Stone-agency: sense, sight and magical efficacy in traditions of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland
This article examines the materiality and mediality of sacred and ‘magical’ stones in Northern European vernacular belief practices (especially Gaelic traditions). In particular, it considers their attribution to specific deities and metaphysical beings, their role in healing rituals and in enabling...
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| Type de support: | Numérique/imprimé Article |
| Langue: | Anglais |
| Vérifier la disponibilité: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | En cours de chargement...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Publié: |
Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group
[2017]
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| Dans: |
Religion
Année: 2017, Volume: 47, Numéro: 3, Pages: 445-458 |
| Sujets / Chaînes de mots-clés standardisés: | B
Schottland
/ Religiosité populaire
/ Amulette
/ Pierre magique
/ Matérialité
/ Bilderverbot
/ Histoire 1600-1900
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| RelBib Classification: | AG Vie religieuse BD Religions européennes anciennes KBF Îles britanniques TJ Époque moderne |
| Sujets non-standardisés: | B
vernacular traditions
B Esotericism B spirit-beings B antiquarianism B Gaelic culture B Magic B New Materialism B Vitalism B Amulets B Intersubjectivity B subtle matter B Sight |
| Accès en ligne: |
Volltext (doi) |
| Résumé: | This article examines the materiality and mediality of sacred and ‘magical’ stones in Northern European vernacular belief practices (especially Gaelic traditions). In particular, it considers their attribution to specific deities and metaphysical beings, their role in healing rituals and in enabling humans to perceive metaphysical realms. The paper’s focus - via methodologies and theories recently developed in both religious aesthetics and ‘new materialism’ - is on the materiality and ontology of the objects and the associated visions and the ‘relations’ such stones are understood to have produced. As ‘sites’ of divine agency and efficacy the stones (including orthostats, amulets and prehistoric flints) were imbued not only with spiritual agency, but also placed within an invisible network of relations that linked individuals, non-human animals, the landscape and the metaphysical realms. This panoply of relations is crucial to the aesthetic logic guiding selection and ‘attribution’ to specific deities/spiritual beings. The theoretical framework for this discussion explores the degree to which such material culture can be considered ‘aniconic’ and the attendant conceptualisation of ‘efficacy’ and ‘agency’ as applied to interpreting the religious function of the stones. |
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| ISSN: | 0048-721X |
| Contient: | Enthalten in: Religion
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1080/0048721X.2017.1294523 |