Monks and hermits in medieval love stories

Monks and hermits are frequently mentioned in courtly romances. It is an unresolved problem whether these are real men or the product of literary imagination. The monks and hermits of love literature do evolve over time: whereas in the twelfth century they are predominantly monastic figures, later they are laymen. This article examines the literary image of the monk and hermit, including their role as advocates of marital fidelity, and asks how effective these models were for contemporary Christians, especially in cases where poets abandoned their secular life to become monks and hermits. With the rise of the friars traditional literary images were not abandoned. Emphasis is placed on the role of the hermit as a symbol of the quest for divine love.     

Monks and hermits in medieval love stories

Monks and hermits are frequently mentioned in courtly romances. It is an unresolved problem whether these are real men or the product of literary imagination. The monks and hermits of love literature do evolve over time: whereas in the twelfth century they are predominantly monastic figures, later they are laymen. This article examines the literary image of the monk and hermit, including their role as advocates of marital fidelity, and asks how effective these models were for contemporary Christians, especially in cases where poets abandoned their secular life to become monks and hermits. With the rise of the friars traditional literary images were not abandoned. Emphasis is placed on the role of the hermit as a symbol of the quest for divine love.     

From Head‐hunter to Organ‐thief: Verisimilitude,Doubt, and Plausible Worlds in Indonesia and Beyond

In the last few years, occult head‐hunters – elusive figures that have haunted communities and the public imagination in Indonesia since at least colonial times – appear to have adopted a novel and troubling tactic. Instead of decapitating their victims and using the heads in construction rituals as they are said to have conventionally done, head‐hunters are now allegedly harvesting their victims’ organs to sell them on the global market of body parts. Based on a comparison of ethnographic material from North Maluku, a province in the eastern part of Indonesia, and news reports in regional and national papers, I trace how accounts about headhunting have morphed with narratives about organ theft. I argue that this plasticity is not a merely a change in symbolic ideas of the occult that reflects changing political and economic realities. Rather, I propose that their turn to organ theft enrols head‐hunters in a contemporary and global ‘travelling package’ that includes and entangles organ trafficking practices, media accounts, political imaginaries, and social anxieties within the same field of reality and possibility, a field of verisimilitude in which fiction and fact, rumour and reality, are fundamentally blurred. The article proposes a ‘more‐than‐representational’ approach to the organ‐stealing head‐hunter that sees him not just as a representation of particular political and historical circumstances but as a co‐producer of these circumstances, of particular political worlds and their attendant scales of anxiety. This approach, I argue, challenges the epistemological distinction between symbolic representation and political reality that informed (but also incommoded) the analyses of headhunting rumours in the 1980s and 1990s – and that continues to inform anthropological analyses of ‘the occult’ more generally.     

论唐代高僧游徙的空间分异

唐代佛教僧侣常云游四海 ,或拜师访学 ,或传教弘法 ,本文通过详细的统计数字和独到的统计分析方法 ,探讨了唐代高僧游徙的空间分异特征及其前后期的变迁 :唐前期 ,高僧徙居他乡大体遵循就近和面向长安、洛阳二京的规律 ,京师长安是最大的高僧聚集地 ,河北、陇右和岭南三道则是高僧游徙的发散区域 ;唐代后期 ,高僧徙居他乡大体以面向江南西道和长安、洛阳、五台山以及就近驻锡为原则 ,河北、陇右和江南东道是高僧游徙的发散区域 ;其他各道亦各有特点 ,且前后不同     

论释赞宁《宋高僧传》的史料价值

释赞宁《宋高僧传》承继梁代释慧皎《高僧传》、唐代释道宣《续高僧传》而作,是记载唐初至北宋初三百多年间佛教僧人精英的总传。要了解佛教在中国的生存发展情况离不开佛教史籍,同时佛教与社会生活密切相关,所以《宋传》成为研究唐代至宋初中国佛教史、政治史、经济史、文化史、历史学等方面的重要资料。     

The fangs of reproduction: an analysis of taiwanese menstrual pollution in the context of buddhist philosophy and practice

Anthropologists have hitherto considered Taiwanese pollution beliefs largely in the framework of Mary Douglas's theories, neglecting important sociocultural aspects that contribute to the persistence of pollution beliefs and related menstrual taboos. Recent studies have shown that most societies hold diverse attitudes toward menstruation, and that such attitudes are deeply rooted in the sociocultural and religious structures of the respective societies. Thus, in this article, rather than generalizing about “the pollution of Taiwanese women”, I argue that the unraveling of the complexity of Taiwanese menstrual pollution beliefs necessitates their analysis in the context of Buddhist philosophy and practice. Embedded in the specific Buddhist context, pollution beliefs and menstruation taboos gain validity. While menstrual taboos do not hark back to Buddhist beliefs, certain Buddhist attitudes toward the human body in general, and female embodiment in particular, allow for the formation of pollution beliefs. The analysis of Buddhist beliefs and practices in conjunction with Chinese views shows that their conflation contributed to the shaping and persistence of pollution beliefs and menstrual taboos.     

