tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/religion-and-society-72761/articlesReligion and society – The Conversation2024-03-28T12:50:01Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2232662024-03-28T12:50:01Z2024-03-28T12:50:01ZOne year ago, Pope Francis disavowed the ‘Doctrine of Discovery’ – but Indigenous Catholics’ work for respect and recognition goes back decades<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/583533/original/file-20240321-24-zghkkq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=15%2C0%2C5289%2C3618&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Tzotzil women line up for Holy Communion during a Catholic Mass in Chiapas state, Mexico, in 2016. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/APTOPIXMexicoPopeIndigenous/0e5d46785792469db2511651be315c40/photo?Query=609821321857&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:asc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=1&currentItemNo=0">AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>It has been more than 500 years since Vatican decrees gave European colonizers permission <a href="https://www.gilderlehrman.org/history-resources/spotlight-primary-source/doctrine-discovery-1493">to carve up the “New World</a>” – and just one since Pope Francis disavowed them.</p>
<p>On March 30, 2023, Francis <a href="https://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/en/bollettino/pubblico/2023/03/30/230330b.html">repudiated the “Doctrine of Discovery</a>”: a set of ideas the Spanish and Portuguese, in particular, used to justify seizing land they had “discovered” and colonizing Indigenous people in the land they came to call the Americas. <a href="https://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/en/bollettino/pubblico/2023/03/30/230330b.html">The Vatican’s statement</a> not only rejected the doctrine, but also apologized for historical atrocities carried out by Christians and affirmed the rights and cultural values of Indigenous peoples. </p>
<p>The repudiation can hardly undo centuries of oppressing Indigenous people and stealing their lands. Yet the statement is monumental in ways that signal cultural and political shifts within the Catholic Church. It recognized decades of work by Indigenous Catholics to demand that their very own church respect their history, culture and faith – a focus of my work <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=oC3uu6YAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">as a historian of Mexico and religion</a>.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/583535/original/file-20240321-28-uhg7rv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="An older man in white wears a crown of yellow flowers, standing amid other men, and near a hat covered in brightly colored ribbons." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/583535/original/file-20240321-28-uhg7rv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/583535/original/file-20240321-28-uhg7rv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=417&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583535/original/file-20240321-28-uhg7rv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=417&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583535/original/file-20240321-28-uhg7rv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=417&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583535/original/file-20240321-28-uhg7rv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=524&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583535/original/file-20240321-28-uhg7rv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=524&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583535/original/file-20240321-28-uhg7rv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=524&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Pope Francis wears a crown of flowers, gifted to him by Indigenous Mexicans, as he arrives in Tuxtla Gutierrez, Mexico, in 2016.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/MexicoPope/820da54fa77c4b70820f7a84dead3c4d/photo?Query=francis%20flowers%20indigenous%20mexico&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:asc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=3&currentItemNo=1">AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia</a></span>
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<h2>‘New World,’ new owners</h2>
<p>The Doctrine of Discovery has its roots in 15th century papal documents, called “papal bulls,” which were issued amid Spain’s and Portugal’s colonial expansion in Africa and the recently “discovered” Americas.</p>
<p>“<a href="https://www.gilderlehrman.org/history-resources/spotlight-primary-source/doctrine-discovery-1493">Inter Caetera</a>,” for example, which was issued in 1493, drew a line 100 leagues, or around 350 miles, to the west of the Azores and Cape Verde in the Atlantic Ocean. The document declared that all lands west of that line were free to be discovered, colonized and Christianized by the Kingdoms of Castile and León – modern-day Spain. </p>
<p>In other words, the Catholic Church gave Spain a monopoly on the New World, on the condition that the natives be converted to Christianity. Soon after, however, Spain and Portugal negotiated the <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2967633">Treaty of Tordesillas</a>, settling Portuguese claims over modern-day Brazil.</p>
<p>More broadly, the Doctrine of Discovery shaped European kingdoms’ approach to colonizing the Americas, Asia and Africa. It was, simply put, the legal foundation of their claims over non-Christian peoples and territories.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/583550/original/file-20240321-18-iwy51i.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="An old-fashioned map of the world with several sections in vivid green and blue." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/583550/original/file-20240321-18-iwy51i.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/583550/original/file-20240321-18-iwy51i.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=282&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583550/original/file-20240321-18-iwy51i.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=282&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583550/original/file-20240321-18-iwy51i.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=282&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583550/original/file-20240321-18-iwy51i.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=354&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583550/original/file-20240321-18-iwy51i.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=354&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583550/original/file-20240321-18-iwy51i.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=354&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">The Cantino planisphere, made by an unknown Portuguese cartographer in 1502. A line on the left shows the Americas divided into Spanish and Portuguese territories.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Cantino_planisphere_(1502).jpg">Biblioteca Estense Universitaria/Wikimedia</a></span>
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<p>Three centuries later, the Supreme Court of the newly independent United States cited the doctrine in a significant decision, <a href="https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/21/543/">Johnson v. McIntosh</a>. According to this 1823 ruling, Indigenous peoples had no permanent right to the territory they lived on.</p>
<h2>Seeds of change</h2>
<p>Despite forced Christianization, church leaders repeatedly despaired that Indigenous Latin Americans had <a href="https://theconversation.com/latin-americas-colonial-period-was-far-less-catholic-than-it-might-seem-despite-the-inquisitions-attempts-to-police-religion-214691">not fully become Catholic</a>. The Spanish reluctantly tolerated Indigenous Catholic practices, such as worshipping the <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/us/universitypress/subjects/history/regional-history-after-1500/mexican-phoenix-our-lady-guadalupe-image-and-tradition-across-five-centuries">Virgin of Guadalupe</a>, an apparition of Mary in Mexico, and associating her with the Nahuátl mother goddess, Tonantzin. They reasoned that the Indigenous were novice Christians who would learn in time – an attitude that persisted for centuries.</p>
<p>The Catholic Church addressed multicultural questions in the 1960s, during <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-catholic-church-resists-change-but-vatican-ii-shows-its-possible-102543">the Second Vatican Council</a>. Over four years, in thousands of hours of meetings and consultations, the church embarked on its first major reforms in centuries. </p>
<p>The council approved using vernacular languages in Mass instead of Latin, promoted cooperation with other faiths and signaled a shift toward tolerating the diverse ways Catholics expressed their faith around the world. One of the resulting documents, “<a href="https://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_decree_19651207_ad-gentes_en.html">Ad gentes</a>,” promoted missionary activity among unconverted peoples. However, it recognized that all cultures contained “seeds” of Christianity and that cultural diversity in the church would strengthen the body of the Catholic Church as a whole.</p>
<h2>Building a movement</h2>
<p>Almost immediately, Indigenous Catholics throughout Latin America began organizing to make these possibilities real. </p>
<p>In Mexico, a group of young priests and seminarians organized the <a href="https://www.amerindiaenlared.org/uploads/adjuntos/1349836940_attach52.pdf">Movement of Indigenous Priests</a>. Spearheaded by a young Indigenous priest, Eleazar López Hernández, they pushed back against the notion that men entering the priesthood had to choose between their Indigenous and priestly identities.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/583553/original/file-20240321-30-dvx3us.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A boy in a red headdress and bright blue shirt stands holding a small brass instrument." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/583553/original/file-20240321-30-dvx3us.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/583553/original/file-20240321-30-dvx3us.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583553/original/file-20240321-30-dvx3us.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583553/original/file-20240321-30-dvx3us.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583553/original/file-20240321-30-dvx3us.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583553/original/file-20240321-30-dvx3us.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583553/original/file-20240321-30-dvx3us.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">A young Indigenous musician waits ahead of a Mass that Pope Francis celebrated in San Cristobal de las Casas, Mexico, in 2016.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/APTOPIXMexicoPope/7a8d960f2bd240ddba65d1e2566b455c/photo?Query=730687673175&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:asc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=1&currentItemNo=0">AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo</a></span>
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<p>At the core of their demands was the insistence that multiple Catholicisms could exist within the same Catholic Church. For instance, in 1971, <a href="https://www.proquest.com/openview/4a55a5e688ec5dc2862ecae0a7ca1de5/">López Hernández</a> testified about the importance of having Indigenous priests in Indigenous communities. These Catholics, he argued, deserved clergy who spoke their language, could participate meaningfully in traditional rituals, understood their roots, and who could honor Indigenous spirituality in addition to Catholicism’s message of salvation.</p>
<p>Their demands inspired new Catholic institutions. In 1969, several dioceses founded the Regional Seminary of the Southeast, called SERESURE. The seminary’s <a href="https://www.proquest.com/openview/4a55a5e688ec5dc2862ecae0a7ca1de5/">explicit mission</a> was to train priests to work in poor Indigenous areas, and it became a hub for Indigenous Catholicism. SERESURE developed an innovative structure that drew on <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/644412">Indigenous traditions of governing their communities by assembly</a>, challenging strictly hierarchical church practices.</p>
<p>Yet SERESURE was <a href="https://www.sinembargo.mx/21-02-2016/1626817">shuttered in 1989</a> over <a href="https://www.proquest.com/openview/4a55a5e688ec5dc2862ecae0a7ca1de5/">allegations of incorrect doctrine</a>, Marxism and supporting <a href="https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501750755/reagans-gun-toting-nuns/">armed revolutionary movements</a>. There was some truth to the first two allegations, but the third had little basis in truth.</p>
<p>It spoke, however, to the types of work some church agents were doing with Indigenous people in the region. Young priests, religious sisters and lay Catholics were fanning out to work with communities living in desperate poverty, trying to both provide economic opportunity and preserve local cultures and languages. This poverty had given birth to <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/specters-of-revolution-9780199936595?cc=us&lang=en&">armed movements in Mexico</a>, Guatemala and beyond during the Cold War.</p>
<p>For many of these Catholics, salvation did not only mean going to heaven, but building a more just world.</p>
<h2>Steps forward – and back</h2>
<p>By the early 1990s, conflicts between the Vatican and Indigenous peoples had bled into the public sphere.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/583546/original/file-20240321-24-s2zr9c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A black and white photo shows several seated men in white watching two men in headdresses dance with their arms raised." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/583546/original/file-20240321-24-s2zr9c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/583546/original/file-20240321-24-s2zr9c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=447&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583546/original/file-20240321-24-s2zr9c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=447&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583546/original/file-20240321-24-s2zr9c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=447&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583546/original/file-20240321-24-s2zr9c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=561&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583546/original/file-20240321-24-s2zr9c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=561&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583546/original/file-20240321-24-s2zr9c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=561&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Pope John Paul II watches a performance of the Mayan Creation dance during a 1993 visit to Mexico, where he apologized for Christian colonizers’ abuses.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/POPEMEXICOVISIT-/7945d4eed7e4da11af9f0014c2589dfb/photo?Query=930811034&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:asc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=1&currentItemNo=0">AP Photo/Mosconi</a></span>
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<p>John Paul II <a href="https://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/speeches/1987/september/documents/hf_jp-ii_spe_19870920_indigeni-fort-simpson.html">increased attention to</a> Indigenous Catholics with <a href="https://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/travels/1990/travels/documents/trav_messico.html">his visits to southern Mexico</a>. During his papacy, however, the Vatican celebrated 1992 as <a href="https://scholar.lib.vt.edu/VA-news/ROA-Times/issues/1990/rt9005/900508/05080701.htm">the 500th anniversary</a> of bringing Christianity to the New World.</p>
<p>Indigenous movements across the Americas rejected such a rosy depiction of <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/1571458">colonization, enslavement and forced conversion</a>. Instead, they organized protests under the banner of “500 Years of Resistance,” celebrating Indigenous resilience, culture, language and spirituality. In Tehuacán, Mexico, Indigenous Catholic priests led a march of nearly 20,000 Nahua people that culminated in an open-air Mass <a href="https://www.proquest.com/openview/4a55a5e688ec5dc2862ecae0a7ca1de5/">conducted in Nahuátl</a> – the language of the Mexica, or Aztecs.</p>
<p>It was not until 2013, after Francis’ election as pope, that <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-25445819">the Vatican approved Nahuátl</a> as an official language of the Catholic Church – meaning it can be used to conduct Mass inside churches. In addition, the Vatican ordered Mexican bishops to translate Catholic liturgy and texts into Nahuátl. </p>
<p>This was a large first step in recognizing the decades of work of Indigenous Catholics to insist that multiple Catholicisms can and should exist side by side.</p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/TQ8l9__cS3M?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">The first official Catholic Mass held in the Nahuatl language, in the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe.</span></figcaption>
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<p>Since 2015, the Mexican Catholic Church has hosted an <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQ8l9__cS3M&t">annual Nahuátl Mass</a> in the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe. The Mass opened with traditional rural Indigenous music, and the offerings and decorations evoked the sights, sounds and smells of an Indigenous community parish – an open embrace of Indigenous Catholicisms.</p>
<p>Across the Catholic world, the Vatican has been <a href="http://secretariat.synod.va/content/sinodoamazonico/en/documents/final-document-of-the-amazon-synod.html">opening to multicultural Catholicisms</a> in recent years. The Nahuátl Mass is but one example, as is the repudiation of the Doctrine of Discovery. </p>
<p>Francis’ statement was important as an institutional recognition of historical atrocities. More profoundly, it was a validation of Indigenous Catholic activists’ demands for <a href="https://adn.celam.org/seminaristas-indigenas-a-menudo-queremos-ir-al-seminario-pero-la-gente-piensa-que-no-tenemos-capacidad/">inclusion on their terms</a>, even while disputes over multiculturalism continue.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/223266/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Eben Levey received funding from a Fulbright Fellowship and from the University of Maryland, College Park for his dissertation research. </span></em></p>Indigenous Catholics have long argued they should be able to embrace both sides of that identity.Eben Levey, Assistant Professor of History, Alfred UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2267452024-03-28T05:49:47Z2024-03-28T05:49:47ZThe rocking story of how religion crept into popular music – where it remains even today<p>It’s Easter weekend, which means many of us will be kicking back with the greatest hits on repeat. But whether you’re a boomer, or an ‘80s or '90s kid, you might be surprised to find many of your favourite tunes are more concerned about Jesus and God than you’d realised. </p>
<p>Many chart-topping songs in Western music delve into themes of faith (especially Christianity), spirituality and divinity. But unlike Christmas music, most of these come from a rock tradition.</p>
<h2>Early gospel makes the charts</h2>
<p>Hits by some of rock’s greatest guitarists, such as George Harrison, Lenny Kravitz and Prince, feature strong guitar riffs that create a sense of aural transcendence. These riffs, which involve a repeated note sequence or chord progression, help to define their songs.</p>
<p>This intertwining of guitar and Christian spirituality dates back to the emergence of rock music in the 1940s. American rock pioneer <a href="https://www.udiscovermusic.com/stories/sister-rosetta-tharpe-rocknroll-pioneer/">Sister Rosetta Tharpe</a> (1915–73), from the Pentecostal church, used powerful guitar riffs that surged with soulfulness. </p>
<p>Tharpe’s 1944 gospel song <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4-22b72muY&ab_channel=HistoryofRockMusic-Mostpowerfulrocksongs">Strange Things Happening Every Day</a> – <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6IfYroJOiMg&ab_channel=RCARecords">covered by Yola</a> for the 2022 film <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elvis_(2022_film)">Elvis</a> – is a great example.</p>
<p>Using electric guitar, and the theological message “Jesus is the holy light”, Tharpe’s was the first song to cross over from gospel into a mainstream “race” chart in the US. “<a href="https://www.loc.gov/collections/songs-of-america/articles-and-essays/musical-styles/popular-songs-of-the-day/rhythm-and-blues/">Race music</a>”, which eventually became R&B, was the term used to describe African American music (but generally just referred to secular music).</p>
<h2>The rise of spirituality and counterculture</h2>
<p>Christian rock also has roots in the 1960s US <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/1960s-counterculture">counterculture</a> “hippie” movement. The Jesus People brought a Christian vibe to this movement, leading to works such as Andrew Lloyd Webber’s 1971 rock opera <a href="https://playbill.com/article/look-back-at-the-original-broadway-production-of-jesus-christ-superstar#">Jesus Christ Superstar</a>, which is still being performed more than 50 years later.</p>
<p>Throughout the 1960s and '70s, plenty of songs exploring themes of God, faith and spirituality climbed their way into the Top 20. For example, Norman Greenbaum’s 1970 track <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2msh0jut2Y&ab_channel=CraftRecordings">Spirit in the Sky</a> became popular during the <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/09/24/the-unlikely-endurance-of-christian-rock">Christian rock movement</a>. </p>
<p>It was joined in the same year by Harrison’s hit <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04v-SdKeEpE&ab_channel=GeorgeHarrisonVEVO">My Sweet Lord</a>, which is particularly interesting because of its mix of spiritual undertones, which reflect the West’s growing interest in Eastern spirituality at the time. </p>
<p>Along with the repetition of “lord” (which is said around 40 times) and the use of the Christian/Hebrew word “Hallelujah”, the song also includes chants of “Hare Krishna” and “Hare Rama”, praising the Hindu gods.</p>
<p>My Sweet Lord became the <a href="https://www.denofgeek.com/culture/george-harrison-my-sweet-lord-music-video/">highest-selling single</a> in the United Kingdom in 1971, as well as the first solo number-one hit by a member of the Beatles. It wasn’t all smooth sailing, though. The song sparked controversy, and a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1976/09/08/archives/george-harrison-guilty-of-plagiarizing-subconsciously-a-62-tune-for.html">lawsuit that claimed</a> it was too similar to The Chiffons’s 1963 hit He’s So Fine.</p>
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<p>For some, My Sweet Lord is considered a Christian song – at least the until the Hindu chants begin. But the mixing of religious elements was seen by some conservative Christians as satanic, or pagan (even though Hinduism <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/is-hinduism-a-pagan-relig_b_1245373">isn’t a pagan</a> religion). </p>
<p>Music throughout the 1960s and '70s, while it still touched on religious themes, grew much more rebellious and edgy with bands like <a href="https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20151027-the-satanists-who-changed-music">The Rolling Stones and Black Sabbath</a>. </p>
<p>Topics such as sex, drugs and hedonism became common – as did protesting against traditional values. From this cocktail emerged the view that rock was the <a href="https://www.udiscovermusic.com/in-depth-features/the-devil-has-all-the-best-tunes/">devil’s music</a>. </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/jesus-people-a-movement-born-from-the-summer-of-love-82421">'Jesus People' – a movement born from the 'Summer of Love'</a>
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<h2>The 80s: when religion met raunchy</h2>
<p>The 1980s and '90s continued the trend of intertwining spirituality and popular music. Many of these tracks stirred deep discussions on faith, cementing music’s power as a medium for expressing complex themes.</p>
<p>Lenny Kravitz’s <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BnqUK7XF54k">Are You Gonna Go My Way</a> (1993) was written to sound like the lyrics came from Jesus himself:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I was born long ago, I am the chosen. I’m the one. I have come to save the day, and I won’t leave until I’m done […] But what I really want to know is, are you gonna go my way? </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Prince’s <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXJhDltzYVQ&ab_channel=Prince">Lets Go Crazy</a> (1984) was a metaphor for God and Satan, hinted at in the line “are we gonna let the elevator bring us down? Oh no let’s go!” </p>
<p>Meanwhile, Madonna’s 1989 smash Like a Prayer made more than one wave when it topped the charts 35 years ago. The music video stirred up <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/music/from-the-archives-outrage-over-madonna-video-20190402-p51a0s.html">quite a controversy</a> by mixing the sacred with the profane. Among other things, Madonna is shown dancing among burning crosses, and kissing a black Christ who comes to life from being a statue.</p>
<p>The video conveys messages about prejudice, racism, violence and sexuality. Some networks refused to show it, deeming it inappropriate for children. Others aired it with a warning it might offend viewers. The Catholic Church was outraged and the Vatican condemned it. </p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/79fzeNUqQbQ?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
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<p>Nonetheless, the video achieved huge commercial success, winning MTV’s <a href="https://www.imdb.com/event/ev0003172/1989/1/">1989 Video Music Award</a> for Viewer’s Choice. Even now, it remains a pinnacle of music video art.</p>
<h2>Religion is still everywhere in music</h2>
<p>Today, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/danidiplacido/2023/02/10/sam-smiths-grammys-performance-criticized-by-conservatives-and-satanists/?sh=3339c55f30b1">most of us</a> won’t bat an eyelid when we see Lil Nas X <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/lil-nas-x-montero-call-me-by-your-name-video-church-of-satan-1147634/">giving Satan a lapdance</a>, and that’s probably because of the work of artists like Madonna. </p>
<p>It’s interesting that, despite a <a href="https://www.abs.gov.au/articles/religious-affiliation-australia">rise in secularism</a>, the intersection of the sacred and secular in music has persisted. Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah, with its intermingling spiritual and sexual themes, is still one of the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2022/sep/17/hallelujah-leonard-cohen-film-rejected-song-became-classic">most popular songs</a> of all time.</p>
<p>Today, many of the world’s most famous contemporary artists continue the tradition of engaging with spiritual and religious themes. Take Drake’s 2018 hit <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xpVfcZ0ZcFM&ab_channel=DrakeVEVO">God’s Plan</a>, or The Weeknd’s <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2022/jan/07/the-weeknd-dawn-fm-review">highly acclaimed</a> 2022 album Dawn FM, replete with spiritual undertones and religious symbolism. </p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/34Na4j8AVgA?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
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<p>Perhaps it’s just in the nature of religion to evoke feeling and inspire, even for those who aren’t “religious” themselves. Or perhaps we’ve collectively realised musicians can experiment with themes and take risks, and it won’t bring about the end of the world. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/lil-nas-xs-dance-with-the-devil-evokes-tradition-of-resisting-mocking-religious-demonization-158586">Lil Nas X's dance with the devil evokes tradition of resisting, mocking religious demonization</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/226745/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Panizza Allmark does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>You’d be surprised by how many of your favourite hits are about God or Jesus in one way or another.Panizza Allmark, Professor Visual & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2247492024-03-27T19:07:18Z2024-03-27T19:07:18ZHow Spanish conquistadors, and a tiny cactus-dwelling insect, gave the world the colour red<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/584655/original/file-20240327-20-rtqbex.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=45%2C45%2C3021%2C1995&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>When you think about a red object, you might picture a red carpet, or the massive ruby in the <a href="https://www.hrp.org.uk/tower-of-london/history-and-stories/the-crown-jewels/#gs.601fv7">Queen’s crown</a>. Indeed, Western monarchies and marketing from brands such as <a href="https://www.businessoffashion.com/podcasts/luxury/the-bof-podcast-how-christian-louboutin-turned-red-soles-into-a-status-symbol/">Christian Louboutin</a> have cemented our association of the colour red with power and wealth. </p>
