Ritual Practices

Early Mormonism rejected, over a remarkably short period of time, Christian marriage’s traditional role as a defense against carnality. When the medieval Christian church systematized the sacraments, it created a fork in the road of salvation, requiring the faithful to choose either ordination or marriage. Durng the Reformation, Protestantism’s denunciation of celibacy celebrated marriage within another dichotomy: the created, earthly world and the uncreated, heavenly one. Marriage was divinely instituted but meant for this world, not the world to come. In contrast,Mormonism made marriage a locus of its priesthood restorationism and its marriage rite gave men and women rights to access heavenly powers to accomplish divine purposes here and in the hereafter. Thus, marriage was eternal in both senses of the word. It was a means of inculcating the divine nature and of creating ties that transcended the limits of time and mortality. It was not only the pattern for this world, but the world to come. This was new, an extraordinary recalculation of centuries of tradition.

Resumen: en los sistemas religiosos de inspiración afro, como el espiritismo cruzao, la santería, el palo monte y el vodou, entre otros, la oralidad ocupa un lugar relevante. Esto se puede apreciar en diferentes niveles, como la enseñanza de las tradiciones, las prácticas rituales y el quehacer religioso, aspectos que se encuentran íntimamente vinculados. Los mitos, las plegarias y los cantos que aparecen en la escena ritual vehiculizan las posibilidades de transformar la realidad fenoménica de los participan-tes. De aquí se desprende la idea de un decir-hacer, lo cual indica que la palabra no solo es nomina-tiva o enunciativa; la palabra es acción. Sin ella los objetos, las imágenes y las plantas utilizados con fines terapéuticos serían tan solo objetos desprovistos de poder. Así, a partir del trabajo etnográfico y narrativo basado en el trabajo de campo realizado en Cuba en 2013 durante una ceremonia de entrega de Olokun, se discutirá el lugar de la palabra dentro de la santería.

Palabras clave: decir-hacer, oralidad, patakís, religiones de inspiración afro, santería cubana

Sayaing-Doing in an Olokun Ceremony

SUMMARY In Afro-inspired religious systems such as Espiritismo Cruzao, Santeria, Palo Monte and Vodou, among others, orality plays a central role. This can be observed at different closely linked levels such as the teaching of traditions, ritual practices, and religious work the myths, prayers, and hymns that appear on the ritual scene support the possibilities of transforming the phenomenal reality of the participants. This gives rise to an idea of a saying-doing, which indicates that the word is not only nominative but also expository; the word is action. Without it, the objects, images and plants used for therapeutic ends would be simple objects devoid of power. Thus, drawing from the ethno-graphic and narrative work based on the fieldwork carried out in Cuba in 2013 during an Olokun ceremony, I will discuss the role played by the word in Santeria.

Keywords: Afro-inspired religions, Cuban Santeria, orality, patakís, saying-doing

I denne boken tar Audun Kjus oss til 1200-tallet og til innføringen
av dødsstraff og strafferett i Norge. Boken handler om lovgivning,
henrettelsesmåter og kongelig benådning. Samtidig får vi
et innblikk i middelalderens ideologi og forestillingsverden.
Originaltekster og sentrale illustrasjoner bidrar til å levendegjøre
denne delen av norsk historie.

The rough text, in English language, of the student seminar delivered at the Banja Luka Political Science Department - April 2013.
The seminar explains the key parameters of the US foreign policy in terms of a 'ritual identity' that's based on three narratives or narrative-frames
(the frames figure as frequently recurring, behavior-shaping cultural matrices):
1.  Power as a Divine Grace.
2.  Puritan narrative - a hero of  a 'promised/free land'
3.  'Pioneer' - a hero in a land of continually expanding and moving boundaries (Manifest Destiny)
The seminar illustrates such an analysis of US foreign political vocabulary with many examples from American self-descriptions (official talks, memoirs, diplomatic notes, presidential speeches....), and enumerates some key consequences of the thus explained identity in its foreign political projection.