Undercover Acolytes: Honganji,the Japanese Army,and Intelligence‐Gathering Operations

In the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, as the Japanese Army sought intelligence on the countries neighbouring Japan, the military made use of the Buddhist priesthood as a cover for intelligence gathering. In addition, elements of the Buddhist priesthood, in particular the Kyoto‐based Honganji sect, were happy to cooperate with the military in its intelligence gathering operations, either by allowing military officers to disguise themselves as monks or by having Buddhist monks gather military intelligence for the Japanese Army. This article examines the relationship between the Japanese Army and the Honganji sect following the 1868 Meiji Restoration, the activities of military officers who disguised themselves as Buddhist monks and the intelligence gathering activities of Buddhist monks, hoping to shed more light on the part that Japanese Buddhism played in Japan's imperial adventures.     

Locating Neoliberalism in Dubai: Migrant Workers and Class Struggle in the Autocratic City

Abstract: In recent years, portrayals of neoliberalism in Dubai have often hinged on narratives about the hyper‐exploitation of migrant workers in the city. In this paper I interrogate these narratives by exploring the governance of lower‐waged construction migrants and their recent role in market‐led processes of urbanization. Through a focus on the recent growth of private worker welfare initiatives and dozens of illegal labour strikes led by migrant builders, I draw attention to the fraught and contradictory character of autocratic neoliberalism that operates in the governance of these workers, and point to workers’ bodily capital and the construction labour camp as two emergent sites in which these labour politics are unfolding. I argue that these social reproductive realms of the body and the mass‐worker household have offered a temporary spatial fix to the limitations of autocratic rule in a neoliberalizing city, while also conjuring moments of political possibility for construction migrants.     

From revolutionary heroism to cultural heritage: museums,memory and representation in Laos

ABSTRACT. Museum exhibitions in Laos represent two main strands of Lao national identity discourse. First, they glorify the ‘liberation struggle’ of the so‐called ‘Lao multiethnic people’ under the leadership of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party, and therefore serve as important ideological tools for the current regime's self‐legitimisation. Second, they display the history and cultural heritage of the Lao nation, providing the postcolonial state with a narrative of historical continuity and civilisation that is focused mostly on the dominant ethnic Lao culture. This article explores the contradictions within official images of the Lao nation‐state and how these opposing strands of national identity compete or interact. Museums as key arenas of ideological tensions constitute illuminating fields of research on discourses of national identity in Laos.     

清末僧教育会与寺院兴学的兴起

20世纪初年,面对来自官绅双方的提拨庙产兴学运动之强大压力,在先后谋求藉信徒之力消极抵制和借助外来势力的庇护均告失败之后,佛界一部分寺僧开始自办学堂和组织教育团体来推进佛教教育.与此同时,为了避免来华日本佛界寺僧所带来的外交纠纷,作为官方的晚清学部于1906年颁布了教育会章程规范僧教育团体,从而建立起了僧界之间以及僧界、士绅阶层与官方之间的联络机制.虽然僧教育会当时影响不大,但它促进了近代佛教教育团体与佛教教育的发展,为民国以后的佛教复兴奠定了一定的基础.     

Feared Rumours and Rumours of Fear: The Politicisation of Ethnicity During the Fiji Coup in May 2000

In this article I explore rumour and fear as crucial to the politicisation of ethnicity and the attempt of ethno‐nationalists to gain political hegemony during the coup in Fiji in May 2000. I discuss rumours during the Fiji crisis as emotional discourses articulating fears and anxieties that have influenced interethnic relations in Fiji since the indenture of Indian labour. I argue that these feelings of fear and insecurity are linked historically to issues of land, demography and race and investigate how the George Speight Team and Fijian ethno‐nationalists aimed at reinforcing and foregrounding these emotions to mobilise support. I also look at the role of rumours and fear in the silencing of dissent and opposing voices. I ask how rumours were in dialogue with other discourses circulating at the height of the crisis and how they complemented ethno‐nationalist political strategies. I suggest that part of the political success of the George Speight Team stems from their effective engagement of different local, national and global levels to reinforce an old discourse of ethnic Fijian unity and fear of Indo‐Fijian colonisation around which they mobilised ethnically based political support. The effect of this ‘indigenous articulation’ was a polarisation of Fijian and Indo‐Fijian positionings in the nation.     

Planned Resettlement,Unexpected Migrations and Cultural Trauma in Laos

Though not officially considered a ‘policy’ by the Lao government, resettlement of ethnic minorities has become a central feature of the rural development strategy in Laos. Over the past ten years, a majority of highland villages have been resettled downhill, and the local administrations are planning to move the remaining villages in the coming years. This article draws on a national survey about resettlement in Laos, commissioned by UNESCO and financed by UNDP, that was undertaken by the authors. It focuses on the consequences of these huge shifts of population and on the social and cultural dynamics that underlie them. It shows that the planned resettlements, which are intended to promote the ‘settling’ of the highland populations by enforcing the ban on slash‐and‐burn agriculture and opium growing, actually cause increased and diversified rural mobility. This in turn complicates the implementation of the rural development policy and the political management of interethnic relationships. In other words, the ‘settling’ process promoted by the State, because of its broad and often tragic social consequences, can paradoxically generate unplanned or unexpected further migrations, which could be called ‘resettlement‐induced forms of mobility’     

