Search Results (145)

This article examines how the Park Chung Hee regime reshaped the public memory of the Neo-Confucian philosopher Yi I (penname Yulgok, 1536–1584) by recasting him as a model of patriotic nationalism. Beginning with the inauguration of the Yulgok Festival in 1962, Yi I was no longer commemorated solely as a scholar of the Chosŏn dynasty; instead, the regime portrayed him as a patriotic sage who advocated for military preparedness. Drawing on archival materials (presidential speeches, heritage management reports, newspaper articles), this study reconstructs the policy discourse surrounding Yulgok and traces the state-driven mechanisms that reframed his public image. The analysis shows that Yulgok’s image became embedded in political rituals, monumentalized in public spaces, circulated in everyday life through currency iconography, and materialized in physical heritage sites transformed to embody a purified, idealized vision of the past. Together, these initiatives positioned the state as the custodian of Yulgok’s memory, aligning his image with the ideological priorities of the militarist state. Full article

This article examines how the Ahiska Turks—deported from Georgia’s Meskheti region to Central Asia in 1944—sustained their religious belonging under shifting Soviet and post-Soviet political and social conditions, and how this religious continuity became intertwined with processes of collective memory formation. Drawing on published archival materials, existing scholarship, and a long-term ethnographic corpus composed of fourteen life-history oral interviews conducted between 2006 and 2025 in Turkey and Kazakhstan, the study traces the multigenerational trajectories of ritual practice. The findings show that funeral ceremonies, mevlid gatherings, Ramadan practices, and domestic prayer circles function as “sites of memory” through which the trauma of displacement is reinterpreted and intergenerational belonging is continually reconstituted. These ritual forms generate a meaningful sense of continuity and communal resilience in the face of prolonged experiences of loss, uncertainty, and “placelessness.” Situated at the intersection of the anthropology of religion, cultural trauma theory, and Soviet/post-Soviet diaspora studies, the article conceptualizes Islam as more than a realm of belief: for the Ahiska Turks, it operates as a core cultural infrastructure that anchors post-displacement resilience, social organization, and collective memory. The study contributes to the literature by offering an integrated analytical framework that places the Ahiska community within broader debates on religion, memory, and forced migration; by examining rituals not only as emotional practices but also as institutional and cultural scaffolding; and by foregrounding the understudied post-traumatic religious experiences of Muslim diasporas. Full article

Ceremonial deployed with the aim of displaying and perpetuating power was a shared practice across the medieval Mediterranean. Processions, ceremonies, and ritual acts created solidarity and consensus, naturalized dominion, and conveyed legitimacy while minimizing dissent and threats to social and political hierarchies. Such ceremonial acts were carried out in the public spaces of Mediterranean cities, connecting people, objects, and places in multisensory displays. This paper will explore the relationship between urban spaces and ritual and focus on the architectural contexts where ceremonies and rituals were performed. Three cosmopolitan Mediterranean cities—Cairo, Constantinople, and Venice—will serve as case studies for analyzing how richly ornamented architectural structures were employed as the staging areas for spectacle. Their prominent placement and ornamentation highlighted the theatricality of ceremony and defined a multisensory cityscape that was meant to overwhelm the senses and impress participants and spectators alike. Full article

Guo Moruo’s “Rebirth of the Goddesses” is among the landmark works of modern Chinese poetry. Its myth-rewriting amounts to an act of “disenchantment” carried out amid the ruins of “enchantment”. Yet this heroic undertaking is caught in a triple dialectical vortex: in order to disenchant, it must appeal to the primordial “energies” of myth (nature, life, imagination); in order for disenchantment to be effective, it strategically “uses enchantment” (by requisitioning textual canons and ritual authority); and in the end—because of the intensity of rewriting and the depth of political and spiritual investment—it becomes itself a new layer of enchantment (a cycle of re-enchantment). This exposes the core dilemma of China’s modernity project: to build a new order on the ruins of tradition is necessarily a tragic enterprise of rupture and continuity, of disenchantment and re-enchantment at once. Full article