Alevi inanç sisteminde dem, dolu gibi isimlerle adlandırılan ve Alevi cemlerinde önemli bir yere olan içki kültü üzerine oluşturulan ritüeller ve inanç pratikleri mevcuttur. Alevi inanç sistemindeki içki kültüne bazı yayınlarda değinilmiştir. Fakat bu yayınlar doğrudan konuya odaklanmadıkları için geneli ortaya koymaktan uzak bir tablo çizmektedir. Mevcut yayınların temel eksikliklerinden biri de görsel unsurlarla desteklenememiş olmasıdır. Bu çalışmada Anadolu ve Balkan coğrafyasında yerleşik Alevi topluluklarında yaşamaya devam eden dem merkezli ritüellerden tespit edilenler farklılıkları ile birlikte analiz edilerek sunulacaktır. Dem kültü merkezli icra edilen ritüellerden biri olan “Dem Geldi Semahları” makalede farklı yörelerden örneklerle görsel unsurlarla desteklenerek analiz edilecektir. Dem Geldi Semahları farklı yerleşim birimlerinde cem ritüeli içerisinde dem hizmeti ile birlikte icra edilen semah ritüellerinden birisidir. Çalışmada Türkiye’nin muhtelif yerleşim birimlerinde yaptığımız alan araştırmalarında kayıt altına aldığımız Dem Geldi Semahları, semahların icra şekilleri, ritüel içerisindeki yeri, icra edilen eserler ve notaları ile mukayeseli bir şekilde verilecektir. Analizlerde, sadece semah merkezli bir bakış açısı ile odaklanılmadan inanç zümresinin içki kültüne bakışı da gerekli yerlerde içki ile ilgili diğer inanç pratiklerine atıflar yapılarak ortaya konulmaya çalışılacaktır.

In the Alevi belief system, there are rituals and belief activities known as dem or dolu formed around the cult of drink which has an important place in the Alevi cems. Some publications have mentioned this cult within the Alevi belief system. However, those publications are far from revealing the overall of this subject because they aren’t focusing directly on the subject. Also, one of the basic lacks of available publications is that they don’t include visual elements. In this paper, determinations from dem based rituals that are continuing to live in the Alevi communities in Anatolia and Balkans, together with differences between them will be analyzed and presented. It will be made an analysis of “Dem Geldi Semahs”, one of the rituals that are dem based practiced, supported with examples from different regions and visual elements. “Dem Geldi Semahs” is one of semah rituals which are performed together with dem service within cem ritual on different locations. In the study, “Dem Geldi Semahs” which we recorded during our fieldwork on the various locations in Turkey, and the forms of semahs performance, its place in the ritual, musical works with notes will be presented comparatively. In the analyses, without just focusing on the semah basic aspect, it will be also presented the view of the belief community on the cult of drink by referring, when it is necessary, to other belief activities related to drink.

In the Negev and Sinai deserts, excavations of tens of cult and burial sites, radiometrically dated to the 6th to 3rd millennia BC, have yielded assemblages of artefacts and faunal remains. Many of the objects can confidently be identified as cult or mortuary offerings, while the animal bones are identified as remains of sacrifices and food offerings. This article describes finds from fifteen excavated cult and burial sites with standing stones, as well as from the “nawamis” tombs of Sinai. The nature and role of cult and mortuary offerings and sacrifices in past desert societies, is discussed within this context.

First published in 1988, this volume redefined the anthropological study of menstrual customs. Examining cultures as diverse as long-house dwellers in North Borneo, African farmers, Welsh housewives, and postindustrial American workers, it challenged the previously widespread image of a universal "menstrual taboo" as well as the common assumption of universal female subordination that underlay it. Offering feminist perspectives on comparative gender politics and symbolism, the book has interested students and scholars in anthropology, women's studies, religion, and comparative health systems. Originally listed as a “Notable” book in Choice, it later won the first Most Enduring Edited Collection Prize, awarded by the Council for the Anthropology of Reproduction (a unit of the American Anthropological Association.). The book continues to be taught regularly around the world.

