RESUMO No teatro, as didascálias funcionam como um gênero particular em que há a inscrição da voz do autor no texto para indicar os caminhos da representação. Na obra La veuve diyilèm, de Werewere-Liking Gnepo, elas desempenham um papel mais amplo. Há uma função narrativa ora autora, ora personagem que, em um movimento dialógico de recepção/compreensão, desencadeia múltiplas vozes e consciências independentes e polifônicas. Para constatação dessa afirmação, discorreremos sobre as reflexões bakhtinianas que serão imprescindíveis para este estudo. ABSTRACT In (...) theater, stage directions function as a particular genre in which the author’s voice is inscribed in the text to indicate the paths of representation. In Werewere-Liking Gnepo’s La veuve diyilèm, they play a broader role. There is a narrative function, sometimes author’s, sometimes character’s that, in a dialogic movement of reception/understanding, triggers multiple independent and polyphonic voices and consciences. To verify this statement, we will discuss the Bakhtinian reflections that will be essential for this study. (shrink)

Taking the example of the Basel carnival Fasnacht, the paper shows in what way ritual can maintain the impression of being traditional and unchanging, and yet be open to changes and innovations. As the basic conceptual framework we use the notion of liminality, which Victor Turner identified as the creative moment of ritual. In Fasnacht, this liminal dimension appears in two degrees. The carnival as such represents a reflexive liminal counterpart to the standard social structure, yet it is (...) itself also highly structured and bound by conservative traditional rules. As a reaction to this, there arises within Fasnacht a second-order liminality in the form of the so-called wild Fasnacht, which turns the official antistructural Fasnacht rules upside down once again, testing their validity. While the carnival structure offers a regulated opportunity for questioning everyday social behaviour, wild Fasnacht questions even this regulated manner of questioning as such, opening space for its reflection and modification. We use detailed examples to demonstrate how the subtle dialectics of structure and antistructure keeps the tradition of Basel’s Fasnacht alive and allows it to evolve without destroying its aura of traditionality. (shrink)

Entre las composi- ciones más oscuras de la Biblia, el Salmo 110 revela el patrón de un ritual de entronización real, comparable, en parte a las cere- monias narradas en el Libro de los Reyes. Este artículo proporciona una exégesis del difícil poema hebreo, observando paralelos con textos reales de Egipto y Mesopotamia. El presente trabajo considera las diferencias en la versión griega del texto. Aunque algunos ecos del Salmo 110 aparecen dentro de la descripción de la investidura de (...) Simón Macabeo como líder cívico y sumo sacerdote, los macabeos eran sacerdotes que tomaban el poder civil en lugar de reyes que eran nombrados sacer - dotes. Por lo tanto, el salmo parece provenir de la pri- mera monarquía, alrededor del tiempo en que todavía era posible decir que “los hijos de David eran sacerdotes”. (shrink)

O objetivo deste artigo é pensar como a relação entre o mundo dos antepassados e o mundo dos vivos se estabelece e se estrutura por intermédio do ritual de ukanyi. Proposta esta que remete ao estudo e compreensão da religiosidade tradicional africana, na qual se assenta a cosmovisão dos africanos perpassada por um sistema de valores, crenças e práticas bantu. Assim, o método etnográfico e a análise situacional aparecem como alicerces para compreender o fenômeno em causa. Considero o pressuposto (...) de que o ritual de ukanyi é uma cerimônia que permite a exaltação dos antepassados, ativa e reativa valores, crenças e práticas que fortalecem e revigoram a religiosidade tradicional africana. Dessa forma, o mesmo nos possibilita vivenciar e experimentar dois mundos diferentes, dos vivos e dos mortos. Entendo que compreender a relação entre o mundo dos vivos e dos antepassados é adentrar na forma como se constituem as afrofilosofias que permitem tangenciar o universo africano. Palavras chave: Ritual de ukanyi. Mundo dos vivos. Mundo dos mortos. Antepassados. (shrink)

