Przegląd Religioznawczy – The Religious Studies Review

From shared Muslim−Jewish holy sites and feasts to exclusivity claims, the case of Jerusalem

Menachem Klein — Thu, 01 Jun 2023 00:00:00 +0200

Below I discuss two models of Jerusalem’s holy sites and religious costumes: joint Jewish-Muslim shrines and the divided one. The joint model emerged in the late 19th century in direct relation to endorsing modernization and developing local patriotism. The escalating Zionist – Palestinian conflict since the late 1920s produced the separated holy sites model. Jeru[1]salem is the arena where the two models expressed forcefully due to its high religious status and national centrality.

Sacredness in healing and magical rituals of the folk healers (the szeptucha) from Podlasie

Krzysztof Ulanowski — Thu, 01 Jun 2023 00:00:00 +0200

The activity of people that are involved in magical-healing and curse laying is as old as human existence. However, especially in its folk, rural tradition it became the topic of academic interest and debate relatively recently. Not so long ago, such research was considered shameful, and the very activity of people dealing with traditional treatment as superstition. Only recently has it been rediscovered that magical practices are deeply rooted on many levels in the culture, religion, and society. In my research on magic in antiquity, I rely solely on historical material; this research also opened the horizon of a direct encounter with the researched matter, and above all with people – the folk healers, whisperers, who have been practicing the process for centuries. After thoroughly grounding myself in the literature on the matter, in September and October 2021, I decided to conduct field research in Podlasie. Its objective was to determine whether folk healers’ treatment still exists, what magical components it contains and how it is related to the traditional sanctity of the current religious world of eastern Poland.

The body of the deceased as a site of sacred-profane negotiation in Kashubian death rituals

Aleksandra Kurowska-Susdorf — Thu, 01 Jun 2023 00:00:00 +0200

Kashubian rituals around the deceased acquire a magical character, where the sacred is ubiquitous and intertwines seamlessly with the profane. Kashubian culture represents primal magic, many activities around the deceased are symbolic; talking to the body while washing it, singing, observing the deceased, equipping them with various objects, is aimed at successfully transferring them to the world of the sacred. This displacement has always been associated with the tension and horror that characterize the ritual. The purpose of this article is to show the rites of passage and traditional symbolic activities aimed at a smooth transition of the body status of the deceased, from the profane to the sacred, and their ephemeral and ambivalent character. Moreover, the cases of ineffective or interrupted rituals will be pointed out. The above issue will be discussed in the context of symbolic actions over the body, which are to lead to the sphere of the sacred, an effective transition from the separation phase, through suspension, to the aggre[1]gation phase.

The semantics and etymology of Proto-Slavic lexemes of sacredness and their continuation in Polish folk rituals

Mikołaj Jarmakowski — Thu, 01 Jun 2023 00:00:00 +0200

The article deals with some aspects of the problem of the participation of Iranian peoples in the process of formation of the Proto-Slavic cultural and linguistic community, which has been discussed for many years. By taking as a basis the methodology of semiotic study of language and culture in its diachronic aspects, an attempt was made to reconstruct the cultur[1]al contexts in which Proto-Slavic tradition incorporated, in the form of the words *bogъ and *svętъ – elements of Scythian mythology. By juxtaposing historical, linguistic, and ethnographic materials, a corpus of several motifs (“mythologemes”) was reconstructed, which could have accompanied the processes of the so-called “Iranian inversion”, which are very well known for Slavic philology, but less for anthropological and mythological reconstructions.

Sacred/unsacred places in Poland

Monika Mazurek — Thu, 01 Jun 2023 00:00:00 +0200

Every religion has its sacred and unsacred places. Such places are destinations of pilgrimages. Interestingly, sacredness of a place is not permanent; it may change in the course of time. In the paper, the author describes several sacred places across Poland, which is considered a Catholic country. It has its holy places – official and unofficial, Catholic and non-Catholic Christian. There is Jasna Góra, Licheń and the Zabłudów meadow, where both Catholic and Orthodox pilgrims arrived in the 1960s. There are also the stone circles in Kaszuby. In spite of other religions related to these places, it is possible to distinguish several common characteristics.

