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Hinduism religions in Indonesia
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Shamanism
To say the sacred trances of Bali and Java was an inspirational film would be an understatement. The power of the people Bali originating from their faith and belief in their religious convictions was truly amazing. The closest thing in this country to that type of mental state is the state of hypnosis. There religious ceremonies stem from their cultures and the merging of two different worlds. This imergance created a truly remarkable civilization. The film "Sacred Trances of Bali and Java" was just one portion of this society.
Once seeing this film I wanted to research a little more into the world of the Balinese. Families are so close in Bali that each member, be it brother/brother-in-law, sister/sister-in-law, mother and father, uncle and aunt all reside in the same compels. The family dwellings are surrounded by a boundary wall and inside these walls are contained the family temple, commune area, sleeping quarters, gardens and live stock.
Each stage of Balinese life is marked by a series of ceremonies and rituals known as Manusa Yadnya. The first ceremony of Balinese life takes place even before the birth of the child. Another ceremony takes place soon after the birth, during which the afterbirth is buried with appropriate offerings. The first major ceremony takes place halfway through the baby's first Balinese year of 210 days. The Balinese cremation can be an amazing, spectacular, colorful, noisy and exciting event. In fact it often takes so long to organize a cremation that years have passed since the death. During that time the body is temporarily buried while an auspicious day is chosen for the creation. Since a big cremation can be very expensive, less wealthy people may take the opportunity of joining in at a larger cremation, sending their own dead.
These concepts were important for me to realize after watching the film and I returned and watched the film another time after doing some research on this fascinating people.
The trance states and the way in which the people of Bali was the topic of this film.
It showed much symbolism as well as ceremonies. The film centered on the Horse Ritual. To fully understand the ritual and the symbolic meaning of this ritual we must look at the history of these people especially the origin of their modern day religion.
It was hard to find symbolism in this film since their culture was very colonialized. It seemed as though the culture was so European/American that the culture was gone. Even though it was hard, I was still able to find some cultural symbolisms.
The film illuminates the life of the Wampanoag language and cultural meanings. How there had been threats posed to both since the times of European colonization, when the Wampanoag people had put up little resistance. The film is not a recap of the Wampanoag
Of Water and the Spirit is more than simply an account of Malidoma's life and initiation, it is a detailed description of the worldview of a Dagara man, who is forcibly subjected to traditional Western thought for fifteen years and then returns to his home physically, at first, but spiritually only once he goes through initiation, or what the Dagara call the Baar. Malidoma's recount of his story, being very similar to the storytelling of an African Griot, uses amazing imagery that allows the listener to sincerely experience his thoughts and actions and the things he sees, hears, and feels throughout his early life up to now.
The United States is commonly thought to be on an inevitable march towards secularization. Scientific thought and the failure of the enlightenment to reconcile the concept of god within a scientific framework are commonly thought to have created the antithesis of religious practice in the rise of the scientific method. However, the rise of doubt and the perception that secularization is increasing over time has in actuality caused an increase in religious practice in the United States through episodic revivals. Moreover, practice of unbelief has developed into a movement based in the positive assertion in the supplantation of God by the foundations of science, or even in the outright disbelief in God. The perception of increasing secularism in the United States spurs religious revivalism which underscores the ebb and flow of religious practice in the United States and the foundation of alternative movements which combines to form the reality that the United States is not marching towards secularism but instead religious diversity.
The film helps to explain the ambiguity in the motives and actions of the government workers. The government workers and the missionaries both want to do good and help the Aborigines, but their actions are guided by naturally ingrained stereotypes and self interests. The whites view the natives and the Aborig...
Experiencing new worlds and encountering new dilemmas, magic, wisdom, truth: all of these elements characterizes the context of the book Of Water and Spirit by Malidona Patrice Some. Here, magic and everyday life come to an affinity, and respect and rituals are necessary tools to survive. The author portrays the Dagara culture in a very specific way. This culture makes no differentiation between what is natural, or "normal", and what is supernatural, or magical. Ancestors compound the core of communities and individuals. These higher beings are present in ordinary life activities and actions. They constitute the connection between this world and another.
Shamanism has not been a concept with one succinct definition. However, there have been varying extents of specificity within the definition. Mircea Eliade defines shamanism as an archaic technique of ecstasy. In Graham Harvey’s Shamanism: A Reader, he does not unify to one specific construe of shamanism in his writings, preferably he establishes the ambit of controversy and diversity between various definitions to foresight the extent shamanism has in comparison to other definitions. Shamanism, History, and the State by Nicholas Thomas and Caroline Humphrey debate that people have been corrupted with finding one definition of shamanism that they no longer take into account the controversy within the definition. The authors argue that there are two aspects of shamanism that include power and knowledge. More over Atkinson in her writings Shamanisms Today gets ridiculed for defining shamanism in a broader sense. Atkinson defines shamanism as having two main concepts: the psychological state of shamans and the therapeutic value of shamanic healing. Atkinson thinks that the identification of shamanism in relation to altered states of consciousness has become so strong that the two terms are sometimes used interchangeably. To this point, it is learnt that shamanism has a broad range of definitions that begins with an altered state of consciousness and can be as specific as identifying the type of altered state, paradigmatic experiences and a shaman’s ultimate goal. The skepticism of the definition leads to the speculation that these traditions have an original source.
This has been called the realm of the relative and from a shamanic perspective as well as a scientific one this is absolutely true. It is also often overlooked and ignored, although this is one of the biggest mistakes that one can make. Why is this? Let us first look at it from the scientific or Ordinary Reality perspective.
The word “Ethics” has its root in the Greek word ‘ethos’, which means character, spirit and attitude of a group of people or culture. Ethics is defined in the Concise Oxford Dictionary as: a system of moral principles, by which human actions may be judged good or bad or right or wrong, and the rules of conduct recognized in respect of a particular class of human actions.
Did this film have any similarity with any of your own cultural experiences (food, family, values, experiences, religion, symbols)? Please Describe, Compare and/or Contrast with details/examples. Minimum 100 original words. 5 points possible
This powerful film takes us on a journey through the eyes and hearts of four young girls from the Yorta Yorta community. Cynthia, Julie, Gail and Kay shared a love of singing, before Kay was taken away by the government and placed in an institution to learn the ‘the white ways’. The four girls reunited as adults to embark on their own journey through Vietnam, singing as an all Aboriginal girl group
Shamanistic healing, one of the oldest spiritual healing powers, has recently become a topic of interest in modern medicine.
Spiritualism is the system of religious beliefs centered on the presumption that communication with the dead, or spirits, is possible (Grolier '97). Spiritualism challenged dominant cultural beliefs of the 19th century (Paul) and is still in practice today.
Vegetables contain large amounts of Vitamin C which is water-soluble and therefore dissolves in water. So to ensure that most of the vitamin C is not lost in the cooking process the amount of water needs to be minimized.
...director did not limit the film to its historical context but extended the same to romance and fantasy. From a different angle of view, the director made use of the theme to communicate with the viewers and the fictional characters can be considered as his tools. Besides, ample importance is given to historical and fictional characters. In short, the amalgamation of history, fantasy and romance constituted much to the film’s importance as a historical/fictional masterpiece.