从生老病死看唐宋时期敦煌佛教的世俗化

佛教与世俗是一个对立的范畴,前者重彼岸,后者重此岸;前者重来世,后者重今生;前者重出世,后者重入世。从本质上讲,佛教与世俗体现的是神与人的关系问题,佛教是以追寻、接近、体证宇宙人生的最高真理为其职志的,即所谓“有所宗”,因此是极端超离世俗现象世界的。若就功用而言,佛教之宏旨在于救度众生、解脱苦难,即所谓“有所教”,因此又是极端贴近世俗、不离现象世界的。所以说,佛教与世俗之间,存在着既相互对立又相互依存的关系。本文所谓的“佛教世俗化”,指的就是佛教在传播过程中对世俗社会有机结构与互动原理的认同与融摄。佛教寺院通过各种佛事活动来沟通并调整寺院与世俗社会的互动关系,与信众共同来维持或建构生命存在形式的理想规范,从而维持社会的和谐,并使之正常运作。     

Imagining Otherwise: Autism,Neuroaesthetics and Contemporary Performance

Abstract

Perspectives on the phenomenology of the autistic experience are presented with particular reference to the imagination in autism and what may be conceptualized as ‘neurodivergent aesthetics’. Drawing upon a research project that explored the potential of drama as an ‘intervention’ in autism, an attempt is made to de-mythologize the condition by challenging stereotypes and by suggesting that the multimodalities of performance offer an appropriate space for ‘encounters’ with autistic states of being while also questioning the dualisms which distinguish between the aesthetic and non-aesthetic.     

Remembering Ancestors: Commemorative Rituals and the Foundation of Historicity

One of the most elaborated responses to the human perception of being‐in‐time (as the essence of historicity) has been the cult of the ancestors. Consequently, the ancestor cult may be considered foundational for historicity. This is the core idea of this article. It is illustrated with Romanian ethnographic data and elaborated with cross‐cultural examples. A few objects used in commemorative rituals—coliva (a special dish), trees and pots—are interpreted according to their symbolic force of enabling people to live temporality not only fragmentarily (past?+?present?+?future), but as a transcendental unity of the temporal continuum. Finally, the functions of history are specified—namely, identity defining, the critical function, and especially (as revealed by the ancestor cult) the function of memorialization.     

Reconsidering the Metamorphosis of Io: on Texts,Images and Dates

This article reconsiders the portrayal of Io's metamorphosis in texts and images from the fifth century BCE. It discusses points of synchronicity and diachronicity, innovation and variety in this myth. While the depiction of Io on vases may not help us date with more certainty the texts of the fifth century BCE, including the Prometheus Bound and Bacchylides’ Ode 19, I argue that the comparison between texts and images may draw attention, instead, to a synchronic variety in the depiction of Io in the decades preceding and following the mid-fifth century BCE. This shift in perspective leads me to advance the proposition that myth interpretation may be revitalized by a paradigm shift from “tree” to “network”.     

Editorial Introduction 40(3): States,Rituals, Diseases

Bailey, F. G. The Prevalence of Deceit. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1991. xxii + 143pp. including references and index. $24.95 cloth, $7.95 paper.

Manganaro, Marc, ed. Modernist Anthropology: from Fieldwork to Text. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1990. xii + 337 pp. including bibliography and index. $45.00 cloth, $14.95 paper.

Ohnuki‐Tierney, Emiko, ed. Culture Through Time: Anthropological Approaches. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1990. xi + 330 pp. including references and index. $42.50 cloth, $12.95 paper.