Dwelling house in a sacred space: reused synagogues in Germany.

Contribution to the Congress " Sacred and Secular Buildings," Washington, May 1999, describing a project of the Institute of Architecture at the Technical University of Braunschweig in cooperation with the Center for Jewish Art in Jerusalem, which has been working on a documentation of synagogues, cemetery chapels, and ritual baths in Germany since 1994.

Native American sacred places : hearing before the Committee on Indian Affairs, United States Senate, One Hundred Seventh Congress, second session, on the protection of Native American sacred places as they are affected by Department of Defense undertakings.

"July 17, 2002, Washington, DC"--Pt. 2.

A phenomenological study of contemplative experiences : implications for interior design

This research reports on a project concerned with the relationship between the person and the environment in the context of achieving a contemplative or existential state – a state which can be experienced either consciously or subconsciously. The need for such a study originated with the desire to contribute to the design of multicultural spaces which could be used for a range of activities within the public and the personal arena, activities including contemplation, meditation and prayer. The concept of ‘sacred’ is explored in the literature review and in primary interviews with the participants of this study. Given that the word ‘sacred’ is highly value-laden and potentially alienating for some people, it was decided to use the more accessible term ‘contemplative’. The outcomes of the study inform the practice of interior design and architecture which tends currently to neglect the potential for all spaces to be existentially meaningful. Informed by phenomenological methodology, data were collected from a diverse group of people, using photo-elicitation and interviews. The technique of photo-elicitation proved to be highly effective in helping people reveal their everyday lived experience of contemplative spaces. Reflective analysis (Van Manen 2000) was used to explore the data collected. The initial stage of analysis produced three categories of data: varying conceptions of contemplation, aspects of the person involved in the contemplation, and aspects of environment involved in contemplation. From this, it was found that achieving a state of contemplation involves both the person and the environment in a dialectic process of unfolding. The unfolding has various physical, psycho-social, and existential dimensions or qualities which operate sequentially and simultaneously. Two concepts emerged as being central to unfolding: ‘Cleansing’ and ‘Nothingness’. Unfolding is found to comprise the Core; Distinction; Manifestation; Cleansing; Creation; and Sharing. This has a parallel with Mircea Eliade’s (1959) definition of sacred as something that manifests itself as different from the profane. The power of design, re-contextualization through utility and purpose, and the existential engagements between the person and environment are used as a basis for establishing the potential contribution of the study to interior design. In this way, the study makes a contribution to our understanding of how space and its elements inspire, support and sustain person environment interaction – particularly at the existential level – as well as to our understanding of the multi-dimensional and holistic nature of this interaction. In addition, it points to the need for a phenomenological re-conceptualisation of the design/client relationship. In summary, the contributions of this research are: the exploration of contemplative experience as sacred experience; an understanding of the design of space as creating engagement between person and environment; a rationale for the introduction of a phenomenological approach to the relationship between designer and clients; and raising awareness of the spiritual in a holistic approach to design.

Les fleuves dans l'œuvre romanesque de Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio

Relying on Merleau-Ponty's phenomenology of perception and on Mircea Eliade's works on the Sacred and the Profane, this study explores the river as a perceptual space and as the sacred Center in a cosmic vision of the world in twelve of Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio's fictional works, from The Interrogation (1963) to Revolutions (2003). In the first chapter, after introducing the field of study, I discuss the relation between the radical subjectivity and the evasiveness of perceiving subjects in Le Clézio's fiction. Next are some thoughts on the relation between Merleau-Ponty's and Le Clézio's ideas. The second chapter studies the river as an experience in the text, first as a topographical space, then as a sound world. The investigations move on to its water as a visual and a tactile phenomenon. Then follows the human use of the river, the (absence of) baths, and the river as a traveling space. The chapter closes with the study of the metaphorical use of the word, occurring mainly in urban space and for phenomena in the sky. The third chapter is organized around the river as the Center of the world in a religious cosmogony, where the river represents the origin of the world and of the human race. The core analysis shows how the middle of the river is a symbolic space of a new beginning. As a sacred space, the river abolishes time as the object of contemplation and as relative immobility from the point of view of a person drifting downstream. The functions of a new beginning and of abolition of time are combined in the symbolic immersions in the water. Finally, the dissertation explores other symbolical spaces, such as the unknown destination of the drift, and the river as the Center of a utopia. The chapter closes with the existential agony as a result of the elimination of the Center in the urban environment. In the final chapter, the river is compared to other watercourses : the creek, the brook and the rapids. The river is more of a spatial entity, whereas the actual water is more important in the smaller watercourses. The river is more common than the other watercourses as a topographical element in the landscape, whereas the minor watercourses invite the characters to a closer contact with their element, in immersions and in drinking their water. Finally, the work situates the rivers in a broader context of different fictional spaces in Le Clézio's text.