“God-box” – the figure of intoxicated, mad old hag in the writings of St John Chrysostom

Sebastian Borowicz — Thu, 01 Jun 2023 00:00:00 +0200

The article deals with the meaning and function of the figure of an old, drunken, and foolish woman in the writings of St. John Chrysostom. The issue is discussed historical, social, cultural, theological, and rhetorical levels. My point of departure is the figure of old, drunken hag making amulets and performing healings. Subsequently, I move to the analysis of wine and madness significance, as well as their theological dimension in early Christian authors. This consequently enables me to reconstruct the rhetorical function of the figure of anus ebria et delirans in the homilies of St John Chrysostom, including its role as the antithesis of Christ and personification of the pagan world.

A model of roadside memorials in Poland

Lucyna Przybylska — Thu, 01 Jun 2023 00:00:00 +0200

The aim of the paper is to present a model of the principal driving forces responsible for the proliferation of roadside memorials in Poland. Based on desk research, fieldwork and interviews, a three dimensional model has been developed. There are three dimensions of road[1]side memorials: 1) global, 2) societal, and 3) individual. Each of the dimensions is composed of two pairs of distinctive elements, i. e. motoring heritage and memorial mania, wayside crosses and cemetery traditions, and trauma and religiosity.

The herem in the favela: the “Evangelical trafficker” and the Hebrew Bible concepts of war and violence

Karolina Zaremba — Thu, 01 Jun 2023 00:00:00 +0200

This article asks whether the Hebrew Bible concepts of war and violence, especially the concept of herem, could be applied to the study of gang-related violence in Brazil. Specifi[1]cally, this article looks at two cultural phenomena evidencing a great degree of porosity between the Evangelical church and organized crime in Brazilian favelas, namely, the “Evangelical traf[1]ficker” (Cunha, 2015) and “Evangelical exemption” (Brenneman, 2011). This porosity has been described before, but the causes have been given in mostly sociological terms without enough attention paid to the exegesis of biblical stories, which are likely to be known in Evangelical cir[1]cles and hence likely to influence traffickers who move in these circles. This article discusses the cultural context of both phenomena and then asks, first, how the Hebrew Bible concepts of war and violence could be mediated into the favela circles, and second, whether the concepts could serve as ordering lenses of analysis for gang-related violence in Brazil. Extant terrorist and story research, as well as relevant Brazilian research on drug-related violence, are sourced throughout the article to support the proposal. Ultimately, however, the article proposes to test and finetune this connection via a focused field study. Thus, the posited connection gains practical implica[1]tions and can be adapted to other research settings where a similar blending of research and violence is observed.

A review of tourist behavior at religious sites in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan

Muhammad Suhail Khan, Yao Dewei , Aman Khan — Thu, 01 Jun 2023 00:00:00 +0200

The goal of this study was to find out the tourists’ behavior at religious sites in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. The study also looks into what motivates tourists to visit religious sites, how they behave at the sites, and how they feel about their overall experience. This study used a qualitative, descriptive research approach. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with a purposive sample of 20 tourists from various religious sites in the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) who had visited within the previous year. Thematic analysis was used to examine the data. The findings of the study indicate, on the whole, that tourists who visit religious sites in the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa exhibit various kinds of behavior depending on their level of awareness, the personal beliefs they bring with them, and the approach they take to visiting the religious site. The people who live in that area also affect how they act in that setting. The research reveals that tourists visiting religious sites in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa lack understanding and competent direction. This might be due to tourists' lack of personal knowledge or education, as well as a lack of information supplied at religious sites. Nonetheless, the government and relevant departments may take significant actions in this area to help reduce tourists' inappropriate and disrespectful conduct as well as to take proper measures to educate and enlighten visitors about the norms and restrictions that must be obeyed while visiting religious sites. This could also help the country's economy and make it a more attractive place for tourists to visit.

Amazonian transformations of shamanism: talking about action among the Arabela (Peru) and education in residential schools among the E’ñepá (Venezuela)

Tarzycjusz Buliński, Filip Rogalski — Thu, 01 Jun 2023 00:00:00 +0200

In this article, we show how the category of shamanism may be useful in the analysis of social practices of the indigenous peoples of the Amazon. We demonstrate that an expanded understanding of shamanism, as present in the contemporary Amerindian anthropology, allows for a better understanding of cultural phenomena that have hitherto been interpreted in terms of interethnic relations or educational research. We focus on two phenomena seemingly distant from ontology and religion. The first involves the constitution of social relations in a contempo[1]rary indigenous multi-ethnic society (Arabela, Peru), the second is related to the education of children and adolescents in residential Indian schools (E’ñepá, Venezuela). We will show that in both areas one may find shamanic understandings of corporeality and patterns of relations with Others, with controlled bodily transformation playing a key role.