This paper critically explores Kṛṣṇanāṭṭam, a Sanskrit ritual dance-theater tradition from Kerala, as a product of socio-political and religious transformations in early modern South India. Conceived in the mid-17th century by the Zamorin King Mānavēda, author of the Sanskrit text Kṛṣṇagīti, Kṛṣṇanāṭṭam was both a devotional offering to Lord Kṛṣṇa and a strategic expression of ritual sovereignty. Rooted in Kṛṣṇa bhakti (devotion), the tradition reflects how religious performance was mobilized to assert political legitimacy, particularly amid rivalry with regional powers such as Travancore. The Guruvayur Sri Krishna Temple, situated in the Malabar region of northern Kerala and central to the performance of Kṛṣṇanāṭṭam, emerged as a vital sacred space where royal patronage, ritual authority, and caste hierarchy intersected. The performance’s exclusivity restricted to Hindu audiences within temple premises reinforced patterns of spatial control and caste-based exclusion. Institutional support codified the tradition, sustaining it across generations within a narrow sociocultural framework. With the decline of Zamorin rule and the onset of colonialism, Kṛṣṇanāṭṭam faced structural disruptions. Colonial interventions in temple administration, landholding, and religious patronage weakened its ritual foundations. Guruvayur’s transformation into a public devotional center reflected wider shifts in ritual ecology and sacred geography under colonial modernity. In both the colonial and postcolonial periods, Kṛṣṇanāṭṭam struggled to survive, nearly facing extinction before its revival under the Guruvayur temple’s custodianship. By examining Kṛṣṇa devotion, royal ambition, caste dynamics, and colonial transformation, this paper offers a critical lens on Kerala’s evolving religious and cultural landscapes. Full article

Limited accessibility, mountainous geography, and seismic conditions have posed challenges to both the preservation and the transmission of knowledge inherited from the Incas. Therefore, this research aims to analyze the ancestral Inca construction systems and their relationship with the Inca worldview through an architectural and structural study of the archaeological site of Choquequirao, located in Cusco, Peru. The research integrates geographic, climatic, spatial, functional, and constructive dimensions, applying digital 3D modeling tools (AutoCAD 2025, SketchUp 2024, and Sun-Path 2024) to assess the orientation, stability, and symbolic configuration of the main sectors. The results of the functional and constructive analysis reveal that Choquequirao incorporates adaptive principles in response to seismic and microclimatic conditions, as well as constructive typologies planned from an integral architectural perspective. These elements allow a clearer understanding of the spatial organization of the site and its cultural significance. Moreover, the study covers ten sectors distributed across 1800 hectares. The upper sector (4 ha) stands out for its architecture and political–ceremonial function; the lower sector (4 ha) includes ritual, administrative, residential, and storage areas for camelids; the southern sector (5 ha) contains the ushnu and priestly enclosures on terraces; and the eastern (7 ha) and western (2 ha) slopes integrate agricultural and residential uses. The study of Choquequirao highlights its complex organization and addresses contemporary challenges in terms of conservation and development. These findings provide essential insights for future restoration and conservation strategies that respect traditional construction systems and their environmental adaptation. Full article

