Ritualising residency: territory cults and a sense of place in Southern Lao PDR

Territory cults in southern Lao PDR exemplify the importance of ritual for the production of locality in an era of mobility. Here, the idea of village expressed in ritual incorporates scattered members who have ties of history and affection to village households—a view of residency that is extra-verted, inclusive and traverses space.

‘In joy we prepare our lessons’: Reading Camus’ Noces via their reception of the Eleusinian mysteries

Nobel Prize winning author Albert Camus situates his meditations in both the opening and closing essays in his 1937 collection Noces by referring to the classical Eleusinian mysteries centring around the myths of Dionysus and the goddesses Demeter and Persephone. Noces’ closing piece ‘The Desert’ directly evokes the two levels of initiation involved in the classical Eleusinian cult in a way which prompts us to reframe the preceding essays beginning at Tipasa as akin to a single, initiatory trajectory. The kind of ‘love of life’ the opening ‘Nuptials at Tipasa’ had so marvellously celebrated, we are now informed, is not sufficient by itself. The entire round of these four essays, whose framing suggest four seasons (Spring in Tipasa, Summer at Algiers, then Autumn in Florence), are intended by Camus to enact just what the title, Noces, suggests in the context of the mysteries: namely, that hieros gamos or sacred union of man with nature or the gods at the heart of the ancient cults, tied very closely at Eleusis with reverence for the fecundity of nature, reborn each year with the return of Persephone from Hades to her grieving mother Demeter.

What’s the difference between a religion and a cult?

It's a sometimes blurry line that distinguishes a religion from a cult. Sociologist Andrew Singleton outlines the hallmarks of cults – beyond weird white tunics and multiple wives.