Sacred Spaces Research Papers - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

- by and +1
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- Sacred Landscape (Archaeology), Sacred Architecture, Sacred Spaces, Sacred Space

L'observation des lieux sacrés partout sur la planète (mégalithes, monuments, ouvrages de terre, lieux de cérémonie) révèle qu'ils ne sont pas situés au hasard, mais sur des lignes géométriques précises. La Terre est tissée d'un réseau de ces lignes qui sont les manifestations physiques de flux énergétiques. Ils sont organisés en plusieurs grilles superposées et connectées, qui couvrent la terre de leur maillage aux caractéristiques précises. Les nœuds de ces réseaux présentent des énergies telluriques et cosmiques particulières qui en ont fait des centres de rayonnement religieux, philosophique et artistique des civilisations anciennes. Sur certains édifices, on a relevé des indices qui indiquent qu'ils ont été bâtis par une civilisation techniquement et spirituellement très avancée. Les sites sacrés avaient des fonctions de régulation énergétique des flux et d'élévation de la conscience. Après un long sommeil, la grille est actuellement réactivée progressivement jusqu'à sa pleine puissance en 2012. Ce processus entraine des bouleversements terrestres et des modifications dans nos consciences. Nos corps sont progressivement reconnectés à la grille et sont également touchés. Tout cela a un sens précis: nous sommes invités à devenir pleinement responsables de notre vie et à créer un nouveau monde en harmonie avec la Terre.

- by Andrew Spicer
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- Urban Geography, Eastern European Studies, Ottoman History, Eastern Europe
- by Elisabetta Porcu
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- Area Studies, Japanese Studies, Japanese Religions, Popular Culture

This article considers traditional ideas of the hidden world (kayyp düynö) related to the phenomenon of pilgrimage to holy places (mazars) from an exstential point of view. Author supposes that these ideas originate in the natural... more

- by Nestor Manichkin
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- Ethnoecology, Kyrgyzstan, Sacred Spaces, Sacred Space

Although architecture has often granted a key role to the geometry-based Cartesian space and to the visual paradigm, the aesthetics of atmosphere – understood as an enquiry into the relationship between environmental expressive qualities and subjectively registered conditions – is able to provide further theoretical perspectives. The paper highlights that the aesthetics of atmospheres, taking into account all the senses, should be considered as a valid interpretative tool to integrate the traditional point of view of the history of architecture. To demonstrate this, the paper will focus on a case study: the baroque church of Immacolata Concezione al Capo, set in one of the historical markets of Palermo.

- by Ys Sanathan and +1
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- Indology, Sacred Spaces, Art, Iconography and Religion (Hindu and Buddhist)., Adi Shankaracharya

Religious Celebrations: An Encyclopedia of Holidays, Festivals, Solemn Observances, and Spiritual Commemorations. By J. Gordon Melton, Editor, with James A. Beverley, Christopher Buck, and Constance A. Jones. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO,... more

- by Christopher Buck
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- Religion, New Religious Movements, Comparative Religion, History

Room for Religion: the future sustainability of religion by means of models and contemplation about religious education and meditation rooms
Both religious education, as well as build forms of sacred space, seems to increasingly diversify in recent years. This phenomenon can be considered as a symptom of contemporary religion, in the way it manifests itself in an increasingly individualized and pluriform society. In this essay, the concrete forms and concepts of meditation rooms are explored for the benefit of a more clear terminology and typology instead of a terminology that mixes up concepts like monoreligious, interreligious and multireligious. These models are compared with models of religious education. This comparison shows that religious education, as well as meditation rooms, indeed seems to diversify on the basis of a transformed society. Boundaries have become more fluid as can be regarded for example in more fluid borders or no borders at all between domains in the living space such as kitchens, living areas, sleeping areas and so on. A more traditional understanding of a living
space consisting of well-defined areas with a specific purpose seems outdated as well as the idea of a monofunctional space for religion (exclusive liturgical use) or monoreligious religious education. Religion is not one specific domain that can be confined in one specific concept or form that satisfies all societal needs sufficiently.

