Practicing the Perfections: \u3ci\u3eCommunitas\u3c/i\u3e During the \u3ci\u3eSaga Dawa Kortsay\u3c/i\u3e at Swayambhunath, Nepal

Based on observations from personal participation in the 2014 Saga Dawa Kortsay at Swayambhunath Stupa complex located near Kathmandu, Nepal, my essay draws attention to the distinctive lay Buddhist community that is formed in such ritual performances. Using Victor Turner’s concept of communitas, I argue that the liminal experience of the pilgrimage enables the constitution of a distinctive lay Buddhist community in terms of the self-transformation usually reserved for monastic practitioners. In contrast to recent accounts of Nepali pilgrimage that emphasize the subordinate role of the lay community in the Buddhist sangha, I argue that lay participants in ritual performances like the Saga Dawa Kortsay cultivate individual and collective identities as members of the sangha in their own right, with their own responsibilities for practicing and preserving Buddhist teachings. Through discussions of the Swayambunath complex, pilgrims’ efforts toward self-transformation, and their practice of Buddhist perfections through donations to mendicants, I use the example of the Saga Dawa Kortsay to explain how a distinctive lay Buddhist community is formed by pilgrims through the situation of communitas

Online Rituals in Virtual Worlds. Christian Online Service between Dynamics and Stability.

In the article ”Online Rituals in Virtual Worlds. Christian Online Services between Dynamics and Stability“ Nadja Miczek reflects on Christian ritual settings in two case studies analysing different Online Services: “Church of Fools” and “Second Life.” She thereby focuses on recent concepts of ritual theory, like Ritual Dynamics and Ritual Transfer and broaches the issues of invention, transformation and exclusion at different stages of ritual action

Ritual and transgression: a case study in new music

This research lies on the concepts of ritual and narrative as applied in a case study of a musical theatre piece. In traditional musical narrative the focus is on construction, and one could speak of fields around which hierarchies, systems and rules of musical language are built. In this piece we find unpredictable transgressive musical gestures, acted out by performers, combined with conventional narrative procedures. This study aims to demonstrate that the concepts of musical narrative and ritual cannot be seen as isolated objects but as entities of transformation by composers, and how the trilogy composer/performer/listener (audience) is associated with narrative and ritual. Ritual and transgression can thus be linked to traditional concepts of musical narrative connecting composing, performing, and listening activities

TRANSFORMASI BUDAYA ADU ZATUA DI NIAS SUMATERA UTARA

This study describes how the cultural transformation zatua shootout that occurred in Nias. Adu zatua was originally a ritual objects Nias tribe belief that is sacred. Entering the 2000s appeared reproduction shootout zatua being secular and profane objects. Cultural traditions in Nias slowly started to change and evolve into a global culture. This study aimed to determine the cultural transformation in the shootout zatua, shape and also the value that is applied. Transformation contest zatua produce objects tourism. The strong cultural tourism makes fi ghts zatua production of a commercial character and commodities cultural objects

CULTURAL CONTESTATION IN RITUAL FOOD : AMERICAN THANKSGIVING AND JAVANESE SLAMETAN

Cultural contestation is inevitable issue related to fundamental questions of collective identity. Localism, nationalism and globalism is being questioned as the globalized world enable culture experiences transformation and shifting which may endanger identity . This paper is going to explore how cultural contestation in defining identity also happens in food consumption. Ritual food of American Thanksgiving and Javanese Slametan witness that American and Javanese identity is fluid

