Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'KINGS AND CULTS'

The topic of divine kingship in Mesopotamia, and in the Ur III period (ca. 2112-2004 B.C.E.) in particular, has been the subject of studies focused on aspects such as its ideology, rhetoric, political motivation, and place in the history of religion. This dissertation is concerned with more pragmatic aspects of the phenomenon, and investigates what, if any, effect the institution of divine kingship had on day-to-day life. The Ur III period was selected both because four of its five kings were deified during their lifetime, and over 95,000 administrative, i.e. non-ideologically oriented, records dating to this period are available for analysis. The main focus of this thesis is on cult, the essential signifier of divinity in that society, and, specifically, on the manner in which the cult of the deified king was established, extended, and popularized. The primary source utilized was the Base de Datos de Textos Neo-Sumerios (BDTNS). The first chapter demonstrates that at the center of the cult of the deified king were effigies that underwent numerous ritual treatments and were housed in both their own and in other deities' temples, and that in these respects the king's cult was identical to those of the traditional gods. A list of the individual statues and their locations is provided, in chronological order of attestation. Areas where ramifications of the king's godhood might be identified outside of cult are also addressed. The chapter is bracketed by discussions of divine kingship in the immediately preceding (Sargonic) and following (Isin-Larsa) periods, for comparative purposes. The second chapter provides evidence that processions of cult statues by boat and chariot, and offering before them at specific festivals and sites outside of temples were relatively common events. As cult images of the deified kings were among those so treated, it is clear that the Ur III kings saw the benefit of these practices, with their concomitant festivities, banquets and entertainment, for publicizing their own cult among the largely illiterate populace. In addition, I analyzed the movements and activities of the king himself, as recorded in the administrative archives. These show that the kings were frequently in the public eye as they traveled, mainly by boat, among the cities of southern Babylonia, to ritual events both in- and outside of temple settings. The third chapter addresses the issue of the effect of the concerted efforts to publicize the king's cult on the population at large. settling on onomastics as the best proxy for determining the public's reaction available. Two hundred and sixty-seven individual names in which the name of the deified king was used as a theophoric element are identified, with Šulgi, the second Ur III king and the first of that dynasty to be deified during during his life, the most popular honorée by far. I examine the statements that the holders of these names are making about a particular divine king, and show that virtually all such names have a counterpart incorporating the name of a traditional deity. I also provide a representative sampling of the people who were given or had adopted such names in terms of their sex, ethnicity, and job title or function in order to determine if this practice was limited to a particular demographic, and conclude that it was widespread, affecting all levels of society. From this I deduce that the deliberate efforts of the kings to popularize their cult may be termed successful. An appendix contains two tables summarizing the onomastic material. Table A lists all of the names in which the king's was incorporated as the theophoric element, along with their translation. Table B provides the data that was used to differentiate among the individual persons who bore one of the names listed in Table A.
Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations

The pakhāvaj occupies a unique position in the classical music scene of contemporary India. Identified with the ancient mṛdaṅga and associated with kings and gods, played in the Hindustani tradition of the court dhrupad and in the temple music of various sects, it is the most respected of the Indian drums by musicians as well as the most authoritative, according to textual sources; it is an auspicious drum and multiple origin myths explain its creation; its repertoire includes compositions which musicians connect to literature in Sanskrit or vernacular languages and to prayer. Notwithstanding its relevance in Indian music, there are no specific studies on the pakhāvaj and above all about its language, repertoire, and its unique position connecting sacred and secular music. This dissertation fills the gap with a study of the pakhāvaj of Nathdwara, its history, aesthetics and repertoire. Furthermore, joining ethnographic, historical, religious and iconographic perspectives, it provides a multifaceted interpretation of the role and function of the pakhāvaj in royal courts, temples and contemporary stages, and the first analysis of the visual and narrative contents of its repertoire. It also contributes to the understanding of the language, idea and role of drums and drumming in Indian court and temple music, and their relationship over the last two millennia.