As the “Ninth Grotto-Heaven” in Daoist tradition, Linwu Cave has served as a symbolic bridge between the human and immortal realms since the Tang Dynasty. During the Ming Dynasty, painters of the Wu School in Suzhou reimagined Linwu Cave through landscape paintings, transforming it into a visual emblem that merged Daoist cosmology with the ancient Chinese literati ideal of reclusion. This article adopts an interdisciplinary approach, combining art history and religious studies, to analyze Linwu Cave-themed paintings by Wu School artists such as Shen Zhou, Wen Zhengming, and Tang Yin. The study examines how these painters reinterpreted the Daoist concept of “grotto-heavens and blessed lands” into “habitable spaces” through a process of “de-ritualization”. This strategy involved the use of imagery such as the alchemical metaphors of stalactites and the qi (vital energy) symbolism of auspicious clouds on sacred mountains, which diminished Daoist ritualistic elements while amplifying the literati’s idealized vision of reclusion. Drawing on local historical records and field investigations, the research further reveals how the transformation of Linwu Cave into a cultural landmark reflected the Ming Dynasty scholar-officials’ cultural strategies. Through art, these individuals articulated the tension between their aspirations for official success and their longing for a secluded life, set against the backdrop of a rigid civil service examination system and intense political rivalries. By employing the theoretical framework of “Sacred Space”, this study argues that literati painting functioned not only as an aesthetic expression but also as a dynamic medium for religious and philosophical ideas. This perspective offers new insights into the interpretation of Daoist art and its broader cultural significance. Full article

Asian film displays a range of perspectives on ritual and political issues of contest and contestation. Using modified snowball and purposive sampling, film and some television is selected for the presence of ritual politics, political theater, and important Asian cultural, religious, and/or political perspectives. Some perspectives identified are localized, regional, or may have resonance (not representativeness) in many parts of Asia from Kazakhstan, Nepal, India, and eastward; a few preliminary observations are offered in this regard. The current work is an effort in cultural de-coding, and perhaps cultural translation, using qualitative content analysis, coding, and comparative historical–institutional analysis at the intersection of culture and politics. The argument is methodological (qualitative), encouraging political scientists and others with interests in cross-national, comparative, and international religion and politics to delve into thick description using international, foreign-language film as a (relatively unmined) source of cultural data and cultural, values-oriented, and political messaging. Ritual politics is treated herein as formal or informal ritual involving symbolic activities occurring in a religious, semi-religious, or secular context that is used for political purposes, in a political context, or to effect a political message. The current work is preliminary and is part of a larger project; it provides a preliminary spreadsheet of 24 out of over 100 canvassed films seeking to combine conceptual variables with binary coding. Full article

Focusing on Jingju Temple (淨居寺) in Jinan, Shandong Province, from 1920 to 1948, this paper examines the complex interactions among Chinese Buddhism, Japanese Buddhism, and governmental authorities. As one of the key religious sites in Jinan during the Republican era, Jingju Temple traces its origins back to the Song dynasty. Although it was repeatedly destroyed and rebuilt, the temple was restored in the 1920s by Pan Shoulian 潘守廉 (1845–1939) of Jining, becoming a “public monastery” (shifangcongli 十方叢林). Beginning in the 1930s, the Japanese government and its puppet regimes integrated Japanese rituals into Chinese Buddhism and established the Buddhist Tongyuan Association (Fojiao tongyuanhui 佛教同願會). By examining inscriptions, gazetteers, newspapers, and other historical records—focusing on negotiations between Jingju Temple, the association, and the Japanese Buddhist community—this study sheds light on the distinctive and multifaceted religious–political dynamics that arose as the temple was situated amid conflicting forces: the Japanese government, the puppet regimes, and the Republic of China. These findings provide a new perspective for understanding Buddhist interactions across East Asia and open avenues for further inquiry into this complex historical period. Full article

This article reimagines Hispanidad as a flexible cultural repertoire rather than a fixed ideology, examining how Francoism, after 1945, staged official doctrine as public spectacle that then served as “evidence” of its own legitimacy. Through a combined lens of political theology (Schmitt on decision and secularization) and media theory (Benjamin on the aestheticization of politics; Agamben on glory and acclamation), it analyzes Juan de Orduña’s Alba de América (1951) and its paratexts to show how National-Catholic principles—unity of faith and language, providential destiny, and obedience-based authority—were translated into affect through narrative voice, emblematic staging, liturgical music, and choreographed acclamation. Although the film underperformed commercially, it thrived institutionally, excerpted in newsreels and rebroadcast annually on October 12 as a ritual object of state culture. The article argues that spectacle in Francoist Spain functioned not only as propaganda but also as a mechanism for stabilizing power by shaping collective memory and everyday habits, revealing how aesthetic form can naturalize political authority and offering a model for analyzing the everyday workings of power across media and regimes. Full article

