emphasis on rituals of the 2nd half of the 20th century in Czechoslovakia, mainly of the period of the totalitarian regime. The thesis aims to ask about legitimacy of substituting Christian rituals, whether they have been just mere substitution or whether we can regard them as complementary or paralel rituals. Last but not least the thesis inquires into specificity and irreplaceability of Christian rituals. Keywords Secular Rituals, Religious Rituals, Liturgy, Christianity, Comunism.

Submitted by Marlene Aparecida de Souza Cardozo (mcardozo@pucsp.br) on 2016-08-27T14:38:09Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Marlene Duarte Bezerra.pdf: 1917770 bytes, checksum: 108a13fe94c7a57ec48df338c1af1349 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-08-27T14:38:09Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Marlene Duarte Bezerra.pdf: 1917770 bytes, checksum: 108a13fe94c7a57ec48df338c1af1349 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-06-10 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / In the broad field of law, we delimit for our research the theme of law and religion. The central question is to know whether in the rituals of the current procedural law one can find permanence, similarities and even identity with religious rituals, with special reference to the jury trials. Looking for an answer we made a historical research for anthropological and sociological works which show that law was born from religion and that they remained tied together until modern age with the separation between church, religion and state, and the secularization of society, when law acquired its autonomy in the general practice and procedure. However, despite the separation, the research seeks to demonstrate that the current judicial rituals, especially those of the jury trials in the Brazilian context, still maintain similarities and even identity with religious rituals that since the Middle Age integrated and inspired the practice of law in general and particularly the jury. To elaborate this position a field observation was made in a jury trial, with the aid of theoretical scholars that study religious ritual within the phenomenology of religion and others who support the permanence of religious rituals in the rituals of the legal process / No amplo campo do Direito, delimitamos para nossa pesquisa o tema Religião e Direito. A pergunta central busca saber se nos rituais do direito processual atual podemos encontrar permanência, semelhanças e até identidade com os rituais religiosos, com especial referência ao Tribunal do Júri. Em busca de resposta elaboramos uma pesquisa histórica que mediante referenciais da antropologia e sociologia demonstrou-se que o Direito nasceu no berço da Religião e nele permaneceu até a modernidade com o advento da separação entre Igreja e Estado e a secularização da sociedade, ocasião em que adquire sua autonomia na prática em geral e no âmbito processual. Entretanto, apesar da separação, a pesquisa busca demonstrar que nos rituais atuais do judiciário, em especial nos rituais do Tribunal do Júri, no contexto brasileiro, permanecem semelhanças e até identidade com os rituais religiosos que desde a Idade Média integraram e inspiraram a prática do Direito em geral e peculiarmente no Tribunal do Júri. Para trabalhar esta posição foi feita uma observação de campo em um Tribunal do Júri e se recorreu a teóricos que trabalham a ritualística religiosa no âmbito da fenomenologia da religião e outros que sustentam a permanência dos rituais religiosos nos rituais do processo jurídico

