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De reconstructie van rituelen rondom dood en begraven in Roermond tussen 1870 en 1940. Promotieartikel.

ispartof: Met lichaam en geest. De rituele competentie van geestelijk verzorgers pages:147-154 ispartof: pages:147-154 status: published

Diaries are often considered to be a crisis genre in which people can write about the problems and hardships they experience. In times of war and occupation, this aspect causes the diary to gain even more importance : it becomes an indispensable ritual of reflection, allowing the authors to process everything that happens around them. This article explores the role of diary writing during the crisis of the Second World War in the daily life of diary authors. It will look specifically at the occupation diaries of Ernest Claes, August Vermeylen and Jan Walravens, three Dutch-speaking literary authors living in Brussels during the Second World War. By analysing the authors’ meta-references to their diary practices, this article examines how daily life during the occupation period impacts their diary ritual., En tant que genre, le journal intime est souvent associé à la crise : les individus y recourent pour consigner les souffrances et épreuves qu’ils endurent. Cet aspect prend d’autant plus d’importance en temps de guerre et d’occupation. Tenir un journal devient alors un indispensable rituel de réflexion, permettant à l’auteur de donner un sens à la réalité qui l’entoure. Cet article étudie le rôle joué par l’écriture intime dans la vie quotidienne des diaristes durant la crise de la Seconde Guerre mondiale. Les journaux tenus sous l’Occupation par Ernest Claes, August Vermeylen et Jan Walravens, trois écrivains néerlandophones qui résidaient à Bruxelles pendant le conflit mondial, feront l’objet d’un éclairage particulier. En analysant les métaréférences de ces auteurs à leur propre pratique diariste, on voit dans quelle mesure ce rituel d’écriture intime fut marqué par la vie quotidienne sous l’Occupation., Het dagboekgenre wordt vaak beschouwd als een crisisgenre waarin mensen kunnen schrijven over de problemen en moeilijkheden die ze ervaren. In tijden van oorlog en bezetting zorgt dit ervoor dat het dagboek nog belangrijker wordt : het dagboekschrijven wordt een onmisbaar ritueel voor reflectie, dat de auteurs in staat stelt alles wat rond hen gebeurt te verwerken. Dit artikel onderzoekt de rol van het dagboekschrijven tijdens de crisis van de Tweede Wereldoorlog in het dagelijkse leven van dagboekauteurs verder. Het gaat specifiek in op de bezettingsdagboeken van Ernest Claes, August Vermeylen en Jan Walravens ; drie Nederlandstalige literaire auteurs die in Brussel wonen tijdens de Tweede Wereldoorlog. Door de meta-referenties van de auteurs aan hun dagboekpraktijken te analyseren, onderzoekt dit artikel hoe het dagelijks leven tijdens de bezettingsperiode het dagboekritueel beïnvloedt., Aerts Janna. Ritual and Necessity. Practices of Diary Writing in Occupation Diaries from Brussels. In: Revue belge de philologie et d'histoire, tome 98, fasc. 3, 2020. Langues et littératures modernes - Moderne Taal- en Letterkunde. pp. 753-772.

Deze studie beschrijft de aard en het karakter van het leven en samenleven van adolescenten in de residentiële jeugdhulp en hoe daarin hun zoektocht naar balans en perspectief op weg naar volwassenheid oplicht. Het feitelijk handelen van de jongeren en de door hen naderhand vertelde verhalen, staan centraal.

Deze studie beschrijft de aard en het karakter van het leven en samenleven van adolescenten in de residentiële jeugdhulp en hoe daarin hun zoektocht naar balans en perspectief op weg naar volwassenheid oplicht. Het feitelijk handelen van de jongeren en de door hen naderhand vertelde verhalen, staan centraal.

Over rituelen in de context van het justitiepastoraat, in samenhang met de waarden die wij als individu en als samenleving koesteren.

Crematoria in the Netherlands develop from utility buildings to places where attention is paid to death rituals, commemoration and mourning. This trend is clearly visible in policy and subsequent activities of the Tilburg Crematorium (the Netherlands). This article describes this policy and positions it in the broader context of cultural and religious developments in the Netherlands.

