Download or read book The Politics of Ritual and Remembrance written by Grant Evans and published by University of Hawaii Press. This book was released on 1998-01-01 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Communist revolutions in this century have suppressed existing ritual and symbolic structures and invented new ones. Armed with new flags, new national celebrations, or new school textbooks, they have attempted to reconstruct social memory. This fascinating work of political anthropology examines the case of Laos from the heady days of the 1975 revolution to the more sober "post-socialist" present. Grant Evans traces the attempt at ritual and symbolic change in Laos, and the recent reemergence of older and deeper cultural structures, while identifying what has perhaps been irretrievably lost. In this challenging study of the cultural consequences of failed total revolution, Evans reaches some striking conclusions concerning the nature of social memory, cultural possibilities foregone, and the need for cultural continuity.
Download or read book Ritual and Remembrance in the Ecuadorian Andes written by Rachel Corr and published by University of Arizona Press. This book was released on 2010-03-15 with total page 201 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Not every world culture that has battled colonization has suffered or died. In the Ecuadorian Andean parish of Salasaca, the indigenous culture has stayed true to itself and its surroundings for centuries while adapting to each new situation. Today, indigenous Salascans continue to devote a large part of their lives to their distinctive practices—both community rituals and individual behaviors—while living side by side with white-mestizo culture. In this book Rachel Corr provides a knowledgeable account of the Salasacan religion and rituals and their respective histories. Based on eighteen years of fieldwork in Salasaca, as well as extensive research in Church archives—including never-before-published documents—Corr’s book illuminates how Salasacan culture adapted to Catholic traditions and recentered, reinterpreted, and even reshaped them to serve similarly motivated Salasacan practices, demonstrating the link between formal and folk Catholicism and pre-Columbian beliefs and practices. Corr also explores the intense connection between the local Salasacan rituals and the mountain landscapes around them, from peak to valley. Ritual and Remembrance in the Ecuadorian Andes is, in its portrayal of Salasacan religious culture, both thorough and all-encompassing. Sections of the book cover everything from the performance of death rituals to stories about Amazonia as Salasacans interacted with outsiders—conquistadors and camera-toting tourists alike. Corr also investigates the role of shamanism in modern Salasacan culture, including shamanic powers and mountain spirits, and the use of reshaped, Andeanized Catholicism to sustain collective memory. Through its unique insider’s perspective of Salasacan spirituality, Ritual and Remembrance in the Ecuadorian Andes is a valuable anthropological work that honestly represents this people’s great ability to adapt.
Download or read book Ritual and Remembrance written by Jon Davies and published by . This book was released on 2006-04-01 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since the end of the last Ice Age ten thousand or so years ago, over the period that we know as Ôhistory', about 100 billion people have died. Death is, on the one hand, an ordinary, inevitable, mundane event, which must be budgeted for & dealt with pragmatically. On the other hand, human beings have always endowed death & its mystery with enormous cultural significance, & have sought to transcend it through rituals & memorials of all kinds. This fascinating collection of essays provides a range of perspectives on death, encompassing literature, archaeology, law, medical ethics, music & art. The essays are arranged by topic: the politics of ancestry; death in war; disposing of the dead; & matters of life & death.
Download or read book Communities of Imagination written by Catherine Diamond and published by University of Hawaii Press. This book was released on 2016-11-30 with total page 406 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Asian theatre is usually studied from the perspective of the major traditions of China, Japan, India, and Indonesia. Now, in this wide-ranging look at the contemporary theatre scene in Southeast Asia, Catherine Diamond shows that performance in some of the lesser known theatre traditions offers a vivid and fascinating picture of the rapidly changing societies in the region. Diamond examines how traditional, modern, and contemporary dramatic works, with their interconnected styles, stories, and ideas, are being presented for local audiences. She not only places performances in their historical and cultural contexts but also connects them to the social, political, linguistic, and religious movements of the last two decades. Each chapter addresses theatre in a different country and highlights performances exhibiting the unique conditions and concerns of a particular place and time. Most performances revolve in some manner around “contemporary modernity,” questioning what it means—for good or ill—to be a part of the globalized world. Chapters are grouped by three general and overlapping themes. The first, which includes Thailand, Vietnam, and Bali, is characterized by the increased participation of women in the performing arts—not only as performers but also as playwrights and directors. Cambodia, Singapore, and Myanmar are linked by a shared concern with the effects of censorship on theatre production. A third group, the Philippines, Laos, and Malaysia, is distinguished by a focus on nationalism: theatres are either contributing to official versions of historical and political events or creating alternative narratives that challenge those interpretations. Communities of Imagination shows the many influences of the past and how the past continues to affect cultural perceptions. It addresses major trends, suggesting why they have developed and why they are popular with the public. It also underscores how theatre continues to attract new practitioners and reflect the changing aspirations and anxieties of societies in immediate and provocative ways even as it is being marginalized by television, film, and the internet. The book will be of interest to students and scholars of theatre and performance, Asian literature, Southeast Asian studies, cultural studies, and gender studies. Travelers wishing to attend local performances as part of their experience abroad will find it an essential reference to theatres of the region.
