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This collaboration between two scholars from different fields of
religious studies draws on three comparative data sets to develop a
new theory of purity and pollution in religion, arguing that a
culture's beliefs about cosmological realms shapes its pollution
ideas and its purification practices. The authors of this study
refine Mary Douglas' foundational theory of pollution as "matter
out of place," using a comparative approach to make the case that a
culture's cosmology designates which materials in which places
constitute pollution. By bringing together a historical comparison
of Ancient Near Eastern and Mediterranean religions, an
ethnographic study of indigenous shamanism on Jeju Island, Korea,
and the reception history of biblical rhetoric about pollution in
Jewish and Christian cultures, the authors show that a cosmological
account of purity works effectively across multiple disparate
religious and cultural contexts. They conclude that cosmologies
reinforce fears of pollution, and also that embodied experiences of
purification help generate cosmological ideas. Providing an
innovative insight into a key topic of ritual studies, this book
will be of vital interest to scholars and graduate students in
religion, biblical studies, and anthropology.
This collaboration between two scholars from different fields of
religious studies draws on three comparative data sets to develop a
new theory of purity and pollution in religion, arguing that a
culture's beliefs about cosmological realms shapes its pollution
ideas and its purification practices. The authors of this study
refine Mary Douglas' foundational theory of pollution as "matter
out of place," using a comparative approach to make the case that a
culture's cosmology designates which materials in which places
constitute pollution. By bringing together a historical comparison
of Ancient Near Eastern and Mediterranean religions, an
ethnographic study of indigenous shamanism on Jeju Island, Korea,
and the reception history of biblical rhetoric about pollution in
Jewish and Christian cultures, the authors show that a cosmological
account of purity works effectively across multiple disparate
religious and cultural contexts. They conclude that cosmologies
reinforce fears of pollution, and also that embodied experiences of
purification help generate cosmological ideas. Providing an
innovative insight into a key topic of ritual studies, this book
will be of vital interest to scholars and graduate students in
religion, biblical studies, and anthropology.
Human cultures, especially religious groups but also secular
artists and performers, often ritualize bodies as sacred books and
books as divine beings. An international team of scholars addresses
this theme of books as sacred beings in this volume through an
impressively diverse range of primary material and perspectives.
These studies show the wide variety of ways in which books, bodies,
and beings intermingle in material sacred texts manipulated by
human bodies, and also in literary and artistic depictions of
transcendent textual bodies. The boundary between material
immanence and spiritual transcendence turns out to be very thin
indeed when people use books. The chapters on specific book
practices in different cultures are bracketed by an introduction to
the collection and by a concluding essay that extrapolates on the
widespread theme of books as sacred beings.
Human cultures, especially religious groups but also secular
artists and performers, often ritualize bodies as sacred books and
books as divine beings. An international team of scholars addresses
this theme of books as sacred beings in this volume through an
impressively diverse range of primary material and perspectives.
These studies show the wide variety of ways in which books, bodies,
and beings intermingle in material sacred texts manipulated by
human bodies, and also in literary and artistic depictions of
transcendent textual bodies. The boundary between material
immanence and spiritual transcendence turns out to be very thin
indeed when people use books. The chapters on specific book
practices in different cultures are bracketed by an introduction to
the collection and by a concluding essay that extrapolates on the
widespread theme of books as sacred beings.
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