Download or read book Ritual Change and Social Transformation in Migrant Societies written by Hans-Georg Soeffner and published by Peter Lang Gmbh, Internationaler Verlag Der Wissenschaften. This book was released on 2016 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume includes studies of ritual change and social transformation in Singapore, Germany and the US. It focuses on the changes and adjustments of rituals in times of migration.

Download or read book Ritual A Very Short Introduction written by Barry Stephenson and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2015-01-28 with total page 143 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ritual is part of what it means to be human. Like sports, music, and drama, ritual defines and enriches culture, putting those who practice it in touch with sources of value and meaning larger than themselves. Ritual is unavoidable, yet it holds a place in modern life that is decidedly ambiguous. What is ritual? What does it do? Is it useful? What are the various kinds of ritual? Is ritual tradition bound and conservative or innovative and transformational? Alongside description of a number of specific rites, this Very Short Introduction explores ritual from both theoretical and historical perspectives. Barry Stephenson focuses on the places where ritual touches everyday life: in politics and power; moments of transformation in the life cycle; as performance and embodiment. He also discusses the boundaries of ritual, and how and why certain behaviors have been studied as ritual while others have not. Stephenson shows how ritual is an important vehicle for group and identity formation; how it generates and transmits beliefs and values; how it can be used to exploit and oppress; and how it has served as a touchstone for thinking about cultural origins and historical change. Encompassing the breadth and depth of modern ritual studies, Barry Stephenson's Very Short Introduction also develops a narrative of ritual's place in social and cultural life. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

Download or read book Migration Modernity and Social Transformation in South Asia written by Filippo Osella and published by SAGE. This book was released on 2004-05-25 with total page 432 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Most of the papers presented at a workshop held at Sussex in January 2001 and some contributed articles; previously published.

Download or read book Migration and Religion written by Magdalena Nordin and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2023-06-16 with total page 130 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This open access book introduces research on migration and religion with the focus on migration to western European countries from the 1950s and onwards. The book is an in-depth presentation of the main research trends as to methods, theories and empirical zones on migration and religion. In a unique way, the book brings together research about the topic aligning it with the experiences and urgencies of migrants. The first part of three introduces key concepts and presents main research trends over time. The second part deals with the processes of establishment – on an individual level as well as on a group and society level. The third and final part focuses on religious change in relation to religious ideas and habits. It further highlights religious creativity. The third part finishes with a discussion about challenges to research and what we still do not know enough about.

Download or read book Economy and Ritual written by Stephen Gudeman and published by Berghahn Books. This book was released on 2015-02-01 with total page 214 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: According to accepted wisdom, rational practices and ritual action are opposed. Rituals drain wealth from capital investment and draw on a mode of thought different from practical ideas. The studies in this volume contest this view. Comparative, historical, and contemporary, the six ethnographies extend from Macedonia to Kyrgyzstan. Each one illuminates the economic and ritual changes in an area as it emerged from socialism and (re-)entered market society. Cutting against the idea that economy only means markets and that market action exhausts the meaning of economy, the studies show that much of what is critical for a people’s economic life takes place outside markets and hinges on ritual, understood as the negation of the everyday world of economising.

Download or read book The Rite of Urban Passage written by Reza Masoudi and published by Berghahn Books. This book was released on 2018-08-17 with total page 198 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Iranian city experienced a major transformation when the Pahlavi Dynasty initiated a project of modernization in the 1920s. The Rite of Urban Passage investigates this process by focusing on the spatial dynamics of Muharram processions, a ritual that commemorates the tragic massacre of Hussein and his companions in 680 CE. In doing so, this volume offers not only an alternative approach to understanding the process of urban transformation, but also a spatial genealogy of Muharram rituals that provides a platform for developing a fresh spatial approach to ritual studies.

Download or read book Indigenous Migration and Social Change written by Ann M. Wightman and published by Duke University Press. This book was released on 1990-01-31 with total page 330 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Many observers in colonial Spanish America—whether clerical, governmental, or foreign—noted the large numbers of forasteros, or Indians who were not seemingly attached to any locality. These migrants, or “wanderers,” offended the bureaucratic sensibilities of the Spanish administration, as they also frustrated their tax and revenue efforts. Ann M. Wightman’s research on these early “undocumentals” in the Cuzco region of Peru reveals much of importance on Andean society and its adaptation and resistance to Spanish cultural and political hegemony. The book thereby informs our understanding of social change in the colonial period. Wightman shows that the dismissal of the forasteros as marginalized rural poor is superficial at best, and through laborious and painstaking archival research she presents a clear picture of the transformation of traditional society as the native populations coped with the disruptions of the conquest—and in doing so, reveals the reciprocal adaptations of the colonial power. Her choice of Cuzco is particularly appropriate, as this was a “heartland” region crucial to both the Incan and Spanish empires. The questions addressed by Wightman are of great concern to current Andean ethnohistory, one of the liveliest areas of such research, and are sure to have an important impact.