This paper looks at evidence from ecclesiastical institutions situated in the Southern Low Countries to argue that, during the final decades of the eleventh century, ecclesiastical discourse in conflicts with their enemies of the middle and lower groups of the secular elite shifted from a "culpabilizing" to a "penitential" one. While the effects of this shift are difficult to assess, the authors argue that there are indications that it may have been helpful in at least two respects. On the one hand, it allowed religious institutions to create new amicitiae with individuals and communities who had previously been refused such privileged relations. On the other, the instrumentalization of a penitential discourse in contemporary politics provided opportunities for lay people to demonstrate their ability to participate in the peaceful management of society. This in turn allowed the established ecclesiastical and lay elites to adapt themselves to the rapidly changing political, social, and economic realities of their time.

Crematoria in the Netherlands develop from utility buildings to places where attention is paid to death rituals, commemoration and mourning. This trend is clearly visible in policy and subsequent activities of the Tilburg Crematorium (the Netherlands). This article describes this policy and positions it in the broader context of cultural and religious developments in the Netherlands.

Summary Plants still play an overriding role in African traditional medicine, as large sectors of the continent’s population prefer or considerably rely on herbal treatments as their primary source of health care. Traditional medicine, which is defined as the sum of knowledge, skills, and practices used to prevent and treat diseases, often involves consultation with spiritual healers and diviners, who in turn consult supernatural entities to diagnose their patients. At the same time, these traditions and the rites that are related to their practice are categorised as “obscure” and considered unscientific by academia. The overall aim of this thesis was to advance the understanding of the different dimensions of plant use in the context of traditional religions in two western African countries: Benin and Gabon. First, by documenting the use of plants by adepts of Vodoun in Benin and Bwiti in Gabon; and second, by exploring the associated knowledge that sustains these practices. Its purpose was to contribute to an improved plant resource management and, ultimately, the development of culturally appropriate interventions aimed at the conservation of useful plant species and their ecosystems, as well as the improvement of human health in settings similar to those of our countries of study. Departing from the disciplinary perspective of ethnobotany, this work included theories and quantitative and qualitative methods of data collection and analysis drawn from botany, anthropology, ethnology, ecology, and pharmacology. Data were collected in a period of more than a year, which was divided in two fieldwork stays, each in Benin and Gabon. This thesis was organised into six chapters. In Chapter One, I laid out the conceptual framework and introduced the study sites. Based on an assessment of the relevance of this study, I framed its overall objective and research questions. Medicinal plants are not only acknowledged for their importance in satisfying the health needs of people in sub-Saharan Africa, but also for the role their commercialization plays as a source of income for vulnerable groups. In spite of this recognition, little is known about the implications of medicinal plant trade for the sustainability of the plant species involved, especially when data on the volume and diversity of species sold at the markets are not available. In Chapter Two, we addressed this gap by providing an estimation of the volume and economic value of the domestic market in herbal medicine in Benin. We also highlighted local health concerns reflected by the medicinal plant market and found that ritual plants were the largest use category for which vendors catered in the markets of Benin. Additionally, we suggested some species with possible sustainability issues. In Chapter Three, we explored the potential link between two different social mechanisms that regulate the use of plant resources (taboos and sacrifices) and the scarcity of ritual plants in Benin and Gabon. The scholarly discussion around the origin and necessity of taboos has found these to exist either as a means to avoid potential diseases or to control the use of natural resources. Moreover, empirical data has shown that taboos reflect resource abundance. These studies, however, have primarily focussed on the use of wild animals as food. By providing quantitative data based on questionnaires with local informants, we found evidence that restrictions (such as taboos and sacrifices) were an indication of resource scarcity of ritual plants, thus advancing new explanations to the existence of these social mechanisms. In Chapter Four, we revised two of the notions that are central to our study: ‘religion’ and ‘traditional religion’, this time as defined by the people who profess these faiths in Benin and Gabon. Plant use in the context of traditional religions has been commonly described from an outsider’s perspective. The same is true for religion and traditional religions. In this chapter, we learnt that plants played a central role in the religious traditions of Benin and Gabon, both for adepts and non-adepts of Vodoun and Bwiti. In Western science, the effects of ritual plants on human health have been proposed to be a matter of belief. In Chapter Five, we discussed the potential pharmacological effect of culturally salient and economically important ritual plants on their users. We did that by contrasting their mode of application to proven pharmacological properties gathered from the literature. Additionally, we described folk categories of illness related to supernatural agents (e.g. evil spirits, ancestors, and sorcerers), as well as diseases recognised by biomedicine but that are attributed supernatural causes by people in Benin and Gabon. We discovered that in both countries an important proportion of the ritual applications of plants suggest a pharmacological effect on their users. Finally, in Chapter Six, I addressed the research questions formulated in Chapter One and discussed our work’s methodological issues as well as its implications to other scientific disciplines. I also highlighted the possible applications of the research results in informing nature conservation and human development interventions, as well as some possibilities for future research. Moreover, I reached five conclusions about Bwiti and Vodoun in our countries of study: (1) Plants and other elements of the natural world play a central role in the religious traditions of Benin and Gabon, both for adepts and non-adepts of these traditions. (2) Social mechanisms such as taboos and sacrifices are a form of adaptive management of plant resources that respond to perceived scarcity of ritual plants by their users. (3) Ritual applications of plants used in our countries of study suggest a pharmacological effect on their users, as opposed to the previous assumption that their effectiveness is a matter of belief. (4) By being the backbone of the medinal plant trade in Benin and Gabon, ritual plants represent an important source of income for a substancial sector of the population of these two countries. (5) The Western notion of ‘ritual’ in the context of western African plant use is an important mechanism for the preservation and transmission of ecological, historical, and medicinal knowledge. These conclusions point to the need to question the assumptions upon which the study of plant use in the western African context has been typically approached. Finally, I concluded that as long as the exercise of agency by supernatural entities is acknowledged, considering these practices as ‘religious’ is justified from an etic perspective.

