On religious ritual as deference and communicative excess

I shall argue that most religious ritual is a performance that not only invokes but also performs communication. The ethnographic material from which I derive this argument is from China, in particular the temple rituals of local festivals. My argument is that a deep obeisance of welcome and departure that is both like and not like the normal ritual of greeting marks a religious from a non-religious ritual occasion and place. It is a ritual doubling that makes the honoured guest also a host. Religious ritual is a medium, and as a medium it is double in another sense. It is deference and deferral, a repeated transmission of obeisance to authority that has the authority of repetition. As well as doubling, religious ritual is excessively communicative. The medium is a performance not only of invitation and departure but also of communicative response, and it repeats this communication as a test of communicative response over and over again. Religious ritual performs both the opening and closing of communication, both the seeking and the responsive reciprocation of gift offerings with bounteousness. It is shadowed by the possibility of no response, of giving offence, of being abandoned. This possibility is acknowledged by being prevented, while the possibility that the performers are their own responders is disavowed.     

Vajra Brother, Vajra Sister: Renunciation, Individualism and the Household in Tibetan Buddhist Monasticism

This article challenges two connected notions in the study of Tibetan Buddhism: that Buddhist monasticism is characterized by a pronounced move towards individualism, systematically detaching monks from relational social life; and that Tibetan Buddhist doctrines of karma represent an alternative mode of identity to those constructed within household life. By comparing the ritual practices and inheritance patterns associated with household groups in Ladakh with tantric ritual forms in local Buddhist (Gelukpa) monasteries, it is argued that they demonstrate pronounced structural similarities, centred on the shared symbolic construct of the household/temple as the source of socialized agency. An analysis of the meditative disciplines of Gelukpa monasticism is used to show how such training serves not to renounce kinship and household values, but to transform them into modes of religious authority, essential to the social position of monks ( trapa ) and incarnate lamas ( tulku ) in Tibetan Buddhism.     

Feasting, Craft Specialization, and the Ritual Mode of Production in Small-Scale Societies

Economic intensification has been documented in a diversity of small-scale societies. The existing archaeological theory concerning such intensification has tended to privilege economic and political explanations and largely ignores social action and ritual performance as motivations for economic change. In this article, 1 use both ethnographic and archaeological data to argue that ceremonial feasting and the need for socially valued goods, which are critical for ritual performance and necessary for a variety of social transactions, create the demand that underwrites and sustains economic intensification in small-scale societies. Food for large-scale feasts is acquired through the intensification of food production and procurement targeted specifically for feasting, rather than from the surplus available from routine subsistence production. Large-scale demands for socially valued goods tend to result in specialization on the production of "extraordinary" material culture, which is characterized by two modes of circulation, in networks of social obligations or as offerings in sacred locations. [Key words.craft specialization, exchange, feasting, ritual]     

A Simple Intervention to Prevent Cutaneous Larva Migrans among Devotees of the Nallur Temple in Jaffna,Sri Lanka

Background

A cross sectional study conducted during the annual festival at Nallur temple in Jaffna, Sri Lanka, in 2010, showed that the prevalence of cutaneous larva migrants (CLM) among the devotees who performed the side roll ritual was 58.2% (95%CI: 51.2%–65.0%).

Objective

To test the hypothesis that the deworming stray dogs around the temple premises effectively reduces the prevalence of CLM among devotees.

Methodology/Principal Findings

All stray dogs (8) in the vicinity of the temple were treated, with mebendazole (100 mg) crushed and filled into sausages, 10 days before the commencement of festival in 2011. The same procedure was repeated a week later to ensure complete coverage. A cross-sectional study was conducted among 200 systematically selected devotees in August 2011 using an interviewer-administered questionnaire and the clinical examination of the skin. Baermann''s technique was used for the recovery of nematode larvae from 40 soil samples collected from the temple premises. Ten samples of dog faeces collected from the same premises were also examined for nematode eggs. Prevalence of CLM among devotees in 2010 (Pre intervention) and 2011(Post intervention) were compared to test the hypothesis. Prevalence of CLM declined from 58% to 8% (Chi-square = 112.90, p<0.001) following the intervention. None of the subjects practiced new precautionary measures compared to the previous year. Soil and fecal samples were negative for parasites.

Conclusions/Significance

Regular dog deworming is an important and effective method for the prevention of CLM among the devotees doing side roll ritual and represents a pragmatic intervention that municipal authorities could perform on annual basis.     