- by Kim de Wildt
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- Interfaith Discourse, Sacred Spaces, Sacred Space, Religionspädagogik
- by Andrew Spicer
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- Early Modern History, Death, Death Studies, Catholic Studies

After conquering large swaths of Syria and Iraq, the IS undertook an aggressive sectarian campaign in which they not only enacted horrific violence against the Shia people, but also damaged or destroyed several key Shia mosques and shrines. Drawing on Social Movement Theory (SMT), this article analyzes the response by various Shia nonstate actors—militia leaders, religious clergymen, populist preachers, and seminal poets. It argues that they used the IS threat to Shia holy sites to develop and deploy a mobilization frame that has come to be referred to as the “shrine protection narrative.” The article also documents the manifold consequences of the shrine protection narrative: it underpinned a mass recruitment drive that saw tens of thousands enlist; it legitimized foreign Shia militias to enter the conflicts in both Syria and Iraq; it justified the formation of entirely new militias who declared the centrality of shrine protection to their mandate; and it mobilized them to enact political violence. In doing so, this article extends existing studies of SMT to demonstrate that “sacred spaces”—and particularly the need to protect religious sites from specific threats—can serve as a powerful mobilization frame towards political violence.

- by Benjamin Isakhan
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- Religion, Comparative Religion, Political Sociology, Social Movements
- by Andrew Spicer
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- Liturgical Studies, Early Modern History, Material culture of religion, Ritual

Scrive san Giovanni Damasceno: «Se un pagano viene e ti dice: Mostrami la tua fede!, tu portalo in chiesa e mostragli la decorazione di cui è ornata, e spiegagli la serie dei quadri sacri». L'interesse per il patrimonio artistico cristiano è uno dei fenomeni di massa più sorprendenti negli ultimi anni. La comunità cristiana sta iniziando a cogliere questo «segno dei tempi» come un movimento dello Spirito che parla alle Chiese e le rinnova. Le masse di turisti che entrano nelle nostre chiese sono una inattesa occasione di annuncio, ma esse ci colgono impreparati. Nasce allora una sfida per ripensare l'anmincio e l'accompagnamento nella fede. Il presente articolo si ra dica in una riflessione sul fenomeno, e fornisce alcuni materiali per nuove forme di annuncio e mistagogia a partire dallo spazio sacro.

- by Jean Paul Hernandez
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- Art History, Sacred Spaces, Kerygma, Evangelisation
- by Uwe Michael Lang
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- Architecture, Sacred (Religion), Church Buildings, Sacred Architecture

In their groundbreaking study published in 2019, Geometry and Architectural Planning at Göbekli Tepe, Turkey, Gil Haklay & Avi Gopher examined the architectural remains excavated in the southeastern part of the site, dated to be 11500 years old. They applied preliminary architectural formal analysis, using the latest technology, in order to reconstruct aspects of the architectural design processes involved in the construction of the monumental enclosures. They determined the exact centres of enclosures B, C and D and discovered an underlying geometric pattern which links them together, an equilateral triangle. They conclude that the three stone-built large enclosures were planned and initially built as a single project. Their study does not take into account the orientation of this equilateral triangle, nor the reason why it is not perfectly exact. In this paper I will show how the builders used modular geometry to link the three centres of enclosures B, C and D, exactly orientated to the cardinal directions. This geometry accounts for the exact implantation showing why the equilateral triangle was not perfect. It consequently becomes by far the oldest example of modular geometry to have been found, some 6000 years before the start of the Sumerian civilisation.