Summary Plants still play an overriding role in African traditional medicine, as large sectors of the continent’s population prefer or considerably rely on herbal treatments as their primary source of health care. Traditional medicine, which is defined as the sum of knowledge, skills, and practices used to prevent and treat diseases, often involves consultation with spiritual healers and diviners, who in turn consult supernatural entities to diagnose their patients. At the same time, these traditions and the rites that are related to their practice are categorised as “obscure” and considered unscientific by academia. The overall aim of this thesis was to advance the understanding of the different dimensions of plant use in the context of traditional religions in two western African countries: Benin and Gabon. First, by documenting the use of plants by adepts of Vodoun in Benin and Bwiti in Gabon; and second, by exploring the associated knowledge that sustains these practices. Its purpose was to contribute to an improved plant resource management and, ultimately, the development of culturally appropriate interventions aimed at the conservation of useful plant species and their ecosystems, as well as the improvement of human health in settings similar to those of our countries of study. Departing from the disciplinary perspective of ethnobotany, this work included theories and quantitative and qualitative methods of data collection and analysis drawn from botany, anthropology, ethnology, ecology, and pharmacology. Data were collected in a period of more than a year, which was divided in two fieldwork stays, each in Benin and Gabon. This thesis was organised into six chapters. In Chapter One, I laid out the conceptual framework and introduced the study sites. Based on an assessment of the relevance of this study, I framed its overall objective and research questions. Medicinal plants are not only acknowledged for their importance in satisfying the health needs of people in sub-Saharan Africa, but also for the role their commercialization plays as a source of income for vulnerable groups. In spite of this recognition, little is known about the implications of medicinal plant trade for the sustainability of the plant species involved, especially when data on the volume and diversity of species sold at the markets are not available. In Chapter Two, we addressed this gap by providing an estimation of the volume and economic value of the domestic market in herbal medicine in Benin. We also highlighted local health concerns reflected by the medicinal plant market and found that ritual plants were the largest use category for which vendors catered in the markets of Benin. Additionally, we suggested some species with possible sustainability issues. In Chapter Three, we explored the potential link between two different social mechanisms that regulate the use of plant resources (taboos and sacrifices) and the scarcity of ritual plants in Benin and Gabon. The scholarly discussion around the origin and necessity of taboos has found these to exist either as a means to avoid potential diseases or to control the use of natural resources. Moreover, empirical data has shown that taboos reflect resource abundance. These studies, however, have primarily focussed on the use of wild animals as food. By providing quantitative data based on questionnaires with local informants, we found evidence that restrictions (such as taboos and sacrifices) were an indication of resource scarcity of ritual plants, thus advancing new explanations to the existence of these social mechanisms. In Chapter Four, we revised two of the notions that are central to our study: ‘religion’ and ‘traditional religion’, this time as defined by the people who profess these faiths in Benin and Gabon. Plant use in the context of traditional religions has been commonly described from an outsider’s perspective. The same is true for religion and traditional religions. In this chapter, we learnt that plants played a central role in the religious traditions of Benin and Gabon, both for adepts and non-adepts of Vodoun and Bwiti. In Western science, the effects of ritual plants on human health have been proposed to be a matter of belief. In Chapter Five, we discussed the potential pharmacological effect of culturally salient and economically important ritual plants on their users. We did that by contrasting their mode of application to proven pharmacological properties gathered from the literature. Additionally, we described folk categories of illness related to supernatural agents (e.g. evil spirits, ancestors, and sorcerers), as well as diseases recognised by biomedicine but that are attributed supernatural causes by people in Benin and Gabon. We discovered that in both countries an important proportion of the ritual applications of plants suggest a pharmacological effect on their users. Finally, in Chapter Six, I addressed the research questions formulated in Chapter One and discussed our work’s methodological issues as well as its implications to other scientific disciplines. I also highlighted the possible applications of the research results in informing nature conservation and human development interventions, as well as some possibilities for future research. Moreover, I reached five conclusions about Bwiti and Vodoun in our countries of study: (1) Plants and other elements of the natural world play a central role in the religious traditions of Benin and Gabon, both for adepts and non-adepts of these traditions. (2) Social mechanisms such as taboos and sacrifices are a form of adaptive management of plant resources that respond to perceived scarcity of ritual plants by their users. (3) Ritual applications of plants used in our countries of study suggest a pharmacological effect on their users, as opposed to the previous assumption that their effectiveness is a matter of belief. (4) By being the backbone of the medinal plant trade in Benin and Gabon, ritual plants represent an important source of income for a substancial sector of the population of these two countries. (5) The Western notion of ‘ritual’ in the context of western African plant use is an important mechanism for the preservation and transmission of ecological, historical, and medicinal knowledge. These conclusions point to the need to question the assumptions upon which the study of plant use in the western African context has been typically approached. Finally, I concluded that as long as the exercise of agency by supernatural entities is acknowledged, considering these practices as ‘religious’ is justified from an etic perspective.