<p>But what if I told you this connection has been pervasive across time and cultures? In fact, the red pigment has fascinated humans for millennia. </p>
<h2>Prickly pear blood</h2>
<p>The vibrant red we often see in cosmetics, food and drinks is actually derived from a tiny insect called the cochineal, which lives on prickly pear cacti and today is <a href="https://www.livescience.com/36292-red-food-dye-bugs-cochineal-carmine.html">harvested mainly</a> from Peru and the Canary Islands. The cochineal’s ubiquitous crimson dye is also known as Carmine, Natural Red or <a href="https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/E-7-2013-007471_EN.html">E120</a>.</p>
<p>The links between red and esteem and power can be traced back to the <a href="https://www.worldhistory.org/Inca_Civilization/">Inca civilisation</a> that flourished in the Andean region of South America from around 1400 to 1533.</p>
<p>Red carries profound symbolism in Inca mythology, intertwined with the legendary story of Mama Huaco – the inaugural warrior queen – who was often envisioned as emerging in a <a href="https://www.pinterest.com.au/pin/mama-huaco-the-j-paul-getty-museum-collection--343469909087671035/">resplendent red dress</a>.</p>
<p>The historical journey of the cochineal mirrors the journeys of several other global staples – such as potatoes, chilli and tomatoes – <a href="https://www.uvm.edu/news/extension/history-tomatoes">that</a> <a href="https://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry.php?entry=CH041#">originated</a> from pre-Columbian Mexico and South America. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/584664/original/file-20240327-24-uoh2t6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/584664/original/file-20240327-24-uoh2t6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/584664/original/file-20240327-24-uoh2t6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584664/original/file-20240327-24-uoh2t6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584664/original/file-20240327-24-uoh2t6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584664/original/file-20240327-24-uoh2t6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584664/original/file-20240327-24-uoh2t6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584664/original/file-20240327-24-uoh2t6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A close up view of cochineals (<em>Dactylopius coccus</em>) on a prickly pear cactus.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The cochineal insect was brought to Europe by Spanish conquistadors in the 15th century, and held a worth akin to gold and silver. It strengthened Spain’s economic influence, provided support for the Spanish empire’s expansion, and stimulated <a href="https://hmsc.harvard.edu/online-exhibits/cochineal1/color-power/">global trade</a>. </p>
<p>Cultivation and harvest were carried out by the Indigenous Mesoamerican peoples living under Spanish rule, who had already been doing this <a href="https://www.loc.gov/ghe/cascade/index.html?appid=a4fb6d38afd64e3ebe4618c776b70e7f">for centuries</a>. They were <a href="https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20180202-the-insect-that-painted-europe-red">paid in pennies</a> while their labour allowed Spain to maintain its monopoly on the valuable red dye.</p>
<h2>The king’s shoes</h2>
<p>Before the conquistadors began the cochineal trade, achieving a rich red hue was a challenge, which meant European nobility had to use purple and blue instead. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.worldhistory.org/Tyrian_Purple/">But by the 1460s</a>, the cochineal gained such popularity in Europe that it <a href="https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/column/52831/the-color-purple">superseded Tyrian purple</a> as the traditional colour of the cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church. This red was unmatched in vibrancy. Its depth and rarity eventually made it among the most expensive dyes of the time. </p>
<p>It became a prominent feature in <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/Baroque-art-and-architecture">European Baroque art</a> – characterised by its intensity and drama. And its widespread uptake by European royalty further solidified its connection with power and wealth.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/584668/original/file-20240327-16-ssozzz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/584668/original/file-20240327-16-ssozzz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/584668/original/file-20240327-16-ssozzz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=783&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584668/original/file-20240327-16-ssozzz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=783&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584668/original/file-20240327-16-ssozzz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=783&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584668/original/file-20240327-16-ssozzz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=983&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584668/original/file-20240327-16-ssozzz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=983&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584668/original/file-20240327-16-ssozzz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=983&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Return of the Prodigal Son by Dutch Master Rembrandt is a famous example of a dramatic baroque work.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Return_of_the_Prodigal_Son_(Rembrandt)#/media/File:Rembrandt_Harmensz_van_Rijn_-_Return_of_the_Prodigal_Son_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg">Wikimedia</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In France, King Louis XIV’s (1638-1715) penchant for red was evident in his lavish décor choices, which included 435 red beds in his palace at <a href="https://en.chateauversailles.fr/discover/history/great-characters/louis-xiv">Versailles</a>. He displayed red in the <a href="https://www.thevoiceoffashion.com/intersections/famous-wardrobes-then-and-now/the-emperors-red-shoes-4155">soles of his shoes</a>. He even instituted a law in 1673 restricting the coveted red heels to aristocrats who were granted permission by the monarch himself, effectively making them a hallmark of royal favour. </p>
<h2>Spiritual significance</h2>
<p>The colour red holds significant spiritual symbolism across various religions. In Judeo-Christian traditions, an <a href="https://ornagrinman.com/2020/04/28/adom-dam-adama-adam/">intriguing connection exists</a> between the Hebrew word for “man” (Adam), “red” and “blood”, all stemming from a common etymological root. </p>
<p>According to Biblical accounts, Adam, the first man, was formed from the Earth – and the colour red could symbolise the richness of the soil or clay from which Adam was created. This interplay of language and symbolism underscores a profound interconnectedness between red and spiritual belief systems.</p>
<p>This spiritual significance reverberates across cultures. In <a href="https://www.ipl.org/essay/Hindu-Symbolism-Analysis-PKXBJ336JE8R">Hindu tradition</a>, red is imbued with sacred meaning symbolising fertility, purity and prosperity. In Chinese culture, it is considered auspicious, and signifies joy and prosperity.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/584667/original/file-20240327-28-fkv4gq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/584667/original/file-20240327-28-fkv4gq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/584667/original/file-20240327-28-fkv4gq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584667/original/file-20240327-28-fkv4gq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584667/original/file-20240327-28-fkv4gq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584667/original/file-20240327-28-fkv4gq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584667/original/file-20240327-28-fkv4gq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584667/original/file-20240327-28-fkv4gq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In Hinduism, red represents love and prosperity, which is reflected in the bindi – a small red dot applied between the eyebrows.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Red hues have also been viewed as a symbol of vitality <a href="https://asia.si.edu/explore-art-culture/art-stories/colors/red/">across spiritual and cultural groups</a>, as they emulate blood, our life force. In <a href="https://www.terrasanctamuseum.org/en/green-white-red-black-how-to-understand-the-colours-of-the-catholic-christian-liturgy/">Roman Catholic tradition</a>, red is symbolic of martyrdom, the spirit and the blood of Christ. </p>
<h2>The colour of champions</h2>
<p>In terms of visibility, red has the <a href="https://science.nasa.gov/ems/09_visiblelight/">longest wavelength</a>. This might help explain our longstanding cross-cultural attraction to it: studies show it stimulates excitement and energy when viewed, which can cause physical effects such as an increased heart rate. It has even been shown to <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7658407/">increase our appetite</a>. </p>
<p>Psychologically, red seems to have more influence on humans compared with other colours in the spectrum. In an experiment at the 2004 Athens Olympics, athletes across four contact sports were randomly clad in either red or blue. Those who wore red were <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/435293a">more often victorious</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18344128/#:%7E:text=No%20significant%20differences%20were%20found,over%20a%2055%2Dyear%20period.">Another study of</a> English football teams over a 55-year period found wearing red shirts was associated with greater success on the field. That’s because red is linked to a heightened sense of determination and endurance, which can translate to better focus. From this angle, red seems to be the colour of champions. </p>
<p>The “red carpet” tradition itself is thousands of years old. The <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/style/article/an-unexpected-history-of-the-red-carpet/index.html">first known reference</a> to it comes from the ancient Greek play Agamemnon, written in 458 BCE, in which a red path (said to be reserved for the gods) is laid out for King Agamemnon by his wife as he returns from the Trojan war. The twist is that Clytemnestra seeks to lead him to his death: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Let all the ground be red / Where those feet pass; and Justice, dark of yore, / Home light him to the hearth he looks not for.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This symbol has since morphed into the celebrity red carpet, graced by pop culture “royalty”.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, red also has also garnered some alarming associations in our everyday vernacular, with “red pills”, “red flags” and “seeing red” being just a few examples. </p>
<p>This potent symbol continues to have diverse interpretations, representing not only achievement, but also the power – and sometimes the dangers – that come with it.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/584669/original/file-20240327-20-td6a7i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/584669/original/file-20240327-20-td6a7i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/584669/original/file-20240327-20-td6a7i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584669/original/file-20240327-20-td6a7i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584669/original/file-20240327-20-td6a7i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584669/original/file-20240327-20-td6a7i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584669/original/file-20240327-20-td6a7i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584669/original/file-20240327-20-td6a7i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Besides its links to spirituality and nobility, red is also used to convey more sinister meanings.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/224749/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Panizza Allmark does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Purple was highly valued and associated with royalty, power, and prestige in various ancient cultures, including the Roman and Byzantine Empires. So how did red creep its way in?Panizza Allmark, Professor Visual & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2210712024-03-27T12:38:11Z2024-03-27T12:38:11ZThe roots of the Easter story: Where did Christian beliefs about Jesus’ resurrection come from?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/583768/original/file-20240322-29-86j1i0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C2013%2C923&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A mosaic of the Resurrection in the Basilica of St. Paul in Harissa, Lebanon.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mosa%C3%AFques_de_la_basilique_Saint_Paul_(Harissa)09.jpg">FredSeiller/Wikimedia Commons</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>As Easter approaches, Christians around the world begin to focus on two of the central tenets of their faith: the death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. </p>
<p>Other charismatic Jewish teachers or <a href="https://www.sefaria.org/The_Jewish_Spiritual_Heroes%2C_Volume_I%3B_The_Creators_of_the_Mishna%2C_Rabbi_Chanina_ben_Dosa?lang=bi">miracle workers</a> were active in Judea around the same time, approximately 2,000 years ago. What set Jesus apart was his <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+Corinthians+15.12-19&version=NRSVUE">followers’ belief in his resurrection</a>. For believers, this was not only a miracle, but a sign that Jesus was the long-awaited Jewish messiah, sent to save the people of Israel from their oppressors.</p>
<p>But was the idea of a resurrection itself a unique belief in first-century Israel? </p>
<p>I am <a href="https://religiousstudies.wvu.edu/faculty-and-staff/faculty/aaron-gale">a scholar of ancient Judaism</a> and <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/redefining-ancient-borders-9780567025210/">its connection to the early Christian movement</a>. The Christian concept of Jesus rising from the dead helped shape many of the faith’s key teachings and, ultimately, the new religion’s split from Judaism. Yet religious teachings about resurrection go back many centuries before Jesus walked the earth.</p>
<p>There are stories that likely predate early Jewish beliefs by many centuries, such as the Egyptian story of the god <a href="https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803100255831">Osiris being resurrected by his wife, Isis</a>. Most relevant for Christianity, though, are Judaism’s own ideas about resurrection.</p>
<h2>‘Your dead shall live’</h2>
<p>One of the earliest written Jewish references to resurrection in the Bible is found in the <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Isaiah+26&version=NRSVUE">Book of Isaiah</a>, which discusses a future era, perhaps a time of final judgment, in which the dead would rise and be subject to God’s ultimate justice. “Your dead shall live; their corpses shall rise,” Isaiah prophesies. “Those who dwell in the dust will awake and shout for joy.”</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/583783/original/file-20240323-28-o988y.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Three rows of yellowed manuscript on a scroll, with jagged edges." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/583783/original/file-20240323-28-o988y.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/583783/original/file-20240323-28-o988y.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=190&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583783/original/file-20240323-28-o988y.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=190&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583783/original/file-20240323-28-o988y.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=190&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583783/original/file-20240323-28-o988y.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=238&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583783/original/file-20240323-28-o988y.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=238&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583783/original/file-20240323-28-o988y.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=238&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Great Isaiah Scroll: the best preserved of the biblical scrolls found at Qumran, by the Dead Sea, which was probably written around the second century B.C.E.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Great_Isaiah_Scroll.jpg">Ardon Bar Hama/The Israel Museum, Jerusalem/Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Later Jewish biblical texts such as the <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Daniel+12.2&version=NRSVUE">Book of Daniel</a> also referenced resurrection.</p>
<p>There were several competing Jewish sects at the time of Jesus’ life. The most prominent and influential, the Pharisees, further integrated <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts%2023%3A8&version=NRSVUE">the concept of resurrection</a> into Jewish thought. According to <a href="https://penelope.uchicago.edu/josephus/war-2.html">the first-century historian Josephus</a>, the Pharisees believed that the soul was immortal and could be reunited with a resurrected body – ideas that would likely have made the idea of Jesus rising from the dead more acceptable to the Jews of his time.</p>
<p>Within a few centuries, the rabbis began to fuse together the <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ezekiel+37.1-12&version=NRSVUE">earlier biblical references to bodily resurrection</a> with the later ideas of the Pharisees. In particular, the rabbis began to discuss the concept of <a href="https://www.sefaria.org/Ketubot.111a?lang=bi">bodily resurrection</a> and its connection to the messianic era.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/584246/original/file-20240325-28-1nyx4d.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Beige stone boxes sit on the ground in rows, with a building with a golden roof in the distance." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/584246/original/file-20240325-28-1nyx4d.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/584246/original/file-20240325-28-1nyx4d.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=899&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584246/original/file-20240325-28-1nyx4d.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=899&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584246/original/file-20240325-28-1nyx4d.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=899&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584246/original/file-20240325-28-1nyx4d.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584246/original/file-20240325-28-1nyx4d.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584246/original/file-20240325-28-1nyx4d.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Jewish Cemetery on Mount of Olives in Jerusalem. Graves face the Temple Mount, where some believe that the resurrection of the dead will culminate.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:121224-Jerusalem-Mount-of-Olives_(27497923512).jpg">xiquinhosilva/Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Jews believed that the legitimate Messiah would be <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Isaiah%2011&version=NRSVUE">a descendant of the biblical King David</a> who would vanquish their enemies and <a href="https://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/nets/edition/31-pssal-nets.pdf">restore Israel to its previous glory</a>. In the centuries following Jesus’ death, the rabbis taught that the souls of the dead <a href="https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/1127503/jewish/The-Resurrection-Process.htm">would be resurrected</a> after the Messiah appeared on earth.</p>
<p>By the 500s C.E. or so, the rabbis further elaborated upon the concept. The Talmud, the most important collection of authoritative writings on Jewish law apart from the Bible itself, notes that <a href="https://www.sefaria.org/Mishnah_Sanhedrin.10.1?lang=bi">one who does not believe in resurrection has no share in the “Olam Haba</a>,” the “World to Come.” The Olam Haba is the realm where these sages believed <a href="https://ohr.edu/ask_db/ask_main.php/25/Q2/">one’s soul eventually dwells</a> after death. Interestingly, the concept of hell itself never became ingrained within mainstream Jewish thought.</p>
<p>Even now, the concept of God giving life to the dead is affirmed every day <a href="https://www.sefaria.org/sheets/146958?lang=bi">in the Amidah</a>, <a href="https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/mechayeh-hameitim-rethinking-the-resurrection-blessing/">a Jewish prayer recited</a> as part of the daily morning, afternoon and evening services.</p>
<h2>Old ideas, new beliefs</h2>
<p>The fact that the first followers of Jesus were Jews likely contributed to the concept of resurrection becoming ingrained into Christian thought. Yet the Christian understanding of resurrection was taken to an unprecedented degree in the decades following Jesus’ death.</p>
<p>According to Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus, a Jew from Galilee, entered Jerusalem in the days before Passover. He was accused of sedition against the Roman authorities – and likely other charges, such as blasphemy – largely because he was <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+21%3A12-13&version=NRSVUE">causing a disturbance</a> among the Jews getting ready to celebrate the holiday. At the time, <a href="https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/passover-pesach-history/">Passover was a pilgrimage festival</a> in which tens of thousands of Jews would travel to Jerusalem.</p>
<p>After being betrayed by one of his followers, Judas, <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+26.47-68&version=NRSVUE">Jesus was arrested, hastily put on trial</a> and sentenced to be crucified. The Roman authorities wished to uphold the pax Romana, or Roman peace. They feared that unrest amid a major festival could lead to a rebellion, especially given the accusation that at least some of Jesus’ followers believed him to be the “<a href="https://ehrmanblog.org/why-was-jesus-crucified/">King of the Jews</a>, as was recorded later in <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+2%3A2&version=NRSVUE">Matthew’s</a> and <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mark+15.2&version=NRSVUE">Mark’s Gospels</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/583782/original/file-20240323-24-cymdt5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A close-up photo of a pale sculpture of a bearded man's face, looking in pain or tired, with gold letters above." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/583782/original/file-20240323-24-cymdt5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/583782/original/file-20240323-24-cymdt5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583782/original/file-20240323-24-cymdt5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583782/original/file-20240323-24-cymdt5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583782/original/file-20240323-24-cymdt5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583782/original/file-20240323-24-cymdt5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583782/original/file-20240323-24-cymdt5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Crucifixes often display the Latin abbreviation ‘INRI,’ short for ‘Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews.’ This statue in Germany’s Ellwangen Abbey shows the abbreviation in three languages.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ellwangen_St_Vitus_Vorhalle_Kreuzaltar_detail2.jpg">Andreas Praefcke/Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>According to the Gospels, <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+27.32-28.10&version=NRSVUE">Jesus was put to death</a> on what is now Good Friday, and rose again on the third day – which today is celebrated as Easter Sunday.</p>
<p>Jesus’ early followers believed not only that he had been resurrected, but that he was <a href="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/religion/first/themovement.html">the long-awaited Jewish messiah</a>, who had fulfilled earlier <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Hosea+6.1-2&version=NRSVUE">Jewish prophecies</a>. Eventually, they also embraced the idea that he was <a href="https://www.npr.org/transcripts/300246095">the divine Son of God</a>, although scholars still debate exactly how and when this occurred.</p>
<p>In addition, the nature of Jesus’ resurrection remains <a href="https://marcusjborg.org/posts-by-marcus/the-resurrection-of-jesus/">a source of debate</a> among theologians and scholars – such as whether followers believed his <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+24.36-43&version=NRSVUE">resurrected body was made of flesh and blood</a>, <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2+Cor+3.17-18&version=NRSVUE">or pure spirit</a>. </p>
<p>Yet the grander meaning of the resurrection, which is recorded in all <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+28%3A1-10%2CMark+16%3A1-11%2CLuke+24%3A1-12%2CJohn+20&version=NRSVUE">four canonical Gospels</a>, remains clear for many of the approximately 2 billion Christians around the world: They believe that Jesus <a href="https://www.religion-online.org/article/resurrection-faith-n-t-wright-talks-about-history-and-belief/">triumphed over death</a>, which serves as a cornerstone foundation of the Christian faith.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/221071/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Aaron Gale does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Ideas about resurrection had been developing for centuries before Jesus’ life, but his followers took them in new directions.Aaron Gale, Associate Professor of Religious Studies, West Virginia UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2259652024-03-27T12:37:57Z2024-03-27T12:37:57ZEaster 2024 in the Holy Land: a holiday marked by Palestinian Christian sorrow<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/584385/original/file-20240326-22-4jhbih.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=43%2C51%2C5604%2C3699&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A procession at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, believed by many Christians to be the site of the crucifixion and burial place of Jesus Christ.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/IsraelPalestiniansEaster/d33a91bd48b94dd7b7cae10a29bdeef0/photo?Query=%20Church%20of%20the%20Holy%20Sepulchre%20easter&mediaType=photo&sortBy=&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=901&digitizationType=Digitized&currentItemNo=29&vs=true&vs=true">AP Photo/Sebastian Scheiner</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Every year, Christians from across the world visit Jerusalem for Easter week, <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/following-jesuss-steps-millions-christians-via-dolorosa-walking-wrong-way">walking the Via Dolorosa</a>, the path Jesus is said to have walked on the way to his crucifixion over 2,000 years ago. Easter is the holiest of days, and the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Holy-Sepulchre">Church of the Holy Sepulchre</a>, the site where Jesus is believed to have died, is one of the most sacred sites for Christians.</p>
<p>But not all Christians have equal access to these sites. If you are a Christian Palestinian living in the city of Bethlehem or Ramallah hoping to celebrate Easter in Jerusalem, you have to <a href="https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20240325-israel-bans-palestinian-christians-from-jerusalem-on-palm-sunday/">request permission from Israeli authorities</a> well before Christmas – without guarantee that it will be granted. Those were the rules even before Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas <a href="https://apnews.com/article/israel-hamas-war-latest-02-28-2024-5fb126981031984395a228598fa9e4a9">launched an attack on southern Israel</a>. The Israeli response to the Hamas attack has resulted in even more <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/11/11/middleeast/west-bank-restrictions-violence-intl-cmd/index.html">severe restrictions on freedom of movement</a> for Palestinians in the West Bank.</p>