The cult of King Charles the martyr did not appear out of nowhere in January 1649; rather the component parts were constructed during Charles' captivity and were readily available to preachers and eulogists in the weeks and months after the regicide. However, it was during the Republic that the political theology surrounding the martyr was developed; emphasising the martyrs radical innocence, the crime of regicide and the dangers of bloodguilt. As such the figure of the martyr, and the shared set of images and assumptions surrounding him, contributed to the survival of a distinctly Royalist and Anglican outlook during the years of exile. With the Restoration, the cult was given official sanction by the inclusion of the Office for the 30th January in the Book of Common Prayer. The political theology surrounding the regicide and a particular historiography of the Civil Wars were presented as the only orthodox reading of these events. Yet from the Exclusion Crisis onwards other, discordant voices were heard challenging the Royalist Anglican interpretation of the wars and the position of Charles. In these circumstances the cult began to fragment between those who retained the political theology of the 1650s and those who adapted the cult to reflect the changing political and dynastic circumstances of 1688 and 1714. A study of the cult reveals the extent to which political debate in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries was conducted in terms of the Civil Wars. It also goes some way to explaining the persistence of conservative assumptions and patterns of thought.

King Cnut IV of Denmark reigned from 1080 to 1086. After his death a saint's cult celebrating him was established at Odense. However, little is known about him outside of Denmark. This is in part due to the limited accessibility of the texts about Cnut. This thesis provides a new edition of the hagiographical writings pertaining to King Cnut IV, for the first time accompanied by an English translation of the texts and a historical commentary on them. These important texts have previously been inaccessible to those students of history without the necessary translation skills. Thus, this thesis does not only aim to make these texts available to a new readership within academia, but by doing so to also encourage a deeper understanding of the life and cult of Cnut IV. The introduction seeks to sift historical fact from hagiographic fiction before presenting the two new editions. It begins by outlining the reign of Cnut IV, and the story of his death. This outline is followed by an introduction into the transmission, contents and dating of the two texts written to honour Cnut. It explores the context in which they were composed, and presents some theories about the reasons behind their composition and the possible identity of the author of the Gesta Swenomagni. The following chapters offer a closer examination of the cult of St Cnut. The liturgical as well as the artistic evidence for the cult of Cnut are surveyed in Chapters 3(c) and 3(d). The main body of the thesis is comprised of a new edition of AElnoth's Gesta Swenomagni. Based on the two surviving manuscripts and several earlier printed editions, it endeavours to reproduce the text as closely to the original as possible, without making any unmentioned 'corrections' to the grammar or language, as some of the older editions have done. It is accompanied by a historical commentary and an English translation, the first of its kind for this text. A new edition of the earlier Passio Sancti Kanuti is presented as the last part of the thesis, also accompanied by an English translation. This work will allow students without language skills in Latin and Danish easier access to the texts about St Cnut, and thus draw this intriguing saint to the attention of a wider international scholarship

Este trabalho centra-se na importância da figura do rei do Congo, que têm, neste enfoque específico, sua origem na instituição sociopolítica africana no Reino do Congo, já existente na África, pela constituição de reinos ou impérios, antes da chegada dos portugueses, sendo a figura deste rei introduzida na metrópole portuguesa, por volta do século XV, por uma formulação teatral de uma embaixada congolesa. Neste contexto, tinham por atores a comunidade africana reunida em Lisboa, à volta da Confraria de Nossa Senhora do Rosário, que possuía o beneplácito das autoridades. A documentação, embora rara nos séculos XVI e XVII, aparecem com freqüência no século XVIII e, já então simultaneamente em Portugal e no Brasil, sendo esta reprodução teatral inserida pela autoridade da Igreja Católica como a instituição que legitima o poder deste rei. Esta figura chega em território brasileiro como elemento de mediação e controle entre as autoridades locais e os africanos e, é no interior da Igreja Católica, com as irmandades, que a figura do rei do Congo ocupa seu novo cenário de ação, até o século XIX. No século XX, com novo perfil dual, entre o sagrado e o profano, transita a representação da figura do rei do Congo, em um artifício de sustentação de uma cultura identitária, para o maracatu-nação tradicional, sendo os terreiros de xangô pernambucano ou candomblé sua instância de fixação no espaço do sagrado. Na atualidade, em pleno século XXI, a figura do rei tem como significado, para além da esfera religiosa, a interação cultural afro-pernambucana e o retorno a teatralidade como função simbólica da valorização às origens africanas. Esta pesquisa busca analisar através do conceito de plausibilidade social de Peter Berger, a idéia de que a realidade é construção social, a partir das representações e desdobramentos da figura do rei do Congo, em primeira instância como uma figura idealizada, depois como elemento de controle e, após 1888, transitando da esfera do sagrado dos xangôs pernambucanos, para a corte do maracatu-nação. Neste sentido, buscamos trazer à luz, o contexto do sagrado ancorado em Mircea Eliade, que possibilita traduzir a história da hierofania do rei do Congo, na construção e na trajetória por diferentes espaços do sagrado. Palavras-chave: maracatu-nação tradicional, cultura negra, afro-brasileiro, sagrado, rei.
This assignment concentrates on the importance of the figure of the king of Congo, that has, on this specific focus, its origin in the African socio-political institution in the kingdom of Congo, already existing in Africa, by the constitution of kingdoms and empires, before the arrival of the Portuguese, being the figure of this king introduced in the Portuguese metropolis around the XV century by a theatrical formulation from a Congolese embassy. In this context they had the African communities gathered in Lisbon as actors, around the confraternity of Our Lady of the Rosary that had the athorities approval. The documentation, although rare in the XVI and XVII centuries, often appeared in the XVIII century, and even then simultaneously in Portugal and in Brazil, being this theatrical reproduction inserted by the authority of the Catholic Church as the institution that legitimates the power of this king. This figure arrives in the Brazilian territory as a mediation and control element among the local authorities and the Africans, and it is inside the Catholic Church, with the brotherhoods, that the figure of the king of Congo occupies its first action scenery until the XIX century. In the XX century, with a new dual profile between the sacred and the profane, transits the representation of the king of Congo in a sustentation artifice of an identity culture for the maracatu-nação tradicional, being the Pernambucan xangô or candomblé location of fetichism its fixation instance in the sacred space. Nowadays, right in th XXI century, the figure of the king as its meaning, beyond the religious sphere, the Afro-Pernambucan cultural interaction and the return of theatricality as a symbolic function of the valorization of the African origins. This research ties and analyses, through Peter Bergers concept of social plausibility the idea that reality is a social construction from the representations and the unfoldings of the figure of the king of Congo, in its first instance as an idealized figure, afterwards as a control element, and after 1888, transiting from the sacred sphere of the Pernambucan sangô to the court of maracatu-nação tradicional. In this sense, we try to bring to light the concept of sacred anchore on Mircea Eliade, that makes it possible to translate the history of hierophany of the king of Congo, in the construction and in the trajectory through different spaces of the sacred.

