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Start Over Creator Chlup, Radek

4. Illud tempus v řeckém rituálu

Creator:
Chlup, Radek
Format:
text/pdf
Type:
Article
Subject:
Mircea Eliade, theory of myth and ritual, Greek ritual, cosmos and chaos, and Study of Religions
Language:
Czech
Description:
The article offers a re-examination of Eliade's classic theory of rituals as repetitions of archetypal events that once upon a time took place in illo tempore. I confront the theory with ancient Greek myths and rituals, showing that it does fit them to some extent, though it needs to be modified and further elaborated. The Greeks were acutely aware of the ambivalence of mythical time, and their rituals were not just meant to evoke it but to keep it off as well. In myth things typically go wrong and the task of ritual is to correct them, repeating the archetypal mistake in a non-literal way that makes it possible to relate to the mythical while leaving it safely detached behind the boundaries of the civilized world. The Greek vision of primordial time does not necessarily contradict the myth-and-ritual pattern proposed by Eliade, but it is interesting in that it that it emphasizes certain features of primordiality downplayed by him, thus inviting us to reconsider the meaning of the whole conception. This is what I attempt in the second part of my paper, in which I set the problem of ritual repetition in a different methodological perspective, interpreting it in accordance with contemporary structuralist approaches to the study of Greek religion.
Rights:
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5. Jak náboženství vysvětlovat nereduktivně : hranice racionality a sebereflexivita

Creator:
Chlup, Radek
Format:
text/pdf
Type:
Article
Subject:
reductionism, explanation, protectionism, self-reflexivity, re-enchantment, boundaries of rationality, methodology of Religious Studies, and Study of Religions
Language:
Czech
Description:
The article is a response to the book Naturalismus a protekcionismus ve studiu náboženství (Naturalism and Protectionism in the Study of Religions) by Juraj Franek, who argues that there are only two ways of theorizing religion: the "naturalistic" one, which sees religion as an illusion and explains it by reducing it to non-religious terms, and the "protectionist" one, which sees religious experience as something irreducible that can only be understood in a specific sui generis manner. Contra Franek, I show that there is a third way, one that explains religion in non-religious terms without reducing it. The key to this kind of non-reductive explanation is the way theories react to their own limitations. A reductive explanation is one that attempts to fully subordinate reality to its own categories, refusing to accept the existence of some aspects of it that are unpredictable and cannot be reduced to rational algorithms. A non-reductive explanation, on the other hand, is one that grants reality the right to resist a full conceptual grasp by ever surprising us with its ceaseless abundance and creativity. A non-reductive explanation may explicitly thematize these unfathomable aspects of reality (Turner's conception of liminality being a classic example), or it may just implicitly grant them, mapping various social, psychological, or cognitive mechanisms without seeing these as exhaustively capturing the essence of religious phenomena (in this sense, a large part of the anthropological explanation of religion may be said to be implicitly non-reductive). The non-reductive approach is dialogical, denying the hegemonic role of Western rational discourse and seeing the study of other discourses as an opportunity for encountering other possibilities of being, and thus for reflecting the rationalistic self-delusions of modernity. In this way it questions the post-Enlightenment myth of disenchanted secularism, self-reflexively confronting us with the non-rational roots of our own (post-) modern world.
Rights:
unknown

6. Liminalita na druhou : dynamika rituálních změn v basilejské Fasnacht

Creator:
Cieslarová, Olga Věra and Chlup, Radek
Format:
text/pdf
Type:
Article
Subject:
ritual change, ritual creativity, liminality, antistructure, tradition, carnival, Fasnacht, and Study of Religions
Language:
Czech
Description:
Taking the example of the Basel carnival Fasnacht, the paper shows in what way ritual can maintain the impression of being traditional and unchanging, and yet be open to changes and innovations. As the basic conceptual framework, we use the notion of liminality, which Victor Turner identified as the creative moment of ritual. In the Fasnacht this liminal dimension appears in two degrees. The carnival as such represents a reflexive liminal counterpart to the standard social structure, yet it is itself also highly structured and bound by conservative traditional rules. As a reaction to this, there arises within the Fasnacht a "second-degree" liminality in the form of the so-called wild Fasnacht, which turns the official antistructural Fasnacht rules upside down once again, testing their validity. While the carnival structure offers a regulated opportunity for questioning everyday social behaviour, wild Fasnacht questions even this regulated manner of questioning as such, opening space for its reflection and modification. We use detailed examples to demonstrate how the subtle dialectics of structure and antistructure keeps the tradition of Basel's Fasnacht alive and allows it to evolve without destroying its aura of traditionality.
Rights:
unknown

