Ritual Decalogue

The Relationship between Ritual and the Construction of Space in Mapungubwe. The following events take place whilst I am a minor in the K2 culture, once we had relocated to Mapungubwe. The essay encapsulates what I see around me and how I feel about it, the types of spaces created, and the alteration in space to suggest the move from profane to sacred. My emotions correspond and add value to the exploration of ideas and themes that I have investigated, namely: The background and meaning of…

Religion and relationships between Gods and mortals in Archaic Greece is often a central focus to scholars studying the period. This is due to the popularity surrounding early Greek poetry through the extraordinary images of iconic Greek Gods and Goddesses, and how these figures are dominant in the lives of Greek people during the Archaic period. In terms of early Greek poetry, Homer’s Odyssey and the Iliad, along with Hesiod’s Theogony tend to be the most popular and useful in studying both the…

Music exists in people’s daily life a long time ago and it is used in multiple areas and purposes. In Saint Augustine’s book Confessions, he talked about Catholic religion and mentioned the magical effects of music in the rites of the Catholic Church. Similarly, in David P. McAllester’s book Worlds of Music: An Introduction to the Music of the World’s peoples, the author also discussed the positive effects of ceremony music through the story of a Navajo ceremonial practitioner, Frank Mitchell.…

Roraima, in the north of Brazil. This tribe holds a curious funeral ritual that includes the ingestion of the ashes of the deceased. A classmate from my statistics class, told me about this tribe, because his ancestors were part of it. My classmate and his parents have never practice any ritual, however, he knows about the history of the tribe. The funeral rite is divided into three ceremonies: the samples mourn crying, the ritual purification of the body, (body decoration and cremation) and the…

through different rituals. For instance, royal family hired “professional women mourners.” Women were also responsible in preparing the funerary meals (SOURCE 160). Additionally, they performed household food rituals and rituals related to reproductive success and health care (SOURCE 168). These different rituals performed by women were not the “popular” tasks conducted in a religious environment. However, “with their knowledge and control [of]...religious procedures, [they] were ritual experts…

Ana-Luic legend carries from many centuries ago, from a tribe of mischievous group of small people who lived hidden in the forests and valleys of the islands, before the first western settlers arrived. These arcane bloodlines of Ana-Lu, which means the Owl Gods, roamed the old forests, and happen to be about 3 ½ to 5 ½ feet tall, though considered short by many, what they lacked in height and strength they utilized in intelligence, agility and stamina. Like other cultures they enjoyed dancing…

The psyche or self as depicted in Jane Harrison’s Themis is a ritual self which focuses on the collective identity of a tribe. Opposite of this self, the psyche or self as depicted Homer’s The Odyssey is a self which focuses on the individual. In Themis these collective selves centered around a ritualistic society are demonstrated by the way society connected with their gods through rituals which focused on initiation of young men into the tribe, a collective emotion, and the tribe’s connection…

referred to as in the general scientific community as well as the world at large, in their own language they call themselves, “Wixáritari” or in English, “The People” (); therefore, these terms can be used interchangeably. The Wixáritari have an annual ritual in which they trek some 300 miles from their…

Death is a part of life. For as long as someone can live, they can die just as quickly. The reality of death has been portrayed through multiple mediums in various cultures but poetry seems to address it quite often. One poet: Kakinomoto Hitomaro, wrote about the life and death of his wife with frightening emotion. Hitomaro lived in Japan during the 8th century and “his elegy on his first wife is among the most touching poems in any language” (Barnstone 461). Although Hitomaro’s poem is…

Pinxten, 2015). It is a significant part of the African history to follow this particular celestial cycles. The Dama is a ritual dance for the Dogon Tribe of Mali, situated in West Africa. This essay will examine and analyse the movement and non-movement components within the dance. It will also analyse how this ritual dance preserves the Dogon Tribe’s culture and history. The Dama ritual dance holds a vital importance in the Dogon history as it represents the barrier between life and death.…