Search for Articles:
Title / Keyword
Author / Affiliation / Email
Journal
Article Type
 
 
Advanced Search
 
Section
Special Issue
Volume
Issue
Number
Page
 
1.1
0.8
Journals
Religions
Special Issues
Sacred Heritage: Religions and Material Culture
share announcement

Sacred Heritage: Religions and Material Culture

A special issue of Religions (ISSN 2077-1444). This special issue belongs to the section "Religions and Humanities/Philosophies".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 October 2023) | Viewed by 7300

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Anna Niedźwiedź

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Institute of Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology, Jagiellonian University in Kraków, 31-007 Kraków, Poland
Interests: anthropology of religion; critical heritage studies; religion and heritage; spatial practices; pilgrimage

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues, 

Following the material turn in the studies of religion, this Special Issue approaches religions as happening in and through a broad variety of material objects and phenomena and aims to focus on how religious materiality interacts with heritagization processes. In short, the main research question proposed here would be how religious material objects and phenomena happen to be transformed into heritages in various social, political and religious settings and how these processes influence contemporary understandings of both “religion” and “heritage”.

Relations between religions and heritages in the context of material culture can be fruitfully scrutinized, for example, in places where religious architecture may be seen and experienced also in terms of cultural heritage; where pilgrims and tourists interact with the same material objects, referring to religious or heritage registers; in museums that tend to frame religious materiality with heritage and artistic values. Conflicts and tensions over specific conceptualizations of religion and heritage, but also collaboration and mutual reinforcement of religious and heritage discourses and practices, can appear when various individuals, groups and institutions interact and use material culture produced in religious contexts. Cases of reusing religious materiality (e.g., objects, spaces) in explicitly secular contexts as representations of “the past” are also an interesting subject. Further tension is revealed in situations in which various religious groups use the same material object or space and apply heritage discourses to justify competing ownership claims.

Referring to new materiality, this Special Issue would particularly like to encourage analysis that —apart from studying the political, social, institutional and human actors involved in the production of religious and heritage discourses and practices—attempts to scrutinize an active role and agency of material objects or spaces (e.g., architecture) themselves. The materiality of the human body and sensual experiences are also significant dimensions of the material culture of religion. How do these kinds of religious materiality reveal themselves in heritage production processes? How do various religious traditions interpret and approach materiality and what are the implications of these varying theologies in the context of globally promoted institutionalized heritage discourse? How do vernacular understandings of heritage, religion and materiality possibly challenge Western oriented interpretations of these terms?

These and other questions emerging from the interface of religion, heritage and material culture are welcomed, especially when based on specific case studies and ethnographic research. The Special Issue is also open to more general theoretical papers, as well as interdisciplinary and comparative approaches.

I hope that this Special Issue will broaden and deepen the existing discussion, open new pathways and stimulate interdisciplinary collaboration. I look forward to receiving your contributions.

Proposed deadlines

Full manuscripts submissions: 31 October 2023

Dr. Anna Niedźwiedź
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Religions is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • religion
  • heritage
  • material religion
  • new materiality
  • heritagization of religion
  • material culture
  • critical heritage studies
  • body and senses

Published Papers (5 papers)

Download All Papers
Order results
Result details
Show export options expand_more Show export options expand_less
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

22 pages, 22774 KiB  
Article
The Material Heritage of “The Wild Boars Cave Rescue”—A Case-Study of Emotions and Sacralisation in Present-Day Thailand
by Irene Stengs
Religions 2024, 15(3), 258; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15030258 - 21 Feb 2024
Viewed by 707
Abstract
This article addresses the making of heritage and the processes of sacralisation involved by investigating the heritage created after the rescue of the “Wild Boars”, a Thai youth football team, from a flooded cave in July 2018. The unfolding story of this “epic [...] Read more.
This article addresses the making of heritage and the processes of sacralisation involved by investigating the heritage created after the rescue of the “Wild Boars”, a Thai youth football team, from a flooded cave in July 2018. The unfolding story of this “epic rescue operation” was followed with tremendous engagement, locally, nationally and worldwide, an example of what I capture as “high-density events”. Cave diver specialists and rescue equipment were flown in. Thousands of volunteers, mainly from Thailand but also from abroad, assisted. In Thailand, schools participated massively in nationwide Buddhist prayer sessions. Renowned holy monk Khruba Bunchum Yansangwaro directed his prayers to the boys and predicted they would be found alive. The massive involvement with the 18-days rescue operation generated a multiplicity of memes, photographs, books, documentaries, paintings, and statues. As religious and national heritage, this material lives on in various forms and exhibitions, including the cave, which was declared to become a “living museum” immediately upon the completion of the rescue. The analysis concerns three interrelated issues: First, I focus on the “instantaneous heritagization” of the event, asking: how to understand the processes that transform people, objects, and places into heritage overnight? Second, I bring in the role of emotions and moral imagination to shed light on the secular and religious sacralities produced and reproduced in the making of heritage. Third, I am interested in the impact of the heritage on the cave and its vicinity, bringing in issues of ownership and power over the event’s legacy. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sacred Heritage: Religions and Material Culture)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