This article examines Turkish wedding ceremonies within the German-Turkish diasporic context, viewing them as dynamic sites of cultural citizenship and diasporic belonging. While existing scholarship has largely concentrated on the institutional aspects of integration and citizenship, this study redirects focus to the vernacular, performative, and visually mediated expressions of identity evident in everyday diasporic life. Employing digital ethnography and visual discourse analysis, the research investigates user-generated content on platforms such as YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok, specifically content tagged with keywords like “Turkish wedding Germany”. The analysis reveals how wedding rituals serve as public performances where national symbols, religious practices, traditional music, and attire converge to express collective identity, assert cultural visibility, and negotiate belonging within the German socio-political landscape. The study identifies three interconnected themes: the reproduction of national imaginaries and symbolic belongings, the continuity of heritage and tradition, and the ritualization of religious practices in transnational contexts. By emphasising the embodied and affective dimensions of these performances, the article illustrates how mediated marriage rituals function as hybrid cultural practices that challenge marginalisation and promote diasporic connectivity. This research contributes to broader discussions on mediated diasporic identities by providing a comprehensive view of how everyday cultural performances serve as symbolic tools for maintaining a sense of home beyond national boundaries. Full article

As a well-known World Cultural Heritage Site, the Historic Centre of Macao’s historical buildings possess a wealth of decorative patterns. These patterns contain cultural esthetics, geographical environment, cultural traditions, and other elements from specific historical periods, deeply reflecting the evolution of religious rituals and political and economic systems throughout history. Through long-term research, this article constructs a dataset of 11,807 images of local decorative patterns of historical buildings in Macau, and proposes a fine-grained image classification method using the ConvNeXt-L model. The ConvNeXt-L model is an efficient convolutional neural network that has demonstrated excellent performance in image classification tasks in fields such as medicine and architecture. Its outstanding advantages lie in limited training samples, diverse image features, and complex scenes. The most typical advantage of this model is its structural integration of key design concepts from a Transformer, which significantly enhances the feature extraction and generalization ability of samples. In response to the objective reality that the decorative patterns of historical buildings in Macau have rich levels of detail and a limited number of functional building categories, ConvNeXt-L maximizes its ability to recognize and classify patterns while ensuring computational efficiency. This provides a more ideal technical path for the classification of small-sample complex images. This article constructs a deep learning system based on the PyTorch 1.11 framework and compares ResNet50, EfficientNet-B7, ViT-B/16, Swin-B, RegNet-Y-16GF, and ConvNeXt series models. The results indicate a positive correlation between model performance and structural complexity, with ConvNeXt-L being the most ideal in terms of accuracy in decorative pattern classification, due to its fusion of convolution and attention mechanisms. This study not only provides a multidimensional exploration for the protection and revitalization of Macao’s historical and cultural heritage and enriches theoretical support and practical foundations but also provides new research paths and methodological support for artificial intelligence technology to assist in the planning and decision-making of historical urban areas. Full article