Résumé
Au Ladakh, le bouquetin est l’animal de loin le plus représenté sur les pétroglyphes. Chassé à l’arc, puis au fusil, c’était – jusqu’à l’interdiction de sa chasse en 1978 – un gibier très convoité, tant par les populations locales que par les Britanniques au temps du Raj: les premières appréciant sa chair goûteuse, les seconds en collectionnant les trophées.
Animal de bon augure, associé à la fécondité, le bouquetin occupe par ailleurs, au sein de la faune ladakhi, une place prépondérante sur le plan symbolique: ses cornes sont présentes sur les autels dédiés aux divinités locales, des chants en font l’éloge, des danses le mettent en scène, des figurines de pâte à son effigie sont offertes lors de la naissance d’un enfant comme lors des cérémonies de mariage et présentées pour accueillir la nouvelle année.
Mots clés : Ladakh, bouquetin, archéologie, chasse, rituel
Abstract
In Ladakh the ibex is by far the most represented animal on petroglyphs. Hunted using a bow and arrow, then the rifle, it was – until a ban on hunting in 1978 – very sought- after as game, both by local populations and by Western travellers under British rule: the former appreciated its tasty flesh while the latter collected trophies of it. An auspi- cious animal associated with fertility, the ibex occupies, among Ladakhi fauna, a pro- minent place on a symbolic level ; its horns are to be found on altars dedicated to local deities, songs sing its praise, dances portray it, dough figurines shaped like it are offered at the birth of a child just as they are at wedding ceremonies and to welcome the New Year after the winter solstice.
Keywords: Ladakh, Ibex, Archaeology, Hunting, Ritual

The article will focus on the military suite identified in the necropolis from Alba Iulia- Emperor’s Spring/Crăcuta (10th – 11th cent.) From the 223 inhumation graves investigated so far, a number of them present as funerary inventory: harnesses (stirrups, bridle) and weaponry (remains of quivers, bone plaques from the bows, arrows, axe, Säbelschwert), all of which beingspecific for the Magyar warriors during the 10th century. Despite the fact that the existence of graves attributed to warriors was never mentioned in any of the official excavations reports published by the archaeologist M. Blăjan , in his journals this kind of record was made. For example, M. 115 was most likely considered to be of Petcheneg origin. At the moment, in this category can be placed 13 graves (M. 115, M. 133, M. 143, M. 144, M. 165, M. 168, M. 173, M. 177, M. 184, M. 208 and M. 210), two of which were uncovered during the investigations made in 2014 . As a part of customs, we observe the dressing of the pit with lithic material and the presence of offerings (equine and eggs). Without question, this warrior graves formed the military suite that provided protection for Gylas during an agitated period of time corresponding with the renewal of Christianity in Transylvania. Most likely, this suite accompanied and protected Gylas in his journey to Constantinople (953), when he was baptized and came back at Alba Iulia with the Byzantine mission.

Keywords: : Alba Iulia, warriors, weaponry, Magyars, Transylvania, suite, offering.

Lezing gehouden bij de eerste "School of Rituals" (Oktober 2015). Ritueel compentent verwijst zowel naar onze cultuur (we zijn in staat tot ritualiseren) als naar de professional (de ritueelbegeleider). In deze lazing exploreer ik met name de rituele competenties van de ritueelbegeleider.

This article is reproduced from the Second Edition of The Encyclopedia of Religion, ed. Lindsay Jones (2005), v. 4, pp. 2369-2375, but is unchanged from its text in the First Edition, ed. Mircea Eliade (1987), v. 4, pp. 375-382, aside from a bibliographic update. It surveys the various chief academic approaches over the past century to the study of divination as such, and presents its own analysis classifying and explaining the forms of divination.

Abstract: The paper examins traditional Ryukyuan Onarigami-belief which is the belief that a sister’s sacred spiritual power called Seji guards her brother from danger. It is regarded as the basis of Ryukyuan kinship system and the core of the local religion which is supposed to derive from ancient Japanese religion (worship of kami). It also had a deep implications on Ryukyuan social and political culture. Basic sources on the issue (Omoro So:shi), Japanese and Western research  and the Author’s field research data  are used. The article is illustrated with original photos by the Author.
Key words: Ryukyu/Okinawa, Ryukyuan kinship, social  and political systems, Ryukyuan religion, Onarigami-belief, female sacred spiritual power (Seji), priestesses’ cult of sacred groves (utaki), state (court) rituals.
*****
В статье впервые в отечественном японоведении подробно рассматриваются в историческом, религиозном и культурном контексте региона и общеяпонском культурном контексте фундаментальные концепты традиционной рюкюской культуры, - берущей свои истоки в древнеяпонской культуре, - а именно, культ «сестры-богини» (онари-гами おなり神) и представления о магической силе сэдзи (世持), отражающие важнейшие аспекты религиозной, социальной и политичнской культуры Рюкю. Анализируются различные точки зрения японских и западных исследователей на предмет исследования, который до сих пор остается дискуссионным. Использованы основные источники (рюкюская антология  ритуальных песнопений «Оморо-со:си») и исследования японских и западных ученых по данной теме. Статья иллюстрирована оригинальными фото автора.
Ключевые слова: Рюкю/Окинава, системы родства, социума и политикума Рюкю, религия Рюкю, культ «сестры-богини» (онари-гами), магическая сила сэдзи, ритуалы жриц «священных рощ» (утаки), ритуалы королевского двора Рюкю.