<p>The site where the Bible says Jesus was born, in Bethlehem, and the place he died, in Jerusalem, are only about six miles apart. Google Maps indicates the drive takes about 20 minutes but carries a warning: “<a href="https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Church+of+the+Nativity,+P635%2BP2C,+Bethlehem+Territory/Church+of+the+Holy+Sepulchre,+Jerusalem/@31.7444436,35.1267403,12z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m14!4m13!1m5!1m1!1s0x1502d87be687c8f9:0xd060c37bd524261c!2m2!1d35.2075288!2d31.7043034!1m5!1m1!1s0x150329cf1c246db5:0x2d04a75cfc390360!2m2!1d35.2296002!2d31.7784813!3e0?entry=ttu">This route may cross country borders</a>.” That is because Bethlehem is located in the West Bank, which is under Israeli military occupation, whereas <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/2/22/how-does-israels-occupation-of-palestine-work#:%7E:text=Israel%20occupied%20the%20West%20Bank,were%20the%20capital%20of%20Israel">Jerusalem is under direct Israeli control</a>. </p>
<p>As a <a href="https://www.sjsu.edu/justicestudies/about-us/directory/abusaad-roni.php">human rights scholar</a> and Christian Palestinian who grew up in Bethlehem, I have many fond memories of Easter, which is a special time of gathering and celebration for Christian Palestinians. But I also saw firsthand how the military occupation has denied Palestinians basic human rights, including religious rights.</p>
<h2>A season of celebration</h2>
<p>Traditionally, Palestinian families and friends exchange visits, offering coffee, tea and a cookie stuffed with dates called “<a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2017/04/11/522771745/maamoul-an-ancient-cookie-that-ushers-in-easter-and-eid-in-the-middle-east">maamoul</a>,” which is made only at Easter. A favorite tradition, especially for children, is taking a colorfully dyed hard-boiled egg in one hand and cracking it against an egg held by a friend. The breaking of the egg symbolizes the rise of Jesus from the tomb, the end of sorrow and the ultimate defeat of death itself and purification of human sins.</p>
<p>For Orthodox Christians, one of the most sacred rites of the year is the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Holy-Fire">Holy Fire</a>. On the day before Orthodox Easter, thousands of pilgrims and local Christian Palestinians of all denominations gather in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Greek and Armenian patriarchs enter the enclosure of the tomb in which Jesus was said to have been buried and pray inside. Those inside have <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=IpyPCwAAQBAJ&pg=PT285&lpg=PT285&dq=%22From+the+core+of+the+very+stone+on+which+Jesus+lay+an+indefinable+light+pours+forth.+It+usually+has+a+blue+tint,+but+the+color+may+change+and+take+many+different+hues.+It+cannot+be+described+in+human+terms.+The+light+rises+out+of+the+stone+as+mist+may+rise+out+of+a+lake+%E2%80%94+it+almost+looks+as+if+the+stone+is+covered+by+a+moist+cloud,+but+it+is+light.&source=bl&ots=l47MXGss14&sig=ACfU3U3c3GuHU35fJ_j6Uxpnf8zITGO9gA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiW4d74n5KFAxVGCTQIHUNrAgsQ6AF6BAhKEAM#v=onepage&q&f=false">reported</a> that a blue light rises from the stone where Jesus lay, and forms into a flame. The patriarch lights candles from the flame, passing the fire from candle to candle among the thousands assembled in the church. </p>
<p>That same day, delegations representing Eastern Orthodox countries carry the flame in lanterns to their home countries via <a href="https://www.aerotime.aero/articles/aircraft-fleet-brings-easter-holy-fire-to-orthodox-communities">chartered planes</a> to be presented in cathedrals in time for the Easter service. Palestinians also carry the flame using lanterns to homes and churches in the West Bank.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/cMlvI5-Ah00?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Christians celebrate the Holy Fire under Israeli restrictions in 2023.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Deep roots in the Holy Land</h2>
<p>Palestinian Christians <a href="https://search.worldcat.org/title/Sociology-of-early-Palestinian-Christianity/oclc/3609025">trace their ancestry</a> to the time of Jesus and Christianity’s founding in the region. Many <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/9781">churches and monasteries</a> flourished in Bethlehem, Jerusalem and other Palestinian towns under Byzantine and Roman rule. Throughout this period and into the modern day, Christians, Muslims and Jews <a href="https://www.iis.ac.uk/learning-centre/scholarly-contributions/academic-articles/muslim-jews-and-christians-relations-and-interactions/">lived side by side in the region</a>. </p>
<p>With the Islamic conquest in the seventh century, the <a href="https://search.worldcat.org/title/decline-of-eastern-christianity-under-islam-from-jihad-to-dhimmitude-seventh-twentieth-century/oclc/33276531">majority of Christians gradually converted to Islam</a>. However, the remaining Christian minority persisted in practicing their religion and traditions, including through the rule of the Ottoman empire, from 1516 to 1922, and to the present day.</p>
<p>The establishment of Israel in 1948 led to the expulsion of <a href="http://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=17079">750,000 Palestinians, over 80% of the population</a>, which is referred to by Palestinians as the “<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-nakba-at-75-palestinians-struggle-to-get-recognition-for-their-catastrophe-204782">nakba,” or the catastrophe</a>. Hundreds of thousands became refugees throughout the world, including many Christians.</p>
<p>Christians accounted for about <a href="https://www.un.org/unispal/document/auto-insert-204267/">10% of the population in 1920</a> but <a href="https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/west-bank/#people-and-society">constitute just 1% to 2.5%</a> of Palestinians in the West Bank as of 2024, <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/resrep25112">because of emigration</a>. Christians in the West Bank belong to multiple denominations, including Greek Orthodox, Catholic and various Protestant denominations.</p>
<p>Thousands of Palestinians rely on the pilgrims and tourists who come to Bethlehem every year for their livelihoods. Two million people visit Bethlehem annually, and more than <a href="https://www.bethlehem-city.org/en/the-city-economy">20% of local workers are employed in tourism</a>. Another important local industry is carved olive wood handicrafts. In 2004, the mayor of Beit Jala, which borders the city of Bethlehem, estimated <a href="https://unispal.un.org/pdfs/Beth_Rep_Dec04.pdf">200 families in the area</a> made their living from carving olive wood. Christians around the world have <a href="https://sg.news.yahoo.com/christmas-journey-olive-orchard-nativity-180326957.html">olive wood nativity sets</a> or crosses carved by Palestinian artisans, a tradition that has been passed down through generations.</p>
<h2>Impact of the occupation</h2>
<p>The neighborhoods of the occupied West Bank have been fragmented by the building of over 145 illegal Israeli settlements. Both Christian and Muslim Palestinians face huge barriers to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1353/jsa.2019.0003">accessing holy sites in Jerusalem</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Men wearing long green garbs walk in a procession and one in the center holds a tall crucifix." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/584391/original/file-20240326-22-le7r64.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/584391/original/file-20240326-22-le7r64.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=432&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584391/original/file-20240326-22-le7r64.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=432&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584391/original/file-20240326-22-le7r64.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=432&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584391/original/file-20240326-22-le7r64.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=543&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584391/original/file-20240326-22-le7r64.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=543&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584391/original/file-20240326-22-le7r64.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=543&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An Israeli policeman stands guard during a March 1997 procession of Franciscan monks led by traditionally dressed guards coming out of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem’s Old City.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/MIDEASTJERUSALEMEASTER/95dacad9cce0da11af9f0014c2589dfb/photo?Query=%20bethlehem%20holy%20week%20guards&mediaType=photo&sortBy=&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=733&digitizationType=Digitized&currentItemNo=0&vs=true&vs=true">AP Photo/Peter Dejong</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Bethlehem is encircled by several Jewish-only settlements, as well as the <a href="https://pij.org/articles/1042/the-impact-of-the-separation-wall-on-jerusalem">separation wall</a> built in the 2000s, which snakes around and across the city. Across the West Bank, over 500 checkpoints and bypass roads designed to connect settlements have been built on Palestinian lands for the exclusive use of settlers. As of <a href="https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2023-02-02/israeli-settler-population-west-bank-surpasses-500000">Jan. 1, 2023</a>, there were over half a million settlers in the West Bank and another 200,000 in East Jerusalem.</p>
<p>The highways and bypass roads cut through the middle of towns and separate families. It is a system that former <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/j.1538-165X.2007.tb01647.x">President Jimmy Carter</a> and numerous human rights groups have described as “<a href="https://apnews.com/article/middle-east-jerusalem-israel-race-and-ethnicity-racial-injustice-83b44a2f6b2b3581d857f57fb6960115">apartheid</a>.” This system severely restricts freedom of movement and separates students from schools, patients from hospitals, farmers from their lands and worshipers from their churches or mosques. </p>
<p>Additionally, Palestinians have a different license plate color on their cars. They can’t use their vehicles to access <a href="https://apnews.com/article/a0c47ad493fb4b31a444bfe432194f2e">private roads</a>, which restricts their access to Jerusalem or Israel.</p>
<p>Going far beyond separate roads, Palestinians in the West Bank are subject to a separate legal system – a military judicial system – whereas Israeli settlers living in the West Bank have a civilian court system. This <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/campaigns/2019/01/chapter-3-israeli-settlements-and-international-law/">system</a> allows indefinite detention of Palestinians without charge or trial based on secret evidence. All of these restrictions on freedom of movement disrupt the ability of Palestinians of all faiths to visit holy sites and gather for religious observances.</p>
<h2>Prayers for peace</h2>
<p>The barriers to celebrating Easter, especially this year, are not just physical but emotional and spiritual. </p>
<p>As of March 25, 2024, the number of <a href="https://www.barrons.com/news/health-ministry-in-hamas-run-gaza-says-war-death-toll-at-32-333-fd31aa61">Gazans killed in the war had surpassed 32,000</a> – <a href="https://www.npr.org/2024/02/29/1234159514/gaza-death-toll-30000-palestinians-israel-hamas-war">70% of them women and children</a>, according to Gaza’s health ministry. Israel has <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2024/3/22/israel-arrested-over-7350-west-bank-palestinians-since-war-on-gaza-began">arrested 7,350 people in the West Bank</a>, with over 9,000 currently in detention, up from 5,200 who were in Israeli prisons before Oct. 7, 2023. </p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/palestinian-christians-and-muslims-have-lived-together-in-the-region-for-centuries-and-several-were-killed-recently-while-sheltering-in-the-historic-church-of-saint-porphyrius-216335">Israel bombed the world’s third oldest church</a>, St. Porphyrius Greek Orthodox Church, in Gaza in October 2023, killing <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/10/20/gaza-church-strike-saint-porphyrius/">18 of the more than 400 people</a> sheltering there.</p>
<p>Christian Palestinians in the West Bank <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/11/15/bethlehem-cancels-christmas-display-martyrs-israel-hamas/">suspended celebrations</a> for Christmas in 2023 in hopes of bringing more attention to the death and suffering in Gaza. But the situation has only worsened. An estimated <a href="https://reliefweb.int/report/occupied-palestinian-territory/unrwa-situation-report-82-situation-gaza-strip-and-west-bank-including-east-jerusalem-all-information-22-24-february-2024-valid-24-february-2024-2230-enar">1.7 million Gazans</a> – over 75% of the population – had been displaced as of March 2024, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/19/middleeast/famine-northern-gaza-starvation-ipc-report-intl-hnk/index.html">half of them on the verge of famine</a>.</p>
<p>Many Palestinians have long turned to their faith to endure the occupation and have found <a href="https://doi.org/10.30664/ar.70464">solace in prayer</a>. That faith has allowed many to hold on to the hope that the occupation will end and the Holy Land will be the place of peace and coexistence that it once was. Perhaps that is when, for many, Easter celebrations will be truly joyful again.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/225965/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Roni Abusaad, PhD does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A Christian Palestinian human rights scholar who grew up in Bethlehem writes about the special time of Easter, but also about the restrictions on Palestinian Christians.Roni Abusaad, PhD, Lecturer, San José State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2262932024-03-26T12:41:28Z2024-03-26T12:41:28ZAn annual pilgrimage during Holy Week brings thousands of believers to Santuario de Chimayó in New Mexico, where they pray for healing and protection<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/583549/original/file-20240321-30-z27kej.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=26%2C4%2C2968%2C2182&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Thousands of Catholics travel by foot to Santuario de Chimayo, in northern New Mexico, during an annual Good Friday pilgrimage.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/CatholicPilgrimageNewMexico/27b7d518d220496e8911f7b0c20bf07d/photo?Query=Chimay%C3%B3%20New%20Mexico%20pilgrimage&mediaType=photo&sortBy=&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=14&currentItemNo=3">AP Photo/Morgan Lee</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>For decades, the people of northern New Mexico have marked the Christian observance of Good Friday with a walking pilgrimage to the Santuario de Chimayó in the village of Chimayó, New Mexico.</p>
<p>Referring to themselves as <a href="https://www.loc.gov/collections/hispano-music-and-culture-from-the-northern-rio-grande/articles-and-essays/nuevo-mexicanos-of-the-upper-rio-grande-culture-history-and-society/english/">Hispanos</a>, or Nuevomexicanos, they have lived in the region for generations, tracing their descent from Spanish colonists who arrived to New Mexico in the 17th and 18th centuries. Nuevomexicanos’ Catholicism developed at the far northern frontier of the Spanish Empire; a scarcity of priests led to the flourishing of many popular devotions in New Mexico, including the pilgrimage to Chimayó. </p>
<p>Built in the early 1800s, the santuario is a small church, built of adobe bricks, with a unique feature: In a little room adjacent to the church’s central worship space, there is a hole in the floor, the “pocito,” filled with the sandy earth of the area. </p>
<p>For at least 200 years, Nuevomexicano Catholics have used dirt from the pocito for its purported miraculous healing qualities. They rub it on their aches and pains, they hold it to focus their prayers, and, historically, ingested it. </p>
<p>In 2015, I participated in the annual pilgrimage as part of the research for <a href="https://nyupress.org/9781479884278/the-healing-power-of-the-santuario-de-chimayo/">my book</a>, “The Healing Power of the Santuario de Chimayó: America’s Miraculous Church.” The santuario’s story is not merely a curiosity but also a significant part of the shifting identity of the U.S. Catholic Church, which is on the verge of becoming <a href="https://vencuentro.org/consultation-report/">majority-Latino</a>.</p>
<h2>Legendary origins of santuario’s holy dirt</h2>
<p>The source of the pocito dirt’s power for Hispano pilgrims is linked to two images of Christ.</p>
<p>The first is a large crucifix called the Señor de Esquipulas, or Lord of Esquipulas. Named for a famous and much older <a href="https://www.nebraskapress.unl.edu/nebraska/9780803268432/">Guatemalan Christ</a> figure also known as the Señor de Esquipulas, the crucifix lies at the heart of the most common origin story for the santuario’s holy dirt. </p>
<p>The legend goes that in 1810, a Chimayó community leader and landowner named Bernardo Abeyta witnessed light coming out of the ground in one of his fields. Upon examination, he is said to have discovered the crucifix partially buried in the soil. He dug it up and brought it to the nearest church at the time, some 8 miles away. </p>
<p>The crucifix, however, is believed to have returned on its own to the hole in Abeyta’s field. Given this sign, Abeyta sought and received permission to build a chapel around the hole, a chapel today known as the Santuario de Chimayó.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/583554/original/file-20240321-28-lsrlch.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A brightly painted church altar with Jesus on the cross." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/583554/original/file-20240321-28-lsrlch.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/583554/original/file-20240321-28-lsrlch.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=653&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583554/original/file-20240321-28-lsrlch.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=653&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583554/original/file-20240321-28-lsrlch.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=653&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583554/original/file-20240321-28-lsrlch.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=820&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583554/original/file-20240321-28-lsrlch.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=820&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583554/original/file-20240321-28-lsrlch.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=820&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Interior view of Santuario de Chimayo.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.loc.gov/resource/highsm.66247/">Carol M Highsmith/Library of Congress</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The Señor de Esquipulas crucifix hangs on the main altar screen in the santuario, and the Archdiocese of Santa Fe has promoted the story of its miraculous provenance. </p>
<p>A second Christ image, however, is by far the more popular among Hispano pilgrims. The <a href="https://www.unmpress.com/9780826347107/crossing-borders-with-the-santo-ninyo-de-atocha/">Santo Niño de Atocha</a> is a depiction of the Christ child dressed as a medieval pilgrim and is popular throughout northern Mexico and the U.S.-Mexico border region. A statue of the Holy Child is ensconced in the santuario in a room adjacent to the pocito.</p>
<p>For pilgrims, a visit to the santuario typically includes time in prayer in front of the Holy Child, where they ask for healing and protection for themselves, their children and other loved ones. They take home dirt from the pocito as a reminder and vehicle of Christ’s power to answer their prayers.</p>
<h2>The annual pilgrimage</h2>
<p>Hispano residents in northern New Mexico and southern Colorado made pilgrimages to the santuario for healing throughout the 19th century, but the massive walking pilgrimage during Holy Week, culminating on Good Friday, did not begin until after World War II. </p>
<p>Hundreds of members of New Mexico’s 200th Coast Artillery had endured the 1942 <a href="https://historyinsantafe.com/200th-coast-artillery-bataan-death-march/#:%7E:text=New%20Mexico's%20Veteran's%20Administration%20is,joined%2075%2C000%20prisoners%20of%20war">Bataan Death March</a>, in which thousands of U.S. and Filipino prisoners of war were forced by the Japanese Imperial Army to walk for miles through the Philippines. <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20161130144025/http://www.bataanmuseum.com/bataanhistory/">Many died</a> from either torture or exhaustion.</p>
<p>Upon returning home, Nuevomexicano survivors organized a walking pilgrimage to the santuario in 1946 to commemorate their suffering and to mourn their lost comrades. <a href="https://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/american_latino_heritage/el_santuario_de_chimayo.html">This pilgrimage</a> soon evolved into an annual observance not only for veterans but also for Hispano Catholics in general.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/lrI7QxKpGHQ?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">The pilgrimage of Santuario de Chimayo.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Today, hundreds of thousands of visitors come to the santuario throughout the year, but the pilgrimage during Holy Week – the week before the celebration of Easter – is the high point. Good Friday, the day on which Christians believe that Jesus was crucified and died, attracts approximately <a href="https://stateecu.com/a-guide-to-holy-week-pilgrimages-to-el-santuario-de-chimayo/">30,000 walking pilgrims</a>, some coming from as far away as Albuquerque, 90 miles away. Others choose shorter routes, including a popular 9-mile walk from the nearby town of Española. </p>
<h2>Latino Catholics</h2>
<p>The santuario’s popularity continues to rise along with the numbers of Latino Catholics in the U.S.</p>
<p>The demographic shift in the U.S. Catholic Church toward a <a href="https://vencuentro.org/consultation-report/">Latino majority</a> is well underway. <a href="https://theology.nd.edu/people/timothy-matovina/">Timothy Matovina</a>, a professor at the University of Notre Dame, writes in <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691163574/latino-catholicism">his book</a>, “Latino Catholicism: Tranformation in America’s Largest Church,” that Latinos represent one-third of all U.S. Catholics and make up more than half of the U.S. Catholic population under the age of 25.</p>
<p>He also notes that, because of Latino population growth, the proportion of Catholics in California and Texas has increased since 1990, while the proportion in Massachusetts and New York has dropped. This demographic shift means devotional sites, like the santuario, that have Latino Catholic origins and immense popularity can expect to grow in importance.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/226293/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Brett Hendrickson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Hundreds of thousands of visitors come to the Santuario de Chimayó throughout the year, but the pilgrimage during the week before the celebration of Easter is the high point.Brett Hendrickson, Professor of Religious Studies, Lafayette College Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2251482024-03-21T12:25:24Z2024-03-21T12:25:24ZFor centuries, owls were considered to bring bad luck in many cultures as well as in the US, but the outpouring of grief in New York over Flaco shows how times have changed<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582910/original/file-20240319-18-c403qf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=28%2C0%2C6332%2C3736&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Tributes left at a memorial for Flaco the owl in Central Park in New York.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/EscapedOwlCentralPark/0e033d63fec14c708cde28f9250f19da/photo?Query=flaco%20owl&mediaType=photo&sortBy=&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=37&currentItemNo=20">AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>There has been an <a href="https://www.npr.org/2024/02/24/1233703492/flaco-new-york-owl-dies-building-collision">outpouring of grief in New York City</a> ever since the beloved Eurasian eagle-owl Flaco died on Feb. 23, 2024, after striking a building. In 2023, after escaping from Central Park Zoo, Flaco survived for over a year on his own, captivating New Yorkers.</p>
<p>Mourners <a href="https://abc7ny.com/videoClip/14465905/">are leaving notes and flowers</a> at the base of an old oak tree in Central Park, reportedly a favorite roost of his. <a href="https://www.artandobject.com/news/fans-call-statue-honor-beloved-owl-flaco#">Thousands have signed a petition for a statue in his honor</a>. Figure skaters honored him with a show called “<a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/newyork/news/flaco-the-owl-remembered-with-fly-be-free-ice-show-at-central-parks-wollman-rink/">Fly. Be Free</a>.” </p>
<p>This reaction to Flaco’s death would be mystifying for many people around the world. I <a href="https://www.macalester.edu/anthropology/facultystaff/arjunguneratne/">have spent a decade studying</a> the history of ornithology in Sri Lanka, including local beliefs in the owl as a bird that foretells deaths. Meanwhile, in some societies, owls were (and are) seen as <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/24750263.2023.2254823">a symbol of wisdom</a> or even a sign of good luck.</p>
<p>But, by far, the most widespread belief about owls is that they are associated with witchcraft and death. </p>
<p>In much of the world – in African societies, among <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/jsh/shw089">African Americans in the U.S. South</a> and the <a href="https://ugapress.org/book/9780820328157/spirits-of-the-air/">Indigenous people</a> <a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/M/bo34116501.html">of the Americas</a>, and throughout South and Southeast Asia as well as in Europe – owls are seen as harbingers of death. The Cajuns, French-speaking refugees who settled in Louisiana’s bayou country after being driven out of Nova Scotia by the British, <a href="https://doi.org/10.2307/534893">feared the screech of an owl</a>.</p>
<p>The American philosopher Henry David Thoreau <a href="https://archive.vcu.edu/english/engweb/transcendentalism/authors/thoreau/walden/chapter04.html">wrote in his book “Walden</a>” that owls “represent the stark twilight and unsatisfied thoughts which all have.” Nineteenth and early 20th century Americans <a href="https://www.carolinabirdclub.org/BOCC/Non-Passerines/25%20Owls/01%20Strigidae%20Family%20True%20Owls.pdf">were more likely to shoot an owl as an undesirable predator</a> than leave flowers at a memorial for one. But Flaco’s year of fame shows <a href="https://www.press.jhu.edu/books/title/9080/owls-united-states-and-canada">the sea change in the way Western cultures have come to regard owls</a> since Thoreau’s time. </p>
<h2>Birds of ill-omen</h2>
<p>During the Tang dynasty, which ruled China from the seventh to the 10th century, owls were thought to bring bad luck; they were despised for <a href="https://doi.org/10.3406/befeo.2016.6236">supposedly eating their mothers</a>. The Aztec god of death, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1215/00141801-8266452">Mictlantecuhtli, is accompanied by an owl</a>. Jahangir, one of the Mughal emperors of India, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S0010417523000245">sought to control the sale of owl meat in his empire</a> because it was believed to be an ingredient for sorcery. </p>
<p>Such beliefs also prevailed in Europe. The Roman philosopher Pliny the Elder, who died in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, said the owl was a “<a href="https://www.press.jhu.edu/books/title/9080/owls-united-states-and-canada">monster of the night … [and] a direful omen</a>.” In the European Middle Ages, owls were thought to accompany witches. No wonder, then, that J.K. Rowling has Harry Potter’s mail delivered by an owl. </p>
<p>The French call the barn owl “chouette effraie des clochers,” literally, “the scary owl of the bell towers.” Shakespeare made use of the idea that owls foretold death in many of his plays. For instance, Lady Macbeth says, “It was the owl that shrieked,” foretelling the murder of Duncan by her husband. </p>
<p>These beliefs lingered in England until World War II, when they began to disappear. </p>
<h2>The legend from Sri Lanka</h2>
<p>For centuries, people living in rural areas in Sri Lanka <a href="https://youtu.be/p46A3HMuoCo?feature=shared">have believed in a “devil bird,” or “ulama</a>” in the local Sinhala language, that foretold a death. </p>