Ecuador is experiencing an unprecedented escalation of violence, organized crime and public insecurity, prompting the Ministry of Education to introduce a curricular reform through Ministerial Agreement MINEDUC-MINEDUC-2024-00060-A. This reform incorporates five new subjects—Civic Education, Ethics and Integrity, Education for Sustainable Development, Socioemotional Education, Financial Education, and Education for Road Safety and Sustainable Mobility—into the national curriculum, with the explicit aim of fostering civic responsibility, ethical behavior and social cohesion. This study examines the societal and political context of the reform and analyzes its representation in the Ecuadorian press during 2024 using qualitative content analysis of publicly accessible national news articles, including reports, chronicles, interviews and press releases. The analysis focuses on the framing of the reform’s messages, the information provided and the actors featured in the coverage. Findings reveal that media narratives strongly reflect governmental discourse, portraying Civic, Ethic and Integrity Education as a moral vitamin to counteract the erosion of values and as a strategy to reinforce national identity through civic rituals. The study concludes that the reform exemplifies the integration of educational policy with sociopolitical objectives, positioning schools as central actors in long-term efforts to address societal violence and promote ethical citizenship. Full article

This article illuminates the cosmology of Raa Haqi (often called Dersim Alevism or Kurdish Alevism), a rarely examined strand within Alevi Studies. Existing scholarship’s emphasis on identity politics and sparse ethnography has left Raa Haqi’s mythological and cosmological dimensions underexplored. This paper approaches Raa Haqi through a dual authority framework: (1) Ocak lineages and Ocak–talip relations—sustained by kinship institutions like kirvelik, musahiplik, and communal rites such as the cem—and (2) jiares, non-human agents from the Batın realm that manifest in Zahir as sacred places, objects, and animals. Methodologically, I conduct a close, motif-based reading of folktales compiled by Caner Canerik (2019, Dersim Masalları I), treating them as ethnographic windows into living theology. The analysis shows that tales encode core principles—rızalık (mutual consent), ikrar (vow), sır (the secret knowledge), fasting and calendrical rites, ritual kinship, and moral economies involving humans, animals, and Batın beings. Dreams, metamorphosis, and jiare-centered orientations structure time–space, ethics, and authority beyond the Ocak, including in individual re-sacralizations of objects and sites. I conclude that these narratives do not merely reflect belief; they actively transmit, test, and renew Raa Haqi’s cosmological order, offering Alevi Studies a theory-grounded, source-proximate account of Kurdish Alevi mythic thought. Full article

The article is focused on the recent exegetical trend of “contextual” readings of the Bible, or context-sensitive exegesis in global Biblical scholarship. It is written by three authors from different ethnic and cultural contexts (German, Korean, Ethiopian) in order to emphasize the diversity to be considered. In the first part, the aims, history and relevant factors of contextual reading are described. The second part makes clear that also the traditional historical-critical exegesis is strongly contextual, drawing on Enlightenment thought and Western views of life. Therefore, any claims of “objectivity” or universality are problematic. In the third and fourth section of the article, two different contexts from global Christianity or the Majority World are introduced. first the African, especially Ethiopian context under the label of “vulnerability”, and then an Asian, precisely South Korean context with regard to the understanding of spirits and demons. The Ethiopian author describes how vulnerability has generally shaped the African cultural experience and specifically common language in Ethiopia, including religious attitudes which are characterized by a general openness for the divine. She also shows, that in such a culture, with the danger of naivete and acceptance of many problematic interpretations critical discernment is needed, as has already been stated by an Ethiopian philosopher of the 17th century. The part on Korean interpretation discusses the various views on spirits and demons in Korean Bible translations and the influence of Confucian thought and Shamanism on readings of the Bible. Using the example of the Gerasene demoniac, the author shows readers aware of shamanic ritual including pigs and intended to pacify the restless souls can impact the reading of this particular Biblical text even among modern Koreans. A brief concluding section draws some conclusions. Both examples demonstrate the diversity of contexts and their resonances with the Biblical texts when they are read in these different contexts. It is also obvious that there is not a single clear-cut dualism between Western and “postcolonial” readings. Neither the historical readings nor the contextual are “right” as such. Rather, there should be an open dialogue, on equal footing, that considers the context and also allows for critical interaction in order to prevent abuse of biblical texts, not only in colonial relations, but also within a given context by traditionalists, political powers, and spiritual authorities, so that the liberating power of the gospel can come into effect, for the benefit its readers. Full article