Making the New Holy, and the Holy New?

This chapter reflects upon the chapter's authors' experience in teaching a course on religion and contemporary art, and how they seek to help students understand the ritual dimensions of religion and contemporary art practice. The chapter considers two rituals, one from the celebration for the feast day of the Virgin of Guadalupe and the other a performance by two art students. The chapter attempts to understand these two very different ritual forms through a series of theoretical frames drawn from the study of religion and the interpretation of contemporary art. The ritual practices of three well-known contemporary artists — Guillermo Gómez-Peña, Liza Lou, and Marina Abramovic — are discussed. The works of these artists are strikingly different, but each holds together, in practice and form, the transcendence and immanence of the sacred, and their work expands the range and breadth of the understanding of ritual.

Youth who left their communities and declared independence from communal values and norms of behaviour found that family and communal ties were much too strong to be easily cut. Considering that at the time all Jews, including secular revolutionary Jews, had to deal with the same anti-Semitism, some level of allegiance of the revolutionaries towards the Jewish community was to be expected. Young revolutionaries did not leave behind the individualistic idea of self-development, but they learned that the way to self-development was through communal solidarity. They expressed this solidarity not as traditional Jews would, through allegiance to communal and religious values and behavioural practices, but in ways legitimate to the new youth culture that they had developed. They presented themselves not as renegades, but as people with a new Jewish identity, the identity of a Jewish revolutionary. This new identity found its utmost expression in two emotion-laden political struggles — the struggle for self-assertion against the revolutionary intelligentsia and self-defence against pogroms.

The article analyzes the features of ethnographic recreational activity on the example of the Carpathian tourist macro-region (covering the territory of Zakarpattia, Ivano-Frankivsk, Lviv and Chernivtsi regions). The problems of professional training and the place of ethnographic tourism in modern scientific research are highlighted. The problem of definition of "ethnographic tourism", which is connected with the absence of the mentioned type of tourism in the current legislation, and its relation with the category "ethnic" tourism, is revealed. The basic components of ethnographic tourism are defined (traditional form of management, customs, traditions, rituals, holidays, crafts, cuisine, traditional housing, clothing, dance, music, folk art, museums, architecture and life in the open air (Skansen), fairs, festivals celebration of national holidays, festivities etc.) and main ethnographic recreational activity are distinguished (event-visit activities, ethnographic, naturalistic, historic and open-air museums (Skansen), settlement communities which keep the traditional way of life or its separate elements). The basic tourist resources are examined and based on them the ethnographic attractions of Carpathian tourism macro regions are created, which are characterized by the highest degree of ethnographic tourism and can serve as a model for other regions of Ukraine. The ethnographic recreational activity of the region is systematized in accordance with the above-mentioned directions of activity. The main premises of transforming ethnographic tourism into the leading industry through the legislative regulation at the state level, intensive use of available resources and qualified industry personnel are outlined.

The loss of plant functional diversity associated with biological invasion is a main subject of invasion biology, but still understudied in case of aquatic plants. We calculated functional richness, evenness, divergence and community-weighted mean trait values of aquatic plant communities for 20 plots, half invaded and half non-invaded by alien species, in a thermal effluent of West Hungary. Three traits [specific leaf area (SLA), leaf dry matter content (LDMC), leaf area (LA)] were considered to explain how alien species alter ecosystem function. We differentiated interspecific and intraspecific trait variation and investigate its effect on the community-level functional diversity. We found that alien species invasion causes significant changes in the functional composition of aquatic plants whereby alien species become able to absorb light more efficiently, which will directly enhance their increased biomass production. Our study highlights the importance of local adaptation, showing that calculating functional diversity with global pooling of trait measurements causes significant over- or underestimation of functional diversity indices. Consequently, this can potentially result in erroneous conclusions regarding the impact of invasion.

Highway stormwater ponds as islands of Odonata diversity in an agricultural landscape

Other Chinas: The Yao and the Politics of National Belonging. Ralph A. Litzinger. Duke University Press, 2000; 319pp.

