20 articles in this issue
Tore Ahlbäck
The present volume contains the papers delivered at the Donner symposium on Dance, Music, and Art in Religions held in 1994.
Desmond Ayim-Aboagye
The Akans of Ghana are traditionally accustomed to celebrating different rituals which are enshrined in their cultural life. Libation pouring, which accompanies the celebration of great rituals, amidst the subsidence of the sound of music and dance, can d... see more
Marianne Görman
Neck-rings are frequent in finds from the Early Bronze Age, ca. 1000-550 B.C. Far later necklaces are mentioned in the Old Icelandic literature. For instance, thegoddess Freyja was the owner of the Brisingamen necklace, according to Snorri Sturluson in hi... see more
Andreas Häger
Throughout the history of Christianity, its relationship to art has been a complicated one, concerning the use of art in worship as well as the views on "secular" art. This article deals with a current example of the latter. More specifically, the article... see more
Tina Hamrin
The woman who founded Tenho-kötai-jingii-kyö, Kitamura Sayo (1900-1967), publicly announced in July 1945 that the world was coming to an end and that she had been chosen by the absolute deity Tensho Kotai Jingu to be the savior of the world. People began ... see more
Klemens Karlsson
What exactly is a Buddha image? Why does a Buddha image take the particular shape it has, rather than some other form? Is it realistic to assume that someone has consciously composed an image like the Grahi Buddha? Has it, instead, been made by mistake, b... see more
Inge Mortensen
In Luristan in western Iran the nomad cemeteries are scattered apparently at random across the landscape. The history of these nomads is not very well known, and until a few years ago they were themselves largely illiterate. They have lived in areas which... see more
Britt-Mari Näsström
No society ever existed without performing music, and most cultures display many variants of music. Music also played and still plays an important part in different religious rites. From the days of yore, music has been intimately connected with the cult,... see more
Gullög Nordquist
The salpinx is not often treated by scholars of ancient Greek music, because it was mainly a military instrument. The instrument was usually not used for musical purposes, only for giving signals. In Greece the salpinx is known from the 8th century onward... see more
Jørgen Podemann Sørensen
The Bambara sculpture is a ritual object, in fact one of the dramatis personae of a ritual drama. The Civara, as it is called, is carried on the head during the ritual dance as a token of the presence of the mythical antilope which brought agriculture to ... see more
Mikael Rothstein
In the study of contemporary new religions and popular religious or metaphysical notions, the iconographical sources are often sadly overlooked. In this article it is the intention to present an iconographical approach to one single, although significantl... see more
Umar Danfulani
Chadic-speakers perform annual festivals of the ancestors, kok nji; cropping kop; harvesting, dyip and hunting kwat, which are usually accompanied by dancing, singing and other numerous rites and rituals. These ritual dramas symbolically and overtly expre... see more
Peter Schalk
When, at the end of the 19th century, the Visnu kovil in Vallipuram, in Vatamaracci, in northern Ilam (Lanka) was (re)built, a Buddha statue was unearthed close to this temple, 50 yardsnortheast of it. It remained in the lumber room of this temple until 1... see more
J. Södergård
Alchemy and the Hermetic Art are terms that denote a most interesting transitional space, circumscribing an opaque region of human cultural history, shared between matter and psyche, between phantasmagoric reveries and practical experiments, between since... see more
Maj-Brit Wadell
Quicquid Deus creavit purum est — Everything created by God is pure. The Norwegian artist Emanuel Vigeland (1875-1948) had these words inscribed above the entrance to his mausoleum, Tomba Emmanuelle, in Oslo. They may be interpreted as a type of creed, ex... see more
Owe Wikström
In spite of its effort to be transculturally relevant, the psychology of religion is quite ethno- or rather Western-centric. This becomes very clear when one tries to "translate" Indian folk religiosity into concepts taken from mainline theories; i.e. soc... see more
Elzbieta Witkowska-Zaremba
Seeking to indicate the most salient features of the medieval perception of music, we must first of all point to the close relationship between the sensual and intellectual elements. This relationship is most conspicuous in the term "harmonica" introduced... see more
Valerie DeMarinis
This paper focuses on the Macumba community's way of making meaning in its Afro-Brazilian cultural context. The community's meaning-making system is analyzed through five central points relating psychosocial function to religious ritual experience. In thi... see more
Monica Engelhart
What kind of message does -or did — the dance convey to the Native Australians? Several types of communication can be distinguished in ritual dance. There is the narrative aspect, i.e., the dramatization of a myth, or of certain social relations, there is... see more
Ragnhild Finnestad
During the past thirty years the production of two-dimensional images designed to be used in religion has flourished in the Coptic Orthodox Church of Egypt. After generations with little or negligible activity, enterprising ateliers can today be found all... see more