| 1. |
- Callewaert, Inger
(författare)
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The Birth of Religion among the Balanta of Guinea-Bissau
- 2000
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis deals with a recent event within the history of religions, the rise and development of a non-Christian prophetic movement named Kiyang-yang within the oral, kinship and ancestor based society of the Balanta in Guinea-Bissau. Kiyang-yang is headed by young women and men under the leadership of a woman prophet. The movement aims at a global and radical change of the existing Balanta way of life, opposing gerontocracy, sorcery and spirit cult contamination in favour of the pure and right way of Nhaala, the unique Balanta god. The thesis analyses the ambiguity of the effects, being either a global questioning of the society (pre-modern and undifferentiated), or the birth of religion as a specific religious domain, where the movement can realise its objectives. The movement is proved not to be the creation of something totally new, but the moulding of something new with elements of the old order, which at the same time legitimates the new order. The thesis is based upon fieldwork carried out in various periods stretching over ten years in different parts of the Balanta area. The result being corpuses of ritual songs, transcribed from the Balanta oral language into written form and translated into English, and descriptions of the rituals in which the songs are performed, both of the Kiyang-yang movement and of a parallel traditional women’s movement among the Balanta. The interpretation of daily life practices, rituals and songs is elaborated both from the point of view of the participants, and from the objectifying point of view of the researcher looking for elements of explanation.
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| 2. |
- Hansson, Sidsel
(författare)
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Not Just Any Water : Hinduism, Ecology and the Ganges Water Controversy
- 2001
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Whether the Ganges river in Varanasi (India) is pristinely pure or heavily polluted depends on by whom it qualities are defined, the Brahmin religious specialists in the city or the science oriented environmentalists. While the controversy continues, some Hindu religious leaders are searching for ways to adjust their respective traditions to the environmental paradigms, an initiative that reflects a larger global religious trend. In this study the environmental positions taken by Brahmin religious specialists in the city are briefly outlined. Irrespective of their position with regard to the new environmental agenda, the religious specialists are guided by a common concern to preserve the ritual domains at the riverbanks in the city. The study mainly focuses on a ritual domain at the urban riverfront where local residents gather to bathe. Among these residents the question of the qualities of the Ganges is not so much a matter of taking up positions as trying to make sense of yet another troubling aspect of everyday life. In this setting the environmental problems at the Ganges is commonly perceived as a problem of local governance. Firstly, everyday perceptions and practices at the riverside are outlined through a discussion of the role of purity, honour and gender in the structure of the ritual domain. Secondly, some key practices (the Ganges bath, purification) and perceptions (the qualities attributed to the Ganges) in this setting are discussed from the perspective of religious change. The examination shows that the structure of the ritual domain relies not only on the concept of purity, which in certain contexts is a rather flexible notion, but is also upheld by the more widely accepted definitions of honour and gender. To the extent that the specific ritual domain that has been studied here can be seen as representative for other similar sites along the urban riverfront in Varanasi, the following observations can be made. The ritual domain that the Brahmin religious specialists search to preserve is challenged not only by those who take up a science-oriented environmental position, but also by everyday visitors at the riverbanks who want to redefine the site as a public space. Furthermore, its position is weakened by a tendency towards de-ritualisation among the young. The question of environmental awareness and religious change has been raised in the context of laymen’s perceptions and practices at the riverbanks. Change was examined by means of concepts from theories of the secularisation of religion. Age group was used as a time dimension. The examination indicates that religious change is taking place. A common trait among young men at the site is that they tend to simplify their ritual acts, and readily incorporates the view that the Ganges is polluted, although their definitions of pollution may vary. With regard to other aspects such as value pluralism and privilege of interpretation, the tendencies among the young vary, and caste and education may be significant for these variations. As these two dimensions co-vary, it is difficult to determine which may be the most significant dimension. Education seems to be a significant dimension for environmental perceptions. The question of possible correspondences between environmental and religious perceptions has also been examined, but no clear tendency was found.
