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Articles by Henry Albery
Religions, 2022
When monastics of the Indic North and Northwest around the turn of the Common Era made the decisi... more When monastics of the Indic North and Northwest around the turn of the Common Era made the decision to introduce art into monasteries, current cultural assumptions regarding the aesthetic experience of such objects, which were axiomatically negated by Buddhist ideology, led to certain confrontations in law and praxis and an attempt to resolve these within certain monastic legal codes (vinaya) redacted during this period. Tracing the historical relation between monasticism and art in this context, this paper focuses on two such uneasy relations. The first deals with an opposition
between the worldly aesthetics of pleasure associated with art and fashion and the aesthetics of asceticism as a representation of monasticism’s renunciate ideal. The second considers the aesthetics of fear associated with images of deities, the rejection of such objects as mere signs, and the resulting acts of theft and iconoclasm enacted upon them. It will show that resolution to both was sought in a particular semiotic which negated the aesthetic experience of such objects and rendered them signs with a significance that accorded with Buddhist ideology. Yet the solution remained incomplete, with issues arising when the same ideology was applied to monasticism’s own representation in the art of monasteries, stūpas and Buddha‑images.
Power, Presence and Space: South Asian Rituals in Archaeological Context, 2020
Power, Presence and Space: South Asian Rituals in Archaeological Context, 2020
in: DWJ 1, 2016, 1-3
It is our pleasure to introduce the Distant Worlds Journal (DWJ), an online peer-reviewed journal... more It is our pleasure to introduce the Distant Worlds Journal (DWJ), an online peer-reviewed journal established especially for presenting the research of early-career scholars on the ancient world. In seeking to encompass a broad range of distinct academic fields, each edition of the DWJ takes as its starting point a question or specific topic pertinent to the diverse disciplines engaged in the study of ancient cultures. In our opening edition, " Continuities and Changes of Meaning " , we thus wish to take up a question that both scrutinises and captures the very essence of scholarly endeavour: how does the meaning of an object change – or resist change? – throughout its " life " both in the past and, as an object of academic research, in the present? It was our aim in choosing this topic to not only address the changing functions, contexts, and interpretations of objects in antiquity, but also to prob-lematise our own modes of interpreting the (material and textual) remains of societies temporally distant from our own.
Edited volumes by Henry Albery
The Distant Worlds Journal (DWJ) is a peer-reviewed online journal that seeks to provide a platfo... more The Distant Worlds Journal (DWJ) is a peer-reviewed online journal that seeks to provide a platform for early-career researchers to present their findings and perspectives on cultures of the ancient world. It has its inspiration in the Munich Graduate School for Ancient Studies ‘Distant Worlds’, which currently incorporates Prehistorical Archaeology, Classical Archaeology and Philology, Byzantine Studies, Ancient History and Philosophy, Theology, Egyptology, Biblical Studies, Near Eastern Archaeology, Assyriology and Hittite Studies, Indology, Tibetology, and Sinology. The aspiration of Distant Worlds is to draw together scholars from a variety of disciplines and to engage in interdisciplinary discussion regarding broader questions surrounding the study of the ancient world. In this manner, the DWJ aims to cultivate a forum with which to engage the wider scholarly community.
Distant Worlds Journal (DWJ) by Henry Albery
Books by Henry Albery
Power, Presence, Space, 2021
Patterns of ritual power, presence, and space are fundamentally connected to, and mirror, the soc... more Patterns of ritual power, presence, and space are
fundamentally connected to, and mirror, the societal and
political power structures in which they are enacted. This
book explores these connections in South Asia
from the early Common Era until the present day. This
volume argues for the need to redress historical
neglect in identifying and theorising ritual and religion in
material contexts within archaeology. Further, it challenges
existing forms of documentation to propose new ways of
understanding rituals in history. It will be of great interest
to scholars of South Asian history, religion, archaeology,
and historical geography.
Power, Presence and Space: The Archaeology of Ritual in South Asian Context, 2020
Patterns of ritual power, presence, and space are fundamentally connected to, and mirror, the soc... more Patterns of ritual power, presence, and space are
fundamentally connected to, and mirror, the societal and
political power structures in which they are enacted. This
book explores these connections in South Asia
from the early Common Era until the present day. This
volume argues for the need to redress historical
neglect in identifying and theorising ritual and religion in
material contexts within archaeology. Further, it challenges
existing forms of documentation to propose new ways of
understanding rituals in history. It will be of great interest
to scholars of South Asian history, religion, archaeology,
and historical geography.
Reviews by Henry Albery
Papers by Henry Albery
Religions
When monastics of the Indic North and Northwest around the turn of the Common Era made the decisi... more When monastics of the Indic North and Northwest around the turn of the Common Era made the decision to introduce art into monasteries, current cultural assumptions regarding the aesthetic experience of such objects, which were axiomatically negated by Buddhist ideology, led to certain confrontations in law and praxis and an attempt to resolve these within certain monastic legal codes (vinaya) redacted during this period. Tracing the historical relation between monasticism and art in this context, this paper focuses on two such uneasy relations. The first deals with an opposition between the worldly aesthetics of pleasure associated with art and fashion and the aesthetics of asceticism as a representation of monasticism’s renunciate ideal. The second considers the aesthetics of fear associated with images of deities, the rejection of such objects as mere signs, and the resulting acts of theft and iconoclasm enacted upon them. It will show that resolution to both was sought in a parti...
