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"Funeral rites and ceremonies, Ancient - Religious aspects"
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The Care of the Dead in Late Antiquity
In this provocative book Éric Rebillard challenges many long-held assumptions about early Christian burial customs. For decades scholars of early Christianity have argued that the Church owned and operated burial grounds for Christians as early as the third century. Through a careful reading of primary sources including legal codes, theological works, epigraphical inscriptions, and sermons, Rebillard shows that there is little evidence to suggest that Christians occupied exclusive or isolated burial grounds in this early period.
In fact, as late as the fourth and fifth centuries the Church did not impose on the faithful specific rituals for laying the dead to rest. In the preparation of Christians for burial, it was usually next of kin and not representatives of the Church who were responsible for what form of rite would be celebrated, and evidence from inscriptions and tombstones shows that for the most part Christians didn't separate themselves from non-Christians when burying their dead. According to Rebillard it would not be until the early Middle Ages that the Church gained control over burial practices and that \"Christian cemeteries\" became common.
In this translation ofReligion et Sépulture: L'église, les vivants et les morts dans l'Antiquité tardive, Rebillard fundamentally changes our understanding of early Christianity.The Care of the Dead in Late Antiquitywill force scholars of the period to rethink their assumptions about early Christians as separate from their pagan contemporaries in daily life and ritual practice.
eBook
Historical and archaeological aspects of Egyptian funerary culture : religious ideas and ritual practice in Middle Kingdom elite cemeteries
\"Historical and Archaeological Aspects of Egyptian Funerary Culture, a thoroughly reworked translation of Les textes des sarcophages et la dâemocratie published in 2008, challenges the widespread idea that the 'royal' Pyramid Texts of the Old Kingdom after a process of 'democratisation' became, in the Middle Kingdom, accessible even to the average Egyptian in the form of the Coffin Texts. Rather they remained an element of elite funerary culture, and particularly so in the Upper Egyptian nomes. The author traces the emergence here of the so-called 'nomarchs' and their survival in the Middle Kingdom. The site of Dayr al-Barshهa, currently under excavation, shows how nomarch cemeteries could even develop into large-scale processional landscapes intended for the cult of the local ruler. This book also provides an updated list of the hundreds of (mostly unpublished) Middle Kingdom coffins and proposes a new reference system for these\"--Provided by publisher.
Book
Caring for the Dead in Ancient Israel
A new reconstruction of cultic practices surrounding
death in ancient Israel
In Caring for the Dead in Ancient Israel , Kerry M.
Sonia examines the commemoration and care for the dead in ancient
Israel against the broader cultural backdrop of West Asia. This
cult of dead kin, often referred to as ancestor cult, comprised a
range of ritual practices in which the living provided food and
drink offerings, constructed commemorative monuments, invoked the
names of the dead, and protected their remains. This ritual care
negotiated the ongoing relationships between the living and the
dead and, in so doing, helped construct social, political, and
religious landscapes in relationship to the past. Sonia explores
the nature of this cult of dead kin in ancient Israel, focusing on
its role within the family and household as well as its
relationship to Israel's national deity and the Jerusalem
temple.
Features:
A reevaluation of whether burial and necromantic rituals were
part of the cult of dead kin
A portrait of the various roles Israelite women played in the
cult of dead kin
A reassessment of biblical writers' attitudes toward the cult
of dead kin
eBook
The Ancient Roman Afterlife
In ancient Rome, it was believed some humans were transformed into special, empowered beings after death. These deified dead, known as the manes, watched over and protected their surviving family members, possibly even extending those relatives’ lives. But unlike the Greek hero-cult, the worship of dead emperors, or the Christian saints, the manes were incredibly inclusive—enrolling even those without social clout, such as women and the poor, among Rome's deities. The Roman afterlife promised posthumous power in the world of the living. While the manes have often been glossed over in studies of Roman religion, this book brings their compelling story to the forefront, exploring their myriad forms and how their worship played out in the context of Roman religion’s daily practice. Exploring the place of the manes in Roman society, Charles King delves into Roman beliefs about their powers to sustain life and bring death to individuals or armies, examines the rituals the Romans performed to honor them, and reclaims the vital role the manes played in the ancient Roman afterlife.
eBook
Death, Burial and Rebirth in the Religions of Antiquity
In Death, Burial and Rebirth in the Religions of Antiquity , Jon Davies charts the significance of death to the emerging religious cults in the pre-Christian and early Christian world. He analyses the varied burial rituals and examines the different notions of the afterlife. Among the areas covered are: * Osiris and Isis: the life theology of Ancient Egypt * burying the Jewish dead * Roman religion and Roman funerals * Early Christian burial * the nature of martyrdom. Jon Davies also draws on the sociological theory of Max Weber to present a comprehensive introduction to and overview of death, burial and the afterlife in the first Christian centuries which offers insights into the relationship between social change and attitudes to death and dying.
eBook
Historical and archaeological aspects of Egyptian funerary culture : religious ideas and ritual practice in Middle Kingdom elite cemeteries
This study of the history of regional elites and of the archaeology of their cemeteries shows that the Coffin Texts of the Egyptian Middle Kingdom do not reflect a form of popular religion, but rather the cult of local rulers.
eBook
Christian and Indigenous: Multiple “Religions” in Contemporary Toraja Funerals
The theoretical framework of “religion” is problematic, especially in studying non-Western realities. In the field, I often encountered its Indonesian and Toraja most common equivalents—agama and aluk. There were also categories assigned to the realm of “culture” rather than “religion”. Toraja funeral ceremonies, which originated from the indigenous religion and became predominantly Christianized, are defined in religious and/or cultural categories. How do these related categories manifest in the utterances of the ritual actors of Toraja funerals? This article is based primarily on interviews; it refers to statements from 34 purposively chosen research participants. The attitudes towards the Toraja funeral tradition vary based on religious affiliation. The lines between different perspectives and categorization characteristics of Christianities and the minority indigenous religion are blurred but distinguishable.
Journal Article
To Die in Style! The residential lifestyle of feasting and dying in Iron Age Stamna, Greece
Symposium in Stamna both as a concept and as a process involved the presence of prominent citizens of the social establishment as testified by the large cauldrons, the tripod jars and the tripod vessels present. To Die in Style! The residential lifestyle of feasting and dying in Iron Age Stamna, Greece re-examines the cemeteries studied to date, isolating tombs with unique architecture or peculiar structures with individual features, in order to investigate the complex identity of the elite group ideologies. The finding and studying of such a large number of PRG tombs (c. 500), presents a remarkable representative example for the discussion on the perception of death, confronting it through the mourning ritual, but also examining the creation of an individual and collective memory of the population that operated in this privileged geographic installation, redefining as such the cultural landscape of the Protogeometric era. The pre-existing theoretical framework, the methodology of managing and displaying of grief and their correlation with already studied and exalted geographical parallels, integrate Stamna into the cultural chain of the populations ruled by an overall-systematic design of a particular cultural ideology.
eBook
Ancient supplication
This is the first book-length treatment of supplication, an important social practice in ancient Mediterranean civilizations. Despite the importance of supplication, it has received little attention, and no previous study has explored so many aspects of the practice. This book investigates the varied gestures made by the suppliants, the types of requests they make, the arguments used in defense of their requests, and the role of the supplicandus, who evaluates and decides whether to fulfill the requests. Varied and abundant sources invite comparison between the societies of Greece, especially Athens, and the Roman Republic and Principate and also among literary genres such as epic and tragedy. Additionally, this book formulates an analysis of the ritual in its legal and political contexts.
eBook