A theoretical perspective of the Telepinu Myth : archetypes and initiation rites in historical contexts

Abstract: Research on the Telepinu Myth (CTH 324) has shown that it is an inexhaustibly rich document and that therefore the different, and sometimes conflicting, lines of analysis need to be pursued further. In the light of the symbolic evidence presented by this mythological tradition, we propose to focus on the privileged position granted to spatial symbols and to hypothesize the function this Myth served in specific contexts of the Hittite history, characterized by the increase and reduction of lands under Hittite jurisdiction. In this regard, we propose to evaluate the symbolic function that the Telepinu Myth displayed in order to rebuild the sacred space of the territories governed by the Hittites, when they were undergoing changes brought about by increased political and military contact with neighboring societies.

A manifestação da fé em Cachoeira Paulista: o espaço sagrado da comunidade Canção Nova 1978-2011

A geografia da religião no Brasil pós 1990, vem apresentando temas que auxiliam os geógrafos no entendimento do espaço. Para o geógrafo da religião, os estudos têm por análise a dimensão espacial da fé, no tempo e no espaço, trata-se da análise de duas categorias: o sagrado e o profano. Esta pesquisa visa como objetivo, o estudo da comunidade católica, a Canção Nova, inserida em um movimento renovador na Igreja Católica Apostólica Romana denominada Renovação Carismática Católica (RCC) em seu espaço e no tempo de fé. Torna-se necessário desenvolver a importância do sagrado no Vale do Paraíba Paulista em seus sucessivos (re) arranjos espaciais na hierópolis de Cachoeira Paulista. A interpretação dessas organizações espaciais ocorreu ao analisar os possíveis agentes modeladores no espaço: peregrinos, turistas, visitantes, comerciantes e moradores. O Espaço Sagrado e seus respectivos espaços vinculados representaram a contribuição geográfica dessa dissertação e facilitou a compreensão do homem com o divino e sua relação na dimensão econômica, a dimensão política e a dimensão do lugar.

A consagração do espaço através da arquitectura

Para podermos falar de Arquitectura e Espaço Sagrado, deveremos começar por estabelecer alguns contornos para o tema, já que, sendo de conteúdos aparentemente simples, ele apresenta diversas hipóteses de compreensão. A primeira questão a colocar, prende-se com o domínio do Sagrado em si mesmo: como primeira hipótese de trabalho, poderemos considerar que é para nós sagrado tudo o que constitui um aforismo. Esse aforismo é identificável dentro de um determinado sistema cultural: aquele a que pertencemos. Ora, ao referirmos um “dentro”, pressupõe-se a existência de um “fora”. É nesta rotura que o Sagrado se manifesta, por oposição ao Profano, ou seja, em oposição ao que lhe é exterior.

O teatro de Deus: a construção do espaço sagrado de juazeiro a partir de narrativas femininas (Ceará, 1889-1898)

In this work, we discuss the construction of Juazeiro in the state of Ceará -, as a sacred space from the analysis of the testimonies of nine religious women called beatas in an Episcopal process in the late nineteenth century. This process was initiated in 1891 to investigate the occurrence of an Eucharistic miracle with beata Maria Magdalena do Espírito Santo de Araújo. We show that the punitive strategies of the Diocese eventually caused a reordering of pilgrimages to Juazeiro which until 1894 worshipped the Precious Blood and that after the condemnation of the phenomena by the Holy See are rearranged around the figure of Father Cicero Romão Batista, under the pretext of worshipping the priest himself and also Nossa Senhora das Dores, currently the patron saint of the city of Juazeiro do Norte.

Santo de casa faz milagre: Luíz da Câmara Cascudo, o padroeiro literário da cidade de Natal

Assuming that the subject is a draft work in permanent invention, the biographical texts, memories written by Luís da Câmara Cascudo, between 1967 and 1969 were read as part of a discursive strategy created by the potiguar memorialist regarding the construction of a self-image profoundly connected to the space of his house, which decisively collaborated so that the province teacher and researcher after announcing his official retirement in 1968 was revered in the city where he had been born, grown up and lived throughout his whole life and considered as the prophet of his own country (or rather, as the literary patron of Natal). Our work begins with some reading about the manner as the potiguar memorialist selected, ordered and spatialized his childhood memories. In the following chapter, we problematized the meanings assigned by Câmara Cascudo to his house in Tirol - where the young prince Cascudinho (little Cascudo) used to live - transformed into the neighborhood principality. It finishes with memories from the retired old man with the purpose of making us think about the sacredness process master Cascudo s house has gone through. The space where he had lived for almost forty years of his life and produced a great part of his works, was elected as a monument in his memory, as his own incarnation, as guarantee of his eternity and perenniality, as a sanctuary and place of worship and have been kept by the actions that, still nowadays, institutionalize it as his sacred space

A produção do espaço sagrado em Quixadá - Ceará: estudo das inter-relações econômicas, socioculturais e o lugar

Pós-graduação em Geografia - IGCE