- by Howard Crowhurst
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- Architecture, History of Mathematics, Geometry, Sacred Architecture

As recognised by Ruggles and Burl in 1995, investigations of British lsles sites: "Must be done in the absence of independent evidence from historical documents, literature (and) myth ... indeed of any direct evidence apart from the archaeological record itself. ... One thing we can do is to look for repeated trends within the archaeological record, using them to suggest general principles that influenced people's actions within certain areas at certain times.'" In independent recognition of this technique, the orientation of the free-standing stones of western Scotland were investigated using cluster analyses previously developed for astronomy and astrophysics. Conclusive evidence
was published by Gail Higginbottom and Roger Clay supporting
the deliberate orientation of megaliths in this area. In particular,
it was shown that there is a greater geographical extent and
strength of orientation preferences in this area than previously
reported in the literature. Whilst within each of the 4 regions of
Uist, lslay (with Jura), Mull (which includes North Argyll, Coll and
Tiree) and Argyll (which includes Lorn) the majority of the sites
face similar directions, further investigation has demonstrated
that there is a difference in directions between these regions.
This may support the existence of sub-cultural indication preferences.

- by Gail Higginbottom
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- Archaeology, Prehistoric Archaeology, Statistics, Landscape Archaeology

Este artículo está enfocado en el estudio de los
santuarios ayauhcalli (casas de niebla) en la liturgia
del año solar de los antiguos nahuas. El texto intenta
proporcionar por primera vez una visión completa de
todos los datos contenidos en las fuentes escritas y
pictográficas del siglo xvi, así como conocer el papel
litúrgico de estos lugares de culto a través de la
reconstrucción de sus espacios y funciones. El
segundo objetivo del ensayo es proponer una comparación
entre la liturgia de las veintenas de Etzalcualiztli
y de Huey Tecuílhuitl, dos fiestas en las que las
casas de niebla desempeñaban un rol significante.

- by Elena Mazzetto
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- Aztecs, Mesoamerican Religion, Sacred Spaces

Human settlement of landscape raises the question of marking the landscape with one’s own religion. Changes of religious systems or their coexistence documented in the landscape raises further questions, particularly those pertaining to broader socio-cultural phenomena and dynamics. Even if such processes are not documented in written sources, they could often be recognized in toponyms, folklore, archaeological finds and in contemporary religious practices. This publication presents analyses of sacred landscape from the perspective of: archaeology, folklore, ethnology and cultural anthropology, literature, architecture, history, art history, mathematics etc., and at the same time covers the period from prehistory, through antiquity and Slavic period and the Middle Ages to the modern period and contemporary times. In addition to this, it also compares different processes from different regions and times, by and large from Europe.

- by Juraj Belaj and +4
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- Mythology And Folklore, Archaeology, Anthropology, Mythology

La muséalisation semble ainsi procéder d’une constellation combinatoire de répertoires complexes d’actions et d’interprétations protéiformes projetant différents contextes conceptuels et motivationnels, entre arguments techniques ou justifications inhérentes à un monde inspiré ou domestique, en vertu desquels les individus trouvent un sens à ce qu’ils entreprennent individuellement et collectivement (Levinas, 1994, cité par Hayat, 2013, p.36). Suivant un ensemble de démarches collaboratives, elle participe en particulier d’une codétermination et réactualisation de représentations, valeurs, normes et savoirs qui concourent au titre d’une sacralisation à une mise en liaison de biens matériels et immatériels « reconnus et appropriés collectivement» (Arpin, 2000, cité par Desvallées & Mairesse, 2010, p.65) avec un entour socio-culturel, et
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historique (Spielbauer, 1987 ; Waidacher, 1996, cité par Desvallées & Mairesse, 2010, p.56) par lesquelles les individus vont pouvoir lire et comprendre leur appartenance à une communauté. Ces processus participent non seulement d’une meilleure acceptabilité sociale de la proposition muséale, d’une co-production et co-réactualisation de formes de sacralisation, mais également d’une distribution du rapport entre soi, l’autre et un entour socio-culturel selon une conception partagée du bien commun trouvant sa grandeur dans une cité civique.