Olympic rings of steel: Constructing security for 2012 and beyond

Academic and political commentators have commonly sought to understand the Olympics as a cultural dynamic, a "spectacle" that motivates certain actors to project their relative interests in localized spaces and as well on a global scale (Hiller 2006; Boyle and Haggerty 2009b ). Mega-events, as this argument goes, are monumental cultural events (Roche 2000) that rely on the audacity of spectacle to dramatize and condition the cultural, political, legal and economic landscape. Extending these insights into surveillance studies, Boyle and Haggerty (2009b: 259-260) position spectacle and the disciplinary mechanisms of anxieties associated with mega-events to explain the risk management practices of security planners. The dynamic social implications of the spectacle condition dramatic regimes of securitization and surveillance such that sovereign power emanates from the production and consumption of spectacle. In similar fashion Vida Bajc (2007: 1648) writes that security meta-rituals "demonstrate[s] that the process of transformation of [the] public space [of mega-events] from one of routine of daily life into a sterile area [that] has a ritual form [that] .... separates insiders from outsiders and brings about a new socio-political reality." Put another way, the "security-meta ritual" legitimates security and surveillance practices by normalizing the social hierarchies it imposes. Bajc focuses on the over-determination of dividing practices in mega-event security, but the signifying practices associated with capital are absent (perhaps due to her empirical focus on presidential addresses). Klauser (2008: 181) links commercialization and mechanisms of surveillance, but only by foregrounding the significance of "neutralized space" created by granting absolute commercial rights to event sponsors. Neoliberalprivatization and its articulation with security and surveillance, however, cannot be reduced to control over sponsorship rights and consumptive practices in particular urban "zones," nor can it be limited by the methodological temporality of the event itself

Technology, ritual and Anglo-Saxon agrarian production: the biography of a seventh-century century plough coulter from Lyminge, Kent

The discovery of an unusual early medieval plough coulter in a well-dated Anglo-Saxon settlement context in Kent suggests that continentally derived technology was in use in this powerful kingdom centuries before heavy ploughs were first depicted in Late Saxon manuscripts. The substantial investment required to manufacture the coulter, the significant damage and wear that it sustained during use and the circumstances of its ultimate ritual deposition are explored. Investigative conservation, high-resolution recording and metallographic analysis illuminate the form, function and use-life of the coulter. An examination of the deposition contexts of plough-irons in early medieval northern Europe sheds important new light on the ritual actions of plough symbolism in an age of religious hybridity and transformation

Understanding the Social Gifts of Drinking Rituals: An Alternative Framework for PSA Developers

Binge drinking behavior has been described as the most significant health hazard on college campuses today. Using definitions of ritual behavior drawn from the literature, the authors conducted focus groups, depth interviews, and participant observations to explore the ritualized nature of alcohol beverage consumption among college students at two large universities. The themes that emerged provide an understanding of the rituals associated with college student drinking. With the drinking-as-ritual interpretation as a theoretical framework, the authors discuss how developers of public service announcements (PSAs) could capture and contextualize drinking rituals and thus make PSAs more relevant to the target audience. They provide examples of PSAs that could be tested

Narasimha, Lord of Transitions, Transformations, and Theater Festivals: God and Evil in Hindu Cosmology, Myth, and Practice

This paper focuses on the multi-faceted nature of the divine depicted in Narasimha and the unique perspectives on God and evil offered by the myths of Narasimha, which is also subliminally represented within the religious practice and performance traditions associated with Narasimha

The Risky Business of Binge Drinking Among College Students: Using Risk Models for PSAs and Anti-Drinking Campaigns

To assist creators of public service announcements and anti-drinking campaigns, this study provides an in-depth examination of the risks of binge drinking from the perspective of college students. Using current risk models for guidance, key elements from the qualitative data in the study are addressed, including perceived risks and their severity, vulnerability to risks, self-efficacy, response efficacy, benefits from ritual functions, and other costs or benefits based on students\u27 attitudes and beliefs. An integrated risk perception model is introduced. Student participants enumerated extensive risks; however, they generally felt invulnerable to the consequences. Most adopted a management style of “taking chances” when binge drinking because they perceived a built-in safety net in the college environment. Three ritual functions and various attitudes and beliefs help explain why a cost and benefit analysis favors binge drinking. Recommendations are given