<p>The basis of this belief was a legend that told of a man who, to punish his wife, gave her the flesh of her murdered child to cook. On discovering the truth, she fled screaming into the jungle. As the legend goes, she was turned into the ulama by the gods. In some versions of the tale, she was reborn as the devil bird. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/p46A3HMuoCo?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">The sound of the ulama.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Ever since, she is believed to haunt the jungle, her terrible cries foretelling a death in the community of whoever happens to hear them. </p>
<p>Such beliefs made sense to British colonizers, including planters carving out coffee estates in remote, forested areas during the 19th century. They would have heard strange, blood-curdling cries from the forests that surrounded their houses. The local villagers’ explanations for these cries would have made sense to them. The British, after all, also came from a society where superstitions concerning owls – the definitive birds of the night – <a href="https://books.google.com.vc/books?id=66N7I_6M7WUC&printsec=copyright#v=onepage&q=owls&f=false">were a part of folk belief</a>. </p>
<p>The identity of the ulama was <a href="http://archives.sundayobserver.lk/2004/01/18/fea14.html">extensively debated</a> throughout the 19th and early 20th century by ornithologists, who attributed these night sounds to some species of owl. Colonial British ornithologists eventually determined that the <a href="https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/61724#page/215/mode/1up">ulama was a species of large owl</a>, probably the <a href="https://ebird.org/species/sbeowl1">spot-bellied eagle-owl</a>. The identification is said to have been clinched when an eagle-owl was shot one moonlit night by a planter while it was making the ulama’s cry. </p>
<h2>Celebration of owls today</h2>
<p>The development of both scientific knowledge of birds and the popular hobby of birding has given people who live in the U.S. and Britain a decidedly different take on owls. Urbanization may also have something to do with it. Sri Lankan beliefs in the ulama, for example, are much less prevalent in urban areas than in the countryside. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="An illustration showing an owl sitting on top of a red polka dot couch with a honey pot resting on it, and a bear standing in front." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582912/original/file-20240319-16-8obym8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582912/original/file-20240319-16-8obym8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=422&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582912/original/file-20240319-16-8obym8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=422&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582912/original/file-20240319-16-8obym8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=422&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582912/original/file-20240319-16-8obym8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=530&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582912/original/file-20240319-16-8obym8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=530&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582912/original/file-20240319-16-8obym8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=530&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An antique postcard showing Winnie-the-Pooh and Owl.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/reproduction-of-antique-postcard-shows-winnie-the-pooh-and-news-photo/1318727117?adppopup=true">Igor Golovniov/Universal Images Group via Getty Images</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>In popular literature and culture in North America and Britain, owls have had their reputations rehabilitated. In A.A. Milne’s “Winnie-the-Pooh,” Owl is a likable bird who does his best to be intelligent and erudite. The National Audubon Society, one of the oldest bird conservation organizations in the U.S., sells <a href="https://www.audubon.org/marketplace/plush-birds#!">cuddly owl toys</a> that will hoot when squeezed. There’s even an annual <a href="https://www.festivalofowls.com/">International Festival of Owls</a> in Houston, Minnesota, where owls are celebrated. </p>
<p>That New Yorkers want to erect a memorial to Flaco is a remarkable instance of the ongoing rehabilitation of a group of birds that are charismatic, fascinating and quite undeserving of the bad rap they’ve been given over thousands of years.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/225148/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Arjun Guneratne receives funding from American Council of Learned Societies and Council of American Overseas Research Centers for work on the history of ornithology.</span></em></p>Owls, once seen as harbingers of death, are now celebrated in popular literature and culture in North America and Britain.Arjun Guneratne, Professor of Anthropology, Macalester CollegeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2186772024-03-21T12:25:02Z2024-03-21T12:25:02ZPurim’s original queen: How studying the Book of Esther as fan fiction can teach us about the roots of an unruly Jewish festival<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582875/original/file-20240319-24-z4q69e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C3%2C1022%2C699&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Esther denouncing Haman, who, according to the Purim story, attempted to have all Jews within the Persian Empire massacred. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/esther-denouncing-haman-haman-a-favourite-at-the-court-of-news-photo/929217364?adppopup=true">Hutchinson's History of the Nations/Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Once upon a time, in the ancient Near East, there was a beautiful queen.</p>
<p>Scribes wrote of her lovely form, her regal majesty and her fierce bravery. The people honored her in lavish celebrations marked by debauchery. She was linked to <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/327/oa_monograph/chapter/2616211#rfn55">the morning star</a>, and her name was “Ishtar” – or “Esther,” <a href="https://www.sefaria.org/Jastrow%2C_%D7%90%D6%B4%D7%A1%D6%B0%D7%AA%D6%B0%D6%BC%D7%94%D6%B7%D7%A8.1">as she was called in Hebrew</a>.</p>
<p>This is the story that inspires the Jewish holiday of Purim, which begins this year on the evening of March 23. Across the world, Jews retell the story of <a href="https://bibleodyssey.com/articles/esther/">Queen Esther</a> in <a href="https://theconversation.com/purim-spiels-skits-and-satire-have-brought-merriment-to-an-ancient-jewish-holiday-in-america-177700">lavish spectacles</a>, <a href="https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/purim-plays-and-carnivals/">called Purim spiels</a>, that feature costumes, jokes, satire, noisemakers and food and wine.</p>
<p>Purim is the only celebration in Judaism with an entire biblical book about its origins. <a href="https://www.sefaria.org/Esther?tab=contents">The Book of Esther</a> tells how she and her pious cousin, Mordecai, defeated the scheming Haman, a powerful royal adviser, thereby saving the Jewish people from annihilation.</p>
<p>Yet among researchers, the actual origins of the holiday – and of Esther herself – are still hotly contested. Few scholars interpret Esther’s story as a record of historical events, and they note a number of oddities surrounding the book. The text, sometimes called the Megillah, contains <a href="https://www.thetorah.com/article/megillat-esther-a-godless-and-assimilated-diaspora">no mention of God</a>, or of religious activities such as prayer or sacrifice; its narrative is colorful and suggestive.</p>
<p>When archaeologists began to dig up cuneiform texts in the 19th century, a further peculiarity emerged: Esther and her cousin Mordecai shared names <a href="https://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/dictionary-of-deities-and-demons-online/ishtar-DDDO_Ishtar">with Ishtar</a> and <a href="https://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/dictionary-of-deities-and-demons-online/marduk-DDDO_Marduk">her cousin Marduk</a>, two of the most prominent deities in ancient Mesopotamia. Ishtar, like Esther, was a divine queen associated with both eroticism and battle. Marduk, like Mordecai, <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/20182036">overcame a deadly enemy and celebrated his triumph with a banquet</a>. Moreover, the name Purim seems to derive from <a href="https://www.thetorah.com/article/on-the-origins-of-purim-and-its-assyrian-name">the Babylonian word “pûru</a>” – a “lot” in both the senses of “<a href="https://isac.uchicago.edu/sites/default/files/uploads/shared/docs/cad_p.pdf">portion</a>” and “<a href="https://doi.org/10.2307/3209686">fortunetelling dice</a>.”</p>
<p><a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=kwcXAAAAIAAJ&lpg=PA94&ots=Oj4t1mFmis&pg=PA87#v=onepage&q&f=false">Earlier scholars of those cuneiform texts</a> concluded that the Book of Esther was retelling a Babylonian myth about Ishtar and Marduk. No such myth has been found to date, however, leading to an apparent historical dead end.</p>
<p>When I learned about these connections as <a href="https://udayton.edu/directory/artssciences/religiousstudies/brownsmith-esther.php">a young biblical scholar</a>, a modern parallel immediately came to mind: the genre of fan fiction. </p>
<h2>Fanfic, then and now</h2>
<p>In fan fiction, amateur writers create stories based on the characters and imaginative worlds of popular media.</p>
<p>Sites such as the <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/">Archive of Our Own</a>, <a href="https://www.fanfiction.net/">FanFiction.net</a> <a href="https://www.wattpad.com/">and Wattpad</a> host millions of “fics,” from short sketches to novel-length epics. The popularity of these stories has extended beyond the internet: “Fifty Shades of Grey” <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/hayleycuccinello/2017/02/10/fifty-shades-of-green-how-fanfiction-went-from-dirty-little-secret-to-money-machine/">was a fic of the teen series “Twilight</a>,” while the bestselling novel “The Love Hypothesis” <a href="https://www.cinemablend.com/star-wars/bestselling-romance-novel-inspired-by-fanfiction-about-star-wars-rey-and-kylo-ren-is-becoming-a-movie">began as a story about characters from “Star Wars</a>.”</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582897/original/file-20240319-30-tbbvty.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A woman in a black shirt and red scarf stands in front of a sign that says 'Fifty shades.'" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582897/original/file-20240319-30-tbbvty.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582897/original/file-20240319-30-tbbvty.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582897/original/file-20240319-30-tbbvty.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582897/original/file-20240319-30-tbbvty.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582897/original/file-20240319-30-tbbvty.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582897/original/file-20240319-30-tbbvty.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582897/original/file-20240319-30-tbbvty.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Author E.L. James attends a special fan screening of ‘Fifty Shades of Grey,’ the movie based on her books, in New York in 2015.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/FiftyShades-GreyFanFiction/149d58f2e10f4e548709808c0573a816/photo?Query=fan%20fiction&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:asc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=71&currentItemNo=44">Charles Sykes/Invision/AP, File</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Fan fiction studies has become an established corner of academia: studying these texts, their creators and the factors that influence them.</p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.3983/twc.2021.2037">I am not the first scholar</a> to wonder whether ancient texts were the fan fiction of their time. Scholars and fans alike have noted the way that <a href="https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1024&context=anthos_archives">the Aeneid builds upon Homer’s compositions</a>, for example, and <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/20">John Milton’s epic “Paradise Lost</a>” mines the tales of the Bible.</p>
<p>I believe it makes sense to think of Esther, too, as the ancient equivalent of today’s fan fiction: a tale of familiar characters, re-imagined and repurposed to reflect the identities of their creators.</p>
<p>To begin, Esther and Ishtar had more in common than just their name. In fact, everything in my first paragraph describes them both, from the raucous celebrations held in their names to their legendary beauty. The author of the Book of Esther seems to have been describing a character already familiar to readers, just like a modern fan fiction writer does.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582888/original/file-20240319-8674-pb38a9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="An open scroll shows text with a colored floral pattern at the top and bottom of the manuscript." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582888/original/file-20240319-8674-pb38a9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582888/original/file-20240319-8674-pb38a9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=442&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582888/original/file-20240319-8674-pb38a9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=442&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582888/original/file-20240319-8674-pb38a9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=442&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582888/original/file-20240319-8674-pb38a9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=555&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582888/original/file-20240319-8674-pb38a9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=555&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582888/original/file-20240319-8674-pb38a9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=555&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An 18th-century parchment scroll of the Book of Esther, preserved at the Mejanes Library in Aix-en-Provence, France.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/a-scroll-of-parchment-from-the-xviiith-century-preserved-at-news-photo/949696604?adppopup=true">Patrick Horvais/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This comparison is not hindered by the fact that the plot of Esther did not derive from a known Mesopotamian myth; plenty of <a href="https://fanlore.org/wiki/Alternate_Universe">“alternate universe” fics</a> tell new stories in new settings, using the change of scenery to reveal new facets of their beloved characters.</p>
<p>Nor does the divide between Mesopotamian polytheism and Jewish monotheism pose a problem. For many authors, fanfic provides an opportunity to <a href="https://doi.org/10.18574/nyu/9781479811748.003.0009">transform and critique its source text</a>, adding elements that were glaringly absent from the original, such as queer relationships. </p>
<p>In short, thinking about the story of Esther as ancient “fanfic” could explain the striking parallels between her character and Ishtar. But the implications of this framework are more than simply academic. Calling Esther fan fiction can teach modern readers something about the celebration of Purim – and about storytelling itself.</p>
<h2>Writing ourselves into stories</h2>
<p>The first lesson is that, from ancient Jewish scribes to modern teenage girls, people have been <a href="https://doi.org/10.3983/twc.2023.2441">rewriting other people’s stories</a> to reflect their own reality and identities.</p>
<p>Today, a fanfic author might compose a saga about how <a href="https://fanlore.org/wiki/Mary_Sue">a girl like her</a> won hearts and saved lives in male-dominated Middle-earth, the world of J.R.R. Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings” series. Back in ancient Babylon, Jewish scribes might have re-imagined a popular goddess as a Jewish heroine. Transformative writing is empowering and defiant, then as now.</p>
<p>The second lesson is that carnival and queerness and joy are built into ancient scripture; they are no modern development. Ishtar was <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/25683215">a gender-fluid queen</a> who <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/1062957">declared</a>, “I am a woman (but) verily I am an exuberant man.” Her followers included “<a href="https://doi.org/10.25162/9783515130974">assinnu” and “kurgarru</a>,” ranks of Mesopotamian priests who were famous for transgressing gender norms.</p>
<p>It should thus come as no surprise that Esther is a story that names and elevates a number of eunuch characters, ascribes <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/4139801">feminine and nonbinary traits</a> to the heroic Mordecai and imagines its heroine as sexual and daring. Purim’s long-standing tradition of <a href="https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/cross-dressing-on-purim/">cross-dressing</a> and <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2022-03-15/ty-article-magazine/why-do-jews-dress-up-for-purim/00000180-5bb4-d718-afd9-dfbccaa70000">flamboyant costumes</a> has a rich history.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582895/original/file-20240319-8759-pb38a9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A woman in an orange bikini-style outfit and a large red headdress dances in the street near a tall stuffed bear figure." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582895/original/file-20240319-8759-pb38a9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582895/original/file-20240319-8759-pb38a9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582895/original/file-20240319-8759-pb38a9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582895/original/file-20240319-8759-pb38a9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582895/original/file-20240319-8759-pb38a9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=515&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582895/original/file-20240319-8759-pb38a9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=515&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582895/original/file-20240319-8759-pb38a9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=515&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Dancers perform during a Purim parade festival in 2012 in Holon, Israel.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/MideastIsraelPurim/295ac0e151b849e2886aa0ecf16a2a2e/photo?Query=purim&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:asc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=780&currentItemNo=139">AP Photo/Dan Balilty</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Likewise, fan fiction is a deeply queer practice. A disproportionate number of stories <a href="https://doi.org/10.3983/twc.2022.2205">address gender and sexuality</a>, and its creators are themselves <a href="https://public.tableau.com/app/profile/fansplaining/viz/TheFansplainingShippingSurveyResults/SurveyDemographicsGenderandSexuality">disproportionately</a> <a href="https://www.flowjournal.org/2023/02/fan-demographics-on-ao3/">LGBTQ+</a>.</p>
<p>The third lesson is one that I strive to teach all my students: Scripture can be both relatable and startling when we look at it through fresh eyes. </p>
<p>The Bible instructs Jews to retell the story of Esther each Purim. But by <a href="https://urj.org/blog/get-act-yes-you-can-write-purim-spiel">creating themed Purim spiels</a> each year, drawing on sources from Motown to Moana, Jewish congregations clothe the familiar plot in exciting new garb.</p>
<p>Thinking about biblical stories as fan fiction invites readers today to imagine the ancient scribes as “fans,” brimming with emotional reactions and strong opinions. The Bible is a diverse library of texts created in manifold times and contexts, and its authors were passionately invested in the stories they told and retold – just like modern amateur authors.</p>
<p>This Purim, I invite you to approach the Bible’s tales as the result of a dynamic process, a panoply of voices that each sought to influence their tradition by adding their own words to it. In the hands of fan fiction writers and Purim spiel creators, that process continues today.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/218677/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Esther Brownsmith does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Whether thousands of years ago or right now, fans have always created new stories based on familiar characters, weaving their own experiences into the tale.Esther Brownsmith, Assistant Professor of Religious Studies, University of DaytonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2258682024-03-20T12:29:15Z2024-03-20T12:29:15ZA century ago, one state tried to close religious schools − a far cry from today, with controversial plans in place for the nation’s first faith-based charter school<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582250/original/file-20240315-30-6vl8a7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C1024%2C663&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A Catholic schoolroom in the U.S. around 1930.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/catholic-elementary-school-class-portrait-usa-circa-1930-news-photo/629453645?adppopup=true">Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Almost 100 years ago, a group of nuns joined a suit against the state of Oregon – <a href="https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803100326625">and made it all the way</a> to the U.S. Supreme Court.</p>
<p>Their cause? Keeping Catholic schools open. In 1922, voters approved an initiative requiring almost all children ages 8-16 to attend public schools – a motion <a href="https://www.oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/pierce_vs_society_of_sisters_1925_/">aimed at closing faith-based schools</a> in particular.</p>
<p>But the Supreme Court’s 1925 ruling in their case, <a href="https://www.oyez.org/cases/1900-1940/268us510">Pierce v. Society of Sisters of the Holy Name of Jesus and Mary</a>, favored the nuns. The ruling became a Magna Carta of sorts for private schools, including faith-based ones, safeguarding their right to operate – both secular and religious. Equally as importantly, Pierce <a href="https://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?handle=hein.journals/udetmr78&div=25&id=&page=">has been used to protect parental rights</a> to make choices about their children’s education.</p>
<p>Nonpublic schools such as the ones run by the Society of Sisters no longer must defend their rights to exist. Today, the pendulum has swung the other way: In recent years, the Supreme Court has increasingly <a href="https://theconversation.com/state-funds-for-students-at-religious-schools-supreme-court-says-yes-in-maine-case-but-consequences-could-go-beyond-184618">allowed public funding</a> to go to faith-based schools, their students or both.</p>
<p>On April 2, 2024, Oklahoma’s Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in <a href="https://www.aol.com/oklahoma-supreme-court-hear-arguments-015922066.html">a case that could reshape rules</a> even further: whether to allow <a href="https://theconversation.com/oklahoma-oks-the-nations-first-religious-charter-school-but-litigation-is-likely-to-follow-207103">a Catholic charter school</a> to open its doors, which critics say would all but <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2023/06/06/oklahoma-s-new-state-funded-religious-charter-school-isn-t-ok/d50b4e5a-047d-11ee-b74a-5bdd335d4fa2_story.html">demolish the line between church and state</a> in education.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582848/original/file-20240319-8759-3673sk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A dark wooden platform with several seats built in, and dark green velvet curtains behind them." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582848/original/file-20240319-8759-3673sk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582848/original/file-20240319-8759-3673sk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582848/original/file-20240319-8759-3673sk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582848/original/file-20240319-8759-3673sk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582848/original/file-20240319-8759-3673sk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582848/original/file-20240319-8759-3673sk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582848/original/file-20240319-8759-3673sk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The state Supreme Court bench in Oklahoma City in 2017.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/SupremeCourtOklahoma/2400a4bf66084ec9bda3b443d26adf81/photo?Query=oklahoma%20supreme%20court&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:asc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=195&currentItemNo=127">AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Property and parenting</h2>
<p>In 1922, Oregon voters approved an initiative requiring parents of children ages 8-16 to send them to public schools. The act carved out many exceptions, including for children who had already completed eighth grade or lived too far away, but did not include private schools among them.</p>
<p>The law would have effectively outlawed nonpublic schools. This push came just as the influence of nativist groups such as the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Know-Nothing-party">Know-Nothing Party</a>, which <a href="https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/nativism-american">opposed the largely Catholic waves of immigrants</a> as un-American, began to wane.</p>
<p>Officials from a Catholic school challenged Oregon’s act, as did officials from the secular Hill Military Academy. After the federal trial court in Oregon decided that the statute could not go into effect, Gov. Walter M. Pierce appealed, acting on behalf of the state. The U.S. Supreme Court then unanimously affirmed <a href="https://www.oyez.org/cases/1900-1940/268us510">in favor of the schools</a>.</p>
<p>The Supreme Court made two major points, both of which rely on the 14th Amendment’s <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/amendmentxiv">due process clause</a>, which declares that no state shall “deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.”</p>
<p>The justices recognized the power of the state to “regulate all schools, to inspect, supervise, and examine them, their teachers and pupils,” whether private or public – though apart from health and safety issues, states typically impose fewer rules on nonpublic institutions. Yet, the Court agreed that the law would have seriously undermined the owners’ ability to operate their schools, while greatly diminishing the value of their properties. </p>
<p>Second, the justices turned to parental rights, identifying them as one of the liberties protected by the 14th Amendment. In often-quoted language, the court declared that <a href="https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/268/510/">the child “is not the mere creature of the state</a>; those who nurture him and direct his destiny have the right, coupled with the high duty, to recognize and prepare him for additional obligations.”</p>
<p>The justices thereby invalidated Oregon’s statute, because it “unreasonably interfere[d] with the liberty of parents and guardians to direct the upbringing and education of children under their control.”</p>
<h2>Nonpublic schools, public funds</h2>
<p>Recent battles over <a href="https://udayton.edu/directory/education/eda/russo_charles.php">religion and education</a> at the Supreme Court are not about faith-based schools’ right to exist but about how much state funding they and their students can receive. Starting in 2017, the Supreme Court handed down a trilogy of cases greatly increasing the governmental aid available.</p>
<p>The first, <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/16pdf/15-577_khlp.pdf">Trinity Lutheran Church v. Comer</a>, arose after officials in Missouri prevented a Christian preschool and day care center from purchasing recycled, cut-up tires to resurface their playground to enhance safety – a state program available to other nonprofits.</p>