7. Logika symbolů : funkcionalistický strukturalismus Edmunda Leache

Creator:
Chlup, Radek
Format:
text/pdf
Type:
Article
Subject:
Edmund Leach, structuralism, functionalism, myth, symbol, and Study of Religions
Language:
Czech
Description:
The paper analyses the thoughts of Edmund Leach, focusing on those aspects that are relevant to the study of religion. It explains his attempt to combine functionalism with structuralism, showing how Leach attempted to modify the Lévi-Straussian concept of structure by focusing not just on the binary oppositions but also on the liminal interstices between these oppositions. In this way, he was able to account for the specifically religious aspects of myths more successfully than Lévi-Strauss. Hand in hand with this interest went Leach's lifelong interest in the concept of power or "potency" in all the meanings of the term: political, social, sexual, and religious. At the end of the paper it is argued that Leach is interesting in the field of religious studies on account of his ability to combine "explanatory" and "interpretive" approaches, offering a theory of religion that, despite its secular character, manages to avoid reductionism.
Rights:
unknown

9. Struktura a antistruktura : rituál v pojetí Victora Turnera I

Creator:
Chlup, Radek
Format:
text/pdf
Type:
Article
Subject:
Study of Religions
Language:
Czech
Description:
The article gives a survey of Victor Turner's theory of ritual, summarizing its most important points and offering a critical appreciation of them. The first part deals with Turner's early conceptions as sketched in his Ndembu studies of the 1950s-60s. Building up on the new dynamic approach introduced into British anthropology of the 1950s by E. Leach and M. Gluckman, Turner abandoned the static structural model of society, as developed by A. R. Radcliffe-Brown, and focused on the dynamic aspect of social relations, seeing society as a drama in constant flow. Ritual is no longer conceived of as an instrument of stability and conservatism, but rather as an institutional framework enabling social change without letting social relations dissolve altogether. It is an arena in which all the conflicting facets of social life are confronted and have a chance to come to terms. This function of ritual is best seen in the nature of ritual symbols and their ability to connect various poles of meaning, thus mediating between ideal norms of the community and the often adverse individual ambitions of its members. ...
Rights:
unknown

10. Struktura a antistruktura : rituál v pojetí Victora Turnera II

Creator:
Chlup, Radek
Format:
text/pdf
Type:
Article
Subject:
Study of Religions
Language:
Czech
Description:
The article gives a survey of Victor Turner's theory of ritual, summarizing its most important points and offering a critical appreciation of them. The first part deals with Turner's early conceptions as sketched in his Ndembu studies of the 1950s-60s. Building up on the new dynamic approach introduced into British anthropology of the 1950s by E. Leach and M. Gluckman, Turner abandoned the static structural model of society, as developed by A. R. Radcliffe-Brown, and focused on the dynamic aspect of social relations, seeing society as a drama in constant flow. Ritual is no longer conceived of as an instrument of stability and conservatism, but rather as an institutional framework enabling social change without letting social relations dissolve altogether. It is an arena in which all the conflicting facets of social life are confronted and have a chance to come to terms. This function of ritual is best seen in the nature of ritual symbols and their ability to connect various poles of meaning, thus mediating between ideal norms of the community and the often adverse individual ambitions of its members. The article then proceeds to deal with the best known. -- The article then proceeds to deal with the best known aspect of Turner's theory, his concepts of liminality and communitas as presented in The Ritual Process. It was particularly the notion of communitas that was innovative but that could also be criticized in many respects, Turner's own language being frequently imprecise and misleading. It is demonstrated what impact the concepts of liminality and communitas had on Turner's overall theory of ritual. Turner came to stress that all rituals worthy of the name must have something liminal in them, confronting structure with antistructure. No doubt this is a controversial claim and its pros and cons are analysed thoroughly. -- The last part of the article attempts to bring out Turner's importance for the study of religions. It is shown that his concept of liminality makes it possible to distinguish between religious and secular ritual in an interesting manner. At the very end it is emphasized that Turner offers a way of studying religion which is non-reductive and yet avoids theologizing and is firmly rooted in human social experience.
Rights:
unknown

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