- by fabien jakob
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- Museum Studies, Museology, Sacred Art, Museum and Heritage Studies

Este trabajo está enfocado en el estudio de la veintena de Ochpaniztli
y, en particular, en el análisis e interpretación de un rito agrícola
que tenía lugar en los espacios del Templo Mayor de la capital mexica.
Su protagonista era la personificación del maíz maduro, la diosa
Chicomecóatl. Con base en la importancia de la geografía sagrada
de los centros ceremoniales prehispánicos como teatro de reactualización de los mitos y de los ciclos de la naturaleza, este estudio pone el acento en el papel central del maíz como cereal sagrado en la cosmovisión prehispánica, así como en la dimensión religiosa, a través de una nueva lectura de la liturgia pública mexica. Asimismo, con base
en la narrativa mítica, el análisis también propone otorgar un nuevo
uso funcional a algunos de los espacios sagrados que componían el
Templo Mayor de México-Tenochtitlan.

Focusing on the western Himalayan provinces of Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh, this article argues that the Indian hagiographic texts of the Puranas should be understood as a nuanced literature that sought to effect a paradigm shift in liturgy and praxis, fusing polity and religion, largely in contravention to the earlier Vedic–Upanishadic texts and their commentaries, but also building on them. Emphasis on local Sanskrit literature, specifically the Nilamata Purana, which uses popular iconographies of river goddesses, served many centuries ago to reconstruct the geography of the area within the wider context of the subcontinental sacred geography.
Keeping within the Puranic tradition, the article focuses on the rituals and ceremonials associated with rivers, while also charting the process by which regional pilgrim centres were formed on their banks, devising a sacred space parallel to the subcontinental cosmos. This reinforces the logic of the sacred river, the worshipped
deity, as a process by which brahmanic dominance was asserted in the peripheral areas of early India, or ideologically and politically contested regions such as Kashmir. In the sacrality of the river Vitasta, Brahmanism as an ideology reasserts itself by restating the tradition in relation to its sacral past, creating a new sacred space and devising a sacred icon to reclaim this particular geography for the devout Brahmanas.

- by mahesh sharma
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- Iconography, Pilgrimage, Religious Studies, Kashmir

During the last decade or so, empirical knowledge about interactions between bodily actions, human thinking, and the cultural embeddedness of human cognition has been accumulating. As any young science, the cognitive science of religion has been rapidly adapting to this new
knowledge, which has led to an expanded view of cognition. The brain, body and mind have often erroneously been thought to be more or less independent organs. They are enmeshed, however, not only internally (embodied) but also externally in a vast network of other brains, bodies
and minds (encultured). Thus, mental representations, mental and emotional states, unconscious reactions and background emotions are socially oriented and often socially caused states. This paper will introduce readers to recent advances in the cognitive science of religion with emphasis on ritual behavior, place and pilgrimage.

- by Armin W Geertz
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- Neuropsychology, Evolutionary Psychology, Pilgrimage, Embodied Cognition
- by Gail Higginbottom
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- Religion, Cultural Studies, Human Geography, Archaeology

This essay analyses the relationship between healing, nature, and the sacred in the construction of “sacred space” or heterotopies at the beginning of the 20th century in Europe. Two examples of these spaces are provided: the Kurorte in Bad Reichenhall, Germany, and the back-to-nature site Monte Verità in Ascona, Switzerland. The focus is on sacred space, alternative lifestyles, and the natural environment through the use of “light and air” cabins and community organization, as described by the founders of the colony at Monte Verità. The healing garden and the Gradierhaus—a special type of building designed for breathing salted air in Bad Reichenhall are explored through the lens of “air cure” and “climate cures”, which became popular in Central Europe at the end of the 19th century. Such buildings and healing sites were designed for the express purpose of healing through disconnection from the chaos of the modern industrial world in order to reconnect with nature and the elements. Drawing on Foucault’s concept of heterotopia, a striking affinity between buildings and the natural environment at these sites is revealed, resulting in a “special” or “sacred” location that is somehow both “in” and “out” of everyday life, capable of ostensibly producing forms of healing in the visitors and inhabitants.