<p>The Supreme Court <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/16pdf/15-577_khlp.pdf">ruled in the church’s favor</a> in 2017. The <a href="https://constitution.congress.gov/constitution/amendment-1/">free exercise clause</a> of the First Amendment forbids the government from prohibiting the “free exercise” of religion. The majority reasoned that the free exercise clause means states cannot single out institutions or people by denying them generally available benefits, for which they are otherwise eligible, solely on the basis of religion.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582849/original/file-20240319-26-ssjqm7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A small statue of a child holding a book sits in the foreground, with a large columned white building in the background." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582849/original/file-20240319-26-ssjqm7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582849/original/file-20240319-26-ssjqm7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582849/original/file-20240319-26-ssjqm7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582849/original/file-20240319-26-ssjqm7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582849/original/file-20240319-26-ssjqm7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582849/original/file-20240319-26-ssjqm7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582849/original/file-20240319-26-ssjqm7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The U.S. Supreme Court on Feb. 22, 2024.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/SupremeCourt/2df44ba2a63d402092e7559a7e8d5f71/photo?Query=supreme%20court&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:asc&dateRange=now-30d&totalCount=243&currentItemNo=31">AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>In 2020, the court again expanded the limits on aid for students at K-12 religious schools. This case, <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/cert/18-1195">Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue</a>, stemmed from a state program that allowed tax credits for parents sending their children to private schools. However, the state’s constitution prohibits public funding for religious education programs, so parents who sent their children to faith-based schools were barred from participating.</p>
<p>Using a rationale similar to the one it applied in Trinity Lutheran, the court held that this no-aid provision <a href="https://www.oyez.org/cases/2019/18-1195">discriminated on the basis of religion</a>, violating the <a href="https://constitution.congress.gov/constitution/amendment-1/">free exercise clause</a> of the Constitution.</p>
<p>Most recently, in 2022, the court further expanded public funding for faith-based schools in <a href="https://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/carson-v-makin/">Carson v. Makin</a>, a case from Maine. The Supreme Court invalidated a statute excluding “sectarian” schools from a tuition program for parents living in districts lacking public secondary schools. Because Maine’s constitution guarantees a free public education, the tuition payments allow parents in these districts to send their children to schools of their choice.</p>
<p>The justices also <a href="https://theconversation.com/state-funds-for-students-at-religious-schools-supreme-court-says-yes-in-maine-case-but-consequences-could-go-beyond-184618">struck the law down</a> because it violated the free exercise clause by treating religious people and institutions differently than others. Moreover, echoing Pierce, the court found that Maine’s statute failed to protect parents’ rights to send their children to the schools of their choice.</p>
<h2>Pushing the boundary</h2>
<p>Pierce also laid the groundwork for the “parental choice movement” in education, including charter schools. Typically, these schools operate under performance contracts, or “charters,” with public sponsors: either local school boards or occasionally colleges. While charter schools have more freedom to design their own standards and curricula, they can, <a href="https://www.law.com/thelegalintelligencer/almID/1202727802943/">unlike regular public schools, be closed</a> for failing to reach stated targets on student achievement.</p>
<p>In June 2023, Oklahoma’s statewide virtual school board authorized the creation of <a href="https://theconversation.com/oklahoma-oks-the-nations-first-religious-charter-school-but-litigation-is-likely-to-follow-207103">the nation’s first faith-based charter</a>, demonstrating how far the pendulum of allowing government aid into religious schools may be swinging. But <a href="https://stisidorevirtualschool.org/">St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School</a>, which plans to open under the direction of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Oklahoma City and the Diocese of Tulsa, will not start classes without a fight.</p>
<p>Oklahoma’s highest court has <a href="https://www.aol.com/oklahoma-supreme-court-hear-arguments-015922066.html">scheduled oral arguments</a> for April 2, 2024, as the state’s attorney general and others filed suit to stop St. Isidore from opening. Opponents of the school argue that the existence of a faith-based charter <a href="https://www.kosu.org/education/2023-10-23/oklahoma-attorney-general-files-lawsuit-against-state-board-over-catholic-charter-school">would violate the U.S. Constitution</a>, as well as Oklahoma’s state Constitution – according to which public schools shall be “free from sectarian control,” such that public funds cannot be used to support religious institutions – and various state statues.</p>
<p>Pierce remains a watershed moment for nonpublic schools’ rights to operate, including religious ones, and for parents’ rights. In light of recent Supreme Court developments, it appears that both of these rights are alive and well heading into Pierce’s second century – but not without controversy.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/225868/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Charles J. Russo does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>In 1922, Oregon voters approved an initiative to require public school for most students ages 8-16 − but it didn’t hold up in court.Charles J. Russo, Joseph Panzer Chair in Education and Research Professor of Law, University of DaytonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2074712024-03-19T12:25:00Z2024-03-19T12:25:00ZWhat the Buddhist text Therigatha teaches about women’s enlightenment<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582247/original/file-20240315-30-zf0ojy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=13%2C8%2C2939%2C1529&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Tibetan Buddhist nuns offering prayers in Kathmandu.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/female-tibetan-buddhist-monks-offer-prayers-as-a-part-of-an-news-photo/1552145729?adppopup=true">Prakash/Mathema /AFP via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Images of Buddha’s enlightenment often portray him <a href="https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1986.70">sitting alone under the bodhi tree</a>, his body emaciated from fasting. Some depictions show the Buddha’s right hand pointing down, asking the earth goddess to bear witness to his enlightenment.</p>
<p>Demonic armies or dangerous temptresses can be shown on both sides of the Buddha, <a href="https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1971.18">demonstrating his fortitude</a> in the face of violent threats and seduction. In some images, he may also be flanked by two male disciples while <a href="https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1935.146">expounding his teachings</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582235/original/file-20240315-28-xnpmro.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A headless statue of an emaciated person, revealing the ribcage, tendons and veins, with human figures at its base." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582235/original/file-20240315-28-xnpmro.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582235/original/file-20240315-28-xnpmro.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582235/original/file-20240315-28-xnpmro.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582235/original/file-20240315-28-xnpmro.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582235/original/file-20240315-28-xnpmro.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582235/original/file-20240315-28-xnpmro.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582235/original/file-20240315-28-xnpmro.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A third- to fifth-century statue of a fasting Buddha from the Kushan period.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo/buddha-bodhi-tree.html?sortBy=relevant">Samuel Eilenberg Collection, Ex Coll.: Columbia University, Purchase, Rogers, Dodge, Harris Brisbane Dick and Fletcher Funds, Joseph Pulitzer Bequest, and Lila Acheson Wallace Gift, 1987</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>What is missing, however, from these images are Buddhist women. What does enlightenment look like for them?</p>
<p>I’m <a href="https://case.academia.edu/JueLiang">a scholar of women and gender in Buddhism</a>, and one of the key questions driving my research is the unique ways in which enlightenment is experienced in a female body. This led me to the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Theragatha-Therigatha">Therigatha</a>, a collection of poems written in the Pāli language by female disciples of the Buddha. </p>
<p>Part of the <a href="https://palitextsociety.org/">Theravada Buddhist canon</a>,
this collection reveals an intimate picture of enlightenment that is deeply embodied, does not necessarily require the renunciation of domestic life and is supported by a community of sisterhood. </p>
<h2>Embodied enlightenment</h2>
<p>The term “theri” means “female elders,” while “gatha” refers to the genre of songs or verses. These poems, compiled not long after the Buddha’s passing, are the oldest evidence of women’s religious experiences in Buddhism. Many of these female authors were disciples of the Buddha. </p>
<p>Their writings reveal a version of enlightenment that is not occupied by the usual image of a solitary meditating monk. Instead of seeking liberation from life and death through monastic discipline or meditation, enlightenment is experienced in the mind as well as in the body. It is found not just in remote hermitages but also in domestic spaces. </p>
<p>Moreover, the path to liberation for women is usually communal. Nuns learn from and with each other, as they become free from the human condition of suffering, one of Buddhism’s <a href="https://www.lionsroar.com/what-are-the-four-noble-truths/">Four Noble Truths</a>.</p>
<p>Consider the following verses from the Therigatha. The <a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674427730">nun Uttama says</a>:</p>
<blockquote>For seven days I sat in one position, legs crossed,<br>
Given over to joy and happiness.<br>
On the eighth day I stretched out my feet,<br>
After splitting open the mass of mental darkness.</blockquote>
<p>Uttama may have meditated just like the Buddha, but in the end, she stretched out her feet – a movement of ease and freedom and a gesture of release from the hardship she endured.</p>
<p>Contrary to other Buddhist teachings that view the body as <a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/C/bo3633534.html">an undesirable container</a> punctured by several openings that constantly leaked foul and revolting substances, here in the Therigatha, the body is present, even prominent, in the enlightened experience of Uttama.</p>
<p>In the Therigatha, the Buddha instructs the nuns repeatedly to take care of the body. Instead of <a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674427730">letting it become a vehicle for death</a>, they should cherish the human body they possess and make it a vehicle for liberation. </p>
<p>Another poem by Ambapali, a royal courtesan turned Buddhist nun, expresses a similar sentiment. Ambapali observes the changes in her body in detail: She remarks how her once glossy, black hair that was perfumed with flowers is now like jute; her eyes, once brilliant like jewels, have lost their luster; her neck, hands, arms, thighs and feet, which were all once beautiful, also bear witness to old age and impermanence. </p>
<p>Instead of being disgusted by these changes, <a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674427730">her reflection</a> focuses on the teaching of impermanence: “It’s just as the Buddha, the speaker of truth, said, nothing different than that.” </p>
<p>Here, the body is not viewed as only the enemy but a vehicle necessary for human liberation. </p>
<h2>Finding liberation at home</h2>
<p>The setting of poems in the Therigatha also frequently highlights domestic spaces women occupy. In one, Punna, a servant girl of low caste, taught a high-caste Brahmin <a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674427730">a lesson on karma</a>. While doing her morning chores of fetching water, she saw a priest performing his bathing purification ritual in ice-cold water. She questioned the efficacy of this ritual, and told him that liberation comes from the Buddha’s teaching, not by tormenting one’s body. </p>
<p>In another, Patachara, who was once the wife of a wealthy man but turned to renunciation after the untimely death of her children, <a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674427730">relates the following</a>:</p>
<blockquote>First I looked at the bed, then I sat on the couch<br>
I used a needle to pull out the lamp’s wick.<br>
Just as the lamp went out, my mind was free.</blockquote>
<p>While the nuns followed a monastic path of abandoning domestic life, it was the bondage of servitude, not the daily experience of living, that they left behind. For Patachara, there was no need for a bodhi tree; her mind was set free from suffering and entered enlightenment right in her hut after the mundane act of putting out her lamp. </p>
<h2>Becoming enlightened, together</h2>
<p>Nuns learned from not only the Buddha but from other nuns as well. They were encouraged to care for and support each other. In fact, the phrase “she seemed like someone I could trust” shows up multiple times in the Therigatha, when the nuns recalled how they started on the path in the first place. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674427730">A nameless nun</a> writes:</p>
<blockquote>With no peace in my heart, dripping with sexual desire,<br>
I entered the monastery, wailing, my arms outstretched.<br>
I approached the nun,<br>
She seemed like someone I could trust.<br>
She taught me the dhamma<br>
About what makes a person<br>
About the senses and their objects<br>
And about the basic elements that make up everything.</blockquote>
<p>The community of fellow practitioners in Buddhism is called the sangha. It is one of the Three Jewels, the other two being the teacher, the Buddha, and his teaching, the “dhamma.” Anyone who wishes to become a Buddhist will vow to take refuge <a href="https://www.lionsroar.com/what-are-the-three-jewels/">in the Three Jewels</a>, which support Buddhist practice. These are the teacher, the teaching and the community. In the case of this nameless nun – and many others – the Buddhist path is paved not only by the Buddha and his teachings but also by a community of trust and shared aspiration.</p>
<p>The poems in the Therigatha are a reminder that enlightenment does not always have to be a long trek in the woods but can happen right within one’s humble abode. For some, it could simply mean the joy of finding community.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/207471/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jue Liang does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The Therigatha, a collection of poems written in Pāli by Buddhist nuns, reveals that women’s enlightenment may not necessarily require renunciation of domestic life.Jue Liang, Assistant Professor of Religion, Case Western Reserve UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2258472024-03-15T12:10:50Z2024-03-15T12:10:50ZIsrael’s army exemptions for the ultra-Orthodox are part of a bigger challenge: The Jewish state is divided over the Jewish religion<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582023/original/file-20240314-26-32enhe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=51%2C0%2C5760%2C3828&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Israeli police scuffle with ultra-Orthodox Jews as they block a main road in Jerusalem during an October 2017 protest against Israeli army conscription.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/IsraelUltraOrthodoxDraft/76efc6b6fbbb42f1adbf903862cc7401/photo?Query=israel%20army%20ultra-orthodox&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=63&currentItemNo=21">AP Photo/Ariel Schalit, File</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Just when you think nothing can surprise you anymore in Israeli politics, someone always comes along with a new twist. </p>
<p>This time it was Yitzhak Yosef, one of Israel’s two chief rabbis. In response to debates over whether ultra-Orthodox Jews should be required to serve in the military, or continue to be excused to study religious texts full time, he had a simple answer:</p>
<p>“If they force us to go to the army, we’ll all go abroad,” <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2024-03-10/ty-article/.premium/chief-sephardic-rabbi-if-they-force-us-to-go-to-the-army-well-leave-israel/0000018e-2768-d152-ad8e-2fe86ad80000">he declared</a> on March 9, 2024.</p>
<p>Ultra-Orthodox resistance to conscription is nothing new.</p>
<p>But the forcefulness of this declaration is new, especially coming in the midst of a war. And Yosef is not any random rabbi. He is the son of <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/ovadia-yosef-outspoken-spiritual-leader-of-israels-sephardi-jews-dies-at-93/">Ovadia Yosef</a>, who was the spiritual leader of the Shas Party: an important partner in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s <a href="https://apnews.com/article/israel-benjamin-netanyahu-government-and-politics-64d6cfb38a9b7e3b3681c6a80194a98b">right-wing and religious</a> governing coalition.</p>
<p>Ever since the state of Israel’s founding in 1948, ultra-Orthodox Jews – those who take the strictest approach toward following Jewish law, and are <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/haredim-are-fastest-growing-population-will-be-16-of-israelis-by-decades-end/">now around 14%</a> of the population – have been exempt from military service. Among all other Jewish citizens, from the secular to the modern Orthodox, men are required to serve 32 months, and women 24, plus reserve duty.</p>
<p>In 2017, the country’s Supreme Court <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2017-09-12/ty-article/israels-high-court-strikes-down-exemption-of-ultra-orthodox-from-military-service/0000017f-da83-dc0c-afff-dbdb4d4c0000">ruled against the exemptions</a>, but they have continued through a series of legislative workarounds. The latest is due to <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/gantz-boycotts-meeting-on-haredi-draft-with-pm-after-cabinet-ignores-his-proposal/">expire at the end of March 2024</a>, however – and other Israelis’ <a href="https://forward.com/news/591020/survey-large-majority-of-israeli-jews-want-haredim-to-serve-in-the-military/">resentment toward the ultra-Orthodox exemption</a> is at a high.</p>
<p>As <a href="https://www.american.edu/cas/faculty/mbrenner.cfm">a historian</a>, I see the conscription debate as more than a political crisis for Israel’s government. The question is so sensitive because it opens up fundamental questions about the cohesion of Israeli society in general, and of the ultra-Orthodox, or “Haredi,” population’s attitude toward the Jewish state in particular.</p>
<p>It also illustrates the complexity of a country that is not as easily explained as many of its supporters and critics alike believe.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582036/original/file-20240314-18-nf0rc6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A crowd of men wearing head coverings, with one man seated in front wearing an ornate gold and black robe." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582036/original/file-20240314-18-nf0rc6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582036/original/file-20240314-18-nf0rc6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582036/original/file-20240314-18-nf0rc6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582036/original/file-20240314-18-nf0rc6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582036/original/file-20240314-18-nf0rc6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582036/original/file-20240314-18-nf0rc6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582036/original/file-20240314-18-nf0rc6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Yitzhak Yosef, center, the Sephardi chief rabbi of Israel, attends a protest against religious reforms in Jerusalem in 2022.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/Israel%20Kosher%20Wars/2b2ca692403d41ac971b6ae2a7b3c303?Query=chief%20rabbinate%20israel&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:asc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=17&currentItemNo=12">AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Initial compromise</h2>
<p>Historically, Orthodox Jews struggled to justify the idea of a Jewish state. They prayed for centuries to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the temple, but had a specific return in mind: <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2016/may/12/for-haredi-jews-secular-zionism-remains-a-religious-heresy">a Jewish state established by the Messiah</a>. Any other kind of Jewish sovereignty, they believed, would be blasphemy.</p>
<p>Theodor Herzl, who founded modern political Zionism in the late 1800s, had a long beard and looked like a Biblical prophet. Yet he was thoroughly secular and assimilated – he even <a href="https://forward.com/israel/356767/when-theodor-herzl-lit-his-christmas-tree/">lit a Christmas tree</a> with his family. Herzl’s movement to encourage more European Jews to migrate to the Holy Land had little appeal for the Orthodox. </p>
<p>There was, however, always a minority among the Orthodox who identified with Zionism, the belief that Jewish people should have a sovereign political state in the land of Israel. According to the Talmud, the central source of Jewish law, <a href="https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/saving-a-life-pikuach-nefesh/">saving lives is more important than other commandments</a> – and Zionism saved Jews from pogroms and other anti-Jewish violence in Europe. </p>
<p>During the Holocaust, the vast majority of observant Jews in Eastern Europe <a href="https://doi.org/10.1515/9781400889198-032">were murdered</a>. Afterward, many survivors who had previously opposed Zionism sought refuge in the new state of Israel.</p>
<p>On the eve of Israel’s independence, David Ben-Gurion, the prime minister of the state-to-be, <a href="https://israelpolicyforum.org/2023/07/11/the-haredi-exemption/">entered an agreement</a> with the leaders of the two camps of Orthodox Jews.</p>
<p>The Haredim, or ultra-Orthodox, still refused to recognize the legitimacy of a secular Jewish state. The so-called national religious camp, on the other hand, embraced it.</p>
<p>Among other concessions, the new state <a href="https://israelpolicyforum.org/2023/07/11/the-haredi-exemption/">granted exemption</a> to young Haredi Jews who wanted to study religious texts full time instead of joining the army. That hardly seemed consequential, as the young men in question numbered only a few hundred.</p>
<h2>Shifting views</h2>
<p>During the Six-Day War of 1967, Israel captured the Jewish holy sites in Jerusalem as well as <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-54116567">the Gaza Strip, West Bank, Golan Heights and Sinai Peninsula</a>. Since then, the national religious camp, once a moderate force, has developed into <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/national-religious-camps-path-from-denying-settlements-to-merging-with-radicals/">the spearhead of the right-wing settler movement</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582026/original/file-20240314-20-maslyy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Young men sit at tables in a dimly lit temporary structure." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582026/original/file-20240314-20-maslyy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582026/original/file-20240314-20-maslyy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582026/original/file-20240314-20-maslyy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582026/original/file-20240314-20-maslyy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582026/original/file-20240314-20-maslyy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582026/original/file-20240314-20-maslyy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582026/original/file-20240314-20-maslyy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Jewish settlers study the Torah in a tent at the West Bank outpost of Homesh, near the Palestinian village of Burqa, Jan. 17, 2022.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/IsraelSettlerStrength/2504708583b44bb4a3e11e8556775a82/photo?Query=israel%20settler&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=2483&currentItemNo=455">AP Photo/Ariel Schalit</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Unlike the first generations of Orthodox Zionists, national religious Israelis today are Zionists not despite but because of messianism. Israel, they believe, will help bring about the messianic age. Therefore, right-wing religious Zionists – like Netanyahu’s cabinet ministers <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/02/15/israel-ben-gvir-netanyahu-government/">Itamar Ben-Gvir</a> and <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israel-presses-with-settlement-plans-despite-us-criticism-2024-02-28/">Bezalel Smotrich</a> – are enthusiastic proponents of army service.</p>
<p>Not so the Haredim, the ultra-Orthodox. </p>
<p>To be clear, <a href="https://www.harediresearchgroup.org/haredi-demography/">Haredi Jews are very diverse</a>. This demographic includes families with roots everywhere from Poland and Romania to Morocco and Iraq. It includes people who support Israel’s existence, and opponents who <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/group-of-ultra-orthodox-jews-marks-independence-day-by-burning-israeli-flag/#:%7E:text=TV%20footage%20shows%20men%20and,back%20and%20forth%20in%20bonfire&text=Ultra%2Dorthodox%20Jews%20in%20the,(Channel%2010%20screenshot.)">burn the flag</a> on Independence Day. It includes men who join the workforce and men who dedicate their life to religious study. </p>
<p>The majority of Haredim living in Israel are not Zionists, yet live there because it is the Holy Land and <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-10-04/ty-article/.premium/for-israels-ultra-orthodox-taxpayer-money-is-flooding-in/0000018a-faf4-d12f-afbf-fbf531fb0000">the state subsidizes their study</a>. Anything else – secular education, army service, and often paid work – is seen as a distraction.</p>
<p>A minority of Haredi Jews serve in the armed forces voluntarily, and <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/with-israel-at-war-150-haredi-men-draft-into-idf-thousands-expected-to-follow/">more have enlisted</a> since the beginning of the latest Israel-Hamas war. But they have no legal obligation to do so; nor do Israel’s Arab citizens. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582025/original/file-20240314-22-5knfek.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Four men in black hats and jackets, as well as a child, stand near a blue fence on a street, as they men look down at books in their hands." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582025/original/file-20240314-22-5knfek.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582025/original/file-20240314-22-5knfek.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582025/original/file-20240314-22-5knfek.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582025/original/file-20240314-22-5knfek.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582025/original/file-20240314-22-5knfek.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582025/original/file-20240314-22-5knfek.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582025/original/file-20240314-22-5knfek.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Jewish men pray in Jerusalem for the success of the Israeli army and for the return of the Israeli hostages, on Nov. 9, 2023.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/IsraelPalestiniansUltra-OrthodoxProtest/a02f5e31545649699ba3eb59b62b6b35/photo?Query=israel%20army%20ultra-orthodox&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=63&currentItemNo=13">AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Growing Haredi sector</h2>
<p>Israel’s governments have continued to <a href="https://israelpolicyforum.org/2023/07/11/the-haredi-exemption/">tolerate this situation</a> as ultra-Orthodox political parties became much-needed partners.</p>
<p>Yet legal and popular opposition has increased.</p>
<p>In 1998, the Supreme Court ruled that the defense minister <a href="https://versa.cardozo.yu.edu/opinions/rubinstein-v-minister-defense">has no right to exempt Haredi Jews from military service</a> and asked the government to find ways to draft them. In 2014, a center-right government under Netanyahu <a href="https://apnews.com/general-news-edae47d44f084d6a90a741050caaa3c9">passed a law</a> aiming to have 60% of Haredi men serving within three years. But the 2015 elections brought Haredi parties back in power, and implementation was effectively abandoned. </p>
