From silkroadtoronto.wordpress.com blog:
Nov. 24: Online Group Topic – for this group topic I want you to focus on daily life at Dunhuang. What is the socio-political situation at the site, and how does Buddhism figure in? What do we know, and what do we not know, that might help us reconstruct the actual practice of Buddhism in the Dunhuang region?
1. Anxiety
As far as the socio-political situation of Dunhuang is concerned, we know that the town and religious complex were situated on the periphery of Imperial China; Dunhuang was a frontier town, comparable to the dusty streets of the Wild West in some small way. So far removed from the administrative, cultural, and safely guarded heart of China, one assumes the citizens of Dunhuang were anxious about maintaining their continued support from the Emperor. Without imperial support and troops, the little town would surely fall prey to the 'barbarians' from beyond (in fact, it often did), shattering the lives that Dunhuang residents tried to build for themselves.
Anxiety is an interesting emotion because it is involves a mental state that cannot easily assuaged. Perhaps adherence to Buddhism, and especially adherence to a calming meditative regime, may have helped to keep fear and troubles in check.
2. Hierarchy
There is evidence that Chinese society at Dunhuang was very hierarchical within a system of class-merit differentiation. Perhaps Dunhuang citizens actively competed with each other for prestige. One excellent way of accumulating prestige would be to actively display wealth and piety. Therefore, in this context, leaving one's mark upon the Cave of the Thousand Buddhas could be considered an important strategic move.
Donors commissioned paintings and sculptures in the caves, and likenesses of these patrons were probably accurately depicted within these works of art. Therefore, it is possible that Buddhist ritual sites offered Dunhuang citizens a chance to immortalize their legacy, compete within the political arena, and engage in pious (even redemptive) acts.
3. Daily Practice
In order to understand daily life at Dunhuang, it is important to remember that the everyday can sometimes include the sublime, and that religious experience can often become perfunctory. Buddhist prayer and meditation punctuated everyday life in a habitual and banal way. Similarly, the banality and pain of existence necessitated the Buddhist message in the first place. If we are to accurately reconstruct life at Dunhuang we must take into account the interpenetration of sacred and profane.
But how? We have many ancient texts and can glean much from archaeological excavation, but we do not have access to the bodily practice of Buddhism in Dunhuang during the Silk Road period. An interesting experiment might be to construct an accurate theatrical representation of a day-in-the-life of a Dunhuang citizen. This would involve a great many other reconstructions in order to effect a believable stage, and so might only be possible in a very limited way.
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Zorastrianism
First of all, I just thought I would point out something that I found very interesting. Quoting from Mallandra's An Introduction to Ancient Iranian Religion:
(p. 39) "One of the initially bewildering features of Zarathustra's exposition is his use of verbal tenses. This difficulty is rooted in the fact that the Indo-Iranian languages possessed a special verb form, the injunctive, which is reserved for the expression of myth and timeless truths. Whereas one tends to regard all events, whether mythological or not, as taking place in a nonrecurring historical order, archaic man understood mythical events, which took place in mythological time, as being everpresent."
Fascinating. This reminds me of the aliens from Slaughterhouse Five. If "archaic man" (and I shall presume "archaic woman" as well) understood mythical events in this way, where along the way did we lose this ability? Here Mallandra has made a bit of a jump. It is not that archaic people had an ability that we do not possess, but that Zarathustra's language provided him (and by this I mean the later scribes who wrote as him) with the ability to present the world in this way. Navajo language also affords story-tellers this ability, a point which Basso drives home in his book Wisdom Sits in Places as a part of his discussion of cultural geography/ecology. What is interesting here is that the infinite, timeless continuity of this language form drives home both the immediacy AND ancient authority of moral teachings. I wonder if there is a similar medium in contemporary society. The closest thing I can think of would be that of cinema.
Now, continuing on to my discussion of Zorastrianism proper. What does everybody think about this concept of twin Divinities, one Evil and one Good? In the Abrahamic religions (the cases with which I am most familiar) God is held up in contradistinction with the Devil, Shaitan, or Iblis... yet parity between the two parties is never inferred in official dogma. However, one gets the sense that at least in folk Christianities, that the Devil holds an equal position in terms of Judgement: the promise of Salvation is met with an equally powerful Temptation. Interestingly, the same imagery that appears in Zorastrianism resurfaces in Christian lore. God is the Light (as in Jesus' claim "I am the Light, the Way, and the Truth) and the Devil is the Darkness. God's retribution is meted out in terms of flame. The examples go on.
Do you think that this imagery is built directly into the human psyche, perhaps as an effect of our species' evolution as diurnal and an ancient recognition of the immense adaptive advantage of fire? After all, we see a similar adoration of fire cross-culturally. Or perhaps this imagery was appropriated by Judaism from Zorastrianism long ago. Or perhaps such similarity is an effect of the manipulative translation and rendering of Zorastrian texts by monotheist-biased scholars.
(p. 39) "One of the initially bewildering features of Zarathustra's exposition is his use of verbal tenses. This difficulty is rooted in the fact that the Indo-Iranian languages possessed a special verb form, the injunctive, which is reserved for the expression of myth and timeless truths. Whereas one tends to regard all events, whether mythological or not, as taking place in a nonrecurring historical order, archaic man understood mythical events, which took place in mythological time, as being everpresent."