- by Aaron French
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- New Religious Movements, European History, Tourism Studies, Heterotopia

The Riparian people of the Biosphere Reserve of Yangambi (Turumbu and Bamanga) have traditionally developed practices of nature conservation. However, the ongoing socio-cultural changes in the region are likely to affect the sustainability of those practices. On one hand, this study aims to identify the Turumbu and Bamanga's existing traditional practices and knowledge about conservation. On the other hand, it aims to analyze the socio-cultural changes on their sustainability. Data collection techniques comprised of historical archives exploitation, focus-group, and individual interviews conducted for 20 villages surrounding the Biosphere Reserve of Yangambi (BRY). Investigations revealed a huge range of practices affecting plant communities and wildlife species as well as natural phenomena restricting either hunting or fishing activities. Findings also pointed out traditional knowledge and mystical-based considerations from agricultural practices. In addition, cemeteries, sites for the rites of passage, the food-based taboos, and legendary sites were target to sacralisation. The grafting between religion, colonization, modernity and culture, resulted to a bottleneck which affects such practices. In spite of these constraints, the study shows that there are still opportunities at the multilevel (local, national, global) for their reactivation.

- by Ayse Hilal Ugurlu and +1
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- Sacred Landscape (Archaeology), Sacred Architecture, Sacred Spaces, Sacred Space

H i s t o r y ◆ i d e n t i t y ◆ V u l n e r a b i l i t y ◆ P r o t e c t i o n

Кулешов Вяч. С. Серебро за меха из Страны мрака: памятники византийской, восточной и западной торевтики и нумизматики в сакральной экономике югорского общества V–XV вв. // Византия в контексте мировой культуры : Материалы конференции, посвящённой памяти Алисы Владимировны Банк (1906–1984) / Редакционная коллегия: В. Н. Залесская, Е. В. Степанова (научные редакторы) и др. (Труды Государственного Эрмитажа. [Т.] LXXXIX.) СПб.: Издательство Государственного Эрмитажа, 2017. — С. 363–372.

This article aims to raise issues for discussion about the change in the use and concept of sacred landscapes, which were originally constructed in the era of the Cypriot kings (the basileis), but then continued to function in a new imperial environment, that of the rule of the Ptolemaic strategos and later of the Roman proconsul and the various Christian bishops. Our archaeological survey project in the Xeros river valley, titled 'Settled and Sacred Landscapes of Cyprus', reveals that these new politico-economic structures were also supported by the construction of symbolically charged sacred landscapes. Thus, while outlining the long history of the island as manifested from the diachronic study of Cypriot sacred landscapes, we identify three pivotal phases: first, the consolidation of the Cypriot polities and the establishment of a 'full' sacred landscape; second, the transition from segmented to unitary administration under the Ptolemaic and Roman imperial rule and the consolidation of a more 'unified sacred landscape'; and finally, the establishment of a number of Christian bishoprics on the island and the movement back to a 'full' sacred landscape. Moving beyond the discipline of Cypriot archaeology, this contribution aims to serve as a paradigm for the implications that the employment of the 'sacred landscapes' concept may have when addressing issues of socio-political and socioeconomic transformations. While it is very difficult to define or capture the concept of landscape in a pre-modern world, it offers a useful means by which to assess changing local conditions. We have also attempted to situate the term in archaeological thought, in order to allow the concept to become a more powerful investigative tool for approaching the past.