Ascetic And Devotional Elements In The Mu‘tazilite Tradition: The Suf? Mu‘tazilites

Abstract: The Mutazilite thinkers are most often defined as rationalist, individualist, liberal and eccentric figures. To the above qualities, one should add ascetic and devotional aspects. Among the Mutazilite famous ascetics are Abū Mūsā al‐Murdar and his followers, Ja‘far b. Harb, Ja‘far b. Mubashshir and ‘?sā b. al‐Haytham. The accounts about these figures vigorously reflect the Mutazilite outlook of the ascetic life and practices. As a matter of fact, one can see the ascetic propensities in all the sects and schools of the early Islamic period. In view of their emphasis upon the love for God, they placed piety and austerity at the center of the relationship between the servant and God. In this context, this article attempts to provide insights into the pietistic dimension of the Mutazilite tradition.     

On the origin and presentation of images of traveling Buddhist monks on pilgrimage for sutras with tame tigers in the Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes

Abstract

The creation of the “images of traveling Buddhist monks on pilgrimage for sutras with tame tigers” preserved in the Mogao Grottoes resulted from a syncretic cultural and religious development in the Tang and Song dynasties. It was not drawn on the events of the pilgrimage of Xuanzang 玄奘, as is generally believed in academic circles. The intrinsic principles contained within the images transcend their external features: the development of Esoteric Buddhism and the phenomenon of traveling monks in the periods and their fusion with Central Plains folk culture imbued the images with the influence of both exoteric and esoteric schools of Buddhism, together with folk beliefs; on the other hand, the creation of the “images of traveling Buddhist monks on pilgrimage for sutras with tame tigers” reflected “Ratnasambhava tathāgata beliefs,” which were prevalent in the Dunhuang region in the Tang and Song dynasties. Via metaphorical presentations of iconized monks, these images provided the expression of multiple religious beliefs.     

Monks and lay communities in late antique Gaul: the evidence of the Eusebius Gallicanus sermons

The Eusebius Gallicanus sermons reveal the congruity in late antique Gaul between the models of pastoral care for monks and lay Christians. For these Gallic clergy, there was little antagonism between monastery and world. Preachers to both audiences share a common central concern with the defence of community and in this respect they differ from some of their contemporaries. The sermon collection demonstrates that the ascetic world in Gaul was far from monolithic and that pastoral care could be highly individualised and responsive to the demands of local communities.     

Buddhist Manifestations of Patriotism during the Korean War

A great deal of research on the Korean War has focused on the military, politics, economy and international affairs, and far less on the religious, particularly the Buddhist, perspective. The Korean War exerted a tremendous impact on institutional Buddhism, and consequently Buddhists were heavily involved. This paper examines the history of Chinese Buddhist participation in the ＂Resisting America and Assisting Korea Campaign＂ from Buddhist perspectives such as political propaganda, material donations especially the donation of the ＂Chinese Buddhist Airplane,＂ and the enlistment of young monks into the People＇s Volunteer Army （the PVA）. The paper will then look into social and political factors involved in Buddhist leaders＇ reinterpretation of Buddhist doctrines to justify participation in the campaign, as a response to the surge of patriotism in Chinese society. This kind of investigation may shed light on the relationship between institutional Buddhism and politics in the new socialist society of China after 1949.     

‘Peace begins at home’: Geographic imaginaries of violence and peacebuilding in northern Uganda

While there is an acknowledgment of the importance of geographic and historical context in contemporary feminist scholarship on the relationship between domestic violence and warfare, there remains an assumption that mainstream narratives will tend to separate these forms of violence or, if connections are acknowledged, warfare will be given primacy. Based on ethnographic research in northern Uganda, I demonstrate how the presence of Orientalist narratives of violence in peacebuilding programs disrupts these assumptions by not only drawing connections between domestic violence and warfare but prioritizing domestic violence. I argue that these narratives of violence, and their associated geographic imaginaries, contribute to uneven geographies of intervention – geographies in which racialized bodies and intimate spaces are associated with war and thereby seen as appropriate sites for peacebuilding. By engaging with peacebuilding programs as sites of geopolitical negotiations in which variously scaled actors are vying for position in the post-war landscape, I argue that the tendency for peacebuilding programs to focus on a singular site of intervention – ‘the Acholi home’ – says less about the centrality of this site to the creation of peace than it does about the centrality of this site in maintaining the networks of mutual legitimization amongst peacebuilding partners.     

圣德太子与日本早期佛教

佛教能在日本迅速传播并成为国教,主要得益于圣德太子的大力提倡。他在发展佛教方面的作用主要表现在：一、确立佛教在日本的地位;二、兴建佛寺、像塔,翻译佛经、广度僧尼;三、广招中朝僧尼前来日本授法,派遣隋使到中国大陆吸纳以佛教为主的先进文化,为日本古代文明的前行做出了重要贡献。