The development of this research project from 2006 to 2010 has
produced solid data regarding the development of Numidian civilization at Althiburos and its immediate surrounds. The excavation at the capitolium area has provided a complete sequence for the first millennium BC, which attests a smooth cultural continuity during this whole period. The data indicate that the human community that dwelt at Althiburos was already fully sedentary in the most ancient phases, and that iron was used at least from the 8th cent. BC. From the 4th cent. BC onwards the site actually acquired urban traits, as shown by the existence of an impressive defensive wall. We have also deepened our knowledge on the funerary monuments and customs of the Numidian period, and we have produced relevant data on the posterior evolution of the city, especially on the chronology of the capitolium and the use of the space during the Late Antiquity and Medieval times.

Rituales afrovenezolanos para pagar promesas de salud y alcanzar bienestar comunitario
La cultura de Venezuela se caracteriza por el crisol de sus tres principales afluentes históricos: el indígena, el ibérico y el proveniente de África occidental. A pesar de los 500 años de fusión, hasta el día de hoy hay zonas y tradiciones, donde prevalece el componente afrovenezolano. Debido a la condición inicial de esclavos, los afrodescendientes desarrollaron significativos rituales colectivos alrededor de sus creencias, muchos vinculados con la salud propia o de un familiar, que fueron insertos en contextos católicos.  En su connotación de religiosidad popular afrovenezolana se analizarán dos manifestaciones que en su mayoría se realizan alrededor de pagos de promesa por motivos de salud. Por un lado se examina un ritual de mucho recogimiento que con música instrumental, danza, vestimenta específica, teatralidad y alta simbología se lleva a cabo en las calles de viarios pueblos el día de Corpus Cristi bajo el nombre de Diablos de Corpus. Por otro lado se estudia la fiesta de San Juan que en una centena de pueblos se celebra con mucho fervor con tambores, cantos, bailes y ritos. Esas fiestas musicales además tienen un impacto de bienestar y unión para la comunidad, ya que allí logran vivir su identidad específica y representan un acto de resistencia a la globalización.
Basado en experiencias propias, observaciones y registros, entrevistas especializadas, estudios documentales se aclarará la correlación entre los aspectos de música, salud y ritual como factor identitario de los pueblos. El estudio incluye perspectivas musicológicas, antropológicas, históricas y de performance.

Ritual Imagination is a study of spirit possession and ritual dynamics. Based on fieldwork in eastern Madagascar, Hilde Nielssen shows how tromba possession works as a flexible and fluid force, whose ritual imaginary playfully draws together elements from radically different cultural and social domains, thereby constituting human realities and creating ways of relating to changing and disjunctive circumstances. Tromba's strength lies in its fluid capacities to relate to ongoing social change by altering its own practices, while at the same time continuing to heal person and cosmos. The book critically addresses the still dominant perspective in anthropology, where rituals are understood as representations of culture and society. Using tromba as a pivotal case in the critique of ritual as representation, this book offers a fresh perspective on ritual and spirit possession.

