Showing papers in "Numen in 1991"
TL;DR: In this article, it is argued that rejection of the notion of magic will soon turn out to be unworkable and, in fact, is putting the cart before the horse.
Abstract: The well-known substantialist-'Frazerian'-definitions of magic as distinct from religion by its immediate and individual goals, the concomitant manipulative and coercive attitude, the instrumental and mechanical type of action etc., have been under attack for more than half a century. Anthropologists in particular have argued that no meaningful contrast between religion and magic can be gained from this approach and that our notion 'magic' is a modern-western biased construct which does not fit representations of other cultures. Consequently, in the view of some of them, the term 'magic' should be altogether avoided. Furthermore, with respect to the ancient and early modern world, in which the opposition religion-magic is supposed to have originated, it is argued that magic and religion function exclusively as value-judgments, terms indicating 'magic' being exploited to stigmatize illegitimate or undesired (religious) behaviour of socially or culturally deviant groups. In the present article it is argued that-although admittedly this functionalist approach has yielded remarkable and lasting results-rejection of the term 'magic' will soon turn out to be unworkable and, in fact, is putting the cart before the horse. From an etic point of view-which in the view of the author is the only possible way to conduct scholarly discourse-it will be impossible to do cultural research without the aid of heuristic instruments such as-at least broad, polythetic or prototypical-definitions. And, if possible at all, it would be utterly unpractical to completely eliminate religion as one of the obvious models of contrast. This position is substantiated with some practical instances from the Graeco-Roman world. It is shown that, at least in the context of (magical) curse-tablets and-related but clearly distinct-(religious) prayers for justice or vengeance, the ancient authors were clearly aware of the very same distinctions modern people normally associate with the notions of magic and religion.
146 citations
12 citations
12 citations
TL;DR: In the latter half of the nineteenth century, the period when scholars in the West completed the first serious assessment of the Veda, remains largely unexplored as mentioned in this paper, despite the recent scrutinization of the history of Indology under the guise of its parent Orientalism.
Abstract: Despite the recent scrutinization of the history of Indology (under the guise of its parent Orientalism), Indology in the latter half of the nineteenth century, the period when scholars in the West completed the first serious assessment of the Veda, remains largely unexplored. This period's legacy-dictionaries, critical editions, grammars, translations, and even academic chairs-remains the backbone of Vedic studies to this day. The nature of Indology during this period is reflected with special clarity in the work of F. Max Muller and A. B. Keith. Muller's editio princeps of the Rgvedasamhitā, and Keith's magnum opus, The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads, represent the beginning and end points of Indology-with its peculiar emphasis on the Vedic texts-during this period. Muller and Keith are also exemplars of what is perhaps the most curious feature of Indology in the latter half of the nineteenth century, namely, the often begrudging marriage of German and British scholarship. The discomfort that arose from this alliance was sharpened by the subject matter itself, India, into what might be termed the disease (appropriating Muller's term) of Indology. This disease, which combined alternating phases of awe and revulsion toward the Indian tradition, can be seen in the approach Indologists of the last century took to the Vedic texts; by representing the earliest portions of the Vedic tradition as belonging to their own glorified past, they separated it (and further affirmed their appropriation of it) from the later Hindu (beginning with its representation in the Brāhmana-texts) tradition-a tradition they characterized, and abandoned, as nothing more than "twaddle" and "stupid" myths.
9 citations
TL;DR: In this article, it is argued that the belief in a universal mother Earth is a mythic being who has arisen out of a colonial context and who has been co-created by White Australians, academics and Aborigines.
Abstract: It has become almost a truism in Religious Studies that not only is the belief in a Mother Earth universal but also that this is amongst the most ancient and primordial of all human religious conceptions. Olof Pettersson has criticized the validity of this assumption as a comparative category, whilst Sam Gill has demonstrated the problem in applying the paradigm to Native American traditions. This article extends their re-examination of Mother Earth, taking the particularly revealing case of the Australian Aborigines. It is shown that those academics advocating an Aboriginal Mother Earth have clearly taken this leap beyond the ethnographic evidence with a Classical image in mind, and with either theological or ecologist agendas influencing their thinking. It is further revealed that this scholarly construct has, in only the last decade or so, been internalised and accepted by Aboriginal people themselves. Far from being an ancient belief, it is argued that Mother Earth is a mythic being who has arisen out of a colonial context and who has been co-created by White Australians, academics and Aborigines. Her contours in fact only take shape against a colonial background, for she is a symbolic manifestation of an "otherness" against which Westerners have defined themselves: the autochthonous and female deity of indigenous people against the allegedly world-defiling patriarchy of Western ideology.
