When I taught World Religions and had a component that encouraged students to visit other places of worship outside of their own tradition, I made it a point to remind students to read up on the religious etiquette. This takes it to another level, though, with travelers acting badly. The daily almsgiving occupies a special [...]
Browsing the archives for the Rituals category
Ash Wednesday Foot in Mouth
18 Feb, 2010 in Ash Wednesday, Religion Blog, Religious Belief, Religious Celebrations, Religious Holidays, RitualsYou may have read my essay about anti-intellectualism. Well, here is the flip side: religious ignorance. Or rather, ignorance about religious traditions. UK broadcasters pondering over that nasty looking smudge on Joe Biden’s head. Hello! It’s called Ash Wednesday! Hello! Joe’s a Roman Catholic. Pretty good chance he’s gonna get some ashes. But here’s where [...]
Oprah gets schooled
9 Feb, 2010 in Convent Blog, Religion Blog, Religious Belief, Rituals, TelevisionI awoke this afternoon just in time to see the Oprah show on Tues. Geishas and Dominican nuns. The list of what Oprah claimed she didn’t know makes me wonder, no, makes me worried about the general religious knowledge Americans have (or don’t have). For instance, the notion of being a “bride of Christ” and [...]
Jewish roots remain in Los Angeles neighborhood
4 Jan, 2010 in Judaism, Religion Blog, Religious Belief, Religious Celebrations, RitualsThis story from the LA Times is calling out for a sociologist or anthropologist to study. The old man with the Santa Claus beard pulled a black yarmulke from the trunk of his Cadillac and limped across the street. Hundreds of people had gathered outside an old synagogue in Boyle Heights for a program that [...]
This article from ABC News, discusses the findings of Oxford anthropoligist Harvey Whitehouse’s study of religion. He was drawn to a puzzle when comparing different religious rituals. On the one hand there are the extreme cases such as sacred fire dances performed in New Guinea, where in order to commune with their ancestors men enter [...]