Ritualized behavior, intuitively recognizable by its stereotypy, rigidity, repetition, and apparent lack of rational motivation, is found in a variety of life conditions, customs, and everyday practices: in cultural rituals, whether religious or non-religious; in many children's complicated routines; in the pathology of obsessive-compulsive disorders (OCD); in normal adults around certain stages of the life-cycle, birthing in particular. Combining evidence from evolutionary anthropology, neuropsychology and neuroimaging, we propose an explanation of ritualized behavior in terms of an evolved Precaution System geared (...) to the detection of and reaction to inferred threats to fitness. This system, distinct from fear-systems geared to respond to manifest danger, includes a repertoire of clues for potential danger as well as a repertoire of species-typical precautions. In OCD pathology, this system does not supply a negative feedback to the appraisal of potential threats, resulting in doubts about the proper performance of precautions, and repetition of action. Also, anxiety levels focus the attention on low-level gestural units of behavior rather than on the goal-related higher-level units normally used in parsing the action-flow. Normally automatized actions are submitted to cognitive control. This “swamps” working memory, an effect of which is a temporary relief from intrusions but also their long-term strengthening. Normal activation of this Precaution System explains intrusions and ritual behaviors in normal adults. Gradual calibration of the system occurs through childhood rituals. Cultural mimicry of this system's normal input makes cultural rituals attention-grabbing and compelling. A number of empirical predictions follow from this synthetic model. (Published Online February 8 2007) Key Words: childhood ritual; compulsion; event boundaries; evolutionary psychology; obsessive-compulsive disorder; ritual; thought intrusion. (shrink)

Li (禮) and yi (義) are two central moral concepts in the Analects. Li has a broad semantic range, referring to formal ceremonial rituals on the one hand, and basic rules of personal decorum on the other. What is similar across the range of referents is that the li comprise strictures of correct behavior. The li are a distinguishing characteristic of Confucian approaches to ethics and socio-political thought, a set of rules and protocols that were thought to constitute the wise (...) practices of ancient moral exemplars filtered down through dynasties of the past. However, even while the li were extensive and meant to be followed diligently, they were also understood as incapable of exhausting the whole range of activity that constitutes human life. There were bound to be situations in life where there would be no obvious recourse to the li for guidance. As part of their reflections on the good life, the Confucians maintained another moral concept that seemed to cover morally upright exemplary behavior in these types of situations. This concept is that of yi or rightness. In this chapter, I begin with a brief historical sketch to provide some context, and will then turn to li and yi in turn. In the end, I will suggest how li and yi were both meant to facilitate the supreme value of social harmony that pervades much of the Analects and serves as its ultimate orientation. (shrink)

비트겐슈타인에 따르면 철학의 역할은 이론이나 설명을 제시하는 것이 아니라 현상을 ‘기술’하는 것이다. 우리가 어떻게 언어를 사용하고 있는지 자연사적 고찰을 통해 기술하면 철학적 질문은 사라진다. 비트겐슈타인은 이러한 자연사적 고찰을 통해 제의적 행위를 살펴본 후 인간이 제의적 존재임을 보여준다. 본 연구는 비트겐슈타인의 고찰 결과를 추적해 가면서 인간에게 제의적 본능이 있으며 이 점에서 다른 동물들과 구별된다고 한 것을 밝힌다. 이를 위해 2절에서는 우리 언어활동이 맹목적 확실성에 기반하고 있다는 것 그리고 제의적 행위도 맹목적으로 그리고 본능적으로 행해진다는 것이 논의된다. 3절에서는 제의(적 행위)의 특성이 다뤄지는데, 첫째 (...) 제의적 행위는 ‘뜻 없는’ 행위라는 것과 둘째 제의(적 행위)에는 신비로운 비밀스러움이 있다는 것, 셋째 제의(적 행위)가 어떻게 형성될 수 있는지를 논의된다. 이 세 번째 논의에서 제의와 인간 정신의 “깨어남”과의 연관관계가 드러난다. 4절에서는 인간의 제의적 행위는 본능적이지만 이 제의적 행위가 인간을 다른 동물들과 구별시켜준다는 것을 논의한다. (shrink)

