Making the Cut: Covenant, Curse and Oath in Deut 27-29 and the Incantation Plaques of Arslan Tash (Society of Biblical Literature: Atlanta, 2015)

The phrase “cutting a covenant” is familiar to us from texts of the Hebrew Bible. In Gen 15:18, for example, God makes a covenant with Abram that is accompanied by a ritual enactment. This ritual performance involves the slaughter of animals, arranging the pieces in two rows, and fire passing between the two rows of pieces. The phrase that is used in this passage is: כרת יהוה את–אברם ברית , or “God cut a covenant with Abram.” This phrase “to cut a covenant” לכרות ברית) ) is a common one in the Hebrew Bible. The slaughtering of animals and the performance of other ritual acts to ratify oaths and treaties was an ancient practice in the Near East. Oath and treaty texts from the second millennium BCE from Mari and the Hittite Empire include elements of ritual performance such as animal slaughter, the burning of figurines, and the breaking of model plows and chariots.1 Aramean and Assyrian treaty texts from the first millennium BCE also include elements of ritual slaughter and other performative rituals.2 Also the ratification of the covenant in Deut 27-28 includes the building of an altar, making sacrifices, erecting the torah stones at the altar site, and an oral performance of the covenant with its blessings and curses. So it is no surprise that covenant and performative rituals go together. But what about covenant and incantation texts? What does covenant have to do with magical artifacts

The Sugi Sakit Ritual Storytelling in a Saribas Iban Rite of Healing

This paper describes a Saribas Iban rite of healing called the Sugi sakit. What distinguished this rite from other forms of Saribas Iban healing was that it incorporated within its performance a long narrative epic concerned with the adventures and love affairs of an Iban culture hero named Bujang Sugi. Here I explore the language used by Iban priest bards both in telling the Sugi epic and in performing the larger ritual drama in which it was set, and look, in particular, at how the Sugi epic, which was otherwise told for entertainment, was integrated into this drama and recast by the priest bards as they performed the ritual, so that it not only entertained their listeners, but also served as a serious instrument of healing

They were silent: investigating the potential shamanic role of a contemporary theatre performer and how ritual and theatre can be synergized

ABSTRACT This study gives expression to my journey of mediating my Sangoma, artist (performer and theatre maker) and scholarly roles. It is a personal journey that paints the picture of my multi-faceted identity, particularly within the context of pursuing my Masters studies. This study is not trapped within the confines of giving expression to my identity, but also engages with specific research questions that have guided the course of the research that is detailed in this Research Report. Three essential areas of enquiry demarcate the parameters that define this study’s locale. These are: how ritual and theatre can be synergized; can a ritual-based theatre performance facilitate communitas amongst an audience and what the potential shamanic characteristics of a contemporary performer are? These enquires were grappled with through a creative project entitled They Were Silent, which is a collaborative (research) project done by myself, Jessica Lejowa and Lerato Sekele. This creative project points to the practice as research paradigm and methodology employed by this study. It was through practice as research that this study managed to facilitate interplay between theory and practice. The theories that ground this study are Victor Turner, Richard Schechner and Malidoma Patrice Somè’s ritual theories. Jerzy Grotowski’s notion of Total Act and Richard Schechner’s theatre performance practice theory that views a theatre performer as a shaman also constitute this study’s theoretical base. This study’s research findings are derived from the devising, performance and post-performance phases of its creative project. These findings give voice to the merger of ritual and theatre as being dependent on the context, intentions and other factors related to a ritual-based theatre performance. Essentially, this study posits that ritual and theatre can merge when the ritual and theatre performance contexts co-exist. This Report illustrates the challenges related to the potential of a ritual-based theatre performance to facilitate communitas amongst a theatre audience as a means of iii addressing societal fragmentation. They Were Silent succeeded in creating communitas to some extent. However, this study’s shortcoming related to the facilitation of communitas through a ritual-based theatre performance is that its finding cannot be regarded as absolute and general. Regarding the potential shamanic characteristics of a contemporary performer, this study generally agrees with the theory that speaks of this subject and makes the point that a contemporary performer’s mode of performance, performance context and intentions can define a contemporary performer’s shamanic characteristics and role. This study also makes a pertinent point that a contemporary performer’s shamanic characteristics are not necessarily dependant on a performer being a practicing shaman as I am. This study provides a possible conceptual approach of how theatre and ritual can merge, illustrates the complexities of communitas and proposes a perspective into how a contemporary theatre performer could be shamanic