Download or read book Embodied Communities written by Felicia Hughes-Freeland and published by Berghahn Books. This book was released on 2008 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Court dance in Java has changed from a colonial ceremonial tradition into a national artistic classicism. Central to this general transformation has been dance's role in personal transformation, developing appropriate forms of everyday behaviour and strengthening the powers of persuasion that come from the skillful manipulation of both physical and verbal forms of politeness. This account of dance's significance in performance and in everyday life draws on extensive research, including dance training in Java, and builds on how practitioners interpret and explain the repertoire. The Javanese case is contextualized in relation to social values, religion, philosophy, and commoditization arising from tourism. It also raises fundamental questions about the theorization of culture, society and the body during a period of radical change.

Download or read book Transformations in Sacrificial Practices written by Eftychia Stavrianopoulou and published by LIT Verlag Münster. This book was released on 2008 with total page 318 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The main thrust of the contributions in this volume run counter to the notion of a universally applicable theory of sacrifice, and rather aimed at investigating transformations in sacrificial practices from cross-cultural and transhistorical perspectives. Exploring a broad spectrum of texts, case studies and social practices from Greco-Roman antiquity as well as the Ancient Near East and Egypt to the modern Middle East, the Indian subcontinent and Indonesia diverging cultural perceptions and definitions of the topic "sacrifice" are examined and thereby new insights into the processes of modification and transformation of sacrificial rituals are gained.

Download or read book Transnational Return and Social Change written by Remus Gabriel Anghel and published by Anthem Press. This book was released on 2019-07-31 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Return has long been considered the end of a migration cycle. Today, returnees’ continued transnational ties, practices and resources have become increasingly visible. Transnational Return and Social Change joins what is now a growing fi eld of research and suggests new ways to understand the dynamics of return migration and the social changes that come along. It pays tribute to the meso-level impacts that follow the practices and resources migrant returnees mobilize across borders. With a particular focus on the meso-level the book takes up the challenge of transnational research and enquires into the consequences of return for local communities, organizations, social networks and groups. Presenting a collection of case studies dedicated to migrations across Europe and beyond, this book contributes new insights into the societal impact of migration in pluralized societies.

Download or read book Death and Changing Rituals written by J. Rasmus Brandt and published by Oxbow Books. This book was released on 2014-07-31 with total page 481 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The forms by which a deceased person may be brought to rest are as many as there are causes of death. In most societies the disposal of the corpse is accompanied by some form of celebration or ritual which may range from a simple act of deportment in solitude to the engagement of large masses of people in laborious and creative festivities. In a funerary context the term ritual may be taken to represent a process that incorporates all the actions performed and thoughts expressed in connection with a dying and dead person, from the preparatory pre-death stages to the final deposition of the corpse and the post-mortem stages of grief and commemoration. The contributions presented here are focused not on the examination of different funerary practices, their function and meaning, but on the changes of such rituals _ how and when they occurred and how they may be explained. Based on case studies from a range of geographical regions and from different prehistoric and historical periods, a range of key themes are examined concerning belief and ritual, body and deposition, place, performance and commemoration, exploring a complex web of practices.

Download or read book Politics and Policies in Upper Guinea Coast Societies written by Christian K. Højbjerg and published by Springer. This book was released on 2016-11-15 with total page 343 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines the radical changes in social and political landscape of the Upper Guinea Coast region over the past 30 years as a result of civil wars, post-war interventions by international, humanitarian agencies and peacekeeping missions, as well as a regional public health crisis (Ebola epidemic). The emphasis on ‘crises’ in this book draws attention to the intense socio-transformations in the region over the last three decades. Contemporary crises and changes in the region provoke a challenge to accepted ways of understanding and imagining socio-political life in the region – whether at the level of subnational and national communities, or international and regional structures of interest, such as refugees, weapon trafficking, cross-border military incursions, regional security, and transnational epidemics. This book explores and transcends the central explanatory tropes that have oriented research on the region and re-evaluates them in the light of the contemporary structural dynamics of crises, changes and continuities.

Download or read book Remittances as Social Practices and Agents of Change written by Silke Meyer and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2023-10-02 with total page 468 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This open access book explores the transformative effects of remittances. Remittances are conceptualized as flows of money, objects, ideas, traditions, and symbolic capital, mapping out a cross-border space in which people live, work, and communicate with multiple belongings. By doing so, they effect social change both in places of origin and destination. However, their power to improve individual living conditions and community infrastructure mainly results from global inequality. Hence, we challenge the remittance mantra and go beyond the migration-development-nexus by revealing dependencies and frictions in remittance relations. Remittances are thus scrutinized in their effects on both social cohesion and social rupture. By highlighting the transformative effects of remittance in the context of conflict, climate change, and the postcolonial, we shed light on the future of transnational society. Presenting empirical case studies from Ghana, Burkina Faso, Sri Lanka, New Zealand, Turkey, Lebanon, USA, Japan, and various European countries, as well as historical North America and the Habsburg Empire, we explore remittance relations from a range of disciplines including anthropology, sociology, history, design, architecture, governance, and peace studies.