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| 3. |
- Holmberg, Bo
(författare)
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A Treatise on the Unity and Trinity of God by Israel of Kashkar (d. 872). Introduction, edition and word index
- 1989
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The present work is a contribution to the study of Christian Arabic literature. An apologetic treatise on the unity and trinity of God incorrectly attributed to Yahya ibn Adi (d. 974) is edited for the very first time and provided with a comprehensive word index. The edition is based on six manuscripts found in Egypt. Four of these manuscripts have so far not been known to scholarly research. The introduction to the edition falls into two chapters. The first chapter focuses on the question of authorship. As a first step, is compared with the authentic works of Yahya ibn Adi and the pros and cons of an attribution to him are investigated. The points of references are doctrinal, lexicographic, and stylistic. Only by means of a hypothesis implying that the treatise is a very early work by Yahya can the traditional attribution be accepted. As a second step, the implications of a marginal note in the oldest manuscript are put to the test. According to this note, a certain al-Kaskari is the author of the treatise. In search for Christian Arabic authors related to Kashkar in Iraq, the two bishops of Kashkar both called Israel (d. 872 and 962) appear to be the most likely candidates for the authorship of the treatise. By relating the treatise to what we know of these two bishops and to what they have written, it becomes clear that the ninth-century Israel of Kashkar (d. 872) is the author. The conclusion is based on both external and internal arguments. Close parallels with regard to doctrine (unity and trinity), style and method of reasoning (the argument “a minore ad maiorem”), and terminology (“rasil”) are shown to exist between the treatise and Israel of Kashkar (d. 872). The second chapter contains a description of the manuscripts, the principles of edition and an outline of the treatise.
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| 4. |
- Myrvold, Kristina
(författare)
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Inside the Guru's Gate : Ritual Uses of Texts among the Sikhs in Varanasi
- 2007
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Summary: For religious Sikhs, the Guru Granth Sahib is a holy scripture which enshrines ontologically divine words and the teaching and revelatory experiences of historical human Gurus. Simultaneously the Sikhs have taken the concept of a sacred scripture much further than any other religious community by treating the Guru Granth Sahib as a living Guru invested with spiritual authority and agency to guide humans and establish relationships to the divine. Wherever the Sikhs have settled in the world today the scripture is staged at the center of their congregational life. The Sikh place of worship - a gurdwara or the Guru's gate - is by definition a space in which Guru Granth Sahib is made present to run a daily court. The scripture is installed daily on an elevated throne like a royal sovereign who/which admits worshippers and at nightfall ceremonially taken to a special bedroom for rest. In religious services the Sikhs daily recite and sing hymns of the scripture and explore its semantic inner for guidance in their social life. Considering the significations of Guru Granth Sahib, as a living Guru of the Sikhs, it is surprising that scholars have paid considerably little attention to religious attitudes, behaviors and acts surrounding the physical scripture and the living performance traditions of orally rendering and exploring its content. "Inside the Guru's Gate: Ritual Uses of Texts among the Sikhs in Varanasi" aims to direct the focus towards a deeper understanding of contemporary religious worship and oral performance traditions in Sikhism. Based on field work in a Sikh congregation at Varanasi (Northern India), the study investigates how local Sikhs perceive, use and interact with the Guru Granth Sahib and other religious texts accredited gurbani status, i.e. words being uttered by their human Gurus, through a wide spectrum of practices. From the perspective of ritual and anthropological theories, the study analyzes the discursive and ritual means by which local Sikhs create and confirm conceptions of the Guru's presence and agency in the world. Local discourses on the Guru Granth Sahib situate the scripture in a web of relationships - onto-theological relationships to the invisible divine, historical relationships to the human Gurus, and social relationships to contemporary disciples - that legitimize both its worldly and otherworldly identity and power. By arranging spaces and enacting ritual acts in the gurdwara, the Sikhs enmesh the Guru Granth Sahib in daily routines and stage the scripture as a worldly sovereign with capacity to provide spiritual guidance, transmit the divine revelation it enshrines, and make it possible for devotees to gain spiritual knowledge and experiences. Since Guru Granth Sahib belongs to a succession line of human Gurus it has inherited anthropomorphic habits and even has its own life-cycle rituals that mark important events and stages in the worldly life of the text. The study argues that ritual uses of the Guru Granth Sahib and the living performance traditions of mediating the scriptural words are the means by which the Sikhs personify and bring the scripture to life, as an agentive Guru, and make its teaching perpetually alive and relevant to changing contexts in a human and socially conditioned world. To develop and sustain a devotional and didactical relationship, even a social relationship, to the scripture is what makes people Sikhs - disciples of the Guru.
