Life Rituals (i.e. birth, marriage, death etc.)

The past two years mark an impressive moment in the history of philosophical scholarship on childbirth, pregnancy, and mothering.  The almost simultaneous publication of Philosophical Inquiries into Pregnancy, Childbirth, and Mothering, part of Routledge’s series on Contemporary Philosophy, and Fordham University Press’ 2013 volume, Coming to Life: Philosophies of Pregnancy, Childbirth, and Mothering (edited by Sarah LaChance Adams and Caroline R. Lundquist) demonstrates the growing academic interest in the philosophical import of maternal subjects.  The University of Oregon’s 2009 conference, Philosophical Inquiry into Pregnancy, Childbirth and Mothering Conference catalyzed the compilation and publication of both works.  These works help fill the longstanding intellectual void that revolves around topics of pregnancy, childbirth, and mothering within the field of philosophy and the humanities. In this review, I examine the material of Routledge’s publication alone.

The article examines emotion and identity in connection with Greek death cult in an attempt to clarify certain political phenomena in the Mediterranean area. The cult of the dead is a common cultural pattern in the area. Why is this cult so persistent? What is death cult and how does it manifest itself? The article delves into its lasting importance in the Greek part of the cultural area, where the author has conducted several periods of fieldwork. To illustrate the persistence of this cultural pattern, the characteristic aspects connected with death cult in Greek tradition are discussed: The comparison is based on festivals, which are dedicated to deceased persons and domestic death rituals combined with ancient sources. Based on them an analytical survey of the relationship between the death cult dedicated to deceased mediators in ancient and modern society, as it is manifested through laments, burials and the following memorial rituals is made. The modern domestic rituals people perform for their own dead influence the official ideological rituals, and vice versa, the domestic rituals reflect public performances. A study of modern cult practices reveals many parallels with the official cult of the ancients, and suggests ways in which modern rituals can throw new light upon the ancient rituals and vice versa. The article seeks to demonstrate how new ideologies must adjust to older rituals and beliefs and how public and domestic rituals are connected. The article finally suggests how these similarities might represent a common way of expression within a larger context in which the Mediterranean cultural meaning of emotion is central.

Rituals of Death, Food and Life in Greece. In Rotar, Marius,  Rotar, Corina and Teodorescu, Adriana (eds.): Annales Universitatis Apulensis. Series Historica. Special Issue: Dying and Death in 18th--21st Century Europe. International Conference, Fourth Edition, Alba Iulia, Romania, 29th September-October 1st, 2011. Alba Iulia: Universitatea 1 Decembrie 1918: 2012: 75-98 (indexed in CEEOL - Central and Eastern European Online Library, international Database: http://www.ceeol.com/aspx/issuedetails.aspx?issueid=7ec197d6-97e0-4afc-9fed-a35fd7a2afd0&articleId=59a8d81c-130e-4618-babe-5a00317a2570

RITUALS OF DEATH, FOOD AND LIFE IN GREECE

Food is very important both in modern and ancient Greek religion, because the religious rituals are principally performed to ensure the food. Since the dead control the fertility, the death-cult is also a central feature in all religious festivals. In modern times the festivals are dedicated to saints, the holy dead. In the ancient world, the heroes and heroines were important as well as the vegetation gods (desses) who perpetually oscillated between life and death. But the ordinary dead are and were also dedicated rituals and offerings at their tombs.
It is important to be on good terms with the dead, because they influence both the living and the stronger powers that control the fruits of the earth. The earth also must be regenerated annually. As the ancient vegetation gods (desses) and heroes/heroines, the saints become mediators on behalf of the living. The dead person was the wielder of a magical influence. He is also a mediator between even stronger powers in the underworld, who are responsible for the fruits of the earth. It is of great importance to manipulate these powers for the benefit of the living world. Before critical passages of the agricultural year, people pray to the dead for their help, and by way of their dead the farmers may communicate their wishes for a good supply at the next harvest.
The article will compare the annual rituals dedicated to the dead to ensure the food in ancient and modern Greece.

There exists a unique representational trope in China whereby the human, in its body or character, merges with elements of the natural world.  This paper shows how representations from two different historical and cultural contexts form a subset of this trope, synthesizing nature and the body specifically as pertains to the body’s internal physiological processes.  In their use of imagery to portray these internal processes, both types of representation exteriorize an aspect of the body’s physiology.  The first of these representations is the alchemical body map (or chart tu 圖), whose presence in Daoism coincides with the rise of internal alchemy (neidan 內丹) during China’s Song period (960-1279 CE).  These images depict the human body as a microcosm that contains inner landscapes of both natural and cosmic dimensions, and even today, the extant of these representations offer their viewers the visualization of a system of microcosmic and macrocosmic correspondences perceived to be at work between body, world, and cosmos.  While the entire meaning of these charts remains quite complex, deserving of layers of interpretation, they are associated with an interest in visualizing human physiology.  The second type of representation is found in contemporary Chinese art, and this paper will highlight the work of two artists whose images illuminate internal processes of pregnancy and birth.  In this context, artists fuse images of the body with landscape and other natural formation to depict these processes and visualize the body’s inner workings related to birth.  As in the case of the Daoist alchemical body charts, these artists utilize physical representation to externalize a physiological process.  Both forms of representation are also material manifestations of the way a creator visualizes the body’s internal system.  Finally, in both cases, the objects demonstrate an acute Chinese interest in representing the body through images of nature and the cosmos.

"With A 100-Mile Conversation we set out to look for associations between landscape and suicide - and to explore whether walking could facilitate conversations about this sensitive issue. As we travelled along the South Downs Way, we walked and talked with over twenty people, including archaeologists, historians, Samaritans, paranormal investigators, writers, psychologists, musicians, artists, a therapist, a protester, and a sociologist, as we sought to find new ways of thinking about suicide - from the personal to the mystic, and from the romantic to the scientific."

My role in the project was to map the journey by writing on each stage of the journey and then posting it online. I also gave a talk on Beachy Head, beside Belle Tout lighthouse. Also, as part of the project, I facilitated a Death Cafe in the Royal College of Art, where guests came and drank tea, ate homemade cake, and talked about death... and life.