Canis lupus in the text? A wolf sacrifice in Xenophon’s Anabasis, 2.2.9

Bogdan Burliga — Thu, 01 Jun 2023 00:00:00 +0200

The subject of this article is an enigmatic and thus highly intriguing passage in Book 2 of Xenophon's Anabasis, where the author succinctly describes an alliance between Greek mer[1]cenaries and the Persian commander Ariaeus. Both sides pledged under oath to help each other, not to use trickery or treachery. This military pact was preceded by an animal sacrifice, after which the Greeks dipped sword blades and the Persians spearheads in the blood poured on a shield. The domestic animals killed in this rite were a bull and a ram, while the wild ones were a boar and a wolf. However, in the last case there is a controversy: some medieval manuscripts of the Anabasis do not mention the predatory animal, whereas others do. In the paper I argue that MSS lesson with the noun 'wolf ', should be retained, which in turn prompts one to ask about the religious context in which wolf was might be killed in sacrifice and by whom.

Sacred meals in Hatra and Nippur in late Parthian times

Aleksandra Kubiak-Schneider, Bernhard Schneider — Thu, 01 Jun 2023 00:00:00 +0200

The common meal with deities comprises one of the most popular religious rituals. It results from the popularity of offerings composed with such alimentary items like meat, bread, fruits, wine, oil, etc. This paper deals with the sacred dimension of the cultic banquets on the example of epigraphical and archaeological evidence. As case-studies are presented two cities: the Northern Mesopotamian city of Hatra (ca. 290 km northwest of Baghdad) and the Southern Mesopotamian city of Nippur (ca. 150 km southeast of Baghdad). The case of Hatrene sacral architecture together with written material in the local dialect of Aramaic defines very similar structures in Nippur as sacred space for cultic meals and helps to reconstruct the practices in the period from 1st c. to the mid-3rd century CE.

Sacred, cultural and educational places, contexts of pilgrimages and pilgrimaging

Remigiusz T. Ciesielski, Gracjana Dutkiewicz, Agnieszka Suchocka — Thu, 01 Jun 2023 00:00:00 +0200

Searching for the meanings hidden in the definition of a sacred place, we naturally root this category in concepts based on religious, spiritual or identity references. A sacred place is almost synonymous with the memory of the events it refers to, it is also related to recalling the origins of this place, which is associated with the categories of holidays and celebrations, a constant reminder of the sense that the place contains. A. Lipari presents the above account very vividly, recalling the already forgotten category of the bell of the lost in culture.

The bell of the lost is a tradition related to the place, which ordered to ring the bell, the sound of which was supposed to help pilgrims heading to the holy place to orient themselves in space and show the way to the goal, which is the pilgrimage and the sense of the effort of pilgrimage (Lipari, 2014, p. 19). For a place to exist and have a geographical significance, it is necessary to give it cartographic coordinates, these coordinates define the physical purpose of the road that leads to this place.

The subject of the text presented here is not the sacred place as a geographic space, it is primarily a place that is a source of meanings that are renewed whether in the educational spaces of pilgrimage and pilgrimaging, or in the meanings it holds, acting as a sacred place in culture.

Quest (re) modeled: The Questionnaire of Religious Insight a new tool for analyzing religious insights, and its empirical verification

Thu, 01 Jun 2023 00:00:00 +0200

The Questionnaire of Religious Insights (QRI) presented in this paper was constructed to challenge the current model of religious orientations, especially the Quest Scale, by providing insight into different kinds of motivation that can influence spiritual seeking. The QRI contains two scales: Doubt (D) and Quest (Q). Validation of the internal reliability of the QRI and external criteria analysis was examined within an exploratory study conducted in a group recruited under a research grant. The second was conducted on a group of 117 young Polish adults. The study pro[1]vided evidence for the internal reliability of QRI and its criterion validity using Religious Orienta[1]tion Scales. The results of the second study suggest that most of the external validity criteria have been met. In conclusion, the proposed model of exploring motivation factors that may influence religious questing is a topic worth pursuing. We present studies that can follow this exploratory study that can be undertaken on more extensive and diverse age samples.