This thesis examines the development the cult of St Margaret at Dunfermline as a royal cult from 1070, the moment when St Margaret married King Malcolm III at Dunfermline, to 1420, the year of the burial of Robert duke of Albany who was the last royal member to be buried at Dunfermline. Scholars have focused on the life of St Margaret and her reputation or achievement from the biographical, institutional and hagiographical point of view. Although recent historians have considered St Margaret as a royal saint and Dunfermline as a royal mausoleum, they have approached this subject with relatively simple patterns, compared to the studies of the cults of European royal saints and their centres, in particular, those of English and French Kingdoms which influenced Scottish royalty. Just as other European royal cults such as the cults at Westminster and St-Denis have been researched from the point of view of several aspects, so the royal cult at Dunfermline can be approached in many ways. Therefore, this thesis will examine the development of Dunfermline Abbey as a royal cult centre through studying the abbey and the cult of St Margaret from the point of view of miracles and pilgrimage, lay patronage, and liturgical and devotional space. The examination of St Margaret’s miracles stories and pilgrimage to Dunfermline contribute to understanding these stories in the context of the development of the cult. The study of lay patronage explains the significance of royal favour and non-royal patrons in relation to the development of the cult, and how and why the royal cult developed and declined, and how the monks of Dunfermline promoted or sustained the cult of the saint. Lastly, the research of the liturgical and devotional space provides an explanation of the change of liturgical space from the point of view of the development of the cult.