- by Athanasios Vionis and +1
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- Christianity, Roman History, Late Antique and Byzantine Studies, Neoplatonism and late antique philosophy

Este artículo analiza las modalidades de construcción de la memoria indígena, un aspecto estudiado a través de las categorías lingüísticas nahuas empleadas para describir los espacios sagrados, recopiladas por fray Bernardino de Sahagún. El análisis de los campos semánticos así como el estudio de los contextos de utilización de estas palabras evidencia la existencia de dos espacios temporales: un espacio presente y actual y un espacio mítico. Las características de esta dimensión temporal “otra” refleja el empleo de categorías lingüísticas diferentes, cuyo horizonte cultural es el de las antiguas ciudades de Tollan y Teotihuacan. Con base en un enfoque comparativo, este trabajo estudia los mecanismos de funcionamiento de la memoria indígena, cuyos engranajes ponen en perspectiva los espacios sagrados de “hoy” y los pertenecientes al “tiempo del mito”.

- by Elena Mazzetto
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- Aztecs, Cultural Memory, Mesoamerican Religion, Sacred Spaces
- by Andrew Spicer
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- English Literature, Early Modern History, Reformation History, Reformation Studies

Acknowledgments Transliteration Notes Introduction 1. The Political Activities of Shaikh al-Suhrawardi 2. Awarif al-Ma'aif: The Sufi Manual of Shaikh Abu Hafs 3. Sacred Identities in the Suhrawardiyya Order 4. The... more

Acknowledgments Transliteration Notes Introduction
1. The Political Activities of Shaikh al-Suhrawardi
2. Awarif al-Ma'aif: The Sufi Manual of Shaikh Abu Hafs
3. Sacred Identities in the Suhrawardiyya Order
4. The Suhrawariyya Silsila in Multan and Ucch
5. Multani SuhrawardI Tasawwuf: Spiritual Exercises

- by Qamar-ul Huda
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- Intellectual History, Philosophy, Abbasid History, Medieval Islamic History

Cet article présente les données archéologiques de Naxos et de Chypre, avec pour objectif d’évaluer et de discuter les multiples rôles des églises à plan basilical dans deux paysages insulaires ruraux différents dans l’Antiquité tardive, entre le ve et le viie siècle. Les données archéologiques concernant les établissements humains, les activités artisanales et l’exploitation de la terre durant cette période, en combinaison avec la localisation topographique des structures ecclésiales et l’usage d’un SIG(système d’information géographique) ouvrent sur plusieurs conclusions. Les églises à plan basilical ne sacralisaient pas seulement l’espace et ne satisfaisaient pas seulement les besoins religieux, mais elles avaient aussi une fonction d’églises de jonction, en donnant aux communautés proches une identité partagée, liée à la propriété symbolique du territoire. Elles devinrent des lieux de rencontres publiques et des centres de production, de commerce et d’activités économiques des communautés rurales, reflétant un plan bien organisé d’occupation du territoire et d’aménagement économique dans les microrégions qu’elles dominaient.

- by Athanasios Vionis and +1
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- Economic History, Human Geography, Cultural Geography, Historical Geography

The conventional boundaries of sacred space are challenged as globalization and multi-cultural displacement prompt many American and Canadian faith communities to be flex- ible and perform religious rituals in leftover urban spaces within storefronts and converted hotel convention rooms. For many the notion of sacredness is an elusive concept that deals with the understanding of man’s relation to the divine to create an experience that is spiritual within the context of any physical space. By incorporating certain rituals and customs, mundane space is temporarily transformed into sacred environment. This paper focuses on the diversity of the Muslim Diaspora and worshippers pluralistic customs as they appropriate ordinary space into a place of reverence through embodied performative acts. The transfers of knowledge, oral tradi- tions and ritualistic practices, including social and communal activities, evoke historical mem- ory. The ethics of volunteerism and service to humanity guides such endeavors as they manifest humanistic value crucial in today’s environment.

- by zamila karimi
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- Sacred Spaces
- by Andrew Spicer
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- Early Modern History, Reformation History, Reformation Studies, Iconoclasm