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Locating the Sacred

Theoretical Approaches to the Emplacement of Religion

Claudia Moser editor Cecelia Feldman editor

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Oxbow Books

Published:1st Jan '14

Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back

Locating the Sacred cover

Ritual happens in distinct places – in temples, in caves, along pilgrimage routes – and religious activities there incorporate a diverse set of objects such as holy water, cult statues, and sacred texts. Understanding religious ritual requires viewing it not as a disembodied event, but as emplaced, grounded in both built and natural surroundings, and integrated with its associated material objects. Here authors examine various religious practices in the Greco-Roman world and pilgrimage routes in contemporary Israel. Other contributions focus on the East, on domestic religion in prehistoric Taiwan, and the palimpsest of ritual activity in Buddhist China. One author considers not just ritual’s built and natural setting, but also the landscape of the human mind. By way of conclusion, many of the recurring issues concerning the material and topographic matrix of ritual practice are expanded upon in a final meditation on sacred space. The papers in this volume, with their disciplinary, geographic, and chronological diversity, will serve as a resource for theoretical approaches to the study of ritual practice that may have broad cross-cultural application and provide new insight into the relationship between ritual and place.
The volume is based on a conference held at Brown University.

This theoretical discussion highlights the intimate connection between ritual and place. -- Current World Archaeology Current World Archaeology

ISBN: 9781782976165

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: unknown

144 pages