Le contexte et le processus de fondation de la monarchie sacrée du Burundi demeurent mal connus malgré plusieurs études qui ont été déjà effectuées sur ce sujet. Le problème se situe au niveau des sources qui ont été utilisées pour étudier l’histoire lointaine de ce pays. Des sources qui sont fondamentalement légendaires, mythiques et symboliques et contiennent peu de données historiques ont été utilisées comme sources historiques et l’on a abouti à une histoire-légende et mythique. Bien que ces sources ne permettent pas de reconstituer le passé historique lointain de cette ancienne monarchie et de connaître son processus de formation sans être complétées par d’autres disciplines auxiliaires à l’histoire et confrontées à ces dernières, elles sont incontournables pour la connaissance de la mémoire, de la mentalité et de la vision générale de la vie et du monde des Barundi hier et aujourd’hui. Elles constituent une sorte de miroir et de véhicule de la pensée des anciens Barundi et montrent comment ces derniers pensaient, organisaient et vivaient le monde sur presque tous les points de vue. Leur approfondissement a permis de comprendre la mentalité populaire, l’idéologie politique de la monarchie sacrée, ses fondements socioculturels et son organisation. Le discours sur les origines du Burundi montre également la nature et le type des institutions politiques, culturelles et sociales et leur hiérarchie. Son approfondissement ainsi que celui des données diversifiées que nous avons utilisées dans cette thèse sur le plan historique, ethnographique et linguistique ont également permis de trouver que la monarchie sacrée du Burundi était une théocratie. Sur le plan général, le religieux précède, crée le politique et le supplante. La religion donne sens à la vie, de la naissance à la mort et après celle-ci. Sur le plan social, la population burundaise était subdivisée dans sa grande majorité en quatre grandes composantes sociales :les Baganwa dont la mission était l’exercice du pouvoir politique et administratif et les groupes des Bahutu, des Batutsi et des Batwa qui étaient constitués selon des critères socioéconomiques. Sur le plan familial, les Barundi étaient et sont encore subdivisés en plusieurs groupes familiaux dont les membres sont différemment répartis dans les trois catégories sociales selon leur capacité économique. Le mode de formation, d’évolution, de rejet, d’adoption de ces groupes familiaux et leur organisation montre en quoi ces derniers étaient les piliers et les supports de la vie sociale. Il montre également à quel point l’organisation des groupes familiaux est un élément essentiel pour la connaissance de l’évolution de l’histoire sociale, politique et culturelle du Burundi.
Doctorat en Histoire, art et archéologie
info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

碩士
國立交通大學
客家文化學院客家社會與文化學程
99
This study was based on the research of Tungshih local history. On the one hand, this study focus on researching the origin of belief of Three Mountain Kings, on the other hand, interpret the uniqueness and regionalism of Three Mountain Kings by situation of holding ritual. The contribution of this study is to draw a conclusion to collect the alternation of belief in the Three Mountain Kings by rituals of Haven Gods, Mazu, Kuanti, and Earth God. First, this study reviewed the literature of Tungshih development history in eighteen and nineteen centuries, and drawing the connection of Tungshih development, the origins of forerunners, and believers of the Three Mountain Kings by the epitaphs and literatures from field survey. Second, this study concluds the commonality and difference in the festival of the Three Mountain Kings in Tungshih by collecting the related data and comparing the ritual activities through attending pilgrimage, and rewarding the god troops. According to the analysis of the data, the finding of this study showed that the belief was more traditional when people near aboriginal defense line. On the other hand, the belief in reserve area had more variation and declined. Finally, to figure out the reason of this distribution, this study analyzed the relationship between the Three Mountain Kings and the other gods, like Haven Gods, Mazu, Kuanti, and Earth God. This study showed the status transition of the cult of Three Mountain Kings in Tungshih was affected by other gods. Key words: Tungshih、cult、The Three Mountain Kings、Haven God, Mazu, Kuanti, and Earth God, Hakka

In this dissertation, I investigate the impact of the extended religious and political elements in the ancient Near East of the Late Bronze period that influenced the reigns of Hattušili III, his consort, Queen Puduhepa, circa 1267 to 1237 BCE and their son Tudhaliya IV circa 1237 to 1228 BCE. As rulers of the Hittites, they were not the greatest and most influential royals, like the great Suppiluliuma I circa 1322 to 1344 BCE, but their ability to adopt an eclectic approach similar to that of their great predecessors regarding religion, politics, international diplomacy and signing treaties made this royal triad a force to be reckoned with in the ancient Near East. Therefore, central to this investigation will be the impact of Hattušili III’s usurpation of the throne and Puduhepa’s role in the Hurrianisation of the state cult and pantheon. Also included is a brief investigation into the continuation of the reorganisation and restructuring of the Hittite state cult and local cult inventories by Tudhaliya IV and his mother Puduhepa after the death of Hattušilli III. By researching this royal triad, their deities, their Hurro-Hittite culture and the textual evidence of their rule, it becomes possible to assemble some of the elements that impacted on their rule. I have used available transliterated translated texts and pictures to support and illustrate the investigation of this complex final period in the history of the Hittite Empire.
Biblical and Ancient Studies
MA (Ancient Near Eastern Studies)