Artykuł przedstawia analizę rytuału-zjawiska wypełniającego życie ludzkie od zarania dziejów. Zamiłowanie do rytuałów jest jedną z głównych cech ludzkości. Każda społeczność wykształ-ciła pewne rytuały, ponieważ to one stanowią o postawie danej grupy wobec świata i życia oraz wyrażają jej podejście do kształtowania rzeczywistości, mając przy tym wiele wspólnych cech, gdyż częstokroć te same rytuały występują w różnych zakątkach świata. Dowodzi to ich niewątpliwej uniwersalności jako elementu ludzkiej kultury, bowiem towarzysząc wszystkim ważnym wydarzeniom religijnym i świeckim, są zarazem sumą osobistych emocji i przeżyć, mających swoje znaczenie i siłę sprawczą. Opierając się na badaniach Bronisława Malinow-skiego, Arnolda Van Gennepa, Victora Turnera, Mircei Eliade i innych, autor omawia genezę, typy i poszczególne elementy rytuałów (jest tu np. charakterystyka miejsc, gdzie odbywają się czynności rytualne) oraz ich-jakże wiele znaczący-wpływ na społeczności ludzkie. Istotne miejsce w niniejszym artykule zajmuje analiza psychologiczna zachowań-odbiegających od standardów zachowań występujących w "zwyczajnym" życiu-osób silnie angażujących się w praktykowany rytuał, szczególnie z punktu widzenia teorii biogenetycznego strukturalizmu.

Abstract: The Saussurian adagio according to which linguistics is "le patron général de la sémiologie" is well known. To a certain extent, the verbal and non-verbal may be subjected to a common, semiolinguistic scheme of investigation. For instance, a fundamental phenomenon in the history of cult(ure)s – the transition of collective expression patterns from sacer ludus to ludus aestheticus – may be described in a semiological metalanguage. Thus, we intend to illustrate, by resorting to a choreographic corpus, the relevance of certain semiological concepts, traditionally applied to verbal objects:
·        “desemantization”/ “resemantization”: a relevant opposition, in our opinion, for the transformation of the choreographic language along with other structures of society;
·        “mutability” and “immutability” of the sign: a paradoxical condition for the subsistence of not only verbal, but also choreographic language;
·        the Saussurean principle of “alteration through continuity”;

    Key-words: dance, desemantization, gesture, (im)mutability, language, resemantization, ritual, sign, Saussure, theatre.the Saussurean concept of “shifting” the semiotic relation; in our opinion, shifting the original relation (ritualistic, magic-religious) between the choreographic significant and signifier is a symptom of the gradual “aestheticization” or “theatricalization” of choreographic “language”.

One of four known ancient Maya books, the Grolier Codex depicts different manifestations of Venus; the column of glyphs on the left of each panel records days in a 104-year Venus almanac. These plaster-coated bark-paper pages, carbon-dated to the 13th century, represent only half of the 20-page original. This article is an excerpt of pages 98-99 from the March 1990 National Geographic Magazine article "America's Ancient Skywatchers" by John B. Carlson with a numbered photographic arrangement of the Grolier Codex depicting the author's discovery that Codex pages 10 and 11 are actually two parts of the same "page 10".  Carlson clarifies the identities of Venus deities depicted in the Grolier Codex from a comparison of images from the Cacaxtla murals and links the images of the Grolier Codex with ancient Maya astronomically timed ritual warfare and sacrifice. (Grolier Codex photographs: Enrico Ferorelli; Mural photograph: Bob Sacha)

This article has been posted on Academia.edu as part of the Grolier Codex Project of the Center for Archaeoastronomy under the directorship of John B. Carlson, Ph.D.  The Grolier Codex Project seeks to further advance the study of the Maya Grolier Codex.

Über die Kund*innen Freier Ritualanbieter*innen liegt bislang kaum empirisches Material vor. In diesem Beitrag wird der Versuch unternommen, die sehr heterogene Gruppe tendenzartig zu beschreiben. Zentrale Koordinaten sind dabei die Zugehörigkeit zu einem freiheitsbewussten und zugleich sozioökonomisch abgesicherten Milieu, der hohe Grad an spiritueller Eigenverantwortung sowie der Wunsch nach Authentizität, die Sehnsucht nach dem Besonderen und schließlich die Unsicherheit im Umgang mit kirchlichen Gepflogenheiten. Anschließend werden Rückfragen für Theologie und Praxis angedeutet.

This article explores a previously unpublished text, found in the library of the Shinpukuji (Osu Kannon), in Nagoya. The Shido-kegyô is an initiation manual for esoteric monks written by the monk Hôren, active in the 14th century. As the closest disciple the famous Monkan, a prominent member of emperor Go Daigo's entourage, Hôren provides invaluable insight on the thought of his master, which combines both Shingon and Ritsu (Vinaya) school elements. The concrete initiation process is deeply anchored in the Shingon tradition, but Hôren's record, probably written in Yoshino right after the creation of the Southern court, also describes accommodations taking into account the difficult context of the time, such as special exemptions for ill or wounded candidates. It thus constitutes a vivid description of the troubled times he and his master lived in, and of the impact of the war between the Northern and Southern courts on monastic life.