The Model of Participatory Zoning was developed by the Cartographic Laboratory Diathesis at the University of Bergamo (Italy) and was applied in the framework of Program Régional Parc W/ECOPAS (Ecosystèmes Protégés en Afrique Sahélienne). This model establishes a specific research methodology and develops some GIS (geographic information system)-based analytical tools. The research team designed these analytical tools in order to employ environmental protection models in the field research, which are based on sustainable development and participative management (UNESCO's Man and the Biosphere (MAB) zoning model). The Model of Participatory Zoning, based on participatory mapping that includes geographical competence in applied research, allows the transformation of theoretical concepts into management tools, that is, it embraces all project management phases, from methodological design to the digital capitalization of the outcomes achieved. This model considers territory not merely as something that conveys the material conditions of the humans who settled there, but also as something that embodies symbolic, cultural, and communal values, on which the functioning of any given society depends. For these reasons, maps must be approached with attention to cartographical semiosis, a theory whereby the drawing of a map must not be separated from an analysis of the territory since maps act as symbolic agents for a given society, that is, they prescribe the conditions for any territorial action. Far from being only a useful representational tool, maps, and in particular participatory maps, set out the place where the viewpoints of institutional agents – who are appointed to plan environmental and territorial conservation – are brought into question and placed side by side with those of local actors – who employ specific territorial knowledge either to promote or hinder conservation.

Closed religious communities cultivate a robust communal identity, shared faith, values, and norms among their members, providing them with social and emotional support. Deviance carries significant consequences, specifically disintegrating members' sense of belonging. Gambling disorder (GD) is characterized by harmful gambling behaviors that negatively affect individuals' lives. While gambling is a prevalent recreational activity, within closed religious communities, addiction, including GD, is viewed as a violation of religious teachings, values, and communal norms. This study explores GD's impact on the sense of belonging of Jewish Ultra-Orthodox men and their spouses in Israel. This research employed constructivist grounded theory, interviewing twenty-two men with GD and eleven spouses and uncovered two complementary themes. The first, "Depleting versus replenishing of the personal aspects of sense of belonging," elucidates GD's different effects on the men and spouses' sense of belonging. The second, "Paying the toll," illuminates the emotional experiences and actions of the men and the spouses in reaction to societal conditional negative regard directed at them, disintegrating the sense of belonging of the men, but also that of the spouses who did not deviate from communal norms. The paper introduces the novel concept of "an empty pool/pull," portraying these individuals' limbo state. The "empty pool" represents the depletion of faith, adherence to religious commandments, and communal values for the men, while the "empty pull" signifies the inclination of the men and the spouses to conform amid the community's unfulfilled promise of protection. The study advocates for further research and offers clinical insights for therapists.

Munheuimyo Ritual Formation and Character of the Joseon Royal Family

Understanding the intangible cultural heritage as an important element of the cultural identity of a town or a geographical entity is a contribution to understanding the complex processes of the wider community and their symbolic and spiritual values. In this sense, in this paper I will deal with the cities in Boka Kotorska, with a focus on Kotor and Herceg Novi. The research includes the analysis of cultural content in the mentioned towns, the observation of those elements of intangible culture that strive to be integrated in the modern space. In other words, in my work I will deal with those aspects of cultural heritage through which they try to secure the symbolic values of the local community in such a way that they “fit” into the modern cultural space. So, I am interested in the relationship between the wider community and intangible culture, its use in the contemporary environment, and the promotion of this geographical unit as a specific cultural area within Montenegro. Bearing in mind that we are talking about coastal towns, I will also deal with the combination of tourism and culture, more precisely, the promotion of the “cultural products” of this geographical entity. In this sense, the research also includes an analysis of the importance of the My CrnaGora portal, within which the mentioned cities are promoted as a destination. Starting from the assumption that in these cities the question of cultural identity is simultaneously a question of image and positioning on the map of coastal cities in the surrounding area, in this paper I will present the potential of intangible cultural heritage in the process of cultural and touristic affirmation of the towns in Boka Kotorska. In such environment, sustainability and (modern) application of intangible culture proved to be a key parameter in constructing the cultural identity of the town, the geographical entity and its promotion. Therefore, one of the conclusions of this paper is that if there is a sustainability and/or need for further use of an element of intangible culture, it will be protected in the future and through different social circumstances and practice and will become one of the key patterns for building cultural identity of Boka Kotorska.