本篇論文主要以二結王公廟為研究對象，藉此探討台灣古公三王信仰的發展。透過長期於二結王公廟的田野調查，釐清大二結社區不同階段的社會發展與歷史脈絡，進而理解二結王公廟的建廟歷程及在地互動，以此為中心向外討論目前台灣各古公三王廟的分布情形、發展概況等，從深入訪談及參與觀察所蒐集之材料，探究二結王公廟在古公三王信仰中的角色、傳播上的重要性及其各項祭儀之特色。 　　二結王公廟作為大二結地區的信仰中心，除了原有的宗教功能外，也因王公廟與古公三王對在地人的特殊意義，故在二結王公廟重建工程上做出不一樣的選擇，激發社區居民對公共事務的關心及參與，成為大二結社區營造的一個起點，更從往後的二結王公文化節、大二結王公藝術研究所、二結庄生活文化館等，清楚看見大二結社區如何在原有的古公三王信仰基礎上，運用社區營造的概念，讓宗教活動添增創新的元素，以現代的手法保存及宣揚廟宇文化，並在過程中再次拉近社區居民之間的關係，加深對社區的認同及情感。 　　王公廟最為人知的宗教祭儀為每年農曆十一月十五日的王公生，其中的抓乩童及過炭火儀式更獲選為十大民俗祭典，並被登錄為無形文化資產，使王公生儼然成為二結王公廟的特色。除了王公生慶典外，王公廟的濟世類祭儀保留了傳統關輦出字方式，替信徒解決各項疑難雜症，即使在醫學、科技發達的今日，仍有許多信徒至王公廟問事尋求協助。至於歲時祭儀與公事類祭儀，雖與一般廟宇未有太多不同，但依舊可從儀式進行上的些微差異，進而理解二結王公廟的發展背景與經營情形。 　　根據內政部宗教團體登記與中華道教古公三王弘道協會會員名單，目前台灣共有二十四間古公三王廟，其中十七間寺廟為直接或間接自二結王公廟分香，顯示出二結王公廟在古公三王信仰傳播上的重要性。若以地區進行區分，宜蘭縣以外的九間古公三王廟，傳播原因多與二結人、宜蘭人向外遷徙移居有關，呈現古公三王作為宜蘭人地方神的特色。民國九十年（2001），中華道教古公三王弘道協會成立，並透過至中國大陸重修祖廟、恭迎中國大陸王公神像來台祀奉以及組團進香謁祖等計畫，建立與加深在台古公三王廟對中國大陸祖廟的認同，開始讓分香廟對二結王公廟在台祖廟的認同造成影響，使以二結王公廟為中心的廟際網絡逐漸產生變化。 關鍵字：古公三王、二結王公廟、宗教祭儀、民間信仰、輦轎過火 / This thesis mainly focuses on Erjie Wanggong Temple and the development of Gu Gong San Wang Belief in Taiwan. Through the long-term fieldwork in Erjie, this study aims to clarify social development and historical contexts of Great Erjie in different eras and thereby get further understanding of the establishment and interaction with local communities of Erjie Wanggong Temple, in order to discuss the spreading and current situation of Gu Gong San Wang temples in Taiwan. By in-depth interviews and participant observation, this study attempts to explain the role of Erjie Wanggong Temple in Gu Gong San Wang Belief, its importance in spreading process and the characteristics of its rituals. As the most important religious site in Great Erjie, Erjie Wang Gong Temple’s rebuilding plan aroused local residents to participate in public affairs and has become the starting point of community development of Great Erjie. The following Erjie Wanggong Cultural Festival, Great Erjie Art Research and Erjie Cultural Museum show that how the Great Erjie community preserve and promote temple culture in modern ways. In the process, the relationship among community members has been strengthened. The birthday of Wanggong (ông-kong senn) on the 15th day of the 11th month of the lunar calendar is the most well-known religious festival of Erjie Wanggong Temple. The ritual of "catching spirit medium" (liap tâng-ki) and "fire-walking" (kuè-hué) of the festival was elected as one of the top 10 festivals by the General Association of National Culture in 2007 and was registered as intangible cultural heritage by the Bureau of Cultural Heritage in 2011. In addition, Jishi rituals of the temple still preserve traditional resolutions to solve the problems in followers' modern daily life. According to the Ministry of Interior and Chinese Taoism Gu Gong San Wang Promote Association, there are 24 Gu Gong San Wang temples in Taiwan. 17 of them are branches of Erjie Wanggong Temple, which implies the significance of Erjie Wanggong Temple in the spreading process. The establishment of 9 Gu Gong San Wang temples located outside Yilan County was mostly related to the emigration of people from Erjie and Yilan, representing the role of Gu Gong San Wang as the Local God of Yilan people. In 2001, Chinese Taoism Gu Gong San Wang Promote Association was established. It started to construct and deepen the recognition of original temple in Mainland China from Gu Gong San Wang temples in Taiwan. Therefore, the recognition of Erjie Wanggon Temple as the original temple in Taiwan from branches has been influenced and the Erjie-centered network has been gradually changed. Keywords: Gu Gong San Wang, Erjie Wanggong Temple, religious rituals, folk beliefs, ambrosial palankeen and fire-walking

This thesis studies Tang sancai, a multi-coloured lead-glaze ceramic decorated ware which emerged in the Tang dynasty (AD 618 - AD 907), attaining mass production in the middle of the Tang era and declining towards its end. It examines the functions of sancai in its different aspects, namely as burial objects, as containers for ritual offerings and as architectural material. I argue that Tang sancai ware as burial objects were employed exclusively by the Tang imperial and elite families. The approach to my argument is made, in a first stage, through the observation of the physical locations of tombs that contained Tang sancai wares to demonstrate that these tombs belonged to the Tang imperial and elite family members. In a further step, I bring up two Tang decrees which laid down regulations for burials, to indicate that there was a strict hierarchical system for the allocation and utilization of burial land. These two Tang texts enable us to establish that the tombs located around the area of the imperial tombs belonged to the Tang officials and elite, and therefore not to ordinary people. In addition, the study I undertake of the structure of the tombs, with layout and organization mirroring palatial environments, reinforces my argument to that end. Lastly, I look at the cost of production of Tang sancai showing that it was higher than that of unglazed ceramics and that, consequently, sancai wares were, from an economical point of view, inaccessible to the common people. This thesis also reflects on the agency of Tang sancai, considering its aesthetic qualities and its suitability in the functions for which it served, as a force in engaging the viewers. The lasting debate on whether Tang sancai utensil-shaped wares were used for everyday eating and drinking is dealt with in this thesis by carefully examining the locations of the shards that were excavated at the sites of imperial palaces. My research enables to point out that this data is not sufficient to ascertain that this type of Tang sancai was used as daily wares. On the contrary, on the grounds that these locations were the places where ritual performances took place, I argue that sancai utensil wares were used as presentation containers for ritual performances. In the absence of records in Tang texts which could have informed about the relationship between Tang sancai and religious practice, I borrow an evidence from Japan, in the form of the hand-brush writing on a couple of Nara sancai dishes, which were copies of Tang sancai made in Japan during the time of Tang, mentioning that these vessels were specifically for use for ritual ceremonies. Furthermore, on the basis of analyses made on lead-glazed ware, some scholars assert that such ware is poisonous and could not have been used to contain food or drink, as much as no evidence exists to show that ancient Chinese had used lead-glazed wares for that purpose. This leads to the clarification that Tang sancai utensil-shaped wares were not produced for everyday use, their purpose having actually been to serve as vessels for offerings in rituals. I further observe that this connection between sancai and ritual-themed objects, initiated by the Tang, has in fact pervaded through the succeeding dynasties affirming its role in religious ceremonials. Finally, this thesis also looks at Tang sancai as an architectural material to show that it was skillfully used in decorating buildings, not only as tiles and tile-ends, but also as large-sized roof ornaments. The research reveals, in the process, the possible dates when sancai architectural material started to be used popularly during the Tang era.