9 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors investigate the theology of the Almohad movement and find that reason plays a radically important role to reason in theology, declaring reason to be a source of religious doctrine along with the Koran and the Hadith.
Abstract: The Almohad dynasty of twelfth century Spain and North Africa patronized the study of Greek philosophy. Almohad scholars were largely responsible for editing and commentating the texts of Aristotle which came into the hands of Thomas Aquinas, greatly facilitating the development of scholastic theology in thirteenth century Europe. This paper investigates the theology of Ibn Tumart to describe the extent to which this taste for philosophy was consistent with the teaching of the aforementioned founder of the Almohad movement who was a Berber jurist from the Atlas Mountains of Morocco. We find that Ibn Tumart's teaching assigns a radically important role to reason in theology, declaring reason to be a source of religious doctrine along with scripture (the Koran and the Hadith). Throughout the essay, internal evidence provided by an ongoing comparison between Ibn Tumart's two murshidas and what had previously been assumed to be his most important credal document, his 'aqīda, reveals the latter to have been the product of a heavy editing process which occurred after Ibn Tumart's death, probably in 1183 at the time of the writing down of the manuscript a'azzu ma yutlab which was published as Le livre d'Ibn Toumert by Luciani in 1903. The paper attempts to define Ibn Tumart's theology of tawhīd in relation to other systems in which the word functions as a concept. Possible definitions thus provided are accepted or rejected. Questions considered are: 1 Whether Almohad lawhīd can be seen as a denial of the attributes of God as in Mu'tazilite theology. 2 Whether Almohad tawhīd can be seen as the tawhīd of ittisāl or of Pantheistic monism. 2 Whether Almohad tawhīd and its aspect of anti-anthromorphism can be seen as a rejection of animistic and folkloric remnants.
8 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors discuss the concept of "holy war" and the religious ideas it implies and conclude that some of these characteristics are coming to the fore in modern forms of the Hindu religion that have strong bonds with fundamentalist movements.
Abstract: This article discusses the concept of 'holy war' and the religious ideas it implies. According to some these ideas are characteristic of monotheistic traditions. The author investigates recent developments in Hinduism and comes to the conclusion that some of these characteristics are coming to the fore in modern forms of the Hindu religion that have strong bonds with fundamentalist movements. The question of the mosque occupying the holy spot in Ayodhyā, which is considered as the birth-spot of Visnu's incarnation as Rama, plays a central role in these developments. 'Liberation' of this site has many features in common with the motif of liberating Jerusalem in the age of the crusades. The author concludes by remarking that, though Hinduism has proved in the past to be a religion not prone to holy wars, recent developments in Indian society have made the prospect of a holy war between Hindus and Muslims seem only too real and close.
7 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the T'ang dynasty statesman Ho Chih-chang (659-744) was gradually elevated to "immortality" in a series of hagiographical tales.
Abstract: An unusual case of a Chinese "immortal" (hsien) was the T'ang dynasty statesman Ho Chih-chang (659-744). During his life, Ho displayed little interest in religion until a late-life ordination as a Taoist priest. During the Sung dynasty, however, he was gradually elevated to "immortality" in a series of hagiographical tales. In the 10th-century T'ai-p'ing kuang-chi, Ho appears as a character who learns humility. In the 11 th-century Kao-tao chuan, he appears as a character who yields to the Taoist ideals of restraint and orderly progress. In the 13th-century Chia-ting Ch'ih-ch'eng chih, Ho appears as a master of pharmika who ascends to heaven after a life of several centuries. In that text, the figure of Ho no longer has moral significance: he represents a romantic ideal of "the immortal," but no longer serves as a meaningful spiritual exemplar. In fact, in that text he ceases to function as a representative of Taoist values, for Taoists always aspire to a moral and spiritual elevation, a personal perfection for which the concept of "immortality" serves as a potent metaphor. I suggest that the compilers of such texts appropriated honored historical figures like Ho in an effort to persuade sceptical members of the Chinese elite that "immortality" was a valid and respectable ideal.
7 citations
TL;DR: The concept of "holy war" and the religious ideas it implies are characteristic of monotheistic traditions as discussed by the authors and some of these characteristics are coming to the fore in modern forms of the Hindu religion that have strong bonds with fundamentalist movements.
Abstract: This article discusses the concept of 'holy war' and the religious ideas it implies. According to some these ideas are characteristic of monotheistic traditions. The author investigates recent developments in Hinduism and comes to the conclusion that some of these characteristics are coming to the fore in modern forms of the Hindu religion that have strong bonds with fundamentalist movements. The question of the mosque occupying the holy spot in Ayodhya, which is considered as the birth-spot of Visnu's incarnation as Rdma, plays a central role in these developments. 'Liberation' of this site has many features in common with the motif of liberating Jerusalem in the age of the crusades. The author concludes by remarking that, though Hinduism has proved in the past to be a religion not prone to holy wars, recent developments in Indian society have made the prospect of a holy war between Hindus and Muslims seem only too real and close.