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| 5. |
- Peter, Heike
(författare)
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Götter auf Erden : Hethitische Rituale aus Sicht historischer Religionsanthropologie
- 2004
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis deals with the recent discourse about Hittite ritual and religion and assumes an alternative approach. It analyses how the most important researchers in the fields of Hittitology and History of Religions, who have been working with Hittite rituals and religion, describe and explain the rituals. Their implicit or explicit theories underlying the discourse are explored. The restraining effects of these theories on the treatment of the text material are discussed. The study examines the hypothesis that the evolutionistic approach to ritual and religion is still alive and that a different theoretical strategy showing the necessity to make theory explicit is needed. An historical anthropological view is applied based on Pierre Bourdieu’s Theory of Practice. This theory is used both to analyse the recent discourse and the Hittite text material. Three so-called “magic” rituals are presented and interpreted with the focus on the relationships between humans and gods. The Thesis elaborates on how the space is ritualised and relationships between all ritual figures, i.e. humans, animals, deities, and things, are shaped and hierarchized. By using the strategy of Historical Anthropology of Religions and by focusing on the interactions of human beings instead of the heavenly realm of gods, this thesis offers a perspective for clarifying the ritual dynamics.
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| 6. |
- Piltz, Åse
(författare)
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Seger åt Tibet! : den tibetanska diasporan och den religiösa nationen
- 2005
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This dissertation in anthropology of religion focuses on images of Tibet, among Westerners as well as among Tibetans. Based on approximately one year of fieldwork in the former British Hill station, it also deals with the politics of the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) and some of its political and social implications for the exiled Tibetan youth living in Dharamsala, India. The Western perception of Tibet has varied considerably over the centuries. Since the 1920s and even more so after the Tibetan exodus in 1959, however, Tibet has to an increasing extent become envisioned as a kind of timeless Shangri-la. This image is often invoked by Westerners as an instrument of cultural critique of Western culture. Among Tibetans, however, this image is mainly used to enforce their claim that the survival of Tibetan culture should be of interest to the rest of the world. The Dalai Lama and the CTA has during the last decades placed its emphasis on Tibet as a religious nation, living in accordance with contemporary ideals. The shift in emphasis from rangzen (independence) to religion has had the unfortunate effect that what has become of primary interest is how to preserve Tibetan Buddhism, the ?jewel? of Tibetan culture. One problem with this is, of course, that Tibetan Buddhism has managed to survive quite well outside Tibet, a fact effectively undermining the argument that the nation-state needs to be restored for Tibetan culture to survive. Hence the identification of Tibetan Buddhism with Tibetan culture makes the question of the need for a national territory of minor importance. Many of the Tibetan youth in exile, though, consider their nationalistic strivings more important than the survival of Buddhism as a collective phenomenon. That is, they seemed to be more interested in a truly free Tibet, an independent nation-state, than in the strife to create a Buddhist nation within Chinas borders; contemplating religion and culture, but giving up their political rights. Another consequence dealt with in this thesis is the discrepancy between the image of Tibet and the people belonging to its culture, realized in the meeting between ?new arrivals? and the youth who has lived most part of their life in exile.