Fascinating. This reminds me of the aliens from Slaughterhouse Five. If "archaic man" (and I shall presume "archaic woman" as well) understood mythical events in this way, where along the way did we lose this ability? Here Mallandra has made a bit of a jump. It is not that archaic people had an ability that we do not possess, but that Zarathustra's language provided him (and by this I mean the later scribes who wrote as him) with the ability to present the world in this way. Navajo language also affords story-tellers this ability, a point which Basso drives home in his book Wisdom Sits in Places as a part of his discussion of cultural geography/ecology. What is interesting here is that the infinite, timeless continuity of this language form drives home both the immediacy AND ancient authority of moral teachings. I wonder if there is a similar medium in contemporary society. The closest thing I can think of would be that of cinema.
Now, continuing on to my discussion of Zorastrianism proper. What does everybody think about this concept of twin Divinities, one Evil and one Good? In the Abrahamic religions (the cases with which I am most familiar) God is held up in contradistinction with the Devil, Shaitan, or Iblis... yet parity between the two parties is never inferred in official dogma. However, one gets the sense that at least in folk Christianities, that the Devil holds an equal position in terms of Judgement: the promise of Salvation is met with an equally powerful Temptation. Interestingly, the same imagery that appears in Zorastrianism resurfaces in Christian lore. God is the Light (as in Jesus' claim "I am the Light, the Way, and the Truth) and the Devil is the Darkness. God's retribution is meted out in terms of flame. The examples go on.
Do you think that this imagery is built directly into the human psyche, perhaps as an effect of our species' evolution as diurnal and an ancient recognition of the immense adaptive advantage of fire? After all, we see a similar adoration of fire cross-culturally. Or perhaps this imagery was appropriated by Judaism from Zorastrianism long ago. Or perhaps such similarity is an effect of the manipulative translation and rendering of Zorastrian texts by monotheist-biased scholars.
What is Religion?
As the "Studying Religion" website indicates, no one unified "theory of religion" is likely possible, and no one definition practically useful. However, there is another position that neither the website nor our encyclopaedia reading explores fully, that of understanding "religion" as a political strategy. For, despite its rather amorphous quality, the notion of religion holds considerable power. In classifying a set of practices, beliefs, symbols, or whatever else as a religion, that "religion" can access certain privileges within the context of the liberal state. Charity status and certain tax exemptions are available for new "religions" with a significant number of adherents; such benefits are not offered to (the sitgmatized and denigrated appellation of) "cults".
It is not my purpose here to compare the taxation laws of various countries. Rather, I simply wish to point out that any working definition of religion must take into account the way that groups of human beings make use of similar definitions to pursue political goals. In his course on Indigenous Spirituality, anthropologist David Turner at U of T explained that his initial fieldwork experience with the Aboriginal people of Grute Island, Australia can be understood in this way. Grute Islanders had long practiced a series of rituals and shared a collection of narratives about "the Dreaming" prior to colonial contact. Islanders had never considered these elements "religious", seeing them instead simply as their "way of life". However, faced with increasing antagonism from the missionaries in the 1960s, the Natives of Grute Island invited Dr. Turner to work with them in compiling an Aboriginal "bible", a document containing a systematic description of their history/mythology, practices, and symbolic vocabulary. In order to counter missionary claims about their "barbarity", the Islanders sought legitimize their "way of life" as a "religion" and, in so doing, legitimize their right to keep it. The extent to which the Islanders were successful is not important in this discussion. Regardless, this example demonstrates how "religion" can be deployed as a political strategy.
In conclusion, if we are to take seriously the Encyclopaedia of Cultural Anthropology's claim that "things religious pervade other cultural systems and cannot adequately be studied separate from those contexts", then we also must investigate how those contexts (political or otherwise) infiltrate and shape "religion", and the various attempts we make at defining it.
It is not my purpose here to compare the taxation laws of various countries. Rather, I simply wish to point out that any working definition of religion must take into account the way that groups of human beings make use of similar definitions to pursue political goals. In his course on Indigenous Spirituality, anthropologist David Turner at U of T explained that his initial fieldwork experience with the Aboriginal people of Grute Island, Australia can be understood in this way. Grute Islanders had long practiced a series of rituals and shared a collection of narratives about "the Dreaming" prior to colonial contact. Islanders had never considered these elements "religious", seeing them instead simply as their "way of life". However, faced with increasing antagonism from the missionaries in the 1960s, the Natives of Grute Island invited Dr. Turner to work with them in compiling an Aboriginal "bible", a document containing a systematic description of their history/mythology, practices, and symbolic vocabulary. In order to counter missionary claims about their "barbarity", the Islanders sought legitimize their "way of life" as a "religion" and, in so doing, legitimize their right to keep it. The extent to which the Islanders were successful is not important in this discussion. Regardless, this example demonstrates how "religion" can be deployed as a political strategy.
In conclusion, if we are to take seriously the Encyclopaedia of Cultural Anthropology's claim that "things religious pervade other cultural systems and cannot adequately be studied separate from those contexts", then we also must investigate how those contexts (political or otherwise) infiltrate and shape "religion", and the various attempts we make at defining it.
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