장자는 천에 의한 유가 윤리의 정당화를 비판한다. 천도(天道)에 비추어보면 유가나 묵가 모두 동일한 가치를 지니며, 어느 입장이 우월하다거나 시비를 가릴 수 없다. 순자는 장자의 비판을 받아들여 천과 유가 윤리와의 고리를 끊어낸다. 또한 그는 인간 본성(性)에서 도덕의 객관성을 찾으려는 맹자를 비판한다. 순자는 인간 본성은 악하다고 봄으로써 인간의 자연스러운 본성에 근거한 도덕을 상정하지 않는다. 그러면서 순자는 유가 윤리의 객관성을 확보하기 위해 예의 본질적인 속성에 눈을 돌린다. 이 때 순자가 주목하게 되는 것이 예의 분류(類)적 속성이다. 순자의 사유에서 예는 기본적으로 외부 대상에 대한 분류의 (...) 집적이라고 할 수 있다. 예의 가장 큰 기능은 나눔(分)이며 나눔은 인간의 분류라는 행위에 의해 이루어진다. 「정명(正名)」을 통해 드러난 이름부여는 분류에 근거하며, 분류는 자연성과 규약성을 지닌다. 분류의 행위는 언어에 독립적인 인간의 인지 능력에 기반하는 측면이 있으며, 동시에 규약적인 측면까지 포괄하는 증층적인 측면을 가진다. 인간의 유사한 경험의 구조에 기반한 분류의 자연성은 어느 정도의 객관성을 우리에게 보장해준다. 그러나 규약에 기반한 분류는 사회, 문화적 과정을 거치면서 변이를 하게 되며, 개인마다 문화권마다 달라질 수밖에 없고 다양성을 띨 수밖에 없다. 가치 다원주의적인 사고는 순자의 ‘통류(統類)’라는 개념에서 보인다. 순자는 우리가 류적 사고를 극대화하면 ‘통류’를 알 수 있고, 그에 따라 일을 처리할 수 있다고 말한다. 그런데 통류라는 것은 선왕의 제도(制)와 법(法)을 익힘으로써 알 수 있다. 다시 말하면, ‘통류’라는 것은 이전 세대의 정선(精選)된 경험의 집적물을 학습하고 실천함으로써 깨닫게 되는 것이다. 통류라는 것은 이전 세대의 역사적 경험을 학습하고, 그 경험을 대상화해서 바라볼 수 있게 되는 지혜이다. 따라서 통류라는 것은 절대적으로 객관적인 근거를 가지지 않는다. 또한 ‘통류’의 다른 이름인 ‘예’ 또한 절대적이며 보편적이라고 할 수 없다. (shrink)

Bringing Ritual to Mind explores the cognitive and psychological foundations of religious ritual systems. Participants must recall their rituals well enough to ensure a sense of continuity across performances, and those rituals must motivate them to transmit and re-perform them. Most religious rituals the world over exploit either high performance frequency or extraordinary emotional stimulation to enhance their recollection. But why do some rituals exploit the first of these variables while others exploit the second? McCauley and Lawson advance (...) the ritual form hypothesis, arguing that participants' cognitive representations of ritual form explain why. Reviewing evidence from cognitive, developmental and social psychology and from cultural anthropology and the history of religions, they utilize dynamical systems tools to explain the recurrent evolutionary trajectories religions exhibit. (shrink)

