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SUMMARY:Monday Meeting: Guest Lecture
DTSTART:20160125T171500Z
DTEND:20160125T184500Z
DTSTAMP:20260501T061114Z
UID:monday-meeting-guest-lecture-2-en-2078@ceres.rub.de
CATEGORIES:
DESCRIPTION:OLFACTION AND XIANGGuest Lecture by Paolo Santangelo\nA  short
  presentation of researches and methods will introduce Paolo  Santangelo's
  theoretical premises and hypotheses on cultural  "contruction" of emotion
 s and sensations\, and their important social  role. A synthesis on anthro
 pological meanings of olfaction and odours  will follow. Some reflections 
 will focus on the analysis of the use of  the term xiang 香\, "incense"
 \,  "fragrance"\, "beauty" on the basis of about 300 selected examples. Th
 e  occurrences of the main terms and their meanings will be commented. Th
 e  most common meaning is incense\, which\, disclosing the way of  communi
 cation between the human being and the supernatural world\, is  used for r
 eligious purposes and ritual ceremonies\, the worship of  divinities and s
 upernatural powers\, or the funerary ceremonies for the  defunct\, an ance
 stors\, a revered saint. Incense has also an important  role in the ritual
 s for solemnise a pledge\, a pact of brotherhood\,  friendship\, marriage\
 , any oath of alliance. Thus incense is mainly the  manifestation of a rel
 igious attitude\, and can also be indicative for  the charisma of a monk o
 r a magician\, as well as the volume of affairs  of a monastery: the effic
 acy in answering to the requests of the  devotees and the miraculous power
  (ling靈)  demonstrated by the divinity or the saint are proportional to 
 the fame  and wealth of the sacred place.  As for the second main meaning
 \, perfume\,  it refers to a relatively large amount of fragrances\, some
  of them of  vegetal or floral origin\, some of supernatural character (fr
 om  immortals\, spirits and gods). In case of fragrance coming from female
 s'  bodies\, it is evident that at the same time their aroma reflects thei
 r  charm. In  the "Peony Pavilion"\, the sanctification of love-passion l
 et the loved  Liniang's body take the place of a saint's relics\, and thus
  she dies and  then resurrects with her whole integer and fragrant body\, 
 and the  mixture of sacred and eroticism is expressed by "heavenly fragran
 ce"\, tianxiang. Analogously several female immortals in Liaozhai have 
  a rare fragrance which derives from their supernatural condition\, while 
  it is evident that their fragrance reflects the desire and admiration  th
 at they provoke in their lovers or in men who deal with them. The  materia
 l is not very rich of information on the kind of religiosity and  the char
 acters of the worship. However\, a few elements are very  interesting for 
 understanding the religious phenomenon. Although the  religious phenomenon
  in China has characters different from other areas\,  and the ritual aspe
 cts are often dominant\, we can notice both inner  fervour and a kind of p
 ersonal relationship with gods and spirits. We  can understand how the rel
 igious attitude is expressed in its  consolatory function\, devotion for b
 egging favours\, worshipping the  supernatural entity\, concentrating in a
 n act that is the manifestation  of an inner state. The metaphor of the in
 cense burning in heart (心香奉佛)  expresses the deep attitude of the 
 devotee. The ceremony centered in  burning and offering incense is often a
 ccompanied by other acts\, like  purification\, sacrifices\, prayers\, and
  opens a special dimension in the  inner experience of the devotee.
LOCATION:CERES Palais\, room "Ruhrpott" (4.13)
URL:https://khk.ceres.rub.de/en/events/monday-meeting-guest-lecture-2-en/
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