Download or read book Re enchanting Nationalisms written by Brad West and published by Springer. This book was released on 2015-04-13 with total page 170 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides original insight into the way we now engage and remember national history. Drawing on fieldwork and analysis of international case studies on state commemoration, memorialization, recreational and tourism and times of disaster and crisis, the author demonstrates that not only does the nation frequently retain a strong cultural relevance in our global world but that the emergence of new forms of ritual and remembrance means that in many instances we are seeing the re-enchantment of nationalism. Drawing upon and developing an empirically informed cultural sociology, the author charts the distinctive qualities of these new national rites and how they feed into and advance particular cosmopolitan and orthodox national politics. Because social science has so often wrongly assumed the end of nationalism, the insights of this of the book about the possibilities and limitations of contemporary nationalism demand serious consideration by academics and also by policy makers and the general public.
Download or read book The Politics of War Commemoration in the UK and Russia written by Nataliya Danilova and published by Springer. This book was released on 2016-01-13 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book analyses contemporary war commemoration in Britain and Russia. Focusing on the political aspects of remembrance, it explores the instrumentalisation of memory for managing civil-military relations and garnering public support for conflicts. It explains the nexus between remembrance, militarisation and nationalism in modern societies.
Download or read book Grassroots Memorials written by Peter Jan Margry and published by Berghahn Books. This book was released on 2011-08-01 with total page 386 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Grassroots memorials have become major areas of focus during times of trauma, danger, and social unrest. These improvised memorial assemblages continue to display new and more dynamic ways of representing collective and individual identities and in doing so reveal the steps that shape the national memories of those who struggle to come to terms with traumatic loss. This volume focuses on the hybrid quality of these temporary memorials as both monuments of mourning and as focal points for protest and expression of discontent. The broad range of case studies in this volume include anti-mafia shrines, Theo van Gogh’s memorial, September 11th memorials, March 11th shrines in Madrid, and Carlo Giuliani memorials in Genoa.
Download or read book War and Remembrance in the Twentieth Century written by Jay Winter and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2000-08-27 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How war has been remembered collectively is the central question in this volume. War in the twentieth century is a vivid and traumatic phenomenon which left behind it survivors who engage time and time again in acts of remembrance. This volume, containing essays by outstanding scholars of twentieth-century history, focuses on the issues raised by the shadow of war in this century. The behaviour, not of whole societies or of ruling groups alone, but of the individuals who do the work of remembrance, is discussed by examining the traumatic collective memory resulting from the horrors of the First World War, the Spanish Civil War, the Second World War, and the Algerian War. By studying public forms of remembrance, such as museums and exhibitions, literature and film, the editors have succeeded in bringing together a volume which demonstrates that a popular kind of collective memory is still very much alive.
Download or read book Unburied Memories The Politics of Bodies of Sacred Defense Martyrs in Iran written by Pedram Khosronejad and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-09-13 with total page 184 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Today, almost a generation has passed since the Iran–Iraq war and the memory of it is set to diminish with each passing generation. The following questions emerge. Can we say that the gradual disappearance of war’s memory means that, increasingly, Iranians will see the Iran–Iraq war solely as an historical event? How can we defend or reject this idea? Today, with which elements and values should we look at the Iran–Iraq war memorials and ceremonies? To what extent will war museums and materials culture be influenced by these new values? In the period during and immediately after the Iran–Iraq war (1980-88), national bereavement and commemoration of martyrs was neither apparent in common state policy nor a social need. Even at the turn of the 21st century, anyone walking through Iranian cities, many of which had been the main scene of the bloody massacre and direct targets of the Iraqi Republican Guard, will have found traces of the terrible, almost unimaginable, human losses. However, today’s Iranians can see modern war memorials and monuments in many parts of the urban and rural landscape. Yet, at the same time, the changing landscape has separated Iranians from such remnants of the violence. It can be argued that many people, in their wish to look forward to a more hopeful future, do not wish to be reminded of this period in Iranian history. This book was originally published as a special issue of Visual Anthropology.
Download or read book Light from the Darkness written by Deborah Fripp and published by Behrman House Publishing. This book was released on 2020 with total page 48 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Filled with song and story, ritual and remembrance, this short and empowering guided experience helps us do what Holocaust survivors have always asked of us: to tell the story, to remember, and to act"--
Download or read book Memory and Recovery in Times of Crisis written by Fiona Larkan and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-11-09 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book presents a social scientific reading of the challenges of memory and recovery in times of crisis. Drawing on different interpretations of what constitutes ‘crisis’, this collection uses lenses of economics, identity and commemoration, to question how memory and recovery is being constituted through larger discourses of political claims of moving forward, healing and identity. Memory and Recovery in Times of Crisis examines how memory is dis- or re-interred through social processes and further, how recovered memories are challenged or legitimized. It also presents a set of questions that will stimulate further reflections on what kind of role understandings of memory of crisis can play in recovery. Given the world we find ourselves living in in 2017 – a world subject to multiple, intersecting crises – how we understand the dynamics of memory and recovery is a pressing issue indeed. This book will appeal to both scholars and students of anthropology and sociology.