This article discusses the conditions of the genesis of the nineteenth century Wayana whip-dance, aiming for what Terence Turner coined “ethno-ethnohistory”, through the method of Neil Whitehead’s “ethnography of historical consciousness”. This study outlines an indigenous historical consciousness of the social present in Guiana as related to events from the past, by means of the entanglement of things, places, and people related to this whip-dance ritual. The article discusses the Eastern Guiana whip-dance as a social field of interaction in three regions and three time periods: (1) the Upper Maroni Basin (French Guiana and Suriname) in the early twenty-first century; (2) the Franco-Brazilian Contested area (today’s Brazilian Amapá) in the nineteenth century; and (3) a posited origin of this ‘mythstory’ at the Lower Amazon in the sixteenth century. Rather than conducting a study of a ‘lost tradition’, these three case-studies will provide insight into the process of how Wayana indigenous people have managed their histories of first contact in Guiana through ritual performance and the materialization of the evil spirit Tamok.

The objective of this article is to show how mutual upbringing occurs between non-humans and humans, animals and humans, plants and humans, in a living territory cohabited by other entities that actively interact with humans. This research is based on shared practices, interviews and dialogues with residents and pilgrims from different provinces of Cuzco from 2012 to 2018. Based on the data, it is proposed that social interaction is not reduced to the human, but is it extends to non-humans like the Apu, the Pachamama, the animals, and plants. In this context, the ritual plays an important role in the relationship of interdependence through mutual upbringing, as its purpose is to feed or providence force or kallpa to the Apu and Pachamama in reciprocity to the food they provided to humans.

https://www.centrodeestudiosandaluces.es/publicaciones/el-mito-de-la-tierra-de-maria-santisima-religiosidad-popular-espectaculo-e-identidad

El volumen ‘El mito de la tierra de María Santísima. Religiosidad popular, espectáculo e identidad’ explora los mitos que sustentan el arraigo de la religiosidad popular en la Andalucía del siglo XX, y ahonda en los conflictos religiosos, políticos y culturales que la han convertido en un fenómeno caleidoscópico y muy rico, objeto de múltiples usos y apropiaciones por parte de diversos sectores sociales.

Entendida como uno de los elementos fundamentales de la identidad andaluza, la religiosidad popular es analizada en este ensayo de historia cultural por el investigador y profesor de la Universidad de Extremadura César Rina Simón, prestando especial atención a las celebraciones de Semana Santa, ya que la hegemonía de esta fiesta, que consciente o inconscientemente marca el resto del calendario festivo y social de toda la comunidad autónoma, la ha convertido sin duda en todo un icono identitario.

“Más que los hechos del pasado, me interesa lo que la sociedad reconoce como su pasado –sus  mitos y sus ritos–, así como los mecanismos de apropiación política, religiosa e identitaria que se han asentado sobre una continua (re)invención de la tradición o exaltación de la particularidad local”, señala el autor. Con este punto de partida, y más allá de su dimensión festiva, fundamental como elemento cohesionador de los colectivos que participan en ella, el historiador se adentra en la conformación de estas tradiciones populares desde su invención romántica –tiempo del que procede precisamente el concepto de la tierra de María Santísima– hasta la actualidad.

Siguiendo la estela de los antropólogos andaluces que en los años setenta abrieron una vía para cuestionar los tópicos historiográficos que relacionaban sin resquicios religiosidad popular y élites conservadoras y poderes establecidos –Isidoro Moreno, Salvador Rodríguez Becerra, Paero Gómez, Rafael Briones, Juan Agudo, Javier Escalera Reyes y Demetrio Brisset, entre otros– Rina expone los múltiples niveles de significación de la fiesta, así como sus usos políticos, su importancia en los horizontes locales y su consolidación como motor turístico y económico.

