¿Actividad cotidiana o práctica ritual? Agrupación de 14 colgantes líticos del Magdaleniense Inferior en la cueva de Praileaitz 1 (Deba, Gipuzkoa)

Homenaje a Ignacio Barandiarán Maestu / coord. por Javier Fernández Eraso, Juan Santos Yanguas

A propósito de una posible escena ritual de caza en el abrigo de Legteitira 5 (Agüenit, Sahara Occidental)

[ES] La presencia de unos personajes humanos con grandes cabezas pintadas en uno de los paneles artísticos del abrigo de Legteitira 5 genera diversas impresiones sobre su significado. A lo extraño de la composición, hay que añadir que se trata, por el momento, de un caso único en el repertorio iconográfico del Occidente del Sahara. La hipótesis de una posible relación con cabezas enmascaradas, en el contexto simbólico de una escena ritual cinegética, pudiera acaso retenerse como argumento explicativo.

Elégùn: Ritual e Formação Humana

Este estudo tem como objetivo central investigar o processo de constituição de identidades ritualístico-culturais dos adeptos dos cultos negros brasileiros a partir dos rituais de iniciação propostos pelas comunidades de cultos. A partir de sua consagração ritualística,os iniciados são denominados elégùn e passam a conviver entre o sagrado, por intermédio da concepção da ancestralidade divinizada, e as relações estabelecidas no devir de sua história. Foi fulcral para este estudo a correlação feita pelos adeptos entre suas práticas ritualísticas e sua formação histórica, social, política e, sobretudo, cultural. Permeado pelas histórias e pelas memórias individuais e, em alguns momentos, coletivas, o estudo entremeia-se aos aportes teóricos de, propondo constante diálogo entre eles. A concepção de que as culturas que se efetivam e se estabelecem mediante relações construídas e vivenciadas no cotidiano são ações profícuas e intensas de identidades próprias cunhou grande parte do referido estudo. Observou-se que a ancestralidade transita pelas diversas esferas vividas pelo elégùn, interagindo, integrando e reelaborando rituais e sujeitos.

Bancos de uso ritual tallados en madera de los indígenas Cubeo y Piratapuyos del Vaupés.

14 hojas : ilustraciones, fotografías a color.

Vasijas y piezas de diseño precolombino de tipo funcional y ritual elaboradas en arcillas en el Huila.

22 hojas : ilustraciones, fotografías a color

The parish priest on duty : a practical manual for pastors, curates, and theological students preparing for the mission : being a brief summary of the prescribed manner of administering the sacraments, the service of the dead, and sundry other pastoral functions in accordance with the Roman Ritual (The Sacraments) / by H.J. Heuser.

http://www.archive.org/details/theparishpriesto00heusuoft

Accurate and Efficient Gesture Spotting via Pruning and Subgesture Reasoning

Gesture spotting is the challenging task of locating the start and end frames of the video stream that correspond to a gesture of interest, while at the same time rejecting non-gesture motion patterns. This paper proposes a new gesture spotting and recognition algorithm that is based on the continuous dynamic programming (CDP) algorithm, and runs in real-time. To make gesture spotting efficient a pruning method is proposed that allows the system to evaluate a relatively small number of hypotheses compared to CDP. Pruning is implemented by a set of model-dependent classifiers, that are learned from training examples. To make gesture spotting more accurate a subgesture reasoning process is proposed that models the fact that some gesture models can falsely match parts of other longer gestures. In our experiments, the proposed method with pruning and subgesture modeling is an order of magnitude faster and 18% more accurate compared to the original CDP algorithm.

