Suchergebnisse

Auf der Basis eigener Feldforschung stellt der Autor die Vielfalt der javanischen Pilgerschaft zu Heiligenschreinen dar. Ziel der Arbeit ist eine Überprüfung des pilgerschaftstheoretischen Ansatzes von Victor Turner. In den einführenden Kapiteln werden zunächst javanische Vorstellungen über die jenseitige Welt sowie javanische Rituale vorgestellt. Darauf aufbauend wird die Rolle ritueller Spezialisten analysiert und eine enge Verbindung zwischen den javanischen Vorstellungen von Heiligkeit und Macht aufgezeigt. Wie im Hauptkapitel dargelegt wird, spielt die javanische Konzeption von Macht auch eine entscheidende Rolle bei den mit Heiligenschreinen verbundenen Glaubensvorstellungen, Verhaltensmustern und Motiven der Pilger. Aus historischer und aktueller Perspektive wird daraufhin die Einbindung des Heiligenkultes in politische Prozesse und Strategien analysiert. Unter anderem werden die Königsgräber von Imogiri, das Grab von Sukarno und der Gräberkomplex der Suharto- Familie als Beispiele herangezogen. Das Hauptkapitel endet mit einer Darstellung der Diskussion um die Legitimität verschiedener Pilgerschaftsformen in der javanischen Öffentlichkeit. Es folgen detaillierte Fallstudien von drei stark unterschiedlichen Pilgerstätten. Im Schlusskapitel wird schließlich den Fragen nachgegangen welche psychischen Prozesse im Pilgerschaftsprozess Bedeutung erlangen und welche Faktoren die Popularität eines Pilgerzieles beeinflussen. Das Ende der Arbeit bildet eine Typologie von neun verschiedenen Erscheinungsformen der javanischen Pilgerschaft. Dabei wird deutlich dass die Vielfalt der javanischen Pilgerschaft nicht mit Turners universalistisch gedachten Theorie in Einklang zu bringen ist. ; Based on his fieldwork the author gives an account of the diversity of Javanese pilgrimages to the shrines of saints with the intention to reconsider the pilgrimage theory of Victor Turner. In the introductory chapters the Javanese concept of the spiritual world and main Javanese rituals are described. Based on these descriptions the role of ritual specialists is analysed. Furthermore the close connection between the Javanese concept of holiness and power is depicted. As shown in the main chapter, the Javanese concept of power plays a decisive role in relation to beliefs, behavioural patterns and the motivations of pilgrims. Then, from a historical and present day perspective, it is shown how the cult of saints is embedded in political processes and strategies. The royal tombs of Imogiri, the grave of Sukarno and the graveyard of the Suharto family are taken as examples. The main chapter ends with a description of the different points of view held in Javanese public about the legitimacy of the pilgrimage to saints shrines. Three case studies of very different pilgrimage sites are presented in great detail. The last chapter analyses which psychological processes are important to Javanese pilgrims and which factors have an influence on the popularity of different pilgrimage sites. Finally a typology of nine different forms of pilgrimages is constructed. Based on this typology it becomes clear that the diversity of Javanese pilgrimages is incompatible with Turners universalistic theory.

Explores controversy surrounding the Yasukuni Shrine as a symbol of Japanese nationalism vs. war memorial; focuses on political and legal debates after World War II; Japan.

Reports on Prime Minister Koizumi's visit to Yasukuni Shrine, Japan; discusses details of the visit, pros and cons, and domestic and international reactions and consequences.

Koizumi's repeated visits to the Yasukuni shrine have led to tensions with Japan's Asian neighbors and to a controversy within Japan. This analysis shows proponents and detractors of such visits and their reasons and arguments for and against such visits. Furthermore, the attitudes within the political parties as well as the population are summarized. The author offers two solutions to the Yasukuni problem and the current discussions.

The Yasukuni-Shrine in the centre of Tōkyō, not far from the Imperial Palace, is again and again the focus of international attention. China and Korea are particularly touchy about Japanese political leaders, prominent amongst them Prime Ministers as the key figures, paying their respects to the War Dead at a site considered as a symbol of Japanese nationalism and militarism. These visits are taken as tokens of Japan's unwillingness to honestly deal with its past. This paper provides a background to the history of the Shrine, its political implications, questions related to war and guilt and aims to give insights into Japanese views.

As a world religion Islam is based on a highly abstract and absolute notion of the transcendent, which its followers establish and celebrate - in a seemingly contradictory fashion - at very specific sites: Mecca, Medina, Jerusalem, and the vast and complex landscapes of mosques and Muslim saints' shrines around the world. Sacred locality has thus become a paradigm for the relationship between the human and the transcendent, a model for urban planning, regional networks, imaginary spaces, and spiritual hierarchies alike. This importance of saintly places has, however, become increasingly complicated and troubled by reformist currents within Islam, on the one hand, and the emergence of modern archeology and anthropology, on the other. While they have often tended to posit 'the local' in opposition to 'the universal', in this volume islamologists, anthropologists, and sociologists offer new ways of thinking about the local, the place, and the conceptual landscapes and spaces of saints. In this, its eighth volume, the Yearbook for the Sociology of Islam looks at different sites and regions around the Muslim world (notably Burkina Faso, Egypt, Ethiopia, and Southeast Asia) not as 'localized' versions of a universal Islam, but as constitutive of one particular outlook of the universalizing order of a world religion.

Kiev's shrines have shaped the history of Ukraine and Russia. The churches in Ukraine are claiming the country's cathedrals, places, or persons of ecclesiastical remembrance for themselves. Every confession describes itself as the 'canonical' or 'national' church, in order to boost the legitimacy of its own claims. These conflicts are more than a struggle between churches. They concern Ukraine's historical memory. Adapted from the source document.

Am 5. April genehmigte das japanische Erziehungsministerium die neuen Schulbücher für den Geschichtsunterricht und die Staatsbürgerkunde der Mittelstufe. Unter den genehmigten Büchern waren auch zwei Bücher der als konservativ-geschichtsrevisionistisch bezeichne- ten Gesellschaft zur Erstellung neuer Geschichtslehrbücher (Atarashii rekishi kyokasho wo tsukurukai, kurz Tsukurukai), in denen Japans Kriegsvergangenheit beschönigend dargestellt wird. Dies war ein Ereignis von mehreren in der letzter Zeit, das vordergründig als Auslöser für eine diplomatische Krise zwischen Japan und seinen Nachbarstaaten China und Korea gewertet werden kann. Beide protestieren gegen die schönfärbende oder verzerrende Darstellung des japanischen Militarismus und Kolonialismus in diesen Schulbüchern, Japan kritisiert die nationalistische, antijapanische Erziehung in chinesischen Schulen.