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Shamanistic ecstasy and supernatural beings: a study based on field-work among the Kalash Kafirs of Chitral
No full textThe paper presents Kafir shamanism and discusses the problem of the relationship of the supernatural beings and the shaman. When approached in the proper way, the supernatural beings may intervene in favour of the people. This intervention becomes manifest through symptoms beyond human control, i.e. through ceremonial shivering, etc. The supernatural beings may also give their help in a higher degree through replies to questions, and through dreams to the dehar when he is in an unconscious state. These interventions may take two forms: either the solving of an immediate problem which the people cannot solve for themselves, or warnings concerning future dangerous events
A masquerade is not watched from one spot: reassessing the study of African religions
No full textThe search for an adequate methodological approach to the study of African Religions in their multiformity has been a fervent one. In this paper, approaches to the study of African Religions today are proposed. These are polymethodic and multidimentional approaches, the contextual study of African Religions, the historical approaches (demonstrated in the art of masquerading), the need to balance synchronic and diachronic approaches, the use of art and iconography in the study and female studies. The fifth focuses on studying African Religions as insider. The author also examines the problems of the "insider" and the politics of doing research in history of religions in a Nigerian university.The conclusion strongly recommends a multidisciplinary approach for studying African Religions
Imagining Jesus, with food
No full textThis article applies modern, cross-cultural, anthropologically-grounded food data to the historical Jesus. It explores five themes that have emerged from my research on the intersection of spirituality and food in contemporary life, across religions: food offerings, dietary restrictions, fasting, food prepared for special religious occasions, and charity. The analysis brings together previous historical-critical research on Christian origins and current research on food in order to shed new light on the role of food in a first century Jewish person’s life. The result is a more human, possibly more historically-realistic, portrait of Jesus in keeping with broad sectors of religious life across traditions.
Lars Levi Laestadius' attitude to Saami religion
No full textHow Læstadianism became the "religion of the Saamis" is a process of church and religious history which has not been fully explained. It is a comprehensive development which includes most of Læstadius' entire ministry. In this work he did not regard the Saami religion as something exclusively out of date. Instead, he put his message in a more concrete form by making use of Saami ideas. A central question is how Læstadius took account of—or afforded expression to motives from traditional Saami mythology when he formulated and adapted his own interpretation of Christianity to the Saami environment. For instance, the existence of the mother goddess (Madder-akka) and other female deities was something extremely concrete in Saami pre-Christian. In Læstadius' time conceptions and the worship of these deities had ceased. Despite this, Læstadius may have found it of value, in a living Saami interpretation of Christianity, to give a more rounded picture of the deity that was expressed in Christian usage by the old Saami god of thunder and sky, Jubmela by keeping alive the mother aspect of "the heavenly parent". Therefore he may have consciously chosen to use mother symbolism when talking of the secret of atonement
The semiosis of prayer and the creation of plausible fictional worlds
No full textPrayer and incantation can perhaps be said to be 'mechanisms' that promise that lack will be liquidated and that there is an unlimited signator, a father, or some other metaphysical creature, standing behind and legitimizing the discourse. A way of communicating with the Unlimited that is privileged by an interpretive community that read the prayers aloud and enacted the magical stage-scripts. These highly overlapping categories function as one of the most common subforms of religious discourse for the creation, actualization and maintenance of plausible fictional worlds. They are liminal and transitional mechanisms that manipulate an empirical reader to phase-shift from an actual world to a plausible, by being inscribed in a possible and fictional world, thus creating a model reader, that perceives and acts according to the plausible world outlined by a given interpretive community, and that hears god talking in voces magicae and in god-speaking silence
Mysticism and spirituality
No full textHow does the popular correspond to the grand terms of the title? Are not mysticism and spirituality something very exclusive, reserved for a few individuals? No they are not, as this presentation of both the author's own studies and the research of others will provide a different picture of these two concepts. Mysticism and spirituality are notions that are very difficult to define. Traditionally mysticism has been regarded as a way to reach the inner dimensions of human life, dimensions where man even achieves unity with the Divine Being. Such traditions have been found in all the major religions, and since the times of William James a hundred years ago, the features of mysticism in various religions have been analysed. Spirituality is a concept that can hold various meanings. It has often been associated with religious traditions where inner life and its growth are emphasized. These include, in particular, various schools, orders and movements that aim at cultivating a deeper spiritual life. In its more recent use, the term spirituality has, to a fairly large extent, been dissociated from religion and has become a notion that seeks to grasp the searching of modern man for ethics and norms in a globalised world, where pollution is accelerating and where stress and entertainment disrupt the inner harmony of people.
Jehovah's Witnesses' three periods
No full textAmong modern formations of religion, arisen within Christendom, there is no one that has changed its doctrine and attitude so much as Jehovah's Witnesses, so that the religious content in the three periods can be labelled as new, newer, the newest. Each period is connected with and dependent upon the three presidents Charles Taze Russel, born in 1852, president 1881-1916, Joseph Franklin Rutherford, born in 1869, president 1916-1942, and Nathan Homer Knorr, born in 1905, president from 1942. The purpose here is to clarify some important differences between the three periods
Understanding interactions of oleic acid with basic drugs in solid lipids on different biopharmaceutical levels
Get PDFRecently, the impact of intestinal supersaturation on absorption of poorly water-soluble drugs has raised much interest among researchers. A focus has been mostly to study excipient effects on maintenance of drug supersaturation. The aim of the present study was to better understand the effects of drug-excipient interactions on the level of the anhydrous formulation, upon dispersion in simple buffer media and, in particular, regarding precipitation kinetics. A solid lipid-based formulation comprising PEG-32 stearate and oleic acid (OA) (8:2 w/w) was developed as a model. Loratadine (pKa = 4.33) and carvedilol (pKa = 8.74) were chosen as basic drugs. UV/FTIR spectroscopy and viscometry were used to characterize drug-OA molecular interactions in solution, while solid formulations were studied using x-ray diffraction, thermal analysis and van’t Hoff solubility-temperature plots. Precipitation kinetics of drug formulations was real-time monitored in phosphate buffer (pH = 6.5) by focused beam reflectance measurements. It was found that the addition of OA in the formulations resulted in substantial drug solubility increase. Although the drug-OA interactions appeared to be partially lost upon formulation dispersion, the extent of precipitation was markedly lowered compared to the formulations without OA. A Precipitation number (Pnc) was introduced as a ratio of a relevant residence time of drug in the gastrointestinal tract (GIT) to the induction time (the onset time of crystalline precipitation). Without OA, Pnc was already taking critical values (>1), while the anhydrous formulation was still below saturation for both model drugs. Interestingly, the addition of OA resulted in amorphous instead of crystalline precipitates, which is advantageous for drug re-dissolution and absorption. In conclusion, this study provides an improved understanding of OA and basic drug interactions on different levels of in vitro performance for more rational oral formulation development
The Legacy of Lauri Honko: Contemporary Conversations
No full textThis is the editorial for the special issue 'The Legacy of Lauri Honko: Contemporary Conversations'