Ecological studies on Indonesian lakes. The montane lakes of Bali

Of the two Balinese lakes revisited in 1974, 45 years after an earlier survey, the unproductive Danau Bratan, with a very low conductivity, showed changes in water chemistry and plankton composition that may reflect slight cultural eutrophication. Danau Batur, a larger lake with a very high conductivity, showed little change since 1929.
Danau Bratan is also compared with the two previously uninvestigated lakes that lie in the same caldera: Danau Buyan and Danau Tamblingan. Differences between the three lakes in this series in the stability of stratification, the composition of the plankton, the vegetation, the marginal fauna, the diets of guppies and the fisheries are discussed in relation to differences in exposure to wind and in the effects of human settlement on the shores.     

Cutaneous larva migrans among devotees of the Nallur temple in Jaffna, Sri Lanka

Background

Many cases of Cutaneous Larva Migrans (CLM) have been observed among devotees, during and immediately after the annual festival at the Nallur Hindu temple in Jaffna.

Objective

To ascertain the risk factors associated with infestation and devotees'' knowledge and practices regarding the condition.

Methodology/Principal Findings

A cross-sectional study using an interviewer-administered questionnaire and observation was conducted in August 2010. Out of 200 selected devotees 194(97%) responded. Soil and dog faecal samples were collected from the temple premises and examined for the presence of nematode larva and egg respectively. Among 194 male respondents, 58.2%(95% CI: 51.2%–65.0%) had lesions of CLM. One hundred and thirty (67%) respondents performed the ritual everyday; whereas 33% did so on special days. One hundred and twelve (57.7%) participants performed the ritual before 5.00am and remaining 42.3% performed after 5.00am. Among the participants, 77(36.7%) had the similar condition in previous years. One hundred and fifty seven (80.9%) were aware about this disease and 52(27%) devotees adopted some kind of precautionary measures. Bivariate analysis showed significant association between occurrence of CLM lesions and frequency of performing the ritual (p<0.001, OR-15.1; 95% CI:7.2-32.0), the timing of ritual performance (p = 0.022, OR-1.96; 95% CI:1.10–3.52), similar condition in previous year (p<0.001, OR-6.83; 95% CI: 3.39–13.76) and previous awareness of the condition (p = 0.005; OR-0.59;95% CI:0.43–0.82). Multivariate analysis showed that the frequency of ritual performance (OR-11.75; 95% CI 5.37–25.74) and similar conditions in previous years (OR-4.71; 95% CI: 2.14–10.39) were the independent risk factors. Two of the 20 soil samples were positive for the nematode larvae and three out of five dog faeces were positive for hookworm eggs.

Conclusions/Significance

Deworming the stray dogs around the temple premises combined with the awareness programs among the public may be the effective and feasible precautionary measures to control similar epidemics in future.     

The Functional Role of Balinese Water Temples: A Response to Critics

In earlier publications we have proposed a model to explain the functional role of water temple networks in the agro-ecology of wet rice irrigation on the island of Bali. We argued that the key ecological effects of temple networks are best understood as emergent properties of a complex adaptive system. This argument implies that important aspects of the temple system are largely opaque from the perspective of conventional social science. We proposed that the Green Revolution created a real-world test of our model, by effectively removing the temple networks from their functional role in ecological management. The idea that water temple networks represent a hitherto-unknown kind of institution has been met with appropriate skepticism by other social scientists, who have run a fine-toothed comb through our evidence. Here we evaluate their critiques.     

Houses and the ritual construction of gendered homes in South Africa

This article examines Griqua women's association with houses in historic, economic, and ritual contexts during the twentieth century. Using archival data, I argue that the connection between women and houses in South Africa stems from a complex interaction between their pre-colonial Khoi origins, Christian missionary activity, and apartheid government housing policy. Ethnographic research demonstrates how, during the second half of the twentieth century, women ritually stressed their association with houses, but were unable to sustain this dominance in everyday life. An examination of ritual, gender, and housing, in relation to material objects and space, provides insights into how a series of rituals performed in Griquatown facilitates both the expression of an unambiguous Griqua identity and daily multi-ethnic interactions.     

The Establishment and Defeat of Hierarchy: Inalienable Possessions and the History of Collective Prestige Structures in the Pueblo Southwest

The role of social valuables in establishing and defeating hierarchies in prestate societies is explored through the use of Annette Weiner's concept of "inalienable possessions." Inalienable possessions are objects made to be kept (not exchanged), have symbolic and economic power that cannot be transferred, and are often used to authenticate the ritual authority of corporate groups. Ethnographic examples from Zuni are used to understand the range of individually and collectively owned inalienable objects in Pueblo societies. I then use three classes of these objects from archaeological contexts to gain insight into the history of collective prestige structures in the Southwest. I argue that inalienable goods are more useful than shape prestige goods for understanding the role of social valuables in many nonstate societies, especially those in which inequalities are based on ritual knowledge.     

