Choreographies of Shared Sacred Sites PDF Download

Author: Elazar Barkan
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 0231538065
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 437

View

Book Description
This anthology explores the dynamics of shared religious sites in Turkey, the Balkans, Palestine/Israel, Cyprus, and Algeria, indicating where local and national stakeholders maneuver between competition and cooperation, coexistence and conflict. Contributors probe the notion of coexistence and the logic that underlies centuries of "sharing," exploring when and why sharing gets interrupted—or not—by conflict, and the policy consequences. These essays map the choreographies of shared sacred spaces within the framework of state-society relations, juxtaposing a site's political and religious features and exploring whether sharing or contestation is primarily religious or politically motivated. Although religion and politics are intertwined phenomena, the contributors to this volume understand the category of "religion" and the "political" as devices meant to distinguish between the theological and confessional aspects of religion and the political goals of groups. Their comparative approach better represents the transition in some cases of sites into places of hatred and violence, while in other instances they remain noncontroversial. The essays clearly delineate the religious and political factors that contribute to the context and causality of conflict at these sites and draw on history and anthropology to shed light on the often rapid switch from relative tolerance to distress to peace and calm.

Author: Dionigi Albera
Publisher: Indiana University Press
ISBN: 0253016908
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 291

View

Book Description
“Will spark debate . . . and hopefully further research into points of contact between the monotheistic religions, and others.” —The Levantine Review While devotional practices are usually viewed as mechanisms for reinforcing religious boundaries, in the multicultural, multiconfessional world of the Eastern Mediterranean, shared shrines sustain intercommunal and interreligious contact among groups. Heterodox, marginal, and largely ignored by central authorities, these practices persist despite aggressive, homogenizing nationalist movements. This volume challenges much of the received wisdom concerning the three major monotheistic religions and the “clash of civilizations,” as contributors examine intertwined religious traditions along the shores of the Near East from North Africa to the Balkans.

Author: Karen Barkey
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780692123379
Category : Jerusalem
Languages : en
Pages :

View

Book Description
There could be no better illustration of coexistence than the extensive history of religious sites shared by members of different beliefs and backgrounds. Chronicles of the three Abrahamic religions are full of examples of cohabitation, hospitality, and tolerance despite a world torn apart by cultural, ethnic, and spiritual struggles. Maps of the Mediterranean and Near East are strewn with shrines that have long been the sites of convergence for prayers, wishes, and contemplation, yet their origins of sharing differ. Often local populations perceive a benefit of another group's sacred space, either recognized by open-minded leaders who preach unity or by members of different religious groups who share said space for pragmatic reasons. Our contemporary world contains numerous cases of such crossings, many of which are documented in this catalogue. Shared Sacred Sites is published on the occasion of the eponymous exhibition, which was organized as a contemporary "pilgrimage" in Manhattan through three venues. At The New York Public Library, the exhibition shares the history of the Holy Land with a look at Jerusalem as both holy city and center of pilgrimage for three faiths. The Morgan Library & Museum brings an altogether different aspect of the story of coexistence in a display of the celebrated Morgan Picture Bible produced in Paris around 1250, which offers the most exquisite visualizations of the events of the Old Testament. The Graduate Center of The City University of New York gathers contemporary examples compiled by an international team with various explorations and experiences in sanctuaries, presenting a medley of artifacts, contemporary art, multimedia, and photographs.

Author: Glenn Bowman
Publisher: Berghahn Books
ISBN: 0857454870
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 196

View

Book Description
“Shared” sites, where members of distinct, or factionally opposed, religious communities interact—or fail to interact—is the focus of this volume. Chapters based on fieldwork from such diverse sites as India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, China, Turkey, Morocco, Tunisia, and Vietnam demonstrate how sharing and tolerance are both more complex and multifaceted than they are often recognized to be. By including both historical processes (the development of Chinese funerals in late imperial Beijing or the refashioning of memorial commemoration in the wake of the Vietnam war) and particular events (the visit of Pope John Paul II to shared shrines in Sri Lanka or the Al-Qaeda bombing of an ancient Jewish synagogue on the Island of Djerba in Tunisia), the volume demonstrates the importance of understanding the wider contexts within which social interactions take place and shows that tolerance and intercommunalism are simultaneously possible and perpetually under threat.

Author: Anna Bigelow
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0195368231
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 329

View

Book Description
The author looks at a place where the conditions for religious conflict are present, but active conflict is absent, focusing on a Muslim majority Punjab town (Malkerkotla) where both during the Partition and subsequently there has been no inter-religious violence.