Reviewed by: Black on the Block: The Politics of Race and Class in the City Davarian Baldwin Black on the Block: The Politics of Race and Class in the City. By Mary Patillo. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 2007. With analytic precision and amiable prose, Mary Patillo renders a poignant portrait of our modern urban times with her latest work Black on the Block. The project claims to examine the general politics of blackness amidst turn-of-the-twentieth-century struggles over the city. But I think it would be fair to argue that this is an extension of her first major work Black Picket Fences, now examining the issues at stake when black middle men and women mediate the development of "black community" amidst the dominant neo-liberal logic of our urban times. At the center of analysis stands Chicago's south side community of North Kenwood Oakland (NKO). Patillo takes us through its historical arc from an urban space of Whites-only fortification to one of Black blight and violence. While now the space is "re-discovered" as a "new frontier" of increasingly rich market value in economically austere times. While Black middle and upper-income "newcomers" to NKO do settle in the neighborhood because of the relatively inexpensive real estate, Patillo warns that this is not a story of economic determinism. They not only stay but redirect resources and model a set of respectable behaviors to underprivileged residents because of a particular sense of race pride and duty. Moreover, Patillo adds that rather than being two nations, one bourgie and one stuck at the bottom, it is precisely divergent class interests and disagreements about the meaning of shared public space, streets, housing, education, and commerce etc, that "constitute[s] the black community" (3). Patillo offers an amazing blend of historical context, light ethnography, and urban policy analysis combined with some of the latest spatial and racial theory available. Here the social experience of class organizes black community. But Patillo pulls on pioneering sociological works like Black Metropolis to expand the meaning of class to "lifestyle," where aspirations and consumption habits cut across the variables of income and inherited wealth. Chapters in the body of Black on the Block deploy the fulcrum of lifestyle to examine blackness situated within the neighborhood struggles and interests over key social institutions in NKO. The power of analysis lies in Patillo's dynamic interweaving of intraracial struggles and larger municipal and economic forces to render a contemporary portrait of Black community. These middle men and women serve as the blackface of capitalist interests and the black race arbiters of resource redistribution downward to benefit the "truly disadvantaged." For instance the reform initiative of school "choice," with their competition-based marketing of selective enrollment and small class size to student-clients, has principally brought better education to the central city. But at the same time, the market model of "shopping" for schools has enacted exclusionary outcomes by expecting parents to be industrious consumers with the time and networks available to connect them with information about the best educational commodities. She also considers how public housing removal confirms fears about gentrification's single family/high property value model squeezing out the less fortunate. But it also expresses a race conscious resistance against the historic Jim Crowing of citywide public housing onto the south side. Finally, as land value becomes a central issue for community value, the very meaning of crime and danger shift from drug dealing, homicides, and robberies to loud music, parkway barbeques, and other acts of public sociability. In the end, Black on the Block powerfully captures some of the "difference, distinction, and sometimes even dislike" in present-day formations of urban blackness, while demonstrating how such dynamics remain organized around some version, no matter how [End Page 245] fractured, of racial responsibility. As a self-described participant observer, resident, and political actor in the NKO, this sympathetic portrait of "middleness" is in many ways a portrait of Patillo. I for one appreciate her candor in this endeavor that never veers too far into self-aggrandizement while providing further nuance and balance to E. Franklin Frazier's still dominant caricature of the...

This paper explores the heritage value of euphoric experiences, where the meaning and significance of places are often established instantly, ‘in the moment’. By convention, heritage assets are assessed by specialists according to their historical, evidential, and aesthetic values, values that have been recognised for over a century. More recently, following the publication of the Burra Charter (1979), and Conservation Principles (2008), communal and social (including symbolic) values have also been identified. These relate to the meanings of a place for its ‘heritage communities’. They accrue over time but are often harder to apply because they are more subjective. However, communal and social significance can sometimes be instantaneous, bringing joy and creating memories that shape personal and group identity. Working with grassroots music venues and attending gigs, it is easy to see this happening: the euphoria of the mosh pit or rave generating not just life-shaping memories of the experience but also value judgements for the ‘third place’ in which it occurred. In this paper, we present the argument for euphoric value and assess the ways these moments of euphoria can be accounted for in heritage assessment.

In vitro fertilization for Orthodox Jewish couples: antagonist cycle modifications allowing for mikveh attendance before oocyte retrieval

This paper explores the history and development of the Jewish ritual of kapparot; it has traditionally been performed during the high holy days (between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur: between the Jewish New Year and the Day of Atonement) and traditionally on the eve of Yom Kippur.

In the Rhône Valley's Middle Neolithic gathering site of Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux (France), the positioning of two females within a structure aligned with the solstices is atypical. Their placement (back and prone) under the overhang of a silo in front of a third in a central position suggests a ritualized form of homicidal ligature strangulation. The first occurrence dates back to the Mesolithic, and it is from the Early Neolithic of Central Europe that the practice expands, becoming a sacrificial rite associated with an agricultural context in the Middle Neolithic. Examining 20 cases from 14 sites spanning nearly two millennia from Eastern Europe to Catalonia reveals the evolution of this ritual murder practice.