Religions, 2022
When monastics of the Indic North and Northwest around the turn of the Common Era made the decisi... more When monastics of the Indic North and Northwest around the turn of the Common Era made the decision to introduce art into monasteries, current cultural assumptions regarding the aesthetic experience of such objects, which were axiomatically negated by Buddhist ideology, led to certain confrontations in law and praxis and an attempt to resolve these within certain monastic legal codes (vinaya) redacted during this period. Tracing the historical relation between monasticism and art in this context, this paper focuses on two such uneasy relations. The first deals with an opposition
between the worldly aesthetics of pleasure associated with art and fashion and the aesthetics of asceticism as a representation of monasticism’s renunciate ideal. The second considers the aesthetics of fear associated with images of deities, the rejection of such objects as mere signs, and the resulting acts of theft and iconoclasm enacted upon them. It will show that resolution to both was sought in a particular semiotic which negated the aesthetic experience of such objects and rendered them signs with a significance that accorded with Buddhist ideology. Yet the solution remained incomplete, with issues arising when the same ideology was applied to monasticism’s own representation in the art of monasteries, stūpas and Buddha‑images.
Power, Presence and Space: South Asian Rituals in Archaeological Context, 2020
Power, Presence and Space: South Asian Rituals in Archaeological Context, 2020
in: DWJ 1, 2016, 1-3
It is our pleasure to introduce the Distant Worlds Journal (DWJ), an online peer-reviewed journal... more It is our pleasure to introduce the Distant Worlds Journal (DWJ), an online peer-reviewed journal established especially for presenting the research of early-career scholars on the ancient world. In seeking to encompass a broad range of distinct academic fields, each edition of the DWJ takes as its starting point a question or specific topic pertinent to the diverse disciplines engaged in the study of ancient cultures. In our opening edition, " Continuities and Changes of Meaning " , we thus wish to take up a question that both scrutinises and captures the very essence of scholarly endeavour: how does the meaning of an object change – or resist change? – throughout its " life " both in the past and, as an object of academic research, in the present? It was our aim in choosing this topic to not only address the changing functions, contexts, and interpretations of objects in antiquity, but also to prob-lematise our own modes of interpreting the (material and textual) remains of societies temporally distant from our own.
The Distant Worlds Journal (DWJ) is a peer-reviewed online journal that seeks to provide a platfo... more The Distant Worlds Journal (DWJ) is a peer-reviewed online journal that seeks to provide a platform for early-career researchers to present their findings and perspectives on cultures of the ancient world. It has its inspiration in the Munich Graduate School for Ancient Studies ‘Distant Worlds’, which currently incorporates Prehistorical Archaeology, Classical Archaeology and Philology, Byzantine Studies, Ancient History and Philosophy, Theology, Egyptology, Biblical Studies, Near Eastern Archaeology, Assyriology and Hittite Studies, Indology, Tibetology, and Sinology. The aspiration of Distant Worlds is to draw together scholars from a variety of disciplines and to engage in interdisciplinary discussion regarding broader questions surrounding the study of the ancient world. In this manner, the DWJ aims to cultivate a forum with which to engage the wider scholarly community.
Power, Presence, Space, 2021
Patterns of ritual power, presence, and space are fundamentally connected to, and mirror, the soc... more Patterns of ritual power, presence, and space are
fundamentally connected to, and mirror, the societal and
political power structures in which they are enacted. This
book explores these connections in South Asia
from the early Common Era until the present day. This
volume argues for the need to redress historical
neglect in identifying and theorising ritual and religion in
material contexts within archaeology. Further, it challenges
existing forms of documentation to propose new ways of
understanding rituals in history. It will be of great interest
to scholars of South Asian history, religion, archaeology,
and historical geography.
Power, Presence and Space: The Archaeology of Ritual in South Asian Context, 2020
Patterns of ritual power, presence, and space are fundamentally connected to, and mirror, the soc... more Patterns of ritual power, presence, and space are
fundamentally connected to, and mirror, the societal and
political power structures in which they are enacted. This
book explores these connections in South Asia
from the early Common Era until the present day. This
volume argues for the need to redress historical
neglect in identifying and theorising ritual and religion in
material contexts within archaeology. Further, it challenges
existing forms of documentation to propose new ways of
understanding rituals in history. It will be of great interest
to scholars of South Asian history, religion, archaeology,
and historical geography.
Religions
When monastics of the Indic North and Northwest around the turn of the Common Era made the decisi... more When monastics of the Indic North and Northwest around the turn of the Common Era made the decision to introduce art into monasteries, current cultural assumptions regarding the aesthetic experience of such objects, which were axiomatically negated by Buddhist ideology, led to certain confrontations in law and praxis and an attempt to resolve these within certain monastic legal codes (vinaya) redacted during this period. Tracing the historical relation between monasticism and art in this context, this paper focuses on two such uneasy relations. The first deals with an opposition between the worldly aesthetics of pleasure associated with art and fashion and the aesthetics of asceticism as a representation of monasticism’s renunciate ideal. The second considers the aesthetics of fear associated with images of deities, the rejection of such objects as mere signs, and the resulting acts of theft and iconoclasm enacted upon them. It will show that resolution to both was sought in a parti...