TL;DR: The conflicting death narratives of Krsna Caitanya (1486-1533) provide insights into the way members of a believing community reveal historical information about themselves and the way that they think, rather than about their ostensible subject.
Abstract: The conflicting death narratives of Krsna Caitanya (1486-1533), who was the inspiration for the Vaisnava movement of Bengal, provide insights into the way members of a believing community reveal historical information about themselves and the way that they think, rather than about their ostensible subject. According to the mainstrean theologians of this group, it is improper to speak of Caitanya's death because he is Krsna, svayam bhagavān, and as such he only descends to earth and ascends back to heaven. Four of the hagiographers underscore this by refusing to speak of the event, making clear that it carries no soteriological significance. Fourteen other authors, however, provide four alternatives: Caitanya disappears into the temple of Jagannātha, into the temple of Gopīnātha, or into the waters of the sea, or he dies from a foot infection. In spite of the obvious differences, the surface narratives follow a distinct pattern of action: devotional action, transition or separation in the locale of an axis mundi, and reintegration to heaven. The pattern, in turn, parallels basic Gaudiya Vaisnava conceptions of ontology, the steps of devotional sādhana, and the progression of devotional consciousness, which suggests that the tripartite structure is more than a coincidence, that it is endemic to their conceptual worlds. Because all of these explicit narratives curtail Caitanya's divinity by depicting his death, they are theologically heterodox, yet the underlying pattern demonstrates that their vision is conditioned by conceptualizations consistent with orthodox thought.
TL;DR: In this paper, Smith's interpretation of the Koyukon bear festival is examined, together with his more general theory of ritual, and it is shown that the interpretation of Smith's theory requires the investigator to attend to the ritualist's notion of reality and to grasp how his beliefs and actions are fitted to it.
Abstract: Jonathan Smith's recent interpretation of the classic "bear festival" among northern hunters is examined, together with his more general theory of ritual. Smith's interpretation of the bear festival is shown to be unfounded. The paper also investigates the well-documented bear rituals of the Koyukon of Alaska in light of Smith's general theory of ritual. Viewed in the context of other theories of ritual as symbolic action (those of Geertz, Douglas, Valeri, Turner, Eliade), Smith's theory is found to be unsuited to the task of understanding the meaning and significance of Koyukon bear rituals. The paper argues that the interpretation of ritual requires the investigator to attend to the ritualist's notion of reality and to grasp how his beliefs and actions are fitted to it. The investigator should be concerned with questions of meaning not empirical validity, as the problem of understanding ritual is a semantic and semiotic one, analogous to understanding the cognitive and performative uses of a language. The magical or instrumental aspect of the Koyukon bear rituals is also dealt with as an instance of performative language.
TL;DR: In this article, the notion "primitive religion", representing an apposite test-case, is examined, as it is used by four influential scholars in the field: C.P. Tiele, G. Van der Leeuw, Th. Van Baaren and F. Sierksma.
Abstract: In the twentieth century, Dutch religious studies have been decisively influenced by two external factors: the vicissitudes of the Netherlands as a major colonial power and the gradually declining impact of theology upon the intellectual discourse. In this paper, the notion "primitive religion", representing an apposite test-case, is examined, as it is used by four influential scholars in the field: C.P. Tiele, G. Van der Leeuw, Th.P. Van Baaren and F. Sierksma.
TL;DR: In this article, it was shown that in Yoruba mythology Erinle is a male hunter who is named after (or associated with) an elephant and who-for diverse reasons-is finally transformed into a water-spirit.
Abstract: The article shows that in Yoruba mythology Erinle is a male hunter who is named after (or associated with) an elephant and who-for diverse reasons-is finally transformed into a water-spirit. In his cult Erinle is mainly venerated as a river-god who, like the river goddesses Qsun and Yemoya, blesses his followers with children. In the iconography of his cult, however, the material symbols of a Yoruba water-spirit (terra-cotta pots with water and pebbles from the river: fans) are mixed with those that refer to the hunter and the symbol-complex of the god of iron and of the wilderness (iron chains; fly whisks; wrought iron staffs topped by birds). Outside his cult Erinle is sometimes symbolized by the image of an elephant with reference to his name. In the cult of his close friend Sango, the Oyo god of thunder, Erinle is figurated as a mudfish or a human being with mudfish legs, symbolizing him as a water-spirit. Comparison with mudfish symbolism in other Yoruba cults suggests that this mudfish symbolism refers to Erinle only when he is assimilated to Sango as the founding ancestor of the Qyo kingdom.