Balinese "Water Temples" and the Management of Irrigation

Bali has figured prominently in debates on the question of whether irrigation centralizes state power. New evidence shows that irrigation is actually organized by networks of "water temples" that constitute an institutional system separate from the state. Earlier attempts to identify a discrete system of irrigation management misconceived the problem. For most crops, irrigation simply provides water for the plant's roots. But in a Balinese rice terrace, water is used to construct a complex, pulsed artificial ecosystem. Water temples manipulate the states of the system, at ascending levels in regional hierarchies. The permanence of water temple networks contrasts sharply with the instability of the traditional Balinese states. Since the water temples are real, perhaps it is the Balinese "state" that is chimerical.     

Placebo studies and ritual theory: a comparative analysis of Navajo, acupuncture and biomedical healing

Using a comparative analysis of Navajo healing ceremonials, acupuncture and biomedical treatment, this essay examines placebo studies and ritual theory as mutually interpenetrating disciplines. Healing rituals create a receptive person susceptible to the influences of authoritative culturally sanctioned 'powers'. The healer provides the sufferer with imaginative, emotional, sensory, moral and aesthetic input derived from the palpable symbols and procedures of the ritual process-in the process fusing the sufferer's idiosyncratic narrative unto a universal cultural mythos. Healing rituals involve a drama of evocation, enactment, embodiment and evaluation in a charged atmosphere of hope and uncertainty. Experimental research into placebo effects demonstrates that routine biomedical pharmacological and procedural interventions contain significant ritual dimensions. This research also suggests that ritual healing not only represents changes in affect, self-awareness and self-appraisal of behavioural capacities, but involves modulations of symptoms through neurobiological mechanisms. Recent scientific investigations into placebo acupuncture suggest several ways that observations from ritual studies can be verified experimentally. Placebo effects are often described as 'non-specific'; the analysis presented here suggests that placebo effects are the 'specific' effects of healing rituals.     

Metaphors of Hierarchy in a Mayan Ritual

Conventional actions denoting differences in rank are considered a central part of a Mayan ritual honoring a local saint and provide the basis for the formal analysis presented here. The ritual elements—acts drawn from daily etiquette and other ritual contexts—are combined in a way consistent with classic theories of ritual. While providing the basis for a formal argument, ways of designating rank order are not treated as "empty ritual": they pose a moral problem for the participants that contributes to the meaning of the ritual itself.     

Sexuality and the Art of Seduction in Sinhalese Exorcism

In the interest of extending an understanding of ritual aesthetics this paper examines Sinhala exorcism as a domain of seduction. The analysis centres on a major Sinhala ritual held only for women, and its related mythology, in which sexuality is conceived as being destructive of regenerative processes. The rite engages seductive forces to break the destructive dynamic. The argument develops into a general discussion of the ‘logic’ of Sinhalese exorcism and how the aesthetic and seductive forces of rite are able to break the paradox of contradiction which is also integral to the ritual process. The article stresses ritual as a dynamic of both depth and surface, the two aspects being in complementary relation.     

Composition,Production and Procurement of Glass at San Vincenzo al Volturno: An Early Medieval Monastic Complex in Southern Italy

136 glasses from the ninth-century monastery of San Vincenzo and its workshops have been analysed by electron microprobe in order to situate the assemblage within the first millennium CE glass making tradition. The majority of the glass compositions can be paralleled by Roman glass from the first to third centuries, with very few samples consistent with later compositional groups. Colours for trailed decoration on vessels, for vessel bodies and for sheet glass for windows were largely produced by melting the glass tesserae from old Roman mosaics. Some weakly-coloured transparent glass was obtained by re-melting Roman window glass, while some was produced by melting and mixing of tesserae, excluding the strongly coloured cobalt blues. Our data suggest that to feed the needs of the glass workshop, the bulk of the glass was removed as tesserae and windows from a large Roman building. This is consistent with a historical account according to which the granite columns of the monastic church were spolia from a Roman temple in the region. The purported shortage of natron from Egypt does not appear to explain the dependency of San Vincenzo on old Roman glass. Rather, the absence of contemporary primary glass may reflect the downturn in long-distance trade in the later first millennium C.E., and the role of patronage in the “ritual economy” founded upon donations and gift-giving of the time.     