Spatiotemporal Gesture Segmentation

Spotting patterns of interest in an input signal is a very useful task in many different fields including medicine, bioinformatics, economics, speech recognition and computer vision. Example instances of this problem include spotting an object of interest in an image (e.g., a tumor), a pattern of interest in a time-varying signal (e.g., audio analysis), or an object of interest moving in a specific way (e.g., a human's body gesture). Traditional spotting methods, which are based on Dynamic Time Warping or hidden Markov models, use some variant of dynamic programming to register the pattern and the input while accounting for temporal variation between them. At the same time, those methods often suffer from several shortcomings: they may give meaningless solutions when input observations are unreliable or ambiguous, they require a high complexity search across the whole input signal, and they may give incorrect solutions if some patterns appear as smaller parts within other patterns. In this thesis, we develop a framework that addresses these three problems, and evaluate the framework's performance in spotting and recognizing hand gestures in video. The first contribution is a spatiotemporal matching algorithm that extends the dynamic programming formulation to accommodate multiple candidate hand detections in every video frame. The algorithm finds the best alignment between the gesture model and the input, and simultaneously locates the best candidate hand detection in every frame. This allows for a gesture to be recognized even when the hand location is highly ambiguous. The second contribution is a pruning method that uses model-specific classifiers to reject dynamic programming hypotheses with a poor match between the input and model. Pruning improves the efficiency of the spatiotemporal matching algorithm, and in some cases may improve the recognition accuracy. The pruning classifiers are learned from training data, and cross-validation is used to reduce the chance of overpruning. The third contribution is a subgesture reasoning process that models the fact that some gesture models can falsely match parts of other, longer gestures. By integrating subgesture reasoning the spotting algorithm can avoid the premature detection of a subgesture when the longer gesture is actually being performed. Subgesture relations between pairs of gestures are automatically learned from training data. The performance of the approach is evaluated on two challenging video datasets: hand-signed digits gestured by users wearing short sleeved shirts, in front of a cluttered background, and American Sign Language (ASL) utterances gestured by ASL native signers. The experiments demonstrate that the proposed method is more accurate and efficient than competing approaches. The proposed approach can be generally applied to alignment or search problems with multiple input observations, that use dynamic programming to find a solution.

Irish neo-paganism: worldview, ritual and identity

Neo-paganism is a vibrant, dynamic global movement, which has had a significant cultural impact. Neo-paganism is an umbrella term for a wide range of spiritual practices, often described as nature- or earth-based spirituality. There are different “paths” or spiritual traditions within this movement, of which Druidry, Wicca and other forms of Pagan Witchcraft are included in this research. The present work is an ethnographic study of the worldview and ritual practices of the Irish neo-pagan community. It is an enquiry into (a) what characterises the neo-pagan worldview and (b) how this worldview is expressed through ritual behaviour. In order to collect data, the methodology of participant observation and ethnographic interviewing was employed. The thesis comprises a collection of “insider” accounts of what it is like to be a neo-pagan in Ireland and analysis of these narratives, which gives insight into different aspects of neopagan culture. In the discussion, the use of mythology is examined in regard to how mythic narrative is connected to identity formation. Irish cultural symbols are observed as resources utilised in the construction of the movement’s overall character. The interconnectedness of the natural landscape, the numinous and mythology gives rise to creative expression through various forms of neo-pagan artworks, which are discussed herein. The identifying features and key issues of Irish neo-pagan culture are addressed. These key issues are expressed as prominent themes and symbols of their discourse. Neo-pagan dialogue often features discussion of the relationship that this cultural group has with the Irish landscape, history, and indigenous and popular Irish religion. Some of the specific aspects of neo-pagan culture examined are magical worldview, the notion of holism, different types of ritual practices (festivals, life cycle rituals, healing), and material culture. The thesis presents an in-depth analysis of neopagan cultural expressions and their significance as cultural processes

Revolution and the ritual year: religious conflict and innovation in Cristero Mexico

This article analyses Catholic responses to persecution of the Church by the Mexican state during Mexico's cristero rebellion (1926–9) and seeks to make a new contribution to the revolt's religious history. Faced with the Calles regime's anticlericalism, the article argues, Mexico's episcopate developed an alternative cultic model premised on a revitalised lay religion. The article then focuses on changes and continuities in lay – clerical relations, and on the new religious powers of the faithful, now empowered to celebrate ‘white’ masses and certain sacraments by themselves. The article concludes that persecution created new spaces for lay religious participation, showing the 1910–40 Revolution to be a period of religious, as well as social, upheaval.