<p>Since then, Haredi parties have become more powerful as their population grows. Yet the Supreme Court has made clear that by the end of March 2024, the government either <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2024-02-21/ty-article/.premium/state-to-top-court-haredim-will-be-drafted-if-conscription-law-isnt-passed-by-april/0000018d-cd43-d2b4-a9bf-cf77a2cb0000">needs to draft Haredim</a>, or the legislature has to come up with a new law to excuse them.</p>
<p>Seven in 10 Israeli Jews <a href="https://forward.com/news/591020/survey-large-majority-of-israeli-jews-want-haredim-to-serve-in-the-military/">oppose the blanket exemption</a>, meaning another exemption might jeopardize Netanyahu’s government. Frustration is also rising over plans to raise the military service of men to three years and to double the duty of reservists to <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2024-02-08/ty-article/.premium/bill-extending-israeli-army-service-draws-ire-for-exempting-haredim/0000018d-8a40-d443-a19f-fed132dc0000">42 days a year</a> during emergencies.</p>
<p>None of this would matter if the Haredim were still the same tiny segment of society they were in 1948. Today, however, ultra-Orthodox women have <a href="https://en.idi.org.il/haredi/2022/?chapter=48263">6.5 children on average</a>, compared with 2.5 among other Jewish Israeli women, and 1 in 4 young children <a href="https://shoresh.institute/graphs.html">are ultra-Orthodox</a>. </p>
<p>The resulting <a href="https://theconversation.com/israels-new-hard-line-government-has-made-headlines-the-bigger-demographic-changes-that-caused-it-not-so-much-197263">transformation of Israeli society</a> is easy to see. If the trend continues, Israel will become a very different, very religious society – one that can hardly survive economically. </p>
<p>On average, a non-Haredi household pays nine times more income tax than a Haredi one, while the latter receives <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/2024-03-11/ty-article/.premium/in-israel-non-orthodox-citizens-serve-the-state-and-the-state-serves-the-ultra-orthodox/0000018e-1adb-d1cc-abfe-dfffd7bd0000">over 50% more state support</a>. Even if they were ready to work, most Haredim would have a hard time finding well-paid jobs, as their state-subsidized private schools teach hardly any secular topics.</p>
<p>For Israeli society, this portends further fragmentation and a weakening of the economy – to say nothing of the army.</p>
<p>But, Chief Rabbi Yitzhak says, this will never happen. In his and other Haredim’s eyes, Israel’s soldiers succeed only <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2024-03-10/ty-article/.premium/chief-sephardic-rabbi-if-they-force-us-to-go-to-the-army-well-leave-israel/0000018e-2768-d152-ad8e-2fe86ad80000">because religious Jews study and pray for them</a>. </p>
<p>“They need to understand that without the Torah, without the yeshivas, there’d be nothing, no success for the army,” he said.</p>
<p><em>This article has been updated to correct the date that the military exemption is due to expire.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/225847/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael Brenner does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The Israel-Hamas war has fueled tensions around military exemptions, but the issue has long roiled Israeli politics.Michael Brenner, Professor of Jewish History and Culture at Ludwig Maximilian University and Abensohn Chair in Israel Studies, American UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2200262024-03-12T12:29:06Z2024-03-12T12:29:06ZWhat is the Japanese ‘wabi-sabi’ aesthetic actually about? ‘Miserable tea’ and loneliness, for starters<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580795/original/file-20240309-24-70pplt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C3%2C2046%2C1454&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A perfectly imperfect tea bowl.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/earthenware-bowl-with-glazing-against-black-royalty-free-image/1689830483?phrase=wabi+sabi&adppopup=true">Zen Rial/Moment via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>On a recent visit to New York I stopped at a Japanese bookstore in Manhattan. Among the English-language books about Japan, I encountered a section of a shelf marked “WABI-SABI” and stocked with titles such as “Wabi Sabi Love,” “The Wabi-Sabi Way,” “Wabi-Sabi for Artists, Designers, Poets & Philosophers,” and, in all lowercase, “simply imperfect: revisiting the wabi-sabi house.” </p>
<p>What is wabi-sabi, and why does it rate its own section alongside such topics as sushi and karate?</p>
<p>Wabi-sabi is typically described as a traditional Japanese aesthetic: the beauty of something perfectly imperfect, in the sense of “flawed” or “unfinished.” Actually, however, wabi and sabi are similar but distinct concepts, yoked together far more often outside Japan than in it. Even people who have been brought up in Japan may struggle to define wabi and sabi precisely, though each is certainly authentically Japanese and neither is especially obscure.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580796/original/file-20240309-30-4z3p0j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Two rows of books displayed spine-out in a store." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580796/original/file-20240309-30-4z3p0j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580796/original/file-20240309-30-4z3p0j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=680&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580796/original/file-20240309-30-4z3p0j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=680&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580796/original/file-20240309-30-4z3p0j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=680&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580796/original/file-20240309-30-4z3p0j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=855&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580796/original/file-20240309-30-4z3p0j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=855&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580796/original/file-20240309-30-4z3p0j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=855&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A wabi-sabi sighting in New York.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Paul S. Atkins</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As <a href="https://asian.washington.edu/people/paul-s-atkins">a scholar of classical Japanese language, literature and culture</a>, I too have a professional interest in wabi and sabi and how they have come to be understood outside Japan. A cursory search of Google Books shows that the term began to appear in print in English around 1980. Perhaps this was a delayed reaction to a book by <a href="https://trc-leiden.nl/trc-needles/people-and-functions/authors-scholars-and-activists/yanagi-soetsu-1889-1961">Japanese art critic Yanagi Soetsu</a>, “<a href="https://kodansha.us/product/the-unknown-craftsman/">The Unknown Craftsman</a>,” which was translated into English and published in 1972.</p>
<p>In it, in an essay titled, “The Beauty of Irregularity,” Yanagi wrote about the art of the tea ceremony and its simple grace. More broadly, as the title suggests, he was captivated by a sense of beauty apart from traditional ideals of perfection, refinement and symmetry. </p>
<p>Behind “roughness,” Yanagi wrote, “lurks a hidden beauty, to which we refer in our peculiar adjectives ‘shibui,’ ‘wabi,’ and ‘sabi.’” </p>
<p>Shibui means austere or restrained, yet it was wabi and sabi that caught on abroad – perhaps because they rhyme.</p>
<p>After taking off in America and other countries, the phrase wabi-sabi was imported back to Japan as a compound term; the mentions I found in online Japanese sources typically addressed such topics as how to explain wabi-sabi to foreigners. Wabi-sabi does not appear in standard dictionaries of the Japanese language.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580798/original/file-20240309-20-kp1zde.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="The interior of a simple room with faded walls, wooden beams, and a simple scroll hanging in the background." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580798/original/file-20240309-20-kp1zde.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580798/original/file-20240309-20-kp1zde.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580798/original/file-20240309-20-kp1zde.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580798/original/file-20240309-20-kp1zde.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580798/original/file-20240309-20-kp1zde.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580798/original/file-20240309-20-kp1zde.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580798/original/file-20240309-20-kp1zde.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A tearoom in Kyoto, Japan.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/tea-room-low-angle-view-royalty-free-image/200552152-001?phrase=japan+tea+room&adppopup=true">Karin Slade/Corbis Documentary via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Miserable poetry</h2>
<p>Wabi is a noun derived from the classical Japanese verb “wabu,” related to the modern verb “wabiru” and adjective “wabishii.” Wabu means to languish or be miserable. </p>
<p>Here is a celebrated example from a ninth-century waka poem, <a href="http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/special/japan_600ce_waka.htm">the brief verse of 31 syllables</a> that forms the backbone of classical Japanese poetry. The poet, a courtier named Yukihira, was a provincial governor who, by some accounts, <a href="https://asia453.wordpress.com/literary-locations/locations2016/lack-and-loneliness-on-the-shores-of-suma/">was exiled to Suma Bay</a>, a famous stretch of coastline in western Japan.</p>
<blockquote>Should by chance<br>
Someone ask for me,<br>
Answer that I languish<br>
At Suma Bay, shedding<br>
brine upon the seaweed.</blockquote>
<p>Suma Bay wasn’t all misery for Yukihira; according to legend, <a href="https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/78554">he loved and was loved</a> by two sisters there. But his poem well captures the pain of wabi – the misery of having been exiled from the courtly world he knew.</p>
<h2>Miserable tea</h2>
<p>Eventually, the misery of wabi made its way into one of Japan’s most iconic traditions: tea.</p>
<p>The custom of drinking powdered green tea, called matcha, entered Japan around 1200. Zen monks returning from China brought the powder home, using it as a medicine and a stimulant. Over time, tea spread to the rest of the population; by the middle of the 16th century, it was a mundane part of everyday life.</p>
<p>It was precisely then that the preparation and serving of tea was sublimated to high art, now known as “chadō” or “sadō,” <a href="https://www.urasenke.or.jp/texte/about/chado/">the so-called Way of Tea</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/577821/original/file-20240226-20-q7p9f5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Two people kneeling in a small, roofed room open to the outdoors, set in a garden, look at the photographer." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/577821/original/file-20240226-20-q7p9f5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/577821/original/file-20240226-20-q7p9f5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=479&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577821/original/file-20240226-20-q7p9f5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=479&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577821/original/file-20240226-20-q7p9f5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=479&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577821/original/file-20240226-20-q7p9f5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=602&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577821/original/file-20240226-20-q7p9f5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=602&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577821/original/file-20240226-20-q7p9f5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=602&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A Japanese couple in a 19th-century tearoom.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/japanese-couple-in-teahouse-news-photo/534244298?adppopup=true">Historical Picture Archive/Corbis Historical via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As the tea ceremony gained in popularity, powerful warlords competed in acquiring the most coveted utensils, including braziers, kettles, scoops, whisks and the bowllike cups in which the tea was whipped and sipped. The tearoom itself might be decorated with rare works of art, such as paintings or calligraphy mounted on hanging scrolls, elaborate flower vases and incense burners.</p>
<p>Then there emerged a group of connoisseurs and teachers of tea who championed a more severe and austere style of presentation: “wabi-cha,” which literally means miserable tea. Whereas newly ascendant warriors and merchants used the tea gathering to flaunt their wealth, <a href="https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/76335">wabi-style tea</a> emphasized subtlety, frugality and restraint.</p>
<p>It is not hard to see traces of wabi in old tearooms, with their patina of age and elegant but unobtrusive furnishings, and in the utensils themselves – in particular, the misshapen, cracked or somber-hued teabowls. </p>
<p>Wabi-style tea perhaps reached its pinnacle in the 16th century, when the celebrated tea master <a href="https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1028&context=arch_facultyschol">Sen no Rikyū</a> introduced innovations still used today. These include bamboo tea scoops, black raku-style ceramic teabowls and the “crawling entrance”: the 2-by-2-foot door through which attendees wriggle in order to enter the cozy, womblike tearoom.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580799/original/file-20240309-30-b210tf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A plain black bowl with a faint golden pattern, resting against a white backdrop." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580799/original/file-20240309-30-b210tf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580799/original/file-20240309-30-b210tf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580799/original/file-20240309-30-b210tf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580799/original/file-20240309-30-b210tf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580799/original/file-20240309-30-b210tf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=521&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580799/original/file-20240309-30-b210tf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=521&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580799/original/file-20240309-30-b210tf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=521&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A raku-ware teabowl with a design of geese, made in the 18th or 19th century.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/raku-ware-tea-bowl-with-design-of-descending-geese-18th-news-photo/1365697034?adppopup=true">Heritage Art/Heritage Images via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A lovely loneliness</h2>
<p>Like wabi, sabi is a noun: in this case, derived from the classical verb “sabu.” Today, the verb “sabiru” means to rust, with its connotations of age and decay. The modern adjective “sabishii” means lonely.</p>
<p>Classical poems yield many examples of sabi but it really took off as an aesthetic ideal in the 17th century. Poets often tried to capture its particular kind of loneliness in the 17-syllable poetic form of haiku.</p>
<p>As the scholar <a href="https://news.stanford.edu/2020/10/02/makoto-ueda-stanford-japanese-literature-professor-emeritus-dies-89/">Makoto Ueda</a> remarked, sabi is “not the loneliness of a man who has lost his dear one, but <a href="https://press.umich.edu/Books/L/Literary-and-Art-Theories-in-Japan">the loneliness of the rain</a> falling on large taro leaves at night, or the loneliness emerging out of a cicada’s cry amid the white, dry rocks, or the Milky Way extending over the rough sea, or a huge river torrentially rushing in the rainy season.” </p>
<p><a href="https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/basho">Matsuo Bashō</a>, a 17th-century master of haiku, saw sabi <a href="https://www2.yamanashi-ken.ac.jp/%7Eitoyo/basho/shitibusyu/sumidawara1.htm">in this verse</a> by his disciple Mukai Kyorai, translated by Ueda: </p>
<blockquote>Under the blossoms<br>
Two aged watchmen,<br>
With their white heads together—.</blockquote>
<p>The juxtaposition of wabi-sabi as a single term is of recent, not ancient, vintage, and it does not seem to have occurred in Japan. Nonetheless, the terms originated in Japanese aesthetics: sabi out of poetry and wabi out of tea. </p>
<p>Combined, they appear to fill a gap in the Western vocabulary for talking about art and life – a leaning away from perfection, completion and excess, and a yearning toward leaving something undone, broken or unsaid.</p>
<p><em>This story has been updated to correct the description of a tearoom door’s dimensions.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/220026/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>I was a student of Professor Makoto Ueda.</span></em></p>‘Wabi’ and ‘sabi’ are Japanese words with long histories, but they are rarely used together in the way Western designers have come to use the term.Paul S. Atkins, Professor of Japanese, University of WashingtonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2237072024-03-11T12:25:16Z2024-03-11T12:25:16ZShould people suffering from mental illness be eligible for medically assisted death? Canada plans to legalize that in 2027 – a philosopher explains the core questions<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580759/original/file-20240308-16-9f5ja6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=15%2C0%2C2101%2C1409&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">In advocates' eyes, expanding access to a medically assisted death helps people protect their autonomy at a crucial time.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/close-up-of-a-young-womans-hand-holding-the-hand-of-royalty-free-image/1408213220?phrase=hands+death+love+bed&adppopup=true">Eva HM/iStock via Getty Images Plus</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Imagine that you have lived with an illness for years. The suffering this illness has caused is devastating – so much that you wish to die. You no longer feel like the person you were before. You have been to see specialists, have tried the best treatments, but nothing works.</p>
<p>This is many people’s reality, and not only because of physical disorders and disease. Chronic mental illness can be just as crushing. Starting in March 2024, Canada planned to make medical assistance in death, or MAID, available to people with mental illness – <a href="https://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/cj-jp/ad-am/bk-di.html">expanding a program</a> already available to patients with terminal or chronic physical illness. In 2022, more than 13,000 people in Canada died with medical assistance, according to <a href="https://www.canada.ca/content/dam/hc-sc/documents/services/medical-assistance-dying/annual-report-2022/annual-report-2022.pdf">a government report</a>.</p>
<p>In February, however, the government announced <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/news/2024/02/the-government-of-canada-introduces-legislation-to-delay-medical-assistance-in-dying-expansion-by-3-years.html">a three-year delay</a> for the controversial program, saying the health care system needs more time to prepare.</p>
<p>When it is enacted in March 2027, this new provision will make Canada one of the few countries that allow MAID for mental illness. These include <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2022.895387">the Netherlands</a> <a href="https://pegasos-association.com/requirements/">and Switzerland</a>. Only a minority of U.S. states, such as Maine and Oregon, <a href="https://deathwithdignity.org/states/">allow any kind of MAID</a>, though many others have debated it – and none allow it for mental illness.</p>
<p>Critics say there are inadequate safeguards and <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/opinion/opinion-assisted-dying-maid-legislation-mental-health-1.5452676">a dearth of health care coverage</a> for psychiatric and psychological issues, which could prompt people to view MAID as their only alternative. They also point to the difficulty of predicting whether or not someone’s mental illness will eventually get better.</p>
<p>MAID activists believe that access to this choice for patients with mental illness is morally required. But even people <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/medical-assistance-in-dying-mental-illness-delay-1.7098313">not opposed to Canada’s new provision</a> are concerned about whether the system is ready.</p>
<p>As <a href="https://www.gonzaga.edu/college-of-arts-sciences/faculty-listing/detail/kulp">a philosopher</a> who specializes in <a href="https://ecommons.luc.edu/luc_diss/1277/">end of life ethics</a> and physician-assisted death, I research a distinction that is at the heart of this debate. There is a subtle but crucial difference between being acutely suicidal – an experience that may pass – and, after long consideration, desiring death in the face of suffering. </p>
<h2>My body, my decision?</h2>
<p>Plenty of people oppose MAID – often called physician-assisted death – under any circumstances, including terminal physical illness. Some believe it <a href="https://www.cccb.ca/media-release/statement-by-the-canadian-conference-of-catholic-bishops-on-the-non-permissibility-of-euthanasia-and-assisted-suicide-within-canadian-health-organizations-with-a-catholic-identity/">violates the sanctity of human life</a>. </p>
<p>Others have qualms about asking doctors, who are normally concerned about the preservation of human life, <a href="https://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2019/11/57243/">to participate in ending it</a>. In other words, they emphasize nonmaleficence, the obligation to do no harm – <a href="https://doi.org/10.1159/000509119">one of the core tenets of medical ethics</a>.</p>
<p>Many proponents, on the other hand, base their arguments on two other core tenets: beneficence – the obligation to benefit the patient – and autonomy. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195140279.003.0002">Autonomy arguments</a> usually assume that a government is only justified in restricting citizens’ liberty if exercising that liberty would cause harm to other people.</p>
<p>Advocates of physician-assisted death emphasize that ending one’s own life does not harm other people, suggesting that the government has no business curtailing the patient’s choices. Legalization ensures that citizens can make their own decisions about one of the most personal and value-laden times of life.</p>
<p>In medical ethicists’ view, in order for a person to be considered autonomous, they must be able to act intentionally and with an understanding of the potential consequences of their actions. Additionally, an autonomous person is reasonably free from undue influence – such as family members pressuring them or financial considerations that restrict their choices. </p>
<p>When it comes to physical illness, ethicists who <a href="https://philpapers.org/rec/RIDMAI-2">argue that physician-assisted death is morally permissible</a> view patients as free actors exercising their autonomy if they meet several criteria: they are terminally and chronically ill, have worked with medical professionals over time and have established an unchanging desire to end their suffering.</p>
<h2>Thorny issues</h2>
<p>Experiences of mental illness, however, raise serious questions about patients’ autonomy.</p>
<p>Mental illnesses often limit a person’s ability to govern their own lives free from the effects of their illness. For instance, a patient with <a href="https://theconversation.com/mariah-carey-says-she-has-bipolar-disorder-a-psychiatrist-explains-what-that-is-94893">bipolar I disorder</a> is not fully autonomous during the middle of a manic episode. Were it not for their disease, they would be less likely to engage in the types of behaviors that characterize a manic episode, such as reckless spending or risky sexual encounters.</p>
<p>Yet this is not true for all mental illnesses, or at all times. A person with well-treated bipolar 1 disorder will have periods in which <a href="https://www.samhsa.gov/mental-health/bipolar">their symptoms are under control</a>. In fact, it is in these periods of lucidity when <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/27/world/canada/medical-assisted-death-mental-illness.html">some bipolar patients</a> decide their own death would be preferable to the suffering they endure. </p>
<p>Moreover, proponents of <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/21/opinion/medical-assistance-dying-mental-illness-maid.html">extending physician-assisted death to mental illness</a> believe that the approval process can protect people who request it when acutely suicidal or who have not yet received adequate treatment.</p>
<p>In Canada’s proposed system, a mentally ill person requesting MAID must have been informed of all reasonable treatment options. They must also demonstrate a sustained desire to receive MAID, including waiting for 90 days after their application. Finally, the patient must have two doctors certify that their suffering is “<a href="https://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/rp-pr/other-autre/ad-am/p1.html">grievous and irremediable</a>” in any way the patient finds acceptable.</p>
<p>One key issue in preparing Canada’s health care system is whether providers have received enough training <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/services/publications/health-system-services/advice-profession-medical-assistance-dying.html#a7">to differentiate someone who is acutely suicidal</a> from someone who is in a frame of mind to make this decision thoughtfully. If someone is experiencing an acute desire to die that may be a symptom of their illness, most ethicists would find MAID morally impermissible. If, however, a mentally ill person <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/shes-47-anorexic-wants-help-dying-canada-will-soon-allow-it-2023-07-15/">has spent years suffering</a>, has exhausted reasonable treatment and has maintained a desire to die for some time, some ethicists believe MAID is appropriate.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/223707/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Maria Kulp does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Assessing a patient’s autonomy can be more difficult when mental illness is the main source of their suffering.Maria Kulp, Associate Professor of Philosophy, Gonzaga UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2251522024-03-11T12:24:50Z2024-03-11T12:24:50ZRamadan will be difficult for those in Gaza or other war zones – what does fasting mean for those who might be already starving?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580797/original/file-20240309-20-1w4qtd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=40%2C11%2C3730%2C2144&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Palestinians gather at the area where aid was distributed in Gaza City on Feb. 19, 2024.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/palestinians-struggling-with-hunger-gather-at-the-area-news-photo/2015671793">Karam Hassan/Anadolu via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Ramadan in the Gaza Strip this year will be anything but “normal.” </p>
<p>Malnutrition and disease are claiming dozens of lives. The Gaza Health Ministry said on March 6, 2024, that <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/famine-gaza-hunger-israel-hamas-war-rcna141891">at least 20 people had died</a> of malnutrition. Many others, it said, were “dying silently,” unable to reach medical facilities.</p>
<p>According to humanitarian organizations, the proportion of people in Gaza deprived of food <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/mar/06/colleagues-starvation-gaza-no-precedent-famine">exceeds any other place in the world</a>. </p>
<p>What meaning can the holy month’s fast have for those who have nothing to eat? </p>
<h2>Ramadan and the Quran</h2>
<p>Fasting in Islam requires believers to abstain from certain acts that are necessary for sustaining life – mainly eating, drinking and sexual – from dawn to dusk. But it is not just about food. It also requires that people abstain from lying or criticizing others behind their backs. </p>
<p>Muslims access “the sacred” primarily through the Quran, which is recited collectively from cover to cover in <a href="https://gulfnews.com/uae/ramadan/ramadan-2023-all-you-need-to-know-about-taraweeh-prayers---when-why-and-how-to-perform-it-1.1618320387277">communal night nighttime vigils during Ramadan</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://keough.nd.edu/people/mahan-mirza/">As a scholar of Islam</a> and as a practicing Muslim, I often think of how Islamic scripture describes the purpose of this sacred month. “Fasting is prescribed to you,” <a href="https://quran.com/2/183">says the Quran</a>, “that ye may learn self-restraint.”