Consciente de la paradoja de que a mayoría de las hermandades y rituales hayan sido fundadas y desarrollados en el siglo XX, aunque se autodescriban como fenómeno barroco, el autor de este volumen se centra fundamentalmente en los tres momentos en los que se produjo el auténtico “boom” de las cofradías: los años veinte, ligado al regionalismo y como respuesta a los fenómenos migratorios que estaban transformando la fisonomía de las ciudades; la posguerra y el franquismo, un régimen que se apoyó en la religiosidad popular para legitimarse y, por último, la transición y el proceso autonómico andaluz que convirtió los rituales populares en baluartes identitarios. Como colofón, aborda la enorme masificación que ha sufrido el fenómeno religioso andaluz y las consecuencias que esto ha tenido en los últimos años.

Confirmation as a coming of age ceremony has deep roots in traditional popular Nordic culture. For hundreds of years Nordic state churches held the key to adulthood. Until 1912 in Norway and Denmark, young people could not legally marry, wear adult clothing or work as adults until they were approved by their parson and confirmed by the church in a public ceremony. A movement in Nordic countries rehabilitated the confirmation tradition by adding a secular twist that gives youth a choice between a religious or a non-religious confirmation ceremony. The first civil confirmation organised by the ”Association Against Church Confirmation” took place in Copenhagen, Denmark in 1915. 
Many Nordic youth opt today for a humanist confirmation to celebrate their coming of age because it represents a proud moment for them and their families. Each year over 10,000 young Norwegians are confirmed in humanist ceremonies held in concert halls, medieval castles, municipal cinemas, cultural centres, city halls and community buildings throughout the country. From the small towns in the south, with their white painted wooden houses, to the urban areas such as Oslo, Bergen and Trondheim to the sparsely populated areas in the far north where the Sami communities live families gather on Saturday or Sunday in late April till late May to see their young people move into adulthood.

The reconciliation of Ibn al-Kalbī's ninth-century CE text of on pre-Islamic Arabia with modern scholarship offers certain insights to religious practices in the Arabian Peninsula from prehistory through the seventh cenury CE This study integrates his early Book of Idols into existing archaeological and anthropological studies about diverse aspects of pre-Islamic religion and ritual: diverse forms of litholatry; pilgrimage rituals; and the social economy of sacrifice and rain rogation rituals. Al-Kalbī's text is recognized rightly for its essential character as a product from a distinct cultural milieu, early Islamic Kūfa, distant by time, geography, and culture from the pre-Islamic culture of Arabian antiquity of the peninsula and particularly the ancient kingdoms of Yemen in the southwest. Nevertheless, this article analyzes this contested source for several of its alignments with recent archaeological and anthropological findings.

The Roman numismatic coins of the Silla History and Archaeology Museum (Valencia, Spain) are made
public. It is a museum that gards coins which come from two archaeological excavations recently made in
two villae located in its municipal district: La Font del Gat and Silla, last one in the historical centre of
population. Four high-imperial coins were recovered in the first villa, without archaeological context, and
in the second one a monetary set was found, made up of by a ring and four coins; three ases of Claudius I
of Hispanic mint and an as of Galba, which appeared in a Roman thermal bath, in the middle of the trench
of the foundation of the wall that separates the changing area of the space which gives way to the cold area
or an unctorium. Probably it is a foundational deposit with votive components. A brief current situation of
the knowledge has been done of the ancient numismatic in the region of “L’Horta Sud” of Valencia.
Se dan a conocer los fondos numismáticos romanos del Museo de Historia y Arqueología de Silla. Se
trata de un museo que custodia monedas provenientes de dos intervenciones arqueológicas efectuadas recientemente
en dos villas romanas localizadas en su término municipal: la de La Font del Gat y la de Silla,
esta última situada en el centro histórico de la población. De la primera villa se recuperaron cuatro monedas
altoimperiales sin contexto arqueológico y de la segunda se halló un conjunto monetario, formado
por un anillo y cuatro monedas: tres ases de Claudio I de ceca hispana y un as de Galba, el cual apareció
en unas termas romanas, en mitad de la zanja de fundación del cimiento del muro que separaba la zona
de muda del espacio de la sala fría o de un unctorium. Se trata de un probable depósito fundacional con
componentes votivos. También aquí se hace un sucinto estado de la cuestión del conocimiento de la numismática
antigua en la comarca de l´Horta Sud de Valencia.