Download or read book Religious Bodies Politic written by Anya Bernstein and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2013-11-27 with total page 277 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Religious Bodies Politic examines the complex relationship between transnational religion and politics through the lens of one cosmopolitan community in Siberia: Buryats, who live in a semiautonomous republic within Russia with a large Buddhist population. Looking at religious transformation among Buryats across changing political economies, Anya Bernstein argues that under conditions of rapid social change—such as those that accompanied the Russian Revolution, the Cold War, and the fall of the Soviet Union—Buryats have used Buddhist “body politics” to articulate their relationship not only with the Russian state, but also with the larger Buddhist world. During these periods, Bernstein shows, certain people and their bodies became key sites through which Buryats conformed to and challenged Russian political rule. She presents particular cases of these emblematic bodies—dead bodies of famous monks, temporary bodies of reincarnated lamas, ascetic and celibate bodies of Buddhist monastics, and dismembered bodies of lay disciples given as imaginary gifts to spirits—to investigate the specific ways in which religion and politics have intersected. Contributing to the growing literature on postsocialism and studies of sovereignty that focus on the body, Religious Bodies Politic is a fascinating illustration of how this community employed Buddhism to adapt to key moments of political change.

Download or read book Funerals in Africa written by Michael Jindra and published by Berghahn Books. This book was released on 2011-09-01 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Across Africa, funerals and events remembering the dead have become larger and even more numerous over the years. Whereas in the West death is normally a private and family affair, in Africa funerals are often the central life cycle event, unparalleled in cost and importance, for which families harness vast amounts of resources to host lavish events for multitudes of people with ramifications well beyond the event. Though officials may try to regulate them, the popularity of these events often makes such efforts fruitless, and the elites themselves spend tremendously on funerals. This volume brings together scholars who have conducted research on funerary events across sub-Saharan Africa. The contributions offer an in-depth understanding of the broad changes and underlying causes in African societies over the years, such as changes in religious beliefs, social structure, urbanization, and technological changes and health.

Download or read book Multiple Modernities written by Shmuel N. Eisenstadt and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-09-29 with total page 375 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How may we characterize contemporary society in a world so complex? Can looking at the diverse paths followed by various cultures in the modern world generate useful new social scientific typologies, or must a different set of questions be posed in this era of globalization? What, in short, is the nature of modernity? These are some of the questions addressed by the contributors to Multiple Modernities.Following the theme in an earlier work edited by Shmuel Eisenstadt, Public Spheres and Collective Identities, this book challenges conventional notions of how the world has changed politically, socially, and economically. The authors consider the meaning of modernity in contexts as different as communist Russia, modern India, the Muslim world, Latin America, China and East Asia, and the United States. Miscegenation, transnational migration, technological developments, and changing communications have shifted the ground on which theories of society were once built; political system, diaspora groups, religion, and ""classical"" theories of modernity have to be reconsidered in a new context.Authors and chapters include: S.N. Eisenstadt, ""Multiple Modernities""; Bjrn Wittrock, ""Modernity: One, None, or Many? European Origins and Modernity as a Global Condition""; Johann P. Arnason, ""Communism and Modernity""; Nilfer Gle, ""Snapshots of Islamic Modernities""; Dale F. Eickelman, ""Island and the Languages of Modernity""; Sudipta Kaviraj, ""Modernity and Politics in India""; Stanley J. Tambiah, ""Transnational Movements, Diaspora, and Multiple Modernities""; Tu Weiming, ""Implications of the Jrise of 'Confucian' East Asia""; Jrgen Heideking, ""The Pattern of American Modernity from the Revolution to the Civil War""; and Renato Ortiz, ""From Incomplete Modernity to World Modernity.""Written in clear and non-technical language for both a scholarly and general audience, this volume confronts the problem of just what constitutes the common core of modernit

Download or read book Contacts Boundaries and Innovation in the Fifth Millennium written by Ralf Gleser and published by . This book was released on 2019-03-27 with total page 335 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The fifth millennium is characterized by far-flung contacts and a veritable flood of innovations. While its beginning is still strongly reminiscent of a broadly Linearbandkeramik way of life, at its end we find new, inter-regionally valid forms of symbolism, representation and ritual behaviour, changes in the settlement system, in architecture and in routine life. Yet, these inter-regional tendencies are paired with a profusion of increasingly small-scale archaeological cultures, many of them defined through pottery only. This tension between large-scale interaction and more local developments remains ill understood, largely because inter-regional comparisons are lacking. Contributors in this volume provide up-to-date regional overviews of the main developments in the fifth millennium and discuss, amongst others, in how far ceramically-defined 'cultures' can be seen as spatially coherent social groups with their own way of life and worldview, and how processes of innovation can be understood. Case studies range from the Neolithisation of the Netherlands, hunter-gatherer - farmer fusions in the Polish Lowlands, to the Italian Neolithic. Amongst others, they cover the circulation of stone disc-rings in western Europe, the formation of post-LBK societies in central Europe and the reliability of pottery as an indicator for social transformations.