Author: Thomas Coomans
Publisher: Leuven University Press
ISBN: 9058678423
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 285

View

Book Description
Sacred places are not static entities but reveal a historical dynamic. This volume explores both the cultural developments that have shaped them and their varied multidimensional levels of significance.

Author: Ron E. Hassner
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 0801460417
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 243

View

Book Description
Sacred sites offer believers the possibility of communing with the divine and achieving deeper insight into their faith. Yet their spiritual and cultural importance can lead to competition as religious groups seek to exclude rivals from practicing potentially sacrilegious rituals in the hallowed space and wish to assert their own claims. Holy places thus create the potential for military, theological, or political clashes, not only between competing religious groups but also between religious groups and secular actors. In War on Sacred Grounds, Ron E. Hassner investigates the causes and properties of conflicts over sites that are both venerated and contested; he also proposes potential means for managing these disputes. Hassner illustrates a complex and poorly understood political dilemma with accounts of the failures to reach settlement at Temple Mount/Haram el-Sharif, leading to the clashes of 2000, and the competing claims of Hindus and Muslims at Ayodhya, which resulted in the destruction of the mosque there in 1992. He also addresses more successful compromises in Jerusalem in 1967 and Mecca in 1979. Sacred sites, he contends, are particularly prone to conflict because they provide valuable resources for both religious and political actors yet cannot be divided. The management of conflicts over sacred sites requires cooperation, Hassner suggests, between political leaders interested in promoting conflict resolution and religious leaders who can shape the meaning and value that sacred places hold for believers. Because a reconfiguration of sacred space requires a confluence of political will, religious authority, and a window of opportunity, it is relatively rare. Drawing on the study of religion and the study of politics in equal measure, Hassner's account offers insight into the often-violent dynamics that come into play at the places where religion and politics collide.

Author: Susan Suntree
Publisher: U of Nebraska Press
ISBN: 0803231989
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 316

View

Book Description
"Sacred Sites honors the power and beauty of our indigenous heritage and homeland. By knowing our history we better understand the present and our journey into the future."---Anthony Morales, tribal chair, Gabrielino Tongva Council of San Gabriel --

Author: Chris H. Hardy
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1594777861
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 320

View

Book Description
How sacred sites amplify the energies of consciousness, the earth, and the universe • Examines the web of geometrical patterns linking sacred sites worldwide, with special focus on the sacred network of ley lines in Paris • Unveils the coming state of shared consciousness for humanity fueled by the sacred network • Reveals how consciousness is a tangible form of energy First marked by the standing stones of our megalithic ancestors, the world’s sacred sites are not only places of spiritual energy but also hubs of cosmic energy and earthly energy. Generation upon generation has recognized the power of these sites, with the result that each dominant culture builds their religious structures on the same spots--the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris, for example, was constructed over a Temple to Diana that in turn had been built over a stone pillar worshipped by the Gauls. In The Sacred Network, Chris Hardy shows how the world’s sacred sites coincide with the intersections of energetic waves from the earth’s geomagnetic field and how--via their megaliths, temples, and steeples--these sites act as antennae for the energies of the cosmos. Delving deeply in to Paris’s sacred network, she also explores the intricate geometrical patterns created by the alignments of churches and monuments, such as pentagrams and Stars of David. Revealing that consciousness is a tangible energy, she explains how the sacred network is fueling an 8,000-year evolutionary cycle initiated by our megalithic ancestors that will soon culminate in a new state of shared consciousness for humanity.

Author: Robert M. Hayden
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317281926
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 225

View

Book Description
Antagonistic Tolerance examines patterns of coexistence and conflict amongst members of different religious communities, using multidisciplinary research to analyze groups who have peacefully intermingled for generations, and who may have developed aspects of syncretism in their religious practices, and yet have turned violently on each other. Such communities define themselves as separate peoples, with different and often competing interests, yet their interaction is usually peaceable provided the dominance of one group is clear. The key indicator of dominance is control over central religious sites, which may be tacitly shared for long periods, but later contested and even converted as dominance changes. By focusing on these shared and contested sites, this volume allows for a wider understanding of relations between these communities. Using a range of ethnographic, historical and archaeological data from the Balkans, India, Mexico, Peru, Portugal and Turkey, Antagonistic Tolerance develops a comparative model of the competitive sharing and transformation of religious sites. These studies are not considered as isolated cases, but are instead woven into a unified analytical framework which explains how long-term peaceful interactions between religious communities can turn conflictual and even result in ethnic cleansing.