Creeping decay: cult soundtracks, residual media, and digital technologies

This paper explores the recent resurgence in the collecting of cult film soundtracks, in particular films stemming from the late 1960s to the early 1980s and often linked to horror and other modes of exploitation cinema. I consider this phenomenon as an important component of cult film fandom, but one which has largely been overlooked in cult cinema research because it is often considered as belonging to popular music, as opposed to film, research. As films can become cultified in many different ways and across different media, I look into how areas of music culture can both be inspired by, as well as influence, aspects of film culture. The paper also addresses the importance of ‘residual’ technologies within cult film/music cultures, noting in particular the preference for vinyl records as well as VHS tapes in certain cult fan communities, and explores the appeal that such ‘old media’ retain within an increasingly digital mediascape

The cult of martyrs

This paper suggests a rational explanation for extreme voluntary sacrifice in situations in which the state of the world when the decision must be made is observable only by the agent. Such explanation is the cult of martyrs, heroes, and saints. This cult may get out of control and fuel fanaticism, or excessive sacrifice from the standpoint of the sponsoring organization. A survey of the historical evidence of Christian martyrdom strongly suggests that martyrs were driven by the expectation of a cult in this world, not by otherworldly rewards. In particular, it is argued that the evidence of excess martyrdom in both Muslim Spain and the Roman Empire strongly speaks for the cult theory.martyrdom, cult, afterlife, economics of religion, principal-agent model, suicide terrorism

Divine Leadership and The Ruler Cult in Roman and Contemporary Times

Seeing how the idea of the ‘ruler cult’ and the necessary ‘myth-making’ to establish it exists to this day, as seen with the regime of a 21st century dictator like Kim Jong-il, it would be most interesting to see what parallels exist between cases of divine leadership and what we might learn about our contemporary cult rulers when looking at the dynamics of the two-millennia-old cult of the deified Emperor Augustus. As such, I have formulated a central question that focuses on the reign of Divus Augustus, and in doing so provides opportunity to extrapolate from it new insights in similar but contemporary figures of leadership. A clear case of 'to understand motives in the present, one must look at actions in the past.

The MetaCapitalism Cult.

Qu’il s’agisse de notre vie professionnelle ou de notre vie personnelle, la promesse d’immortalité exerce le même pouvoir de séduction. La promesse de salut délivrée à l’entreprise ne diffère guère de la promesse faite aux êtres humains. Cet idéal de salut, qui a exercé sa fascination sur toutes les époques, les religions ont promis de le réaliser. Les entreprises de conseil s’inscrivent dans la même logique, dans la mesure où elles constituent, pour les entreprises, l’équivalent contemporain d’une expérience religieuse. Les prophètes du conseil s’emploient à générer ce genre de sentiments en utilisant tout un vocabulaire symbolique tel que « reconfiguration des processus », « meilleures pratiques », etc, dans un rituel baptisé MétaCapitalisme, impliquant une communauté de croyants, en l’occurrence leurs clients. Ce rituel, par le biais du Culte du conseil, a des conséquences qui vont bien au-delà des seules entreprises clientes et affectent de manière importante de nombreux groupes de personnes et d’institutions dans notre société devenue globale. Ce constat justifie de procéder à un examen critique de ses mérites. Notre recherche explore la performance du MétaCapitalisme, un terme forgé par le géant du conseil, Price Waterhouse Coopers (PWC), pour décrire sa vision de la « nouvelle économie », qui traite de l’utilisation des e-markets, des échanges en ligne et des communautés d’affaires en réseau, et a eu pour effet de démultiplier l’impact des développements technologiques et des principales améliorations de la vie des affaires issues des années 1990. Le MétaCapitalisme peut être appréhendé en analysant la conversion des leaders du MétaCapitalisme au modèle prôné. Notre étude, en appliquant des techniques de régression à un certain nombre d’indicateurs clés, identifie les tendances relatives à la performance de ces leaders et les compare avec les tendances observées pour les 100 premières entreprises du groupe Fortune. Il en ressort que les entreprises du MétaCapitalisme ont été incapables de maintenir la transformation apparemment brillante qu’elles avaient opérée en 1999 et que sur de nombreux points, les tendances présentent des retournements imprévus par rapport au maintien de la structure idéale du MétaCapitalisme. Une évaluation critique de ces observations est effectuée de manière à valider la possibilité de généralisation du modèle, afin d’être en mesure d’éviter une expérimentation sociale continue et préjudiciable. En conclusion, la stratégie du MétaCapitalisme présente d’indéniables similitudes avec les cultes religieux, ce qui amène à la question suivante : le MétaCapitalisme aura-t-il le même destin que la plupart de ces cultes, à savoir, le désenchantement est lié à des espérances déçues ?

The religious cults of thaumaturgical powers and the devotion towards St Nicholas of Bari in Malta

This paper explores the development of religious cult statues in Malta with particular reference to the use of the imagen a vestir statues. At first, the statues were of two types. The first were the small wooden statues about one metre in height. The second type was slightly bigger. The heads, and often the hands and lower part, were sculptured in wood whilst the rest of the body was dressed up. The use of the processional statues owes its origins to Birgu towards the end of the sixteenth century. Slowly the custom spread throughout the island. After Birgu, one of the first Maltese parishes to acquire a statue was Siggiewi. This paper will explain the diffusion of this cult and answer why such a rural parish, was one of the first parishes in Malta to have a processional cult statue.peer-reviewe

New light on some artists impressions of a visit to St Paul's Grotto in the 17th century

The cult of St Paul in Malta derives from the Apostle s shipwreck (Acts of the Apostles, Chapters 27 and 28) which gained specific shape and interpretation through oral and written interpretations and accounts over the centuries. The centre of this cult was 'La Grotta di S. Paolo' in Rabat (Malta). The Counter Reformation programme with its efforts to renovate and re-establish concrete objects of veneration and Malta's increasing prosperity and her economic 'opening' towards Europe after 1530 were crucial factors in the history of this cult. The focus of this paper is directed on three distinguished artists' visit to the grotto in the 17'" century, and its echoes in their works and writings. The comments on the shrine by Joachim von Sandrarf, Willem Schellinkx, and Lambert Friedrich Corfey have, until now, escaped the attention of scholars.peer-reviewe

The Cult of Word Fasting

This short story replaces the Kickshaws feature for this issue

The Wicker Man: virgin sacrifice in Dumfries and Galloway

Article exploring the use of folkloric elements in the cult film 'The Wicker Man'

Pontius Pilate and the Imperial Cult in Roman Judaea

While Pontius Pilate is often seen as agnostic, in modern terms, the material evidence of his coinage and the Pilate inscription from Caesarea indicate a prefect determined to promote a form of Roman religion in Judaea. Unlike his predecessors, in the coinage Pilate used peculiarly Roman iconographic elements appropriate to the imperial cult. In the inscription Pilate was evidently responsible for dedicating a Tiberieum to the Dis Augustis. This material evidence may be placed alongside the report in Philo Legatio ad Gaium (299–305) where Pilate sets up shields – likewise associated with the Roman imperial cult –honouring Tiberius in Jerusalem

Foreword

Preface to the Volume by O. Rak on the Neolithic Rhyta, cult vessels distributed in most of the Balkan peninsul