Download or read book Shaping Remembrance from Shakespeare to Milton written by Patricia Phillippy and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2018-06-14 with total page 285 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A study of remembrance in post-Reformation England in religious and secular artworks and texts by Shakespeare, Milton, and women writers.
Download or read book The English Modernist Novel as Political Theology written by Charles Andrews and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2024-01-11 with total page 217 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Exploring novels by Virginia Woolf, D. H. Lawrence, Evelyn Waugh, and Sylvia Townsend Warner as political theology – works that imagine a resistance to the fusion of Christianity and patriotism which fuelled and supported the First World War – this book shows how we can gain valuable insights from their works for anti-militarist, anti-statist, and anti-nationalist efforts today. While none of the four novelists in this study were committed Christians during the 1920s, Andrews explores how their fiction written in the wake of the First World War operates theologically when it challenges English civil religion – the rituals of the nation that elevate the state to a form of divinity. Bringing these novels into a dialogue with recent political theologies by theorists and theologians including Giorgio Agamben, William Cavanaugh, Simon Critchley, Michel Foucault, Stanley Hauerwas and Jürgen Moltmann, this book shows the myriad ways that we can learn from the authors' theopolitical imaginations. Andrews demonstrates the many ways that these novelists issue a challenge to the problems with civil religion and the sacralized nation state and, in so doing, offer alternative visions to coordinate our inner lives with our public and collective actions.
Download or read book The Cultural Politics of Nationalism and Nation Building written by Rachel Tsang and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-10-08 with total page 355 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Rituals and performances are a key theme in the study of nations and nationalism. With the aim of stimulating further research in this area, this book explores, debates and evaluates the role of rituals and performances in the emergence, persistence and transformation of nations, nationalisms and national identity. The chapters comprising this book investigate a diverse array of contemporary and historical phenomena relating to the symbolic life of nations, from the Yasukuni Shrine in Japan to the Louvre in France, written by an interdisciplinary cast of world-renowned and up-and-coming scholars. Each of the contributors has been encouraged to think about how his or her particular approach and methods relates to the others. This has given rise to several recurring debates and themes running through the book over how researchers ought to approach rituals and performances and how they might best be studied. The Cultural Politics of Nationalism and Nation-Building will appeal to students and scholars of ethnicity and nationalism, sociology, political science, anthropology, cultural studies, performance studies, art history and architecture.
Download or read book Death Materiality and Mediation written by Barbara Graham and published by Berghahn Books. This book was released on 2016-11-01 with total page 174 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Death, Materiality and Mediation, Barbara Graham analyzes a diverse range of objects associated with remembrance in both the public and private arenas through ethnography of communities on both sides of the Irish border. In doing so, she explores the materially mediated interactions between the living and the dead, revealing the physical, cognitive, emotional, and spiritual roles of the dead in contemporary communities. Through this study, Graham expands the concept of materiality to include narrative, song, senses, emotions, ephemera and embodied experience. She also examines how modern practices are informed by older beliefs and folk religion.
Download or read book Forgetful Remembrance written by Guy Beiner and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2018 with total page 728 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Forgetful Remembrance examines the paradoxes of what actually happens when communities persistently endeavour to forget inconvenient events. The question of how a society attempts to obscure problematic historical episodes is addressed through a detailed case study grounded in the north-eastern counties of the Irish province of Ulster, where loyalist and unionist Protestants -- and in particular Presbyterians -- repeatedly tried to repress over two centuries discomfiting recollections of participation, alongside Catholics, in a republican rebellion in 1798. By exploring a rich variety of sources, Beiner makes it possible to closely follow the dynamics of social forgetting. His particular focus on vernacular historiography, rarely noted in official histories, reveals the tensions between professed oblivion in public and more subtle rituals of remembrance that facilitated muted traditions of forgetful remembrance, which were masked by a local culture of reticence and silencing. Throughout Forgetful Remembrance, comparative references demonstrate the wider relevance of the study of social forgetting in Northern Ireland to numerous other cases where troublesome memories have been concealed behind a veil of supposed oblivion.
Download or read book The Rituals written by Natalie MacNeil and published by Chronicle Books. This book was released on 2019-11-05 with total page 164 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This stirring collection presents spiritual rituals from around the world and offers guidance on bringing the powerful practices into modern life. Filled with fascinating details on the history and meaning behind a wide range of sacred rituals for love, awareness, joy, and so much more, this timeless handbook guides readers through more than 40 empowering practices—including a candlelight ritual for renewal, a soothing ritual for unwinding, and a tea ceremony for fostering connection and gratitude. With evocative watercolors throughout, this book is a lovely invitation to nourish the mind, body, and soul through enduring rituals for well-being.