The revelation of the Quran to Muhammad commenced in Ramadan, and Muslims take this time of the year to renew their connection to God’s words. </p>
<p>Fasting in Ramadan was prescribed in 624 C.E., the second year of Islam. This was shortly after the Prophet Muhammad’s emigration from Mecca to Medina in today’s Saudi Arabia to escape persecution. This episode, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Hijrah-Islam">known as the Hijra</a>, came to mark the first year of the Islamic calendar. </p>
<p>While Muslims may fast voluntarily throughout the year, it is mandatory in the month of Ramadan. Sick or pregnant people, as well as travelers, must make up missed days. The chronically ill or elderly must make amends by feeding others. </p>
<p>Fasting in Ramadan is believed to rejuvenate spiritual strength. The <a href="https://sunnah.com/ibnmajah:1690">Prophet Muhammad said</a> the mere ritual of fasting without inner transformation results in nothing but hunger.</p>
<p>“Goodness does not consist in your turning your face towards East or West,” <a href="https://quran.com/2/177">the Quran cautions</a>, in <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/qiblah">reference to the orientation</a> that is required in ritual prayer. Rather, goodness consists in caring for the neighbor and stranger. These are principles that <a href="https://www.acommonword.com/the-acw-document/">all religions have in common</a>. </p>
<h2>Ramadan and charity</h2>
<p>In Muslim culture, Ramadan is experienced primarily as a month of prayer, ascetic practice, family life and generosity. A select few engage in a practice known as “<a href="https://www.zakat.org/on-ritual-retreat-itikaf">i’tikaf</a>,” a voluntary retreat in partial seclusion at the mosque, typically during the last few days and nights. </p>
<p>A highlight of Ramadan is increased acts of charity and the feeding of others. Many mosques offer meals, which is believed to be an act of particular virtue at sunset to facilitate breaking of the fast, at this time of the year. Muslims often pay their <a href="https://www.muslimaid.org/what-we-do/religious-dues/ramadan/zakat-facts/">annual mandatory alms known as zakat</a> during Ramadan in order to reap the special rewards of this month. </p>
<p>Islamic educational and humanitarian organizations increase their appeals for donations every year in Ramadan, and the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/gallery/2022/apr/11/ramadan-2022-around-the-world-in-pictures">rhythm of life in Muslim communities transforms</a> with pre-dawn family meals, lazy mornings, working afternoons and communal feasts.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580575/original/file-20240307-28-ap9at8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Several children and adults share a meal while being seated in a circle on the floor where a number of dishes are placed in the center." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580575/original/file-20240307-28-ap9at8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580575/original/file-20240307-28-ap9at8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580575/original/file-20240307-28-ap9at8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580575/original/file-20240307-28-ap9at8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580575/original/file-20240307-28-ap9at8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580575/original/file-20240307-28-ap9at8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580575/original/file-20240307-28-ap9at8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A family living in a tent breaks their fast during Ramadan 2021 in Deir Al Balah, a city in Gaza, on April 19, 2021.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/tawfik-al-akraa-and-his-family-are-seen-during-the-iftar-news-photo/1232406941?adppopup=true">Ali Jadallah/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Ramadan in Gaza</h2>
<p>The meaning of Ramadan in a war zone is poignant for Muslims who are suffering directly. War is neither prescribed nor prohibited during Ramadan. <a href="https://sunnah.com/abudawud:2406">Muhammad urged</a> his troops to break the fast when entering into battle in order to preserve their strength. The <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Battle-of-Badr">Battle of Badr</a>, the first of many military confrontations under Muhammad’s command, which became a turning point in early Islamic history, took place in Ramadan. </p>
<p>For those who witness that suffering on screens from the comfort of their homes, the question of moral responsibility still remains. Muslims who seek to fulfill <a href="https://quran.com/2/3">God’s command</a> are “to spend out of what God has provided for them” in worthy charitable causes in Ramadan. Many of them will ask what more could be done to feed the hungriest of hungry in the world, who are <a href="https://www.aa.com.tr/en/middle-east/80-of-world-s-hungriest-people-live-in-gaza-palestine/3156190">now in Gaza</a>.</p>
<p>Religions help us come to terms with our mortality. They help us make sense of life beyond this life. In a time of war and famine, when death is near, <a href="https://quran.com/50/16">Ramadan can remind us that God is nearer</a>: “closer than the jugular vein.”</p>
<p>For countless innocent victims of all ages and every gender who are breathing their last – in the direst of circumstances and the deepest of anguish – this thought can be a source of solace, if not joy.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/225152/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mahan Mirza does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Ramadan encourages acts of charity. This also poses a question for many Muslims as they consider what more could be done to feed the hungriest in the world, many of whom are in Gaza.Mahan Mirza, Executive Director, Ansari Institute for Global Engagement with Religion, and Teaching Professor of Teaching Professor of Islam and Global Affairs, University of Notre DameLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2247212024-03-07T13:36:07Z2024-03-07T13:36:07ZWhat is a frozen embryo worth? Alabama’s IVF case reflects bigger questions over grieving and wrongful death laws<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579978/original/file-20240305-16-b0u7k5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=8%2C8%2C2986%2C1985&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">An embryologist uses a microscope to view an embryo, visible on a monitor.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/AlabamaFrozenEmbryos/e6f3454e8ba144ccadc7e0a21532fb6c/photo?Query=alabama%20supreme%20court&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=508&currentItemNo=22">AP Photo/Richard Drew, File</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In the weeks since the Alabama Supreme Court held that <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/4477607-alabama-supreme-court-rules-frozen-embryos-are-children/">embryos are “unborn children</a>” under one state law, most attention has been focused on in vitro fertilization – whether the decision imperils parents’ attempts to create a family. On March 6, 2024, Gov. Kay Ivey signed legislation to <a href="https://apnews.com/article/alabama-ivf-frozen-embryos-ruling-cab8171e80c88a088778dc7a187b7b5a">shield IVF providers from legal liability</a>, though the new law does not address frozen embryos’ legal status.</p>
<p>As <a href="https://health.usf.edu/publichealth/overviewcoph/faculty/katherine-drabiak">a health law professor</a>, I believe it’s also important to understand the laws that shaped the court’s decision: not only Alabama’s laws about “unborn children,” but wrongful death laws. This is a legal claim where family members can bring a civil lawsuit against a person who intentionally or carelessly caused the family member’s death, which is different from any criminal charges.</p>
<p>Over the past 100 years, laws have evolved to reflect a wider sense of what it means to lose a loved one, and how to “compensate” their family. Courts have been asked to interpret how wrongful death laws should apply to situations before a child is born.</p>
<h2>What happened in the clinic?</h2>
<p>The Alabama case, <a href="https://law.justia.com/cases/alabama/supreme-court/2024/sc-2022-0579.html">LePage v. Center for Reproductive Medicine</a>, was brought by three couples who had used IVF at a fertility clinic. They sued the clinic after a patient who wandered into the “cryogenic nursery,” where frozen embryos are stored, picked some up and accidentally dropped them on the floor, destroying them.</p>
<p>In the language of the court, this killed the embryos, since they might have developed into a healthy fetus if implanted in the uterus. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580020/original/file-20240305-18-hv069o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A steel vat, with icy condensation inside, open to reveal white packets inside at the bottom of the container." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580020/original/file-20240305-18-hv069o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580020/original/file-20240305-18-hv069o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580020/original/file-20240305-18-hv069o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580020/original/file-20240305-18-hv069o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580020/original/file-20240305-18-hv069o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580020/original/file-20240305-18-hv069o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580020/original/file-20240305-18-hv069o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Containers holding frozen embryos and sperm are stored in liquid nitrogen at a fertility clinic in Fort Myers, Fla., in 2018.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/AlabamaFrozenEmbryos/25b27e79f3e14fb6910ff3de3ebc7dae/photo?Query=alabama%20supreme%20court&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=508&currentItemNo=32">AP Photo/Lynne Sladky, File</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The three sets of parents filed a lawsuit based on a claim for <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/wrongful_death">wrongful death</a>. Like <a href="https://www.bu.edu/bulawreview/files/2020/03/LENS.pdf">about 40 other states</a>, Alabama allows parents to bring a claim for <a href="https://law.justia.com/codes/alabama/2022/title-6/chapter-5/article-22/section-6-5-391/">wrongful death</a> of an unborn child.</p>
<p>The court said the question in this case centered around whether the term “unborn child” in state laws only refers to an embryo or fetus in utero, or whether there is an “unwritten exception” for embryos that have not yet been transferred to the womb.</p>
<h2>The court’s decision</h2>
<p>Alabama Supreme Court cases in 2011 and 2012 had already held that the state’s wrongful death law <a href="https://casetext.com/case/mack-v-carmack">allows expectant parents to bring a claim</a> following a death at <a href="https://casetext.com/case/hamilton-v-scott-2">any stage of the embryo’s or fetus’s development</a>.</p>
<p>In addition, Alabama <a href="https://ballotpedia.org/Alabama_Amendment_2,_State_Abortion_Policy_Amendment_(2018)">amended its state constitution</a> in 2018 to affirm that public policy of the state should protect “the rights of the unborn child.”</p>
<p><a href="https://law.justia.com/cases/alabama/supreme-court/2024/sc-2022-0579.html">Combining the previous cases</a>, the state constitution and even dictionary definitions, the court said nothing in the current wrongful death law would exempt “extrauterine children – that is, unborn children who are located outside of a biological uterus at the time they are killed.”</p>
<p>This ruling does not mean that the parents won a wrongful death lawsuit, but that a court will be able to hear the parents’ claim for wrongful death.</p>
<h2>The legal ‘value’ of an embryo</h2>
<p>This is significant because in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xfre.2020.06.007">other cases</a> where embryos were destroyed, the law generally has treated embryos as <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/university-hospitals-fertility-clinic-faces-new-lawsuits-after-tank-failures-n962341">parents’ property</a>, or allege negligence by the clinic. Only a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fertnstert.2022.12.038">handful of other states</a> – including Illinois, Missouri and Georgia – allow wrongful death lawsuits for embryos.</p>
<p>IVF <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/article/ivf-treatment-costs-guide.html">is a significant investment</a> of time and money, and involves a variety of <a href="https://www.mayoclinic.org/tests-procedures/in-vitro-fertilization/about/pac-20384716">medical risks</a>. In a case where fertility treatment goes wrong, couples could try to recoup those costs through civil lawsuits that sometimes treat frozen embryos as property.</p>
<p>However, that does not account for each embryo’s biological and emotional uniqueness. Before the Alabama ruling, other cases had tried to classify embryos as <a href="https://www.courthousenews.com/would-be-parents-want-embryos-deemed-people-after-clinic-meltdown/">living people</a> to signify their <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/US/families-sue-cleveland-clinic-malfunction-possibly-destroyed-embryos/story?id=53683517">irreplaceable value</a>. </p>
<p>Some <a href="https://vanderbiltlawreview.org/lawreview/2022/11/abortion-pregnancy-loss-subjective-fetal-personhood/">legal experts</a> assert that embryos only have “subjective and relational value.” In other words, only parents can decide whether or not they are important and have meaning.</p>
<p>Other <a href="https://contemporarythinkers.org/robert-george/book/embryo-defense-human-life/">experts suggest</a> that embryos have inherent value because they are each genetically distinct, unique human life at the earliest stage. They argue that allowing protection for some stages of human development but not others violates human rights principles.</p>
<h2>How wrongful death laws work</h2>
<p>How the value of an embryo is defined also shapes whether wrongful death laws would apply.</p>
<p>Wrongful death laws were originally designed to compensate family members for the loss of that person’s <a href="https://heinonline.org/HOL/Page?handle=hein.journals/wsulr5&div=17&g_sent=1&casa_token=&collection=journals">services and contributions</a>. Damages from a lawsuit could pay medical bills, funeral expenses and lost earnings from that person’s job, for example.</p>
<p>Each state has its own wrongful death law. <a href="https://www.bu.edu/bulawreview/files/2020/03/LENS.pdf">Since the 1850s</a>, these laws have allowed parents to bring claims to recover damages from a person who causes their child’s death. Initially, these laws were designed as an economic tool because parents expected their children to work.</p>
<p>Now, according to some <a href="https://www.bu.edu/bulawreview/files/2020/03/LENS.pdf">legal scholars</a>, many states recognize that losing a child means much more: a moral injury, pain and <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1286251">the anguish</a> from losing the child’s company and affection. Some states allow the family to <a href="https://www.ilga.gov/legislation/ilcs/ilcs3.asp?ActID=2059&ChapterID=57">recover damages for suffering and grief</a> – recognizing a person’s inherent value, not only their economic value.</p>
<p><a href="https://casetext.com/case/stinnett-v-kennedy-1">Awarding damages</a> to a grieving family is meant to deter risky actions that could result in loss of life.</p>
<p>By the mid-1900s, courts began to allow wrongful death claims for children that died before birth as a result of another person’s negligence or carelessness. Some states specify that <a href="https://nebraskalegislature.gov/laws/statutes.php?statute=30-809">this includes at any stage of gestation</a>. </p>
<p>Some laws, including in <a href="https://nebraskalegislature.gov/laws/statutes.php?statute=30-809">Nebraska</a> and <a href="https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/CP/htm/CP.71.htm#:%7E:text=71.003.,inside%20or%20outside%20this%20state.">Texas</a>, prevent families from suing the pregnant woman, or from suing her medical provider, if she opts to have a medical procedure that results in unintended fetal loss. Others specify that the law <a href="https://www.ilga.gov/legislation/ilcs/ilcs3.asp?ActID=2059&ChapterID=57#:%7E:text=Whenever%20the%20death%20of%20a,then%20and%20in%20every%20such">does not apply</a> in cases of abortion. </p>
<h2>What the case means moving forward</h2>
<p>Some policymakers have <a href="https://time.com/6835548/lawmakers-ivf-embryos-alabama-legislation/">expressed concern</a> that Alabama’s decision “criminalizes” parents from trying to grow their family, or that they would face <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2024/02/27/us/ivf-ruling-impact-other-states/index.html">prosecution</a>. However, this is not accurate, since this case only relates to civil lawsuits, not criminal law.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580222/original/file-20240306-28-lwkhnd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A woman in a long white sweater, holding a pink sign that says 'I just want to be a mom,' speaks with another blonde woman in a doctor's coat." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580222/original/file-20240306-28-lwkhnd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580222/original/file-20240306-28-lwkhnd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580222/original/file-20240306-28-lwkhnd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580222/original/file-20240306-28-lwkhnd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580222/original/file-20240306-28-lwkhnd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580222/original/file-20240306-28-lwkhnd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580222/original/file-20240306-28-lwkhnd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Patients and doctors gathered outside the Alabama Statehouse in Montgomery on Feb. 28, 2024, urging lawmakers to protect IVF services in the state.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/AlabamaIVFAffectedGroups/e3ec159eb74c437297b40e73d8835780/photo?Query=ivf&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=110&currentItemNo=4">Kim Chandler/AP</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Nor does the decision prohibit using IVF. The Alabama attorney general has stated that he <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2024/02/23/us/alabama-ivf-embryos-supreme-court-ruling-legislation/index.html">does not intend</a> to use this decision to prosecute either parents or IVF providers. However, several fertility clinics announced that they would <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/23/us/politics/alabama-ivf-treatment-law.html">pause their IVF services</a> while assessing the law.</p>
<p>Based on the U.S. Constitution, courts can only <a href="https://www.ncsl.org/about-state-legislatures/separation-of-powers-legislative-judicial-relations">interpret what the law is</a>, not decide what they think it should be. </p>
<p>In response, state legislators rapidly proposed <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2024/02/27/us/ivf-ruling-impact-other-states/index.html">a variety of bills</a> aimed at preserving IVF. The bill signed into law on March 6, 2024 <a href="https://www.newsfromthestates.com/article/alabama-legislature-passes-bills-aimed-protecting-vitro-fertilization?emci=9460e6e7-4cd7-ee11-85f9-002248223794&emdi=a8a94336-c3d7-ee11-85f9-002248223794&ceid=519099">gives broad immunity</a> to IVF clinics, shielding providers from prosecution and lawsuits “for the damage to or death of an embryo.” However, it provides more protection than is standard, which may create unintended consequences – for example, potentially making it more difficult to sue for negligence or breach of contract.</p>
<p>As Alabama legislators discuss next steps, they need to incorporate the state constitution while considering how to reflect the will of their voters.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/224721/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Katherine Drabiak does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Alabama’s case began when three couples sued an IVF clinic where their frozen embryos had accidentally been dropped.Katherine Drabiak, Professor of Health Law, Public Health Law and Medical Ethics, University of South FloridaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2246102024-03-07T13:28:44Z2024-03-07T13:28:44ZCherry blossoms – celebrated in Japan for centuries and gifted to Americans – are an appreciation of impermanence and spring<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579995/original/file-20240305-22-u58mno.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=30%2C9%2C1916%2C1352&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Families relax under lush cherry trees in the Shinjuku Gyoen in Tokyo.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/shankaronline/48624796381">shankar s./Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Cherry blossoms mark the beginning of spring. Various festivals are regularly organized in <a href="https://sfcherryblossom.org/">California</a>, <a href="https://cherryblossomdenver.org/">Colorado</a>, <a href="https://cherryblossom.com/">Georgia</a>, <a href="http://www.nashvillecherryblossomfestival.org/">Tennessee</a> and <a href="https://nationalcherryblossomfestival.org/">Washington, D.C.</a>, to celebrate the bloom of cherry trees. </p>
<p>The blossoms, however, are short-lived and usually fall within a week. Indeed, “sakura,” as the cherry tree is known in Japanese, is a recognized <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/Mizue_Sawano_The_Art_of_the_Cherry_Tree/nHf8lxLOYsUC?hl=en">symbol of impermanence</a> in Japan and beyond. </p>
<p>Every year, many people all around Japan gather under the cherry trees in parks and gardens for a spring picnic to watch the blossoms fall while they chat with their companions over seasonal drinks and snacks. Such gatherings are called “hanami,” literally meaning “viewing the flowers.” </p>
<p>As a <a href="https://wlc.utk.edu/?people=malgorzata-k-citko-duplantis">scholar of premodern Japanese literature and culture</a>, I was introduced to the custom of viewing cherry blossoms early on in my education. It is an ancient ritual that has been celebrated and written about in Japan for centuries and continues to be an indispensable element of welcoming spring. In the U.S., the tradition of hanami started with the first cherry trees being planted in Washington D.C. in 1912 as a <a href="https://www.nps.gov/subjects/cherryblossom/history-of-the-cherry-trees.htm">gift of friendship from Japan</a>. </p>
<h2>Poetry about nature</h2>
<p>The custom of viewing blooming trees in spring arrived in Japan from the Asian continent. Watching blooming plum trees, often by moonlight, as a symbol of <a href="https://www.archwaypublishing.com/en/bookstore/bookdetails/799255-The-Plum-Blossom-of-Luojia-Mountain">strength, vitality and end of winter</a> was practiced in China since antiquity. It was adopted in Japan sometime in the eighth century.</p>
<p>Poetic examples of blooming plums, or “ume” in Japanese, are found in “<a href="https://www.kokugakuin.ac.jp/assets/uploads/2021/03/KJS2-2Oishi.pdf">Man’yōshū,” or a “Collection of Ten Thousand Leaves</a>,” the oldest collection of Japanese poetry, which dates to the eighth century. </p>
<p>Scholar of East Asian Literatures <a href="https://lit.mit.edu/denecke/">Wiebke Denecke</a> explains that classical Japanese poets <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/25066837">wrote poetry about plum blossoms when they were in season</a>. Their compositions shaped Japanese court poetry, or “waka” in Japanese, which is rooted in nature and its constant seasonal cycle. </p>
<p>However, it is the sakura, not plum trees, that occupies a special place in Japanese culture. Imperial waka anthologies compiled in Japan between 905 and 1439 C.E. usually contain more spring poems composed about cherry blossoms than plum blossoms. </p>
<h2>Central to waka composition</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/558474/the-sakura-obsession-by-naoko-abe/">The first cherry blossom viewing</a> was held by Emperor Saga in 812 C.E. and soon became a regular event at the imperial court, often accompanied by music, food and writing poetry. </p>
<p>Cherry blossoms became one of the regular topics of waka composition. In fact, I started studying Japanese poetry thanks to a sakura-themed poem written by a classical female poet, Izumi Shikibu, who is believed to have actively composed waka around 1000 C.E. <a href="http://www.misawa-ac.jp/drama/daihon/genji/bunken/zoku.html">The poem is prefaced with its author’s memory</a> about her ex-lover wishing to see the cherry blossoms again before they fall. </p>
<blockquote>tō o koyo<br>
saku to miru ma ni<br>
chirinu beshi<br>
tsuyu to hana to no<br>
naka zo yo no naka</blockquote>
<blockquote>Come quickly!<br>
As soon as they start to open<br>
they must fall.<br>
Our world dwells<br>
in dew on top of the cherry blossoms.</blockquote>
<p>The poem is not the most famous example of waka about cherry blossoms in premodern Japanese poetry, but it contains layers of traditional imagery symbolizing impermanence. It emphasizes that once cherry blossoms bloom, they are destined to fall. Witnessing the moment of their fall is the very purpose of hanami. </p>
<p>Dew is usually interpreted as a <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/2385169">symbol of tears</a> in waka, but it can be also read more erotically as a reference to other <a href="https://uhpress.hawaii.edu/title/mapping-courtship-and-kinship-in-classical-japan-the-tale-of-genji-and-its-predecessors/%22%22">bodily fluids</a>. Such an interpretation reveals the poem to be an allusion to a romantic relationship, which is as fragile as evaporating dew on soon-falling cherry blossoms; it does not last long, so it should be appreciated while it exists. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579998/original/file-20240305-18-vujctw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A blossoming Japanese tree laden with clusters of pink flowers in a garden." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579998/original/file-20240305-18-vujctw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579998/original/file-20240305-18-vujctw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579998/original/file-20240305-18-vujctw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579998/original/file-20240305-18-vujctw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579998/original/file-20240305-18-vujctw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579998/original/file-20240305-18-vujctw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579998/original/file-20240305-18-vujctw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In Japan, cherry blossoms symbolize impermanence.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/25228175@N08/4549363374">Elvin/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The poem can also be interpreted more generally: Dew is a symbol of human life, and the fall of cherry blossoms a metaphor for death.</p>
<h2>Militarized by the Empire of Japan</h2>
<p>The notion of falling cherry blossoms was used by <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/imperial-japan-and-defeat-in-the-second-world-war-9781350246799/">the Empire of Japan</a>, a historic state that existed from the Meiji Restoration in 1868 until the enactment of the Constitution of Japan in 1947. The empire is known for the <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/japanese-taiwan-9781472576743/">colonization of Taiwan</a> and <a href="https://www.peterlang.com/document/1049131">annexation of Korea</a> to expand its territories. </p>
<p><a href="https://kokubunken.repo.nii.ac.jp/records/4747">Sasaki Nobutsuna</a>, a scholar of Japanese classics with strong ties to the imperial court, was a supporter of the empire’s nationalistic ideology. In 1894, he composed a lengthy poem, “<a href="https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/873478/1/10">Shina seibatsu no uta</a>,” or “The Song of the Conquest of the Chinese,” to coincide with the First Sino-Japanese war, which lasted from 1894 to 1895. The poem compares falling cherry blossoms to the sacrifice of Japanese soldiers who <a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/K/bo3656741.html">fall in battles for their country and emperor</a>. </p>
<h2>Commodification of the season</h2>
<p>In contemporary Japan, the cherry blossoms are celebrated by many members of society, not only the imperial court. Blooming around the <a href="https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/national-international/lunar-new-year-2024-how-to-celebrated/3447961/">Lunar New Year</a> celebrated in premodern Japan for centuries, they are symbolic of new beginnings in all areas of life. </p>
<p>In the contemporary era, vendors have commodified the cherry blossoms, selling sakura-flavored <a href="https://stories.starbucks.com/asia/stories/2024/sakura-season-starts-at-starbucks-japan-on-thursday-february-15/">tea, coffee</a>, <a href="https://japantoday.com/category/features/food/haagen-dazs-releases-two-new-seasonal-flavors">ice cream</a>, <a href="https://www.oenon.jp/news/2020/0205-1.html">drinks</a> or <a href="https://www.fujingaho.jp/gourmet/sweets/g43015580/fujingahonootoriyose-sakura-sweets20240215/">cookies</a>, turning the image of blooming sakura into a seasonal brand. <a href="https://sakura.weathermap.jp/en.php">Weather forecasts</a> track the cherry trees’ bloom to ensure that everyone has a chance to participate in the ancient ritual of viewing sakura. </p>
<p>The obsession with cherry blossoms may seem trivial, but hanami gathers people during an era when much communication is conducted virtually and remotely, uniting family members, friends, coworkers and sometimes even strangers, as happened to me when I lived in Japan. </p>
<p>Viewing sakura is also evidence of modern Japan’s unique relationship with its own history. At the same time, it is a reminder that impermanence is possibly the only constant in life. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580005/original/file-20240305-23810-vdbysn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Two rows of tall trees with clusters of pink flowers on either side of a pathway." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580005/original/file-20240305-23810-vdbysn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580005/original/file-20240305-23810-vdbysn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580005/original/file-20240305-23810-vdbysn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580005/original/file-20240305-23810-vdbysn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580005/original/file-20240305-23810-vdbysn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580005/original/file-20240305-23810-vdbysn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580005/original/file-20240305-23810-vdbysn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Cherry trees, with their lovely blossoms, arrived in Washington D.C. as a gift from Japan.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/dannyfowler/4469426717">Danny Navarro/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Today, cherry blossoms are celebrated in spring <a href="https://localadventurer.com/places-to-see-cherry-blossoms-in-the-world/">all around the world</a>, encouraging the appreciation of impermanence through observation of nature.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/224610/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Małgorzata (Gosia) K. Citko-DuPlantis does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The first cherry blossom viewing was organized in Japan by Emperor Saga in 812 C.E. In the ensuing years, poetry on cherry blossoms came to have a special place in Japanese culture.Małgorzata (Gosia) K. Citko-DuPlantis, Assistant Professor in Japanese Literature and Culture, University of TennesseeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2229532024-03-06T13:34:46Z2024-03-06T13:34:46ZReeling religion: From anime and sci-fi to rom-coms, films are full of faith in unexpected places<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579737/original/file-20240304-26-ehe5mp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C2305%2C1156&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Seeing the light − at the movies.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/people-in-the-cinema-auditorium-with-empty-white-royalty-free-image/1494642262?phrase=%22movie+theater%22&adppopup=true">igoriss/iStock via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In some movies, religion hits viewers over the head – including films that take home the industry’s biggest prizes. No one could miss religion’s importance in “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070047/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">The Exorcist</a>” or “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070239/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Jesus Christ Superstar</a>,” both nominated for Oscars 50 years ago. Martin Scorsese, whose “Killers of the Flower Moon” is up for 10 at the 2024 Academy Awards, is working on a new project <a href="https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/awards/story/2024-01-08/martin-scorsese-killers-of-the-flower-moon-new-jesus-film">on the life of Jesus</a>. </p>