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Met lit.opg., bijl.

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This PhD thesis is a testimony of how Tzeltal peasants make milpa in the Lacandon Jungle, Chiapas, Mexico. It describes how they alternate maize cultivation practices with other activities in their lives through different juggling performances. These performances show how these indigenous peasants consider maize cultivation practices not only as agronomic activities but also as political, social and cultural actions. Therefore slash-and-mulch becomes a variant of land preparation and a response to a landownership conflict. Sowing becomes a negotiation with the environmental, technological and social circumstances of living in this tropical rainy forest. Weeding and bending are control practices and postponing/delegating them become peasant strategies to cope with the lack of basic services. Finally, harvesting is cutting the cobs from plants and strengthening the reasons and meanings to continue cultivating maize. These performances show how in the making of the milpa, Tzeltal peasants are making their lives.

Met lit.opg., bijl.

De reconstructie van rituelen rondom dood en begraven in Roermond tussen 1870 en 1940. Promotieartikel.

Met lit.opg., bijl.

Lit.opg., bijl.

Lit.opg., bijl.

Lit.opg., bijl.

Lit.opg., bijl.

This PhD thesis is a testimony of how Tzeltal peasants make milpa in the Lacandon Jungle, Chiapas, Mexico. It describes how they alternate maize cultivation practices with other activities in their lives through different juggling performances. These performances show how these indigenous peasants consider maize cultivation practices not only as agronomic activities but also as political, social and cultural actions. Therefore slash-and-mulch becomes a variant of land preparation and a response to a landownership conflict. Sowing becomes a negotiation with the environmental, technological and social circumstances of living in this tropical rainy forest. Weeding and bending are control practices and postponing/delegating them become peasant strategies to cope with the lack of basic services. Finally, harvesting is cutting the cobs from plants and strengthening the reasons and meanings to continue cultivating maize. These performances show how in the making of the milpa, Tzeltal peasants are making their lives.

Lit.opg. en glossarium.

Lit.opg., bijl.