Integrating ecological and cultural values toward conservation and utilization of shrine/temple forests as urban green space in Japanese cities

In Japan, forests associated with shrines and temples are recognized as important components of urban green space, which can potentially function as centers for ecosystem conservation in rapidly urbanizing Japanese cities. In addition to their ecological value, shrine/temple forests have social value, providing recreational and aesthetic needs to residents of urban areas. We review the historical development of shrine/temple forests in Japan and discuss current conservation issues from both ecological and sociological perspectives. Generally, shrine forests are minimally managed and public access is discouraged, whereas temple forests are intensively managed for public display. Shrines tend to be spatially scattered across the landscape but associated with specific geographical features, whereas temples tend to be clustered. Their wide and random distribution in urban areas suggests that shrine forests can potentially be used as stepping stones in the urban green space network, whereas spatially clustered temple forests can be integrated to form large areas of green space. Species diversity of shrine/temple forests declines with decreasing area. The distribution pattern of species is not completely nested, indicating that although conservation of large forest fragments may be effective for maintaining landscape-level biodiversity, smaller forest fragments and adjacent precincts are sometimes significant because rare species occasionally inhabit them. Active management and ecological restoration, such as removal of invasive species, are also important to maintain the desirable near-natural forest conditions. A working group including the owner, community, regional government, and ecologists should be involved in creating an effective, long-term management plan. Because social and cultural values are diverse, basic ecological studies of shrine/temple forests would contribute a scientific basis that fosters public confidence in the process.     

Stratigraphy and Practical Reason

The organization of human behavior often defies utilitarian or practical reason. Inferences based in practical reason simplify behavioral variability and as a result obscure evidence of ritual organization contained in sequences of archaeological deposits. To expose such sequences, 1 offer a behaviorally based artifact life history approach to the study of prehistoric ritual stratigraphy. I illustrate this approach through a case study of ethnographic and archaeological evidence of ritual and warfare in the American Southwest. [Key words: theory, ritual, war, stratigraphy, Casas Grandes]     

'Owner' and 'Managers': Ritual Cooperation and Mutual Dependence in the Maintenance of Rights to Land

Introductory comments concern the duality of some Australian Aboriginal social organi-zations, particularly with respect to ritual action and the enunciation of rights to land. Ethnographic data are presented from the north of Western Australia. Aborigines in this region own land which they inherit and members of a patri-moiety realize their rights in land through subsequent ritual performances. However, members of their opposed patrimoiety who are also land owners play an indispensible role in any ritual action, so that members of both moieties are dependent upon one anothelr in the exercise of rights to land. Further data are provided which show the complex ritual and social relationship between four landowners in the region. It is concluded that the four men are mutually dependent in matters relating to their land. Consequently, Aborigines in the region stress the joint ownership and sharing of land, rather than their independence.     

Costly signaling,ritual and cooperation: evidence from Candomblé, an Afro-Brazilian religion

The apparent wastefulness of religious ritual represents a puzzle for rational choice theorists and evolutionary scholars. In recent years, it has been proposed that such rituals represent costly signals that promote intragroup cooperation precisely because of the effort and resources they require. This hypothesis was tested over the course of a 14-month long ethnographic study in the northeast of Brazil. The research focused on adherents of Candomblé, an African diasporic religion organized in autonomous congregations primarily located in low-income urban areas. Individuals who reported higher levels of religious commitment behaved more generously in a public goods economic game and revealed more instances of provided and received cooperation within their religious community. This suggests that ritual as a costly signaling may effectively predict willingness to cooperate with other group members and that the signaler may accrue benefits in the form of received cooperation. Socioeconomic variables are also shown to mediate religious signaling. This raises the possibility that signalers strategically alter their expressions of commitment as their needs and circumstances change.     

Social life of captive Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) in Southern India: implications for elephant welfare

Asian elephants in the wild live in complex social societies; in captivity, however, management often occurs in solitary conditions, especially at the temples and private places of India. To investigate the effect of social isolation, this study assessed the social group sizes and the presence of stereotypies among 140 captive Asian elephants managed in 3 captive systems (private, temple, and forest department) in Tamil Nadu, India, between 2003 and 2005. The majority of the facilities in the private (82%) and temple (95%) systems held a single elephant without opportunity for social interaction. The forest department managed the elephants in significantly larger groups than the private and temple systems. Among the 3 systems, the proportion of elephants with stereotypies was the highest in temple (49%) followed by private system (26%) and the forest department facility (6%); this correlates with the social isolation trend observed in the 3 systems and suggests a possible link between social isolation and abnormal elephant behavior separate from other environmental factors. The results of this study indicate it would be of greater benefit to elephant well being to keep the patchily distributed solitary temple and private elephants who are socially compatible and free from contagious diseases in small social groups at "common elephant houses" for socialization.