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Ball-Jointed Doll (BJD) is a category of dolls that are exclusively collected by adult doll collectors. These fully articulated and customizable dolls possess a distinctively significant place in the collector’s life. The collectors form an affective relationship with their dolls often animating them. This paper looks at this instance of contemporary animism from a neo-animistic paradigm attempting to dissect the subject–object binary and hierarchy.

This article argues that animism in the Japanese context is more fruitfully understood as animation, a technique that imbues man-made things with life. Two forms of animation are at work in so-called animist beliefs: one is the docile animation of instruments when skillfully used by humans, in which case the instrument becomes part of the human body; the other is the sense of aliveness that one experiences when an object resists human use and intention. This latter sense is crucial for the narrative of the 14th century illustrated scroll “The Record of Tool Specters” and the painted genre of “Night Parade of Hundred Demons”, in which everyday objects, vessels and instruments appear as demons and threaten human life. These images show how the instruments come alive through animation strategies intrinsic to the illustrated scroll as a medium, activated by the performances of professional storytellers and shaped by the artists’ anthropomorphizing imagination. The tool specters, on the cusp of breaking free from human bondage, are recaptured in a different network of meaning, allusion and fecund cultural production. What animates the inanimate objects is a media infrastructure, a network of media platforms that stretches back in time and that allows these apparitions to be conjured in different forms and contexts.

Buddhism sought an escape from the wheel of rebirth; it did not call the wheel an escape. [...]my colleague seemed to separate the problem of whether to believe something from the question of whether it is true. The Creator himself must be the source of our intuitions about meaning-and where else but with them could we startľ \"The problem with your colleague,\" I can imagine Smith saying, \"was not that he consulted his intuitions and searched for meaning, but that he was lazy. St. Thomas shows that since the reality, power, wisdom, and goodness of God can be philosophically demonstrated, it is reasonable to consider revelation possible; and since reasoning cannot find out everything we need, it is reasonable to consider revelation necessary. Since in view of the promptings of our hearts, we cannot ultimately be at rest in any other understanding of our destiny than that proposed by the faith, it is reasonable to hope that the faith is true, and no considerations demonstrate that it isn't. Granted endless years in this life, a person who hasn't yet learned kindness even upon attaining the age of threescore and ten will probably just go on becoming nastier. [...]it is curious that a culture devoted to extending life has become increasingly attracted to suicide. Heaven is not just a place but a person; the redeemed will enjoy perfect communion with Christ, and, through him, with others.

Amazonia and Siberia, classic regions of shamanism, have long challenged 'western' understandings of man's place in the world. By exploring the social relations between humans and non-human entities credited with human-like personhood (not only animals and plants, but also 'things' such as artifacts, trade items, or mineral resources) from a comparative perspective, this volume offers valuable insights into the constitutions of humanity and personhood characteristic of the two areas. The contributors conducted their ethnographic fieldwork among peoples undergoing transformative processes of their lived environments, such as the depletion of natural resources and migration to urban centers. They describe here fundamental relational modes that are being tested in the face of change, presenting groundbreaking research on personhood and agency in shamanic societies and contributing to our global understanding of social and cultural change and continuity.

Bruno Latour and Eduardo Viveiros de Castro provided the initial impetus for explicitly ontological research in archaeology. Their impact on archaeologists, however, has been quite different. What I call the \"metaphysical archaeologists\" trace their genealogy from Latour, though they are now equally influenced by \"new materialism\" and the \"new ontological realism\" ( Gabriel 2015 ). They have introduced an alternative metaphysical orthodoxy to archaeology. In contrast, Viveiros de Castro and colleagues have authorized the return of the grand ethnographic analogy to archaeology, particularly in the case of animism. A second, quite different tendency inspired by these same anthropologists is to engage with indigenous ideas as theories to reconfigure archaeological concepts and practice. I suggest that a point of convergence between the metaphysical and the latter anthropological approaches exists in their focus on the concept of alterity.

Based on the current state of research, this work aims to present, as complete as possible, picture of the pagan cult infrastructure during the Roman period in the Polomie region. The region covers the catchment area of the Rusenski Lom River (2946.9 square kilometers). The first part presents the theoretical and methodological groundwork of the study, after which a comprehensive analysis, systematization and reinterpretation is offered of the available information about the sites in the river valleys of the Cherni and Malki Lom.