<p>Anyone can find a religious meaning <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119485/">in “Kundun</a>,” Scorsese’s epic about the Dalai Lama’s youth, or “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067093/">Fiddler on the Roof</a>,” the story of life in a Russian Jewish shtetl at the turn of the 20th century. Cinematic Christ figures <a href="https://www.routledge.com/The-Routledge-Companion-to-Religion-and-Film/Lyden/p/book/9780415601870">are a dime a dozen</a>.</p>
<p>But for <a href="https://people.cal.msu.edu/stowed/">scholars of religion and popular culture</a> like myself, movies that engage religion less directly are often more intriguing. </p>
<h2>Free from illusion</h2>
<p>Take the hugely influential science fiction franchise “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/find/?q=the%20matrix&ref_=nv_sr_sm">The Matrix</a>.” Depicting characters caught in a diabolical computer simulation, held prisoner to AI, the film feels particularly timely in 2024.</p>
<p>Seeing past illusions to a deeper cosmic reality, as the film’s protagonists must do, is of course a theme of many faiths. “The Matrix” is peppered with <a href="https://doi.org/10.1163/9781904710165_017">many other allusions to religion</a> and mythology. Main character Neo, referred to as “the One,” is killed and resurrected. A hacker even tells him, “You’re my savior, man, my own personal Jesus Christ.” One central character is named Trinity. Another is called Morpheus, after the Greek god of dreams.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579329/original/file-20240302-30-et24uz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A woman with short hair and a blue shirt touches the chin of a reclining man whose eyes are closed and whose head is almost touching a computer screen." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579329/original/file-20240302-30-et24uz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579329/original/file-20240302-30-et24uz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579329/original/file-20240302-30-et24uz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579329/original/file-20240302-30-et24uz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579329/original/file-20240302-30-et24uz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579329/original/file-20240302-30-et24uz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579329/original/file-20240302-30-et24uz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Carrie-Anne Moss and Keanu Reeves as Trinity and Neo in ‘The Matrix.’</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/carrie-anne-moss-and-keanu-reeves-in-the-matrix-news-photo/590691556?adppopup=true">Ronald Siemoneit/Sygma/Sygma via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>More specifically, religion scholars see explicit <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/american-gnosis-9780197653210?cc=gb&lang=en&">themes of Gnosticism</a>, a <a href="https://theconversation.com/this-tiny-minority-of-iraqis-follows-an-ancient-gnostic-religion-and-theres-a-chance-they-could-be-your-neighbors-too-160838">variant of Christianity</a> that flourished during the faith’s first few centuries. A central focus of Gnostic texts is attaining liberation from worldly illusion through direct inner knowledge of truth. Its teachings include stark dualism – light vs. dark, mind vs. body, good vs. evil – and belief in a hidden God operating in a hostile cosmos, both of which have analogues in “The Matrix.”</p>
<p><a href="https://digitalcommons.unomaha.edu/jrf/vol5/iss2/4/">Buddhist themes</a> are also unmistakable. The film begins with Neo waking up, both literally and figuratively, as he discovers the truth: Machines have trapped humanity in pods to harvest their energy. The world in which humans believe they are living is actually “the matrix,” an illusory world created to distract them.</p>
<p>“Buddha” means “<a href="https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/buda/hd_buda.htm">awakened one</a>,” and many viewers <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/26975089?seq=1">have drawn comparisons</a> between Keanu Reeves’ character’s journey and Buddhism. Once <a href="https://library.scotch.wa.edu.au/ld.php?content_id=45331773">awakened to reality</a>, Neo is no longer bound to the illusions of ignorance and desire. Just as importantly, he must help other humans awaken and escape the cycle of suffering.</p>
<h2>Spirits on screen</h2>
<p>Even apart from specific allusions like these, cinema shares something important with religion. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.hamilton.edu/academics/our-faculty/directory/faculty-detail/s-brent-plate">S. B. Rodriguez-Plate</a>, a religion scholar at Hamilton College, argues that <a href="https://theconversation.com/when-do-moviegoers-become-pilgrims-81016">films can function something like religions</a> in the lives of their audiences, “playing God” by <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/Religion_and_Film/PeQvDwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0">creating imaginary worlds</a> – worlds that may make viewers see their real lives in a different light.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579328/original/file-20240302-20-gruasj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Three children stare up at a large, very colorful structure that looks like a coral reef with clay characters on it." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579328/original/file-20240302-20-gruasj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579328/original/file-20240302-20-gruasj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=749&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579328/original/file-20240302-20-gruasj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=749&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579328/original/file-20240302-20-gruasj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=749&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579328/original/file-20240302-20-gruasj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=942&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579328/original/file-20240302-20-gruasj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=942&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579328/original/file-20240302-20-gruasj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=942&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Visitors gaze at a clay model of Hayao Miyazaki’s film ‘Ponyo’ at an exhibition in Tokyo in 2008.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/visitors-gaze-at-clay-model-of-the-animation-movie-ponyo-on-news-photo/81959495?adppopup=true">Yoshikazu Tsuno/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>That power is nowhere more evident than in animated films, which create vivid realms that live action can only dream of. In films like “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0245429/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Spirited Away</a>” and “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0347149/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Howl’s Moving Castle</a>,” legendary anime director Hayao Miyazaki <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/Miyazaki_and_the_Hero_s_Journey/GUhpEAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0">creates his own mythic worlds</a> populated with fanciful “<a href="https://aboutjapan.japansociety.org/yokai-fantastic-creatures-of-japanese-folklore#sthash.ghWYL1Ap.DkhdklQi.dpbs">yōkai</a>”: creatures that are inspired by Japanese legends but not quite Shinto or Buddhist.</p>
<p>Many of Miyazaki’s films also include spirits that inhabit inanimate objects, which he associates with Japanese tradition. “In my grandparents’ time … it was believed that spirits (kami) existed everywhere – in trees, rivers, insects, wells, anything,” <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/Drawing_on_Tradition/gB_HDwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0">he once said</a>. “My own religion, if you can call it that, has no practice, no Bible, no saints, only a desire to keep certain places and my own self as pure and holy as possible.”</p>
<p>“<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119698/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Princess Mononoke</a>,” Miyazaki’s 1997 film set in medieval Japan, tells the story of a young prince drawn into an epic struggle between forest gods and humans who exploit natural resources. It’s a challenge religions have often ignored but are increasingly trying to engage: how to live responsibly in the natural world. </p>
<p>While the movie has <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BoZpCmcnM_s">an environmental message</a>, it avoids oversimplifying the struggle to “good nature” besieged by “bad humans.” San, a human girl who leads an army of wolves, tries to kill the prince, while Iron Town provides support for lepers and outcasts, even as it degrades the environment.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/BoZpCmcnM_s?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">A.O. Scott reviews ‘Princess Mononoke,’ which highlights environmental themes.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Birth and rebirth – and groundhogs</h2>
<p>What about comedy, though? Can a religious film be funny? Could a romantic comedy have religious overtones? </p>
<p>Each February, many Americans <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-do-groundhogs-emerge-on-february-2-if-its-not-to-predict-the-weather-36376">celebrate Groundhog Day</a>, waiting to see if the famous Punxsutawney Phil will see his shadow. But for some, Feb. 2 is a day to celebrate “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0107048/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Groundhog Day</a>” – the film about the moral evolution of an arrogant Pittsburgh weatherman sent to report on the groundhog but forced to <a href="https://theconversation.com/when-each-pandemic-day-feels-the-same-phil-the-weatherman-in-groundhog-day-can-offer-a-lesson-in-embracing-life-mindfully-153605">live the same day over and over again</a> until he gets it right.</p>
<p>Given “Groundhog Day’s” cult-classic status, it evidently speaks to followers of many religions and none. But it’s hard to think of a film that better <a href="https://tricycle.org/article/groundhog-day/">captures the concept of samsara</a>: the Sanskrit term for the tedious human condition, with its endless cycles of birth and rebirth. Helping people find release from samsara is central to both Hinduism and Buddhism. Phil, the weatherman stuck reliving Feb. 2 over and over, is caught on such a treadmill. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579327/original/file-20240302-24-2pk6ne.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A dark-haired main in a blue shirt and dark tie runs through a snowy street with his arms outstretched." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579327/original/file-20240302-24-2pk6ne.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579327/original/file-20240302-24-2pk6ne.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579327/original/file-20240302-24-2pk6ne.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579327/original/file-20240302-24-2pk6ne.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579327/original/file-20240302-24-2pk6ne.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=507&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579327/original/file-20240302-24-2pk6ne.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=507&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579327/original/file-20240302-24-2pk6ne.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=507&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Bill Murray, once again frozen in time on Feb. 2.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/bill-murray-runs-through-the-snow-in-a-scene-from-the-film-news-photo/163063811?adppopup=true">Columbia Pictures/Archive Photos/Moviepix via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Only by gradually transforming himself into a more virtuous person – performing acts of merit among the people of Punxsutawney – does he finally escape from the nightmare of recurring Groundhog Days.</p>
<p>Director Harold Ramis was brought up Jewish but <a href="https://www.lionsroar.com/harold-ramis-profile-by-perry-garfinkel/">became a Buddhist</a> who carried a laminated card, “<a href="https://red40entertainment.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/THE-5-MINUTE-BUDDHIST.pdf">The 5 Minute Buddhist</a>”: a kind of cheat sheet of core ideas of Buddhism. So it’s not surprising to find them in his movie.</p>
<p>One is “pratītyasamutpāda,” another Sanskrit term: the idea that everything in the cosmos <a href="https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/display/document/obo-9780195393521/obo-9780195393521-0027.xml">is linked by causal chains</a>. All causes and effects are connected; nothing stands wholly apart on its own. By the end of “Groundhog Day,” the prideful Phil has fully connected with people in the quaint Pennsylvania village – and won his love, Rita – having learned how his own well-being depends on the well-being of everyone around him. </p>
<h2>Close to awe</h2>
<p>There’s one more way to think about religion in film. Apart from specific spiritual themes, a powerful movie can offer an almost religious experience. </p>
<p>Nathaniel Dorsky, an experimental filmmaker <a href="https://open.bu.edu/handle/2144/34777">influenced by Buddhism</a>, writes of <a href="https://nathanieldorsky.net/dv">cinema as a devotional experience</a>. The act of sitting in darkness, watching an illuminated world flicker by, Dorsky says, may be as close to approaching the transcendent as many of us will come – getting a glimpse of something beyond our normal range of experience.</p>
<p>Of course, all these films can be enjoyed fully without reading them on this religious level. Some movie fans would object that these interpretations spoil the fun, and they may have a point. But part of the excitement of studying religion in popular culture is to be aware of its many permutations, hidden in plain view.</p>
<p><em>This article has been updated to correct the name of religion scholar S. B. Rodriguez-Plate.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/222953/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David W. Stowe does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Plenty of movies have explicitly religious themes, but some of the most interesting examples of faith or transcendence on screen are much more subtle.David W. Stowe, Professor of Religious Studies, Michigan State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2236992024-03-06T13:34:26Z2024-03-06T13:34:26ZTattooing has held a long tradition in Christianity − dating back to Jesus’ crucifixion<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579668/original/file-20240304-24-ukodpk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=40%2C32%2C5316%2C3579&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Christian Palestinian tattoo artist Walid Ayash draws a tattoo on the arm of a Coptic Egyptian pilgrim on April 28, 2016, at his studio in Bethlehem.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/christian-palestinian-tattoo-artist-walid-ayash-draws-a-news-photo/525904928?adppopup=true">Thomas Coex /AFP via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Holy Week and Easter are perhaps the most important days in the Christian calendar. Many associate those celebrations with church services, processions, candles, incense, fasting and penances. </p>
<p>However, there is another tradition that many Christians follow – that of tattooing. Historically, Easter was an <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv1wmz40c.5">important time for tattoos</a> among some Christian groups. Today, Christian tattooing happens in many parts of the world and all year around. Some Christians visiting Jerusalem around Easter will get a tattoo of a cross, or a lamb, usually on their forearms.</p>
<p>As a sociologist of religion and a Jesuit Catholic priest, I have <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0037768620962367">long studied tattoos</a> as <a href="https://doi.org/10.3390/rel12070517">religious practices</a>. I have interviewed tattoo artists in Jerusalem, Bethlehem and Loreto in Italy who have been continuing and recreating the tradition of Christian tattooing. Evidence is clear the practice started shortly after Jesus’ crucifixion and spread across Europe in later centuries. </p>
<h2>The first Christian tattoos</h2>
<p>The Romans, like the Greeks, <a href="https://doi.org/10.2307/25011055">tattooed slaves</a> and prisoners, usually with letters or words on their foreheads that indicated their crime. Soon after Jesus’ death, around the year 30 C.E., they started enslaving and tattooing Christians with the marks “AM” – meaning “ad metalla,” or condemned to work in the mines, a punishment that often resulted in death. </p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.2307/25011055">Almost at the same time, Christians</a> who were not enslaved <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv1wmz40c.5">got tattoos</a> of the early Christian signs such as fish or lambs in solidarity and to show that they identified with Jesus.</p>
<p>There were <a href="https://bc.on.worldcat.org/oclc/1410461075">no specific words in Latin or Greek for tattooing</a>, so the words “stizo,” “signum” and “stigma” were used. The word <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv1wmz40c.5">stigma</a> also referred to the marks of nails on Jesus’ hands and foot, as a result of his crucifixion. Christians often got their own “stigmas”: a sign – usually a cross – in Jerusalem to honor Christ’s martyrdom. </p>
<h2>The beginning of a tradition</h2>
<p>There are several documented accounts of the tradition.</p>
<p>One from the third century mentions <a href="https://doi.org/10.2307/25011055">Christians in present-day Egypt and Syria</a> getting tattoos of fish and crosses.</p>
<p>Another tells about the commentary that Procopius of Gaza, a theologian who lived between 475 and 538 C.E., wrote on the <a href="https://catenabible.com/com/5e88f313b1c7280cb341d0d2">Book of Isaiah</a> after he found that many Christians living in the Holy Land had a cross tattooed on their wrists. “Still others will write on their hand, ‘The Lord’s,’ and will take the name Israel,” he noted. </p>
<p>When a plague hit the Scythians, nomadic people living around the Black Sea, in 600 C.E., tattoos were believed to provide protection from the deadly disease. <a href="https://archive.org/details/theophylact-simocatta-whitby-1986/Theophylact_Simocatta_Whitby_1986/page/n9/mode/2up">Theophylact Simocatta</a>, one of the last historians of late antiquity, mentioned that missionaries among them recommended that “the foreheads of the young be tattooed with this very sign” – meaning that of a cross.</p>
<p>Many testimonies mentioned <a href="https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo2/A64495.0001.001/1:11.1.48?rgn=div3;view=fulltext">Crusaders and pilgrims</a> returning from the Holy Land with a tattoo during the Middle Ages – a tradition that continued <a href="https://archive.org/details/fynesmorysons04moryuoft">in early modern times</a>, between the 16th and 18th centuries.</p>
<h2>Christian tattoos in Great Britain</h2>
<p>Other cultures used tattoos in different ways. When Romans came in contact with the Celts tribes that inhabited the British Isles in 400 C.E., they <a href="https://doi.org/10.2307/jj.5973126.8">called them Picts</a> because they were covered in <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv1wmz40c.7">body art</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579672/original/file-20240304-30-netvij.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A black and white illustration showing a man and woman covered in body art, holding spears in their hands." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579672/original/file-20240304-30-netvij.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579672/original/file-20240304-30-netvij.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=750&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579672/original/file-20240304-30-netvij.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=750&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579672/original/file-20240304-30-netvij.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=750&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579672/original/file-20240304-30-netvij.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=943&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579672/original/file-20240304-30-netvij.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=943&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579672/original/file-20240304-30-netvij.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=943&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The word Picts is derived from the name given to them by the Romans because of their painted bodies.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/circa-300-bc-male-and-female-picts-covered-in-body-paint-news-photo/51240502?adppopup=true">Hulton Archive/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Pope Gregory the Great sent envoys to convert the Celts to Christianity, followed by a visit from another Vatican delegation. While missionaries were against “pagan tattooing,” both delegations agreed that tattoos done for the Christian god were fine. The members of the second delegation in the late 700s even said, “If anyone were to undergo this injury of staining for the sake of God, he would receive a <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv1wmz40c.7">great reward for it</a>.”</p>
<p>Similar was the conclusion of the <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv1wmz40c.5">Northumbria Council</a>, a church gathering in Northern England in 787: Tattoos done for the right god were acceptable. At that time, the Anglo-Saxon elite also had tattoos; the bishop of York, <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv1wmz40c.7">Saint Wilfrid</a>, for example, got a tattoo of a cross. </p>
<h2>Tattoos in Italy</h2>
<p>Around the 1300s, as the Christian kingdoms in the Holy Land were losing control with the coming of the Ottomans, there appeared in Italy shrines called “Sacri Monti.” These shrines were placed on “holy mountains” where devotees could pilgrimage safely, instead of risking their lives going to Jerusalem, which by then was under the control of the Ottomans.</p>
<p>These shrines were established in cities such as Naples, Varallo and Loreto. <a href="https://doi.org/10.5944/etfvii.6.2018.22922">Pilgrims could get tattoos</a> in some of these shrines. One place was Loreto’s sanctuary, established in the early 1300s. A relic from the “Holy House,” which, according to the Christian tradition, is the house where the Virgin Mary is believed to have received the news that she will bear God’s son, was brought to Loreto’s sanctuary. </p>
<p>Tattooing in Loreto’s sanctuary was a communal activity, done by carpenters, shoemakers and artisans, who <a href="https://archive.org/details/ilbelpaeseconver00stopuoft/page/486/mode/2up">brought their stalls and tools to the main square</a>
during the days of celebrations and tattooed whoever wanted to get a mark of their devotion. These tattoos typically used wood planks for transferring the design on the body, like a stamp. However, the city of Loreto banned tattooing for hygienic reasons in 1871, according to <a href="https://archive.org/details/costumiesupersti00pigo">Caterina Pigorini Beri</a>, an anthropologist, who was one of the first to document the practice. </p>
<p>But people kept getting them. A shoemaker, <a href="https://youtu.be/P_fNN880GGw?feature=shared">Leonardo Conditti</a>, was among those who kept doing tattoos in hiding during the 1940s. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/P_fNN880GGw?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">The history of tattooing.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Present but unseen</h2>
<p>From the 1200s to the 1700s, the custom of <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv1wmz40c.4">Christian tattooing</a> was prevalent in Europe among peasants, seafarers, soldiers and artisans as much as among nuns and monks. They were getting crosses, images of the Virgin Mary, the name of Jesus, and some sentences from the Bible.</p>
<p>Following the Renaissance, however, European culture came to associate tattoos <a href="https://theconversation.com/tattoos-have-a-long-history-going-back-to-the-ancient-world-and-also-to-colonialism-165584">with those considered “uncivilized</a>,” such as peoples in the colonies, criminals and poorer Catholics. Many European intellectuals <a href="https://archive.org/details/historyoftattooi0000hamb">viewed Catholicism as a superstition</a> more than a real religion.</p>
<p>The word “tattoo” came to the Western languages after the French admiral and explorer Louis de Bougainville and British explorer James Cook returned from their trips to the South Pacific at the end of the 1700s. There, they saw local people getting marks on their bodies and using the word “tatau” to name those drawings. However, it does not mean that tattoos came back at that time. They had never left.</p>
<h2>The practice today</h2>
<p>These days, some churches in the <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv1wmz40c.11">Middle East</a>, such as some <a href="https://archive.org/details/twothousandyears0000mein/page/n5/mode/2up">Coptic Christian</a> churches in Egypt, incorporate the practice of getting a tattoo into the baptismal rituals. </p>
<p>Indeed, Holy Land tattooing has never stopped. <a href="https://razzouktattoo.com">Wassim Razzouk</a>, whom I interviewed in 2022, is a 27th-generation tattooist – his family has been <a href="https://archive.org/details/coptictattoodesi0000cars/page/n7/mode/2up">marking pilgrims in Jerusalem since 1300</a>. Razzouk claims to have some of the 500-year-old wood planks his family used for tattooing. </p>
<p>Another tattoo artist whom I interviewed, Walid Ayash, does pilgrimage tattoos for those who visit the Nativity church in Bethlehem – a beloved custom among Arab Christians. He said that tattooing happens all year around, as long as there are pilgrims visiting the Nativity church. Although this year, as a result of the war in Gaza, <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/3/27/easter-in-jerusalem-no-access-for-gazas-christians">Israeli authorities have restricted access</a> to Jerusalem and Bethlehem.</p>
<p>In Italy, <a href="https://youtu.be/mtkc-TJSBdA?feature=shared">artist Jonatal Carducci</a> is working on recovering the tradition of religious tattooing in Loreto. In a 2023 interview with me, he explained how he has painstakingly replicated the designs of the wood planks, which are both in the Museum of the Holy House and the Folkloric Museum of Rome. In 2019, he opened a parlor where Leonardo Conditti used to work. Visitors to the parlor can choose among more than 60 designs for their tattoos, including the Virgin Mary of Loreto, crosses and representations of Jesus’ heart.</p>
<p>This Easter, as some Christians get tattoos, this history might serve as a reminder of tattooing as a legitimate Christian practice, one that has been in use since the beginnings of the Common Era.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/223699/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gustavo Morello does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Historically, many Christians got tattoos around Holy Week − usually a cross − to honor Christ’s martyrdom.Gustavo Morello, Professor of Sociology, Boston CollegeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2236302024-03-05T13:59:33Z2024-03-05T13:59:33ZScorsese’s gods of the streets: From ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’ to ‘Silence,’ faith is rarely far off in his films<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578959/original/file-20240229-26-vvk7wh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=4%2C0%2C744%2C447&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Even in films where religion isn't front and center, Martin Scorsese's attention to ritual and devotion comes through. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Apple TV+</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>A widely circulated still from the set of Martin Scorsese’s latest film, “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5537002/">Killers of the Flower Moon</a>,” shows the director sitting in a church pew. Next to him is Lily Gladstone, who plays the role of Mollie Kyle, an Osage woman whose family is targeted as part of a broader conspiracy by white Americans to steal the tribe’s wealth, to the point of marrying and killing its members.</p>
<p>In the photograph, Scorsese appears to hold <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-the-rosary-why-a-set-of-beads-and-prayers-are-central-to-catholic-faith-192485">rosary beads</a>, a common devotional object for many Catholics. Mollie is Catholic, so the rosary makes sense as a prop. But as <a href="https://udayton.edu/directory/artssciences/religiousstudies/smith_anthony.php">a scholar</a> of <a href="https://kansaspress.ku.edu/9780700636150/the-look-of-catholics/">religion and film</a>, I’m struck by how it calls to mind the director’s own complex Catholicism and its imprint on his decades of filmmaking.</p>
<p>Scorsese stands in a long line of Catholic American filmmakers, stretching back to the 1930s and 1940s – one that includes Irish Americans <a href="https://www.americamagazine.org/issue/searcher">John Ford</a> and <a href="https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2009/julyweb-only/fof_mccarey.html">Leo McCarey</a>, and Italian immigrant <a href="https://www.ncregister.com/features/frank-capra-earned-his-wings-with-it-s-a-wonderful-life">Frank Capra</a>. At a time when Catholicism still seemed foreign to many Americans, those directors <a href="https://kansaspress.ku.edu/9780700636150/the-look-of-catholics/">helped normalize the faith</a>, making it seem like part of a shared American story. </p>
<p>Yet in his films, Scorsese has taken a much more personal approach to exploring Catholic faith and experience. He doesn’t feel the need to defend the religion or burnish its image. His movies are steeped in Catholic sensibilities, but embrace painful questions that often accompany belief: what it means to hold on to religious commitment in a world where God can seem absent.</p>
<h2>From altar boy to auteur</h2>
<p>Scorsese has often spoken of <a href="https://www.ncronline.org/filmmaker-martin-scorsese-talks-about-his-faith-upcoming-movie-silence?fbclid=IwAR1JWRy3irXQQlldezkIduAqJ3zH3iBUaU5qPh6Llr1v6ylXl1GnwlbyO48">his Catholic background</a>. Born in New York City’s Little Italy, he went to Catholic schools and served as an altar boy at St. Patrick’s Old Cathedral, which <a href="https://untappedcities.com/2014/04/03/monthofscorsese-nyc-film-locations-for-martin-scorsese-mean-streets/">appeared in his