15 pages, 12322 KiB  
Article
Written Remains: Materiality and the Religious Heritage Complex of the Jewish Portuguese Past
by Cyril Isnart
Religions 2023, 14(12), 1504; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14121504 - 05 Dec 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 637
Abstract
Hebraic written stones represent the primary surviving physical testimony to the Jewish past in Portugal, apart from a Medieval synagogue in the city of Tomar. As it is true for other religious objects, medieval Hebraic epigraphic stones have become a heritage asset, opening [...] Read more.
Hebraic written stones represent the primary surviving physical testimony to the Jewish past in Portugal, apart from a Medieval synagogue in the city of Tomar. As it is true for other religious objects, medieval Hebraic epigraphic stones have become a heritage asset, opening the way to specific recognition of the Jewish materiality of Portugal. Long after the forced conversion of Portuguese Jews to Catholicism or their exodus, a few epigraphic testimonials were collected, maintained, and displayed. A group of 20th century Jewish and non-Jewish amateur archaeologists and historians assembled manuscripts, books and stones and attempted to establish a museum in the medieval synagogue of Tomar. They dedicated themselves to the study and preservation of this written religious legacy and proposed to focus on the letter as the principal material heritage to represent the Portuguese Jewish past. Drawing on the concept of religious heritage complex, this article describes how letters, as material remains, lead to the cultural renewal of a religious minority’s past. The study also sheds light on the cultural and religious consequences of this attention to letters on the heritage-making process itself. Through a combination of archival study, ethnographic fieldwork and comparison, the study sought to better understand the late destiny of the written remains of Judaism in Portugal. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sacred Heritage: Religions and Material Culture)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

21 pages, 4566 KiB  
Article
The Africanization of Catholicism in Ghana: From Inculturation to Pentecostalization
by Anna Niedźwiedź
Religions 2023, 14(9), 1174; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14091174 - 14 Sep 2023
Viewed by 1973
Abstract
This article discusses the Africanization of Catholicism in Ghana as a process that embraces activities deriving from the inculturation doctrine as well as those emerging during the most recent process of pentecostalization. The complex and changing historical and current discourses on “African tradition”, [...] Read more.
This article discusses the Africanization of Catholicism in Ghana as a process that embraces activities deriving from the inculturation doctrine as well as those emerging during the most recent process of pentecostalization. The complex and changing historical and current discourses on “African tradition”, “traditional religion”, and “African spirituality” are presented in relation to the creation of an independent Ghana and the state-instigated concept of “national heritage”, as well as the Catholic theological developments strongly shaped by the Second Vatican Council. The influences of Pentecostal and charismatic Churches are described and the pentecostalization of Catholicism is interpreted as a kind of subversive development of inculturation doctrine and practices. The article refers to the material and embodied aspects of religion, pointing to the importance of material culture and “embodied continuation” in shaping contemporary African Christian and African Catholic identities. The article draws on ethnographic material collected in Catholic parishes in central Ghana. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sacred Heritage: Religions and Material Culture)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

19 pages, 4640 KiB  
Article
Religious Heritage Complex and Authenticity: Past and Present Assemblages of One Cypriot Icon
by Dorota Zaprzalska
Religions 2023, 14(9), 1107; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14091107 - 26 Aug 2023
Viewed by 897
Abstract
Drawing on data from ethnographic fieldwork, this study focuses on an icon known as Panagia Amirou kept at the Amirou Monastery in Cyprus. Instead of analyzing its unusual form, consisting of two icons from different times inserted one into another, this paper uses [...] Read more.
Drawing on data from ethnographic fieldwork, this study focuses on an icon known as Panagia Amirou kept at the Amirou Monastery in Cyprus. Instead of analyzing its unusual form, consisting of two icons from different times inserted one into another, this paper uses the concept of “religious heritage complex” to understand the special status of the icon, the complexity of the assemblages it has joined over time, and the relationships between religion and heritage. The Panagia Amirou icon has become the symbol of the monastery and appears to be crucial for the creation of a shared identity by giving the community the feeling of a connection to the past and continuity of monastic tradition, for as they believe, the icon and the monastery are from the same time. Particular attention is paid to the process of authenticating the icon’s special status. The legend recounts not only the icon’s old age but also its miraculous appearance and the healing power inherent in it from the very beginning, so it authenticates, together with processions, not only the alleged connection of the icon with the beginning of the monastery but also the status of the icon as being miracle-working. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sacred Heritage: Religions and Material Culture)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure A1

18 pages, 23543 KiB  
Article
Sacralizing a Battlefield: The Religious Heritage of the Battle of Warsaw 1920
by Kamila Baraniecka-Olszewska
Religions 2023, 14(5), 566; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14050566 - 23 Apr 2023
Viewed by 1159
Abstract
This article presents a process of creating religious heritage that goes beyond the “sacralization of heritage” or the “heritagization of religion”. It is grounded in the assumption that religious heritage may be an element of lived religion, while the strategies of managing the [...] Read more.
This article presents a process of creating religious heritage that goes beyond the “sacralization of heritage” or the “heritagization of religion”. It is grounded in the assumption that religious heritage may be an element of lived religion, while the strategies of managing the past (and of preserving and transmitting values) observable within Roman Catholicism all fit within the discourse of heritage. This text focuses on the heritage of the Battle of Warsaw developed in Roman Catholic religious practice. The battles fought in 1920 are also referred to as the “Miracle on the Vistula”, since the Polish victory in that confrontation is seen as resulting from a divine intervention. Such an image of the battle permeates its heritage, allowing the Roman Catholic Church to shape it in accordance with religious teachings. This article is based on fieldwork on the anniversary events of the Battle of Warsaw. It aims to illustrate how the battlefield may become sacralized, blurring the lines between religious practices and heritage. The haptically experienced materiality of the battlefield makes it possible to localize heritage perceived not only as the site of bloody conflict, but also as the scene of the Virgin Mary’s intercession and divine intervention. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sacred Heritage: Religions and Material Culture)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

Show export options expand_more Show export options expand_less
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:
 
Displaying articles 1-5
Back to TopTop