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| 7. |
- Plank, Katarina, 1970-
(författare)
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Insikt och närvaro : Akademiska kontemplationer kring buddhism, meditation och mindfulness i Sverige
- 2011
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Under 1900-talet har stora förändringar skett i synen på buddhistisk meditation. Från att ha varit en övning som bara ägt rum på kloster och bland ett fåtal munkar, har både ordinerade lärare och lekmannalärare börjat lära ut meditation till lekfolk. Meditation har kommit att framställas som själva hjärtat i buddhistiska traditioner, och som det element som kan isoleras och tas ur sitt religiösa sammanhang för att sedan läras ut i en sekulär inramning. Därigenom har meditation kommit att bli det enskilt viktigaste bidraget från buddhistiska traditioner till de nya former av andlighet och religiositet som den svenska majoritetsbefolkningen kommer i kontakt med. Praktiken återfinns även i de terapiformer som numera erbjuds inom svensk sjukvård, där mindfulness-baserade terapier snabbt har ökat i popularitet de senaste åren. Syftet med avhandlingen Insikt och närvaro är att undersöka på vilket sätt en religiös tradition förändras när den överförs till en ny kontext; hur den emottas och införlivas i sin nya kontext samt hur enskilda individer i Sverige uppfattar och använder sig av denna tradition. Det görs genom att belysa utvecklingen av insiktsmeditation, vipassana, som också är känt som satipatthana. I fokus står det meditativa arvet från den burmesiske lekmannaläraren U Ba Khin, en meditationsmetod som har blivit globaliserad framför allt genom hans indiske elev S. N. Goenka. Denna specifika burmesiska meditationsmetod kan även spåras i flera av de sekulära mindfulnessbaserade terapier som används i terapeutiska och medicinska sammanhang. Förutom att bidra till förståelsen av och för nya buddhistiska rörelseer, buddhistisk meditation och religionsbyten i det nutida svenska samhället, vill studien medverka till en fördjupad kritisk diskussion kring mindfulness. Som sådan kan den även tjäna som reflektionsunderlag för psykologer och andra som är verksamma inom den medicinska sektorn där mindfulness börjat introducerats inom svensk sjukvård.
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| 8. |
- Wiktorin, Pierre
(författare)
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De villkorligt frigivna : relationen mellan munkar och lekfolk i ett nutida Thailand
- 2005
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This dissertation, based on 14 months of fieldwork carried out in central, northern and north-eastern Thailand, focuses on laypeople's demands on contemporary Thai Theravada sangha. In the aftermath of the economic breakdown in 1997, an intense discussion concerning the moral status of the sangha took place. The religious interests and demands clearly differ between different groups. What still seems to unify these groups or classes of Buddhists, however, is their concern for the sangha's compliance with a few vinaya-rules such as observing the chastity vow and not keeping donations obtained in merit making for personal use. In an attempt to move beyond the obvious, this dissertation applies an exchange theory to problematize the above. Two separate but intimately related spheres exist in modern Thai society; a short-term sphere where profit making, individual success, vitality and consumption of luxury goods are tolerated and even spoken for, and a long-term sphere concerned with the reproduction of social and cosmic systems. While the latter sphere is regarded as morally positive, the former is, if not negative, at least morally ambiguous. If surplus (money, food and other gifts) is transferred from the short-term sphere to the other sphere, however, it is not only considered a morally positive act, but also as constituting an exchange of creativity. This exchange is attributed to the separation of the spheres, which implies that if distinctions that reify them are blurred, reactions will not be absent. The monk's concern with his non-laypeople behaviour makes him more or less a negation of the male gender. Moreover, while these regulations certainly make the monk's gender different from the layman's, they also make it dangerously similar to the female gender ? and risks of category transgressions are usually countered with taboos. When discussing sex- and money monks, the Thai Buddhists did not only question the moral status of the sangha. They also, indirectly, held it responsible for the economic crisis. The status of the sangha is thus linked to the status of the nation. While this certainly highlights the habitus of the monks, it simultaneously draws attention to the laypeople which, like Eve, provided the sangha with the apple that kicked humanity out of Eden. The Wat Phra Dhammakaya controversy could arguably be seen in this context. The majority of the movement's followers consist of affluent middleclass people; a section of Thai society dominated by the ethnic Chinese. Consequently, the questioning of the sangha that took place in the aftermath of the economic crisis, could be seen as religiously as well as politically motivated.
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