This article explains how li 禮 or ‘ritual propriety’ is the ‘body language’ of ren 仁 or the authentic expression of our humanity. Li and ren are interdependent aspects of a larger creative human way (rendao 仁道) that can be conceptually distinguished as follows: li refers to the ritualized social form of appropriate conduct and ren to the more general, authentically human spirit this expresses. Li is the social instrument for self-cultivation and the vehicle of harmonious human interaction. More, (...) li must mean something that is effectively communicated to others for an authentic, human (ren) interaction to occur. Li is the body language of ren in being the ritual vehicle for its’ expression; however, li is underdetermined by ren and so must be distinguished from it in on further grounds: authentic human activity must not just be equivocated with social convention because conclusively establishing whether a particular action is li (or is a truly ren action) is impossible. As a result, li is often confused with social power and privilege that is easier to empirically identify than ren conduct is, but this is a mistake since li has to express ren or it is not li at all. The inescapable ambiguity of li – an ambiguity that attaches to any language – can be critiqued by the Western view that sees something ‘essential’ to the ‘self,’ and that makes one a ‘self’ in and of oneself and not in a way that depends on others. I show that such Western individualism – while resting on a fundamentally different way of thinking of being a person and living a good life – does not reduce Confucian ritual to being an instrument for social discrimination and subordination. My argument is indebted to twentieth-century philosophy of language in the West that offered the idea that some words are actions. (shrink)

The essay analyses the development of Joseph de Maistre’s ideas on war and peace. Commonly seen as advocating militarism and bloodshed, Maistre’s insights and propositions on the nature of war are in fact highly modern and original. As a witness to the European upheaval of 1792-1815, Maistre emphasizes the indeterminacy and unpredictability of modern war, and its irreducibility to a science or a doctrine. In order to regulate and restrain warfare, Maistre argues, it is necessary to cultivate public opinion, an (...) elusive and difficult process which can only be sustained by informal cultural institutions. The essay also examines the legacy of Maistre’s ideas on war and peace in political thought. (shrink)

This paper considers religion in relation to four recurrent traits: belief systems incorporating supernatural agents and counterintuitive concepts, communal ritual, separation of the sacred and the profane, and adolescence as a preferred developmental period for religious transmission. These co-occurring traits are viewed as an adaptive complex that offers clues to the evolution of religion from its nonhuman ritual roots. We consider the critical element differentiating religious from non-human ritual to be the conditioned association of emotion and abstract (...) symbols. We propose neurophysiological mechanisms underlying such associations and argue that the brain plasticity of human adolescence constitutes an “experience expectant” developmental period for ritual conditioning of sacred symbols. We suggest that such symbols evolved to solve an ecological problem by extending communication and coordination of social relations across time and space. (shrink)

In everyday language, we readily attribute experiences to groups. For example, 1 might say, “Spain celebrated winning the European Cup” or “The uncovering of corruption caused the union to think long and hard about its internal structure.” In each case, the attribution makes sense. However, it is quite difficult to give a nonreductive account of precisely what these statements mean because in each case a mental state is ascribed to a group, and it is not obvious that groups can have (...) mental states. In this article, I do not offer an explicit theory of collective experience. Instead, I draw on phenomenological analyses and empirical data in order to provide general conditions that a more specific theory of collective experience must meet in order to be coherent. (shrink)

Ayurveda is science of living being. Aim of Ayurveda is mantainance of healthy life and pacification of diseases of diseased ones. Dharma, artha, kama and moksha these four are together called chaturvidha purushartha which is achieved by arogya (health).Ayurveda holds view of its independent darshanika viewthough it has shades of nearly all six astika darshanas. Mimamsa’s first verse implies its motto to explore Dharma. Ayurveda considers dharma as one of basic component to health. Dharma has been described under trieshana by (...) acharya Bhela. Various conducts are described under sadavritta, achararasayana, moksha marga, naishtikichikitsa. Ayurveda describes three types of treatment which are yuktivyapshraya, daivavyapashraya and sattvavajaya. This daivyapashraya includes mantra, ausadhi, mani, mangal, bali, upahaar, homa, niyama,prayashchita, upawaas, swastyayana, pranipata, gamana etc. These type of methods are widely described in karma kanda of mimamsa darshana. This treatment method has been used in curing of diseases like unmada,graharoga. Methods of yagya has been described as well as used in putreshti and punsawansamskara described in charakasamhita. With this paper karma kanda widely used in treatment has been described in Ayurveda. (shrink)

Symbolism of Javanese rites and ceremonies; collection of articles.