This article reflects on the complex Udmurt religious situation. The Udmurt, a minority group in Central Russia, have an animistic background and live today in different administrative units of the Russian Federation: they have their own Republic, Udmurtia, in which the majority of the population is composed by ethnic Orthodox Russians, but they live also, from West to East, in the Kirov oblast, in the Mari El Republic, in Tatarstan, in Bashkortostan, and in some smaller groups eastwards. In the core territory they were submitted to forced Evangelisation by the Orthodox Russians after their integration into Muscovy, in the 16th century. Eventually, the imposed conversion succeeded, while in regions where the dominant religion was Islam, and where many fled under pressure, they kept their original religious practice. This article investigates this group’s religious affiliations and real practice today, between Orthodoxy and Islam, observing that where Islam dominates, animism thrives while where Orthodoxy dominates, different forms of syncretistic religious practice keep the former worldview alive.

Most Udmurt living in the Bashkortostan Republic and in the Perm’ region of the Russian Federation are followers of a traditional ethnic religion. In their spiritual life, a huge place is occupied by sanctuaries and other places in which their ritual practices take place, such as the worship of deities, spirits and ancestors. We can identify different types of such places in this Udmurt regional group: the sanctuary dedicated to the cult of the clan protector deities, groves dedicated to the god Lud, places dedicated to personal and family cults, sacred places of agrarian sacrifices, territories where funerary and commemorative rituals take place, places dedicated to the propitiation of evil spirits. Depending on their social status, the sanctuaries are regional or general and can be related to a family, clan, village, or multiple villages. In this article, which relies on the authors’ ethnographic fieldwork and published sources, we analyse the present state of the sacred places. We show that the transformation of cultural patterns has led some types of sanctuary to cease functioning, while others have remained as relics and the places of agrarian sacrifices have undergone an active revitalisation.

Civil wars are fought when two sides offer radically different answers to this question, The language of the Bible, as so often happens, offers us a surprising but terrific clue, In Hebrew, the United States of America is called Art^ot HaBrit, or the States of the Covenant, It's a stark and necessary reminder that our union isn't merely a marriage of political convenience, It's not another iteration of the Enlightenment's favorite idea, the social contract, in which a host of particles, stripped of roots and loyalties, band together and sacrifice their prerogatives in the state of nature to guarantee their mutual safety and well-being. In a real sense, it will mean a civil war of sorts» Not, God forbid, one involving the bloody chaos Garland depicts so vividly on-screen» But it will be one involving a contest between two very different visions of America» On one side are those who believe in covenantal America» Following in Abraham's footsteps, they-we-believe in rising to the occasion» Just as our ancient patriarch dared to haggle with God himself in an effort to spare the sinners of Sodom and Gomorrah, we see a decadent culture that has grown idolatrous, and we seek to cure it not with the rage of destruction but with a love that seeks renewal» We are builders-of families, of churches and synagogues, of new institutions and new communities dedicated to old, noble, and lasting ideals» We're not nostalgic» We understand that the America we're called to renew will not look like the one that came before» Covenants aren't for sentimentalists. Every renewal strikes out on a new path» Yet the values that inspire them are eternal» The folks on the other side take a different approach» They block bridges and occupy public spaces while chanting \"Death to America,\" or they boast about using American power as an instrument to serve the interests of other nations, because, according to them, America is a grimy, hopeless place, a supersized hippodrome in which classes, races, and sects must stab at each other until only one remains standing and wins the power and the glory» As pagans so often do, they delight in feeding believers to the lions» Abraham was no stranger to such foes; nor was Abraham Lincoln» Both understood the power of walking with God» \"I now leave,\" the sixteenth president said as he bid farewell to Springfield in 1861, \"not knowing when, or whether ever, I may return, with a task before me greater than that which rested upon Washington» Without the assistance of the Divine Being who ever attended him, I cannot succeed» With that assistance I cannot fail»\" Honest Abe wasn't just grandstanding» He understood the power of covenants» They are great engines, tremendous sources of renewable spiritual and political energy» If you believe that you have a responsibility to uphold worthy traditions and preserve what is good and just in our national inheritance, you can meet every challenge» If, on the other hand, you are animated by a sense of entitlement and resentment or you welcome wrath unchecked by law or love or loyalty, then you are just a burning match in search of something to burn to a crisp» That contrast-the ambition to renew versus anger that destroys-defines our civil war» Unlike Hollywood's flashy fantasy, it is not being fought by mirthless men in fatigues or steely fighter jets but by forces much mightier -ideas» One side makes a coherent case, rooted in truth, in Scripture, in centuries of American history, in observable biological reality, in essential human psychology» The other, like Abraham's godless adversaries, bows to flimsy idols, feeds its lust for domination, and believes that everything is permitted» For short and terrible periods of time an abandonment of reason can feel thrilling: [...]the orgiastic energy, like all death-bound forces, loses steam quickly, producing nothing but broken cities and broken hearts» It's terrifying to watch the madness of our present moment unfurl, just as it was terrifying to watch Civil War's depiction of shelled-out cars strewn across a deserted I-95- But we must not lose heart.