Jazigos de sombra : o ritual da morte na performance contemporânea

Mestrado em Criação Artística ContemporâneaA morte e os seus rituais têm expressão espontânea e visível na performance artística contemporânea, ao contrário do que sucede no quotidiano da sociedade ocidental do século XXI, que promove a sua ocultação. Esta investigação tem como objectivo analisar dois casos de performance artística, Hermann Nitsch e Marina Abramovic, à luz de um corpo conceptual de análise centrado nos rituais da morte ocidentais. Para melhor compreensão deste processo, procura-se estabelecer a ligação entre ritual e performance. Dado que o ritual mantém igualmente uma relação de proximidade com a religião, pretende-se averiguar se, e de que modo, na performance artística contemporânea, a morte e os seus rituais conseguem atingir os propósitos de um ritual religioso. No decorrer desta pesquisa também se verifica que a intenção inicial da performance artística, que era unir a vida e a arte, permanece no domínio da utopia ABSTRACT: Death and its rituals have a visible and spontaneous expression in contemporary performance, as opposed to what happens in the daily routine of XXI century western society that hides it. This investigation aims to analyze two cases of performance, Hermann Nitsch and Marina Abramovic, according to a conceptual body of analysis centered in western death rituals. In order to have a better understanding of this process, the relation between ritual and performance is established. Because ritual is also closely connected with religion, this study seeks to acknowledge if and how death and its rituals are able to achieve the purpose of a religious ritual in contemporary performance. During this research it is verified that the original intention of performance, which was the union of life and art, remains in the realm of utopia

Re/Turning to Her: An A/r/tographic Ritual Inquiry

This article reaches into the depths of a collaborative a/r/tographic ritual inquiry between two women artist-educators-priestesses. Within this we reflect on the intersections of research, art, spirituality, and education as thresholds of collaborative learning. Throughout the ritual-infused research process, we generated source material and imagery from trance, Authentic Movement, the labyrinth, reflective writing and co-interviews. Each of these process practices took us outside of ourselves, and attuned us to Spirit, offering a larger perspective on the inquiry while simultaneously bringing us closer to actualizing the performance ritual. In co-creating what became a performative ritual narrative of the loss and restoration of the Divine feminine in Western culture, we reclaimed a lost part of our Spiritual lineage as women through the performance ritual Re/Turning to Her, a teaching parable performed for the larger community

Rethinking Balinese Dance

How should we set about understanding dance in Bali and its relevance to the study of Indonesia and the Malay world? Is it one of the great contributions to Malay civilization to be appreciated and studied alongside classical Indian and Japanese performance? Or, is it inextricable from religion and best considered as ritual? As a spectacle watched by hundreds of thousands of tourists a year, is it instead a culture industry? Or is it all these woven together to produce a hybrid mass pilgrimage? And what can the critical study of Balinese dance contribute to a broader understanding of cross-cultural performance

Boston University Percussion Ensemble: Blossom and Bell, March 21, 2016

This is the concert program of the Boston University Percussion Ensemble: Blossom and Bell performance on Monday, March 21, 2016 at 8:00 p.m., at the Concert Hall, 855 Commonwealth Avenue. Works performed were Flex by Mark Berger, Red Arc/Blue Veil by John Luther Adams, A Flower by John Cage, Mantra II by Ramon Humet, Percussion Quartet by Alfred Schnittke, and Carillon Ritual by Philip Grange. Digitization for Boston University Concert Programs was supported by the Boston University Humanities Library Endowed Fund

The Performance Cult of The Room: Embodied Audiencing and Movie Riffing as Shared Sense-making

This ethnographic study explores everyday cultural performance and embodied audiencing practices at a performance-centered midnight screening of the 2003 cult film The Room. Prior to attending and co-performing the film’s group audiencing ritual, the author explores fan appropriation of the previously obscure film and fan-generated and circulated performance scripts. Drawing on thick description and bodily knowledge gained from attending and performing The Room’s audiencing ritual, the author explores how the ritual’s scripts are embraced, embellished, and deviated from while critiquing problematic aspects of the ritual. Within these intersections, the author discusses ways in which cultural performance and embodied audiencing practices can teach us about the ways in which audiences interact with and make sense of mediated texts

Boston University Percussion Ensemble: Blossom and Bell, April 5, 2016

This is the concert program of the Boston University Percussion Ensemble: Blossom and Bell performance on Tuesday, April 5, 2016 at 8:30 p.m., at the Concert Hall, 855 Commonwealth Avenue. Works performed were Flex by Mark Berger, Red Arc/Blue Veil by John Luther Adams, A Flower by John Cage, Mantra II by Ramon Humet, Percussion Quartet by Alfred Schnittke, and Carillon Ritual by Philip Grange. Digitization for Boston University Concert Programs was supported by the Boston University Humanities Library Endowed Fund