The question leading this study is whether or not the contents of Hezekiah‘s storehouses and treasuries (2 Ki 20:13, 2 Chr 32:25-28 and Is 39:2) defy or reflect the reality of the Judaean domestic economy in the late 8th – early 7th century BCE. I have adopted a multidisciplinary and holistic approach, considering the literary, political, economic, religious, and socio-cultural dimensions of Hezekiah‘s reign. The study concludes that revenue from agriculture could not have been Hezekiah‘s only source of income. Local goods and taxes were insufficient in volume and value to account for the extent of Hezekiah‘s wealth. While the religious reforms and cult centralisation introduced by Hezekiah would have generated considerable income, alternative sources must have been available to the king. Tolls, taxes, and customs imposed on the international trade traversing the Levant contributed significantly. Examination of the available archaeological evidence reflects a prosperous economy, one that favoured a powerful minority.
Biblical and Ancient studies
M. A. (Biblical Archaeology)

This thesis investigates the period in Judah which took place precisely a century between the death ofHezekiah (687 BCE) and the final fall of Jerusalem (587 BCE) Seldom has a nation experienced so many dramatically sudden reversals of fortune in so relatively short a time. Throughout the first half of the seventh century BCE the Assyrian empire reigned supreme. In the second half, in rapid succession, Judah, as a vassal, experienced periods of independence and of subjection, first to Egypt, then to Babylonia, before finally destroying herself in a futile rebellion against the latter. The aim of the thesis was to set Judah in the global context and investigate the role she played. To this end the Great Powers, namely Assyria, Egypt and Babylonia were surveyed, as well as were the Small Powers, like Judah, Phoenicia and the Transjordanian states, and the relationships probed. The thesis traces the life of the wicked but extraordinarily successful King Manasseh, and his equally reprobate son, Amon, who was brutally murdered by his servants, and was avenged by 'the people of the land'. Josiah is the only monarch who fits the Deuteronomistic requirements of a good king. Religious and national reform generally go hand in hand with politics, and the cultic reform and centralization of the cult characterise his reign. · With the fall of Assyria, the temporary surge into prominence by Egypt and the tragic death of Josiah in 609 BCE, Judah experienced radical political fluctuations and with them alternate subjugation by, and rebellion against, each of the major powers. Inexperienced leadership and a situation of dual kings, followed Josiah's death. The rapidly changing international scene demanded of the rulers of Judah skillful manoeuvring and exceptional adaptability, and frequently confronted them with ominous political situations. Judaean leaders and the puppet King Zedekiah, propped up by false prophets, failed to grasp the shift in the balance of power, and clung to questionable Egyptian aid against the new world power, Babylonia. Highly vulnerable and left in the lurch, Jerusalem faced protracted siege and famine in Jerusalem, destruction ofthe Temple, and deportation ofthe cream ofher people.
Classics and Modern European Languages
D. Litt. et Phil. (Judaica)

Diachronic comparison of three political and religious systems of three independent geographical areas (ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Syria Palestine) with the faith of ancient Israel shows certain aspects important for the kerygmatic theological message of Tanach as well as the New Testament. Significance of the king, priest, prophet, and religious ceremonies in the temple is derived from their specific understanding of the divine. However, their religious systems completely lack (with the exception of Israel) eschatology. The message about the transcendent/immanent God Lord (Jesus' Father) is impossible to reconstruct from the available sources through diachronic methodology. Furthermore it cannot be understood as a mere result of religious synchronic redefinition of the Scriptures. The New Testament transforms the Old Testament religious system to narrative kerygma about the sacrifice of both Father and Son. It speaks about the Risen Lord, who is able to reconcile God with his adherent. Such a message is unheard of (unexpected) in the Second Temple Judaism. Even the Church Fathers do not interpret Christ's conscious ebed-like sacrifice along the lines of the ritual forgiveness of the OT. Based on the scholarly analyses from the proponents of the so called Prague school, as well as those coming from theologians stressing the paradigm of biblical interpretation through the event of resurrection, this dissertation concluded in the subject matter of soteriological transformation of the sacrifice the following: Agnus Dei, with his crucifixion being a ritual slaughter, founds the new community through his own Pasch, which has also the futuristic (eschatological) aspect both in the NT and in the faith of the early Church. The meaning of this sacrifice will be actualized in 'drinking of the chalice' by the Lord Jesus with the resurrected Church in the coming new Creation. Thus, the Eucharist becomes a unique 'cultic' homage (Temple ceremony) through existential acceptance of the risen Lord. The same concept can be found at the heart of the Patristic thinking (inclusive paradigm of Christ's sacrifice, that is Christian obedience even unto death) . The Fathers understood the sacrifice as means of overcoming alienation from God by metamorphosis of one's life based on Christ's sacrifice not to God, but to people. Such a sacrifice is life-giving activity of the Lord God himself and is able to renew the life of God's people and make them heirs to the eternal life.