Religion, ritual and ritualistic objects / / edited by Albertina Nugteren.

• TeilnehmendeR: Nugteren, Albertina, 1955-
• Place / Publishing House: Basel, Switzerland : : MDPI - Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute,, [2019]; ©2019
• Year of Publication: 2019
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (240 pages)

This is a volume about the life and power of ritual objects in their religious ritual settings. In this Special Issue, we see a wide range of contributions on material culture and ritual practices across religions. By focusing on the dynamic interrelations between objects, ritual, and belief, it explores how religion happens through symbolic materiality. The ritual objects presented in this volume include: masks worn in the Dogon dance; antique ecclesiastical silver objects carried around in festive processions and shown in shrines in the southern Andes; funerary photographs and films functioning as mnemonic objects for grieving children; a dented rock surface perceived to be the god's footprint in the archaic place of pilgrimage, Gaya (India); a recovered manual of rituals (from Xiapu county) for Mani, the founder of Manichaeism, juxtaposed to a Manichaean painting from southern China; sacred stories and related sacred stones in the Alor-Pantar archipelago, Indonesia; lotus symbolism, indicating immortalizing plants in the mythic traditions of Egypt, the Levant, and Mesopotamia; lavishly illustrated variations of portrayals of Ravana , a Sinhalese god-king-demon; figurines made of cow dung sculptured by rural women in Rajasthan (India); and mythical artifacts called 'Apples of Eden' in a well-known interactive game series.

Table of Contents

About the Special Issue Editor -- Preface to "Religion, Ritual and Ritualistic Objects" -- Introduction to the Special Issue Religion, Ritual, and Ritualistic Objects' -- Matter in Motion: A Dogon Kanaga Mask -- Requiescat in Pace'. Initiation and Assassination Rituals in the Assassin's Creed Game Series -- Lambling Baka: Immanence, Rituals, and Sacred Objects in an Unwritten Legend in Alor -- When Children Participate in the Death Ritual of a Parent: Funerary Photographs as Mnemonic Objects -- The Ritualizing of the Martial and Benevolent Side of Ravana in Two Annual Rituals at the Sri Devram Maha Viharaya in Pannipitiya, Sri Lanka -- On the Xiapu Ritual Manual Mani the Buddha of Light -- Influences of Egyptian Lotus Symbolism and Ritualistic Practices on Sacral Tree Worship in the Fertile Crescent from 1500 BCE to 200 CE -- Continuity and Discontinuity in 17th- and 18th-Century Ecclesiastical Silverworks from the Southern Andes -- Prayers of Cow Dung: Women Sculpturing Fertile Environments in Rural Rajasthan (India) -- Bare Feet and Sacred Ground: "Visnu Was Here".