Traumsucht (German Edition)

Translation of version in German

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As mentioned before, im- portant assumptions of the following papers are a that sacred space and spaces are created in a certain sense, b that the sacred itself is spatially constituted, and c that the spatial dimension of the sacred is rather to be conceived within a notion of spati- alization.

How can we understand space and spaces in this way? Certainly, this paper cannot give a final answer to these questions. As this actor is essentially corporeal, his or her corporeal extendedness and situated- ness appears as the practical pivot of all spatiality of human praxis — and this refers to the spatiality of physical spaces as well as to the spatiality of imagined spaces or of 6 Important for such an interpretation are especially Werlen and here especially pp. Creating and Representing Sacred Spaces metaphors. This we can call the spatial form.

Every practical articulation of this spatial form we can call a concrete spatiality conceived as a specific kind and con- figuration of extendedness and relational positioning, distanciation and proximity. And as this praxis is a symbolically mediated praxis, spatiality can be conceived as sym- bolically constituted. Note that this includes not only material spaces but also immate- rial spaces, since they are the product of imagination or of symbolic practices using spatial symbolisms as meaningful media in fields of metaphor, abstraction, constitu- tion of knowledge and other kinds of sociocultural structures.

Rather, the distinction between the formal criteria of being spatial and the concrete spatialities makes it possible to analyze all kinds of spaces on the same logical level of concreteness. In this perspective the mentioned no- tion of abstract space is also a concrete symbolically constituted spatiality, and its prac- tical use as an absolute fundamental level is but one specific spatial praxis characteristic for Western scientific thought. Important to note here is, that referring to the corporeal extendedness and situatedness of the actor does not determine the dimensional and ma- terial qualities of concrete spatiality.

In the Western tradition spatiality often appears as three-dimensional with respect to extendedness and as exclusive with respect to the oc- cupation of positions in space. Likewise, the derivation of the spatial from the practical agency of the actor does not necessarily lead to a egocentric conceptualization of space we are all too familiar with in the Indo-European traditions.

This seems to con- tradict most of our intuitive experiences with and in space. But if we conceive of space as constituted within processes of symbolic mediation these intuitively felt contradic- tions disappear. For the processes of symbolic mediated constitution of space, corporeal qualities of the actor like three-dimensionality, corporeal exclusiveness, egocentric lat- erality, etc. Others are, for example, the corporeal actor as being an integral part in an encompassing space, in a general coordinate system or in different modes of material and immaterial existence. Thus, we can find in the eth- nographic literature examples of conceptions of space which do not rely on egocentric categories as left and right, but on points and directions of orientation within concrete regions or coordinate systems, or we can find examples of conceptions of spherical space within which a place can be present at different locations at the same time.

Symbolic Mediation as Spatialization Human praxis is, as mentioned before, not only to be conceived as corporeal and there- fore as spatial, but also as symbolically mediated. These processes of symbolic media- tion involve the establishment of a relationship I called identity of form as a product of the interaction of sense experience and structuring symbolic principles. What does this mean for an understanding of the spatial dimension of human praxis? In the processes of symbolically referring to space given symbols are not merely attached to given spa- tial structures.

Rather, these processes have to be conceived as spatialization of sym- bolic structures. If symbols are to mediate something spatial, they have to do this in the spatial form: Spatializing in this sense means the process of getting extended and getting positioned, distanciated and approximated within an extension. And symbols take on this form as part of structur- ing principles they articulate and they use to evoke meaning.

In using a word to des- ignate a spatial object like a house this word symbolically mediates a spatial object and constitutes in the very same moment the context of form which makes it possible for us to conceive this object as a specific spatial object within a concrete spatiality like a human settlement. But the symbol can do this only because it is part of a symbolic structure within which the word house can take on a specific value in relation to other symbols and which is characterized as being spatial in a specific way.

But what consequences have to be drawn for the understanding of concrete forms of symbolic mediation as representations or ritual symbolisms if we conceive symbolic mediation as spatialization of symbolic structures? The most important consequence to be drawn is, that the spatial dimension of the sacred is not reducible to the function of sacred spaces — material as well as immaterial!

Created in processes of spatialization of symbols, concrete spatialities have a much more differentiated function in relation to the sacred which is constituted itself GBA Creating and Representing Sacred Spaces in and through these processes of spatialization. To reach a clearer understanding of these functions further analysis has to proceed on two levels which provide the logical and practical contexts within which symbols take on the spatial form in getting spati- alized: The Spatial as Object, Sensuous Substratum and Meaningful Medium According to the theoretical argument developed above spaces and spatial relation- ships as part of the domain of sense experiences can be object, sensuous substratum and meaningful media of symbolic praxis.

Translation by Vocabulix

Analyzing the spatial as object of symbolic mediation means to analyze space as be- ing created to be locality of action and bearer of meaning, or as being object of in- terpretative and conceptional efforts. The spatial appears here as spaces to be materi- ally shaped and intellectually understood. With regard to representations and rituals, questions as the following ones have to be asked: The spatial appears as sensuous substratum if symbols have a spatial dimension which is sensuously experienced and which is essential to the function of these sym- bols as symbols.

Take for example architecture. It deals with extended spaces of a cer- tain kind, and the attempt to spatialize symbolically the sacred through architecture has to accept the structural conditions of this form of shaping spaces. The possibilities and restrictions of architectural forms as, for example, the rules of statics or the visual im- pression of architectural elements are the essential conditions of such a symbolic me- diation, and understanding these conditions is essential for an understanding of ar- chitectural representation of the sacred or the use of architecture in rituals.

The spatial can become a meaningful medium if the spatial is not only the material dimension of symbols, but if in turn meaning is evoked by referring to spaces and spa- tial relations. Note that this reference to space, e. The following issues thus arise for an analysis of rituals and of representations of sacred space and spaces: Creating and Representing Sacred Spaces 21 their possibility of being used as a meaningful medium of representations and rituals? Thus, to control a concrete space in its material- ity as space can also mean to control the meaning present in this space.

The consequence is that symbolic structures can be instrumentalized and manipu- lated in and through their spatiality. Empirical Perspectives on Concrete Spatialities The second level mentioned before as being relevant for analyzing the spatializing of symbols emerges because concrete spatialities are very complex on the level of em- pirical observation.

As in every empirical observation there are different perspectives necessary to reach an encompassing picture of the phenomena. To grasp spaces and spatial structures in a differentiated and encompassing manner, I believe there are at least four possible perspectives. Two of them are widely known and used chiefly in both empirical descriptions and comparative literature.

The first of these is the perspective of complex spatialities. The second one is the perspective of spatial patterns we can find in different con- texts. In the empirical material we can find many different kinds of such patterns: These kinds of spatialities and spatial structures are well known. But it is doubtful whether these perspectives are sufficient for an understanding of space differentiated and en- compassing enough to understand the spatial dimension of symbolic mediation and thus representations of sacred space and spaces.

Unfortunately, it is beyond the scope of this text to elaborate on the ontological, epistemological and methodological prob- lems of the two perspectives on empirically given space mentioned so far. But I want to outline two other perspectives to show that we should not restrict our empirical un- derstanding of space to the perspectives of complex spatialities and spatial patterns in the sense outlined.

If we look at complex spatialities and spatial patterns, it becomes clear that they are not reducible to a single kind of spatiality. We cannot reduce them to a single schema which is used in all forms of symbolic mediation in the same way. Rather, there are many different ways of becoming a spatiality: Creating and Representing Sacred Spaces a spatiality which I would like to call modes of spatiality.

Such modes are not re- stricted to a certain kind of concrete spatiality or a certain kind of symbolic praxis. They can be found in different concrete spatial contexts and in one spatial context we can find several modes of spatialities side by side, in a complementary relationship or in an antagonistic one. This perspective of general modes of spatiality seems important for a deeper under- standing of space because it shows us general principles of spatial structuring. But this means to reduce the descrip- tive value of the concept.

The perspective of the modes of spatiality makes a specific kind of complexity of the spatial accessible for analysis. The complexity of concrete spatialities appears in this perspective not only as a complexity of content and symbolic structures but also as a complexity of the practical use of different modes of spatiality.

This is especially of import in approach- ing complex spatialities within which different religious traditions exist. Take for ex- ample the religious praxis in a village in Fiji I was able to observe during my field- work. I spent a total of ten months in Levuka, Nabukelevu on Kadavu and another five months in Suva. Most of the Levukans do not see a contradiction between these two parts of their religious praxis as they are lived out today. But the two parts use different modes of spatiality to articulate themselves. The practices and beliefs related to the ancestors refers to space in a very material and place-bound way: The ancestors are believed to be present on the land, and the land itself has to be maintained and pro- tected as a physical entity.

On the other hand there are the practices of Chris- tian worship. The relation of the Christian god to the space of Levuka is very different from the one the ancestors have. The Christian god is a god in heaven, not a god pre- sent materially on the land. He gave the land as part of his creation, and, being al- mighty, he can interfere — but he does not distinguish special places on the land. Even the church is not a place comparable to the vanua tabu, the powerfully charged places of the ancestors.

The sacredness of the church, so to say, does not arise out of the per- manent presence of sacred qualities derived from a divine presence but out of the act of worship as a social event. Thus, the church is not only the place of sacred experi- ence. It is also the place for the articulation of social and political relations and con- flicts as for example the seating arrangements show, which derive from both the litur- gical order and the socio-political structures of the village.

In sum, the concrete spati- ality of Levuka is not to be conceived as a homogenous space filled with different meanings deriving from different traditions. Instead, the different religious traditions refer to the spatial in different ways using different modes of spatiality: But what does this mean for the understanding of representations of sacred spatiali- ties or of rituals in relation to sacred spatialities? If the complexity of spaces is not just a complexity of content and symbolic structures but also of different modes of spatial- ity, we have to analyze representations and rituals from an additional perspective.

It is, for example, not enough to describe the different symbolic structures as charging one and the same space just with different meanings. We have to analyze also their rela- tionships to modes of spatiality and the logic of the representation or the ritual in its relationship to the modes of spatiality in constituting different spatialities in an entity which appeared at first sight as one and the same space. Creating and Representing Sacred Spaces So far, I have talked about complex spatialities and spatial patterns as well as about modes of spatiality.

It might appear as if these perspectives refer to spatial phenomena as isolated spatial entities. To avoid such a conclusion, I will have to stress a last point: On the level of complex spatialities, for example, this means that the processes of constituting concrete spatialities do not deal with spatiali- ties being isolated from each other.

Rather, every spatiality is part of encompassing contexts which are practically constituted and which are part of the constitution of the spatialities as entities of concrete practices. It follows that we have to conceive of spa- tialities as part of a concrete spatial totality of a sociocultural praxis. Thus, the con- crete meaning of a sacred spatiality does not emerge out of the relationship of the sa- cred praxis and an isolated space.

Rather, this meaning is constituted in relation to an encompassing spatiality which can be conceived of as being generated in the complex relationships between the interconnected parts of a sociocultural praxis and their spe- cific spatialities. For example, the way a concrete place becomes a sacred place is not only related to the processes of spatialization in a given sacred praxis, but also to the value of places as places and to the value of this particular place as a specific place in a given sociocultural praxis that the sacred praxis itself is part of.

Sommersehnsucht in Paris (Verliebt in Paris 4) (German Edition)

The meaning of places of pilgrimage, for example, emerges not only out of their relationship to the sacred, but also from being a part of structures of transport, communication, controlled access, consumption, and tourism which have their own logics of spatial structuring and which work together to generate the spatiality encompassing the specific place of pilgrimage.

Instead of a Conclusion: Dimensions of Symbolically Mediated Concrete Spatiali- ties The theoretical thoughts developed so far should have made clear that the relationship between space and the sacred cannot be conceived and described within a framework of a single kind of relation reducible to single ontological absolute notion of space. In addition, particular spaces seem to be much more than passive locations or passive representations of a sacred realm constituted autonomously from its spatial articula- tion.

To develop a perspective differentiated enough to cope with these insights, the outlined theoretical framework brought together two lines of argument: And 2 a formal conception of 10 Cf. Creating and Representing Sacred Spaces 25 space which distinguishes spatial form and concrete spatialities and allows us to ana- lyze the different kinds of spatializations without rendering a single form of concrete spatiality ontologically absolute.

As a result a perspective on the relationship of the spatial and the sacred as combined in a process of mutual constitution become possible which enables us to analyze spatiality in its function for and as function of the sacred in a differentiated manner, e. If the final part of this theoretical introduction turns now to the historical and ethno- graphic examples presented in the following papers, this is not meant to be a conclu- sive interpretation of the different materials according to a single unitary perspective.

Rather, it is aimed at pointing out the most important issues of the articles from a theo- retical informed perspective, hopefully stimulating further reflection on the complexi- ties of spatializing the sacred and sacralizing the spatial. Special attention is laid on the supposed func- tion of these spatialities in conservation of local biodiversity. The analysis reveals that the vodun sacred spatialities have their specific materiality consisting of specific loca- tions, plants and practical use in ritual as well as in socio-political discourses.

This materiality and its practical use is the function of a complex of religious, social, politi- cal, economical and historical structures which was and is the specific context of the sacralization of each of this places. Thus, the logic of this materiality is extremely complex and understandable only in relation to the whole historical processes of pro- ducing the specific places as symbols for sacred powers which are processes of delib- erately building up plant communities and sacred sites rather than just preserving pre- existing ones.

In addition, the processes of transgenerational transmission are much more complex than a simple handing down from generation to generation. It follows that this materiality is neither conceivable as a natural patrimony in itself nor that its result is necessarily the conservation of the local biodiversity. In each case the com- GBA The sacred spatialities he describes are of a very particular kind. Rather than being densely filled with transmittable symbolic meaning, they are conceived to a far greater extent as the spatialization of the anti-thesis to so- ciocultural reason, the no-place, or, to speak in the Sufi tradition, the materialized la- makan.

Such no-places are certain sacred places in Morocco which are related to Marabout saint cult. In these places people can ritually participate in the power of miracle and blessing associated especially with the graves of the saints. The distin- guishing features of these places are their durability in contrast to the changes of ritu- als performed within them on the one hand and the classification of these saint cults as the antithesis to the sociocultural reason of the politically propagated Islam of the great mosques on the other.

The result is heterotopic places which nevertheless fulfil im- portant functions in reproducing the society and its dominant sociocultural rationale. Thus, the religious sphere does not only exist in cultural praxis as positively articulated formation, as Geertz would have it, but also through the exclusion of the realm of cul- tural symbolism.

The existence of heterotopian sacred places provides spatialities for experiences which go beyond the symbolic mediations of the dominant sociocultural praxis but which are nevertheless determined by them as the logics of constituting sa- cred spatialities and the content of the excluded are determined by the sociocultural totality which encompasses the heterotopia as its counter place.

Whereas the sacred places of Moroccan Maraboutism are of a distinguished perma- nence, the material on Nepal presented by Borchers shows that permanence and dura- ble exclusiveness are not necessary features of sacred places. Her paper deals with an interesting piece of ethnographic material on sacred spatiality and the impossibility to interpret it in Durkheimian terminology.

In the dwelling houses of the Sunwar in East- ern Nepal certain shrines fulfil functions within shamanistic rituals during which an- cestors are temporarily present in the shrines. But from this temporary presence a per- manent exclusive sacralization in a Durkheimian sense does not emerge. Thus, the sa- cred qualities of places can be understood only within the specific spatiality of sacred entities located there and the local conception of the relationship between the sphere of spiritual beings, the sacred and the human actors.

The conse- GBA Creating and Representing Sacred Spaces 27 quence of this is that the analysis of sacralization through symbolic mediation has to take into consideration that the local symbolic logics of mediation are not simply variations on an universal theme. Rather, they are to be conceived as articulations of dimensions of structuring, as for example sacred — profane, within a local context of a structural totality.

Such dimensions of structuring are to be defined on a formal level without implying assumptions derived from one specific tradition only. His starting point is the question of how to define sacred spatiality in Japan in a context of the conception that the whole of Japan can be conceived as a sacred spatiality and a conception of nature which conceive the entirety of nature as a manifestation of sacred powers. In analyzing the different sacred spatialities of mountains, villages and houses as being created by different means and as being used in different contexts, Rotermund highlights the characteristics of sacred space in Japan within the contexts of ritual sac- ralization, reciprocity between man and the sacred, the continuity of the old religion within the new, and mobility and volatility as features of sacred spatialities and the relationships to them.

Of special interest is the fact that sacrality in Japan does not have to be once and for all an essential quality of a specific place. Rather, it is depend- ent on the ritual praxis of the actors worshipping spiritual beings and using in this way the potential of a place to become sacralized. Such sacred places have a relational di- mension within a reciprocity between man and spiritual beings which allows different relationships between space and the sacred: Brandl draws our attention to another kind of using the symbolic potential of an en- compassing totality for creating sacred spatialities: He describes in his article a nuo ritual which is performed by shehui earthgod- altar communities at the Chinese New Year in the villages of Guichi in Southern An- hui Province.

Within the context of the territorialized ritual communities of clans, an- cestors and gods conceptualised as she the nuo is staged as a banquet for an exchange of gifts to create mutual obligations between the living people and the gods. Creating and Representing Sacred Spaces achieve this aim, order as well as a specific ritual spatiality for each of the gods has to be created. This is achieved through the nuo dances. Geometric qualities, geo-cosmo- logical orientations, movements and rhythms are used to create a sacred spatiality which integrates the different dimensions of the she in an ideal order.

Thus, the formal potential of geometry, geo-cosmology and dance is used to establish order and a spe- cific spatiality as a prerequisite for a successful communication between man and god through the articulation of spatial and temporal structuring of the dance ground in and through the dance itself as corporeal symbolic mediation. In addition to the complex ways of establishing contact between man and sacred powers described so far, the paper of Khayutina highlights a further aspect of sacred spatiality: She deals with the sacred spati- ality of an aristocratic clan in ancient China and its transformations through times of sociopolitical changes.

The potential for transformation of this spatiality led eventually to the result that Chinese clans overcame local and blood-related insularity. This process is understandable only because of the structural features of the particular sacred spati- ality and its articulations described by Khayutina. Two aspects are especially note- worthy. First, the sacred spatiality of the ancient Chinese clan cannot be represented fully by a specific place and the objects therein. These are only means of communica- tion and are able to constitute the sacred spatiality only through the ritual actions of the authorised users and their ritual use of food and sounds as mediums for communica- tion with the sacred.

Within this context the bronze objects are sacred spatial construc- tions as well as models of the sacred spatiality. The second point is that these sacred bronzes were transportable in physical spatiality, but not socially.

The close relation- ship between the spatial constitution of ritual communication and a defined group meant that these objects were closely related to the groups themselves and could not be passed on from one group to another. However, the possibility of the constitution of a sacred spatiality by means of ritual action of authorised users through the mediums of objects, food and sound provided for a mobility of sacred objects in conjunction with the mobile groups, or with certain members of the group, respectively.

Interestingly enough, the processes of transformation of ritual and sociopolitical structure show that the essential point of the relationship between the sacred objects as parts of the ritual constitution of sacred spatiality and a group was not a group as a closed entity, but the relationship to a group.

Thus, with the transformation of the structure of the sociopoli- GBA Creating and Representing Sacred Spaces 29 tical groups and the rules of access to these groups the ritual groups changed. The logic of symbolic mediation and its spatial articulation, represented in the bronze ob- jects, rendered the sacred spatiality open for changes in the societal logic which in turn rendered the social scope of the ritual.

With the paper of Dorofeeva-Lichtmann, which opens part two of this collection of papers, we shift from ritual praxis of creating sacred spatialities to descriptions and maps of sacred spatialities. It draws our attention to an interesting aspect of spatial rep- resentation and the misunderstandings which can arise by switching between different representational logics in interpreting textual spatial representations.

The text describes mountains and the local spirits related to these mountains arranged in 26 lists as well as the relative loca- tion of these mountains within a complex framework of geocosmological systems of orientation and itineraries. In a detailed analysis Dorofeeva-Lichtmann shows that the geographical meaning of this text cannot be understood in terms of Western physical geography.

Rather, the type of representing terrestrial spatiality and of geographical knowledge which characterise the text is of a distinctive type which is markedly dif- ferent from Western geography in content, form and function. Thus, the text cannot be read according to the standards of modern Western maps.

To understand its geo- graphical meaning, it is necessary to develop an holistic and internal perspective which enables us to conceive the descriptions within a specific systemic logic of locations, the context of the sacred elements of the descriptions, and the principles of ancient Chinese cosmology and spatial representations.

From this perspective the lists of the mountains appears not as an exact map written down, but as a cosmogram of a spiri- tual landscape which was not only a representation of a given spatiality but which was used as a tool for tailoring terrestrial spatiality according to spiritual spatiotemporal principles.

The practical function of the text was not locating places in the physical spatiality of Western geography but the creation of sacred spatiality within the logics of ancient Chinese cosmology. Thus, the attempts to look for exact locations of the mentioned mountains according to standards of Western maps rests on a profound misunderstanding which itself is partly a result of the complex history of the text and the changes of material media which were used to transmit it.

The original function of the text can be discerned if it is arranged according to its original physical medium: To deal with it as a text as such, irrespective of the mate- rial medium, conceals this practical function as a tool to create sacred spatiality, be- cause the spatial layout of the text itself is part of its practical function which is again GBA Creating and Representing Sacred Spaces an essential part of the logic of representation and the geographical meaning resulting from it. Practical function, physical materiality and the symbolic logic of representa- tion in the context of ancient Chinese cosmology and spirituality are closely inter- woven and must not be separated.

She explores the rela- tionship between profane strategies of glorification and legitimation of conquerors and the emperor in the Augustean literature on the geographical extension of the Roman empire and the mytho-religious interpretation of the own history and future of the Ro- mans. She draws our attention to the relation between different forms of representation within an encompassing totality of different discourses. Important features of the rep- resentational praxis of this literature on the geographical extension of the Roman em- pire are the descriptions of an ever expanding empire, mediated through the enumera- tion of many peoples, places and geographical features aimed at showing the achieve- ment of conquerors, and the connection of the geographical identity of the empire with the limits of the oikoumene.

With the paper of Lozovsky we turn to Christian cosmology and salvation history. Her paper explores different ways of representing and experiencing sacred spatiality in Latin Christian texts written between ca. In the same time, these representations and experiences provided an understanding of the physical spatiality within Christian spirituality, cosmological history and beliefs in salvation as well as ways of achieving a deeper understanding of Christian scrip- tures and lore.

The conception of the Paradise as physically located on earth, as men- tioned in Genesis 2: This meant also that the faithful could participate in holiness and salva- tion through physical links in their own places far away from Paradise and the Holy Land as well as in the Holy Land itself. Thus, the sacred in the described Christian traditions appears to have had a strong physical dimension and the control of spatiality GBA Creating and Representing Sacred Spaces 31 in its physical materiality became a prerequisite for participating at sacred powers.

Traumwelt | Drunkness

But participation and appropriation of sacred qualities can be mediated also through graphical representation. In order to make this cartographical representation of sacred spatiality more comprehensible, Gengnagel conceives of maps as social constructions which have to be interpreted in a context of a specific spatial praxis. The visualization of Banaras in this map does not have the function of orienting sacred praxis in physical spatiality, as a Western spatial praxis would have it, but of visualizing sacred spatiality.

Thus, the map is aimed at being a means not of identifying the spatiality of Banaras as a physical spatiality but of defining the sacred qualities of this spatiality in a context of religious revivalism, colonialism and new technological possibilities of visual representation. The consequence is that the underlying symbolic logic of representation is not the logic of quantitatively definable physical spatiality but of the visualization of sacred experience founded in ritual and textual praxis.

So far, all the texts have dealt with sacred spatialities related directly to religious practices. While constituting spatialities in and through religious practices, human ac- tors learned not only to constitute concrete sacred spatialities but acquired also certain ways of spatially mediated constitution of meaning which can be transposed in other, non-religious fields of praxis. In the context of nationalism specific places of commemoration fulfil the function of condensing meaning and meaningful structures in relation to the transcendent dimension of the nation in a similar way sacred places do this in relation to the transcendent dimension of the sacred.

In the processes of con- densing meaning and meaningful structures national places of commemoration and the representational practices related to them achieve orientation, meaning and imagina- tion within a context of national identity through three semiotic strategies: This means that nationalistic discourses do not necessarily produce new forms of meaning production but rely on their cultural roots and transpose aspects of sacred practices into the new context of nationalism.

Interesting in the Chinese context from the Ming period until today is the concept of national shame and the loss of the control of the places in their materiality which is a symbol for this shame. Thus, imagination GBA Creating and Representing Sacred Spaces and the perspective from exile became forms of representational control over places and the meaningful structures which are condensed therein, used in the processes of constructing national identity and history. The papers collected here reveal many aspects of the spatial dimension of sacrality. Many points made in the theoretical part of this introduction could be demonstrated through the materials presented in the overview provided above.

But as the reader will notice soon, the following texts provide a much broader framework than the theoreti- cal argument developed so far can fill.

Ava Willis

Thus, this introduction should be understood only as a theoretically motivated invitation to use the quest for anti-reductionism and contextuality as a powerful analytical tool. A theoretically informed perspective, which highlights the differences in the logics of mediation, in the role of different to- talities encompassing the spatialities, and in the functions of the spatialities, can help to learn more about the specific character of spatialities as products of concrete forms of spatialization as well as about the universal dimension of spatialities which emerges out of the formal features of the contextual articulation of human praxis through the spatial form.

An Essay on Man. Yale University Press 1st printing Philosophie der symbolischen Formen. Die Sprache; Teil 2: Das mythische Denken; Teil 3: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft 1st ed.: Studia religiosa Helvetica; Series altera 4 , Bern etc.: Entwurf zu einer kul- turanthropologischen Raumtheorie am Beispiel Fiji.

The Constitution of Society. The Condition of Postmodernity. The Production of Space. Basil Black- well French orig.: Anthropology and Cognitive Science. Zur Ontologie von Gesellschaft und Raum. Erdkundliches Wissen, Heft , Stuttgart: Globalisierung, Region und Regionalisierung. The setting of biodiversity conservation policies is frequently required to take into consid- eration, and even to define, natural patrimonies. These sa- cred sites, more precisely forests and woodlands, and their biodiversity have been no- ticed both by scientists and managers specializing in questions of conservation Mama ; Sokpon et al.

Our two-fold approach, ethnobiological and historical, allows us to describe the evolution of cultural representations, management and practices, and to discuss the previous points of view, most especially the last one. Without taking issue with this 1 Centre de Recherches Africaines. All the groups concerned have common cultural particularities, such as language and religious practices related to their common geographical origin: Oyo, a yoruba city, located in Nigeria. Fon for the first one; Ewe-Gen for the second.

The description of its management will give us some information about the relevance of sacrality in terms of conservation and sustainable uses. Are sacred sites in- herited? Are they passed on to future generations? Are they taking part in the repro- duction of some cultural practices, the handing down of memories and of a joint iden- tity?

Various Spaces and Natural Objects under the Control of Religion Throughout the whole vodun countryside, all the territorial components are distin- guished and managed by sacred rules that have a great effect upon all the uses of it, individual as well as collective. However, in certain places, religious practices take precedence over all others, in particular over uses for agriculture and forestry. They are, indeed, considered as places of communication with the divine, with the Beyond. Sacred places can be natural sites, such as springs, ponds, rocks and termitaries. They can also be constructed, such as in the case of sanctuaries, altars and representa- tions of protective gods, like, for instance, the great anthropomorphic legba, built near cross-roads, market places and alongside roads.

The various elements of biodiversity trees and grasses, bushes, groves and forests, etc. All these places have in common the role of being used as theatres for religious rites. Generally speaking, all the ceremonies connected to the cults of the ancestors togbe, or toxwyo 7 and to the vodun,8 take place there, in particular, initiations, prayers and offerings.

The foods of the gods, vodun nan dudu, are presented before altars. Vosa, expiatory offerings, are set down at the feet of legba. Sacred areas also have very important functions in vodun-related therapies: Special obsequies, for very young children or unexpected decease, are performed there. Ordeals and meetings of some occult associations, such as Zangbeto, Kuvito or Oro, very important for maintaining order, justice and social cohesion, are organized in sacred groves and for- 7 Usually, these ceremonies bring together all the members of a lineage, both those who are still living in the village as well as those who have gone away to cities or foreign countries.

Vodun Sacred Spaces 39 ests. The functions fulfilled by the sacred places are always accompanied by peculiarities in their management. First of all, admission is regulated. Though some sites are open to all, such as village legba tolegba or crossroads legba dulegba , others are re- served for more restricted circles secret societies for instance , and even to individuals as houses legba Xwelegba.

Most cult places are under the responsibility of a lineage, or a part of a lineage, but ceremonies organized there can bring together larger com- munities: Annual celebration of the sacred Xetin Fagara zanthoxyloides Lam. Sometimes some dignitaries are in charge of several sacred sites. So, at Lotodenu, near Ouidah, all the cult sites of the lineage Adikpeto are maintained by an important woman designated by the divination of the Fa,12 the kpodo, who surrounds herself with assistants, hundeva.

Persons responsible for sites insure the maintenance of sanctuaries and altars. They take care of the cleaning of paths, clearing of the sacred forests, and the organization of entrances. They establish different plantations and fire-protection zones. Cer- tain places are forbidden to menstruating women; others can not be visited without preliminary ritual purification. In the sacred forests, lighting fires and hunting are gen- 9 People met by Europeans on their arrival had been there since the 16th century.

Internal migrations occurred until the end of the last century. Aja from Tado are divided into various groups actually lo- cated in the South of Benin and Togo. Relatives of those who migrated report the emergence of various kingdoms, such as Ouidah by a Xweda king, and, since , Allada birthplace of the Gun dynasty from Porto Novo and the Fon dy- nasty from Abomey. Nowadays it always serves as an important symbol in political conflicts that occur between Tugban and Kota-Fon. Vodun Sacred Spaces erally prohibited. Cutting wood, and collecting dead wood, food crops and medicinal plants are strictly regulated, and their produce is shared among the priests and the per- sons who take charge of the site.

Farming is generally forbidden, but nowadays bor- ders are often cultivated, and one finds also plantations of oil palm, teak or coconut palm, the produce of which is reserved for the priests of the forest. The persons responsible for cult sites are also charged with chastising the profaners of sacred sites.

The fatal consequences of disregarding that which is forbidden can bear down on the whole community bad harvests, epidemics, drought and thick clouds of mosquitoes, etc. The culprits have to carry out special rites at the desecrated places, often very long and ex- pensive, involving the sacrifice of animals, offerings to the priests, etc. The main characteristics of the sacred sites presented above evoke those attributed generally to patrimonies. We have emphasized that many vodun sites are under the collective control of certain social groups whose cohesion and identity depend primar- ily on ceremonies held in these places.

We find here one of the major characteristics recognized in patrimonies: For the populations concerned, vodun sacred sites represent places of religious communion, transmission of collective memory and recognition of a certain identity. The guarantors for these places insure the transmission of oral traditions from generation to generation by means of religious ceremonies.

This means that divinities do not depart, and that cults and all the other activities can take place appropriately. But, as assumed by some of the authors previously quoted, can these rules be a particularly relevant way of preserving the local biodiversity for all the places considered here? This question needs to be treated with care. Sacred Sites and Biodiversity Vodun sacred sites are strictly linked to natural elements: But it does not mean that all these places are systematically considered sacred. Vodun Sacred Spaces 41 For that to be the case, it is necessary that something unusual or surprising happen there.

Then, after interpretation by the Fa, as we have previously described, the place will be liable to be considered as divine. Yet not every termitary becomes an altar. For instance, when they grow at the feet of a logoti, Milicia excelsa Welw. The connection most frequently mentioned by the adepts themselves is the one that exists between sacred sites and the plant world. Plants, particularly trees ati , as well as plant communities, occupy an essential place in the vodun religion,16 and are indis- pensable to the fulfillment of almost all the rites.

A certain number of plant species or varieties are associated with each divinity. Knowledge and use of these liturgical plants, called ama, are the privilege of the priests, and are a jealously guarded secret: The spontaneous appearance of a liturgical plant, as well as its deliberate planting followed by a divination and by offerings to ask for the agreement of the gods can be at the origin of the sacralization of a place. In the vodun area, as elsewhere in Africa and other parts of the world Michaloud and Dury , the appearance of trees of the botanical families Moraceae Antiaris, Milicia, Ficus and Bombacaceae Adansonia, Ceiba, Bombax 17 is generally interpreted as a divine demonstration.

But much more than its botanical identity, the peculiarities of the individual history of the tree can be at the origin of its sacred character. In Seje Denu, the tree planted on the remains of an enemy of Alisu, founder of the village, is a gutin Erythrina senegalensis D. In Al- lada, a cotton tree, hunti Ceiba pentandra Linn. Their beautiful original harmony was soon broken by the be- havior of these last ones, so quarrelsome and noisy.

The Sky, tired with their escapades, blamed the Earth for it, and on the deceitful advice of Dan, the python rainbow, left his wife. The maternal Earth, being afraid for her offspring, invented the first prayers, made the first offerings and begged the sky not to abandon her children.

Sky was touched, and so as not to treat inequitably the wisest of them, plants, sent the first rain, thus creating the cycle of the seasons, from which the people and the animals also knew how to benefit. Grasses and trees thus appear as the favored children of the gods, intermedi- aries privileged among the Beyond and the world Roussel The reasons given by our advisers are very different: Vodun Sacred Spaces When a liturgical plant is not native to a cult site, it has probably been grown there by the leaders of cults and their assistants sometimes specialized as Kpodo and hun- deva of Adikpeto evoked above.

So, Kpatin, Newbouldia laevis P. Beauv Seemann ex Bureau, which is certainly the most used ama, is always planted abundantly in places like convents, altars, the environs of legba, and hedges of the houses of adepts. The sanctuaries of divinities close to Hevieso the god of thunder and sites dedicated to the ancestors are easily recognizable by the presence of anyatin, Dracaena arborea Link. The installation of an altar to Tro, the most widespread Goro vodun voodoo of Cola requires the presence of a goroti, Cola nitida Wind.

Certain expiatory offerings vosa called adra. We understand why spaces dedicated to vodun are often woody. The area is a sa- vannah zone the Dahomey Gap , where the vegetation is naturally forested when slash and burn practices are interrupted, which is the case for the sacred sites. Religious practices mark landscapes so strongly that numerous observers have drawn attention to the plant constituents of their sites. Souza de et al. Medicines, of both plants, are administered to them, alternatively zozo and fafa.

The sacred sites also shelter numerous animals, but few works have yet been dedicated to them. Nevertheless, relationships between vodun sacred sites, birds, insects and especially reptiles certainly should be very fascinating to investigate. More than fifty years later, these authors express the same fears as their predecessors, and always insist on the contribution of sacred groves to the protection and the sustainable management of bio- diversity.

Among the fifty-three groves inven- toried by Kokou in South Togo, it is very important to note that if the biggest wealth of flora can be found at those that are sacred, such is not the case for the big- gest specific biodiversity. The human practice of adding some specimens, belonging in particular to exotic species, has the same consequences. Regarding the plant communities, the conservative role of the sacred sites must also be asserted with a certain caution.

There are certainly very ancient copses and holy forests.

Traumwelt 2018

Many are now little more than a kind of woody savan- nah or old fallow with the presence, for example, of the baobab-tree. Their stratifica- tion is often simple: It is important to notice that certain plant communities of the region are not represented among the sacred sites: Nevertheless, they are also an important protected part of biodiversity. Biodiversity is estimated by an index also taking into account the frequency of species found Kokou The choices of the plant species are made in the same way: To this list we could add Newbouldia laevis, Spondias monbin L.

Finally, through the observation of sites and relevant practices, we are compelled to wonder about the well-defined and powerful character of the link that unites sacred places and plants. We have already said that the sacred character of a site could have had its origin in the spontaneous appearance of a plant. But the sacred character of this site can, in fact, remain after the death and total disappearance of the plant: We know only one plant of which all the specimens are protected, whatever place they grow in, a particular variety of oil palm, considered to be the realization on earth of the god Fa.

But if divinities can dwell in certain trees, they can also leave them. This desertion can be spontaneous, or, in cases of necessity,30 decided by people who transfer the di- vinity to another plant somewhere else. One can then make boards with the abandoned tree. In Benin, as in Togo, the clearing of the big sacred iroko Milicia excelsa , a rare timber with high commercial value, has become very common. This presence of the latter can even be an excuse for a clearing. Economic interests override the permanency of the place, and only a memory of it remains but for how long?

However, the picture of the current situation must be moderated further, because sacred trees and forests seem to be protected not only by the influence of vodun cults, but also by the actions of institutions in favor of environmental protection and the de- velopment of a durable management of resources.

To Wankon, Fagara planted by Gede is only a dead trunk. In the small yards of the cities some leaves that one re- news when they turn to dust replace sacred trees. It is a genetic mutation that appears at a very weak rate in palm plantations. Nobody is allowed to cut it down and to use its fruits for making oil, and their ritual use is reserved for soothsay- ers, bokono.

A seminar on vodun religion and the protection of the environment organized in by German researchers in association with religious dignitaries explored relations among the various actors. However, is not what the vodun religion tries to pass on from generation to generation sets of practices and religious knowledge rather than places or naturals objects? An historic approach can answer this to various degrees. Origin, Inheritance and Transmission of the Sacred Sites To reconstitute the history of the sacred sites and enquire about their origins one must go back to the vodun pantheon.

The great variety of the gods, more than six hundred, as we are told, are as much connected to the history of individuals as to that of socie- ties. Any extraordinary event will be interpreted as a likely demonstration of a divinity or a supernatural force, and will be subjected to a divination by the Fa that will con- firm or counter it. A snake dwelling in a termitary, night birds settling in rocky crevasses, strange night- lights in the fronds of trees are just some of the many signs to be interpreted and which can provide sites for rites of sacralization.

The soothsayers of the Fa also interrogate the divinities about appointing those responsible for the cults who will build altars, dedicate them and equip the sites. For example, it is always necessary to sacrifice a ram when dedicating sites to Hevieso, the god of thunder, but other sacrifices may be necessary if the altar to be dedicated is near a sanctuary of Dan, the python god. The installation of the vodun Tro is carried out in several stages and most advanced ones demand an ox to be knifed at the base of the cola tree Cola nitida Vent.

Historical sources contain numerous examples of sacralization reflecting the capaci- ties for adaptation, spreading and syncretism of these societies. Vodun Sacred Spaces creation of sacred places is continuous through time and that it can have different bases. Sacralization is often bound to the transformation of a person into vodun.

Not far from Abomey, Wankon and Kotokpa's sites, dedicated to the vodun Gede, give exam- ples of this kind: The vodun Gede is a man ayonu whom the king of the Dahomey brought from the war against Ayonu. One day, the king decided to behead him, but he managed to escape from Abomey. The warriors pursued him until Wankon, where he stopped the first time; from there he went to Akpa, where the vodun Dan obliged him to divert from his path and he had to take the way which leads to Xanlanxonu; he began to turn into a stone, marking his passage. He stopped at Kotokpa, where he planted a xetin, and turned into a big stone.

The xetin has become a big tree today. Gede became vodun after his meeting with Dan. The king, Agasu, and others planted a xetin that did not grow, but Gede planted it and it grew. The king, in the presence of the transformed Gede, convoked all the inhabitants of Wankon and in- formed them that this place would henceforth be a house of vodun; from this day he nominated a person responsible for the vodun, called Gedenon. The place where he stopped before arriving at Kotokpa is called Wankon; on this spot there is a big stone and the place is sacred; the vodun is worshipped there in the forest.

For the sacred place boundaries were set by the Gedenon, whom the king placed there in charge of the vodun, and one is not allowed to cultivate anything there; no one is allowed to enter there, and it has become a forest Comments collected to Lissezun: We know nu- merous other examples of this type. The royal gods were implanted on territories re- cently conquered, thus participating in the political control of the territory. Vodun Sacred Spaces 47 opponents: Dahomeans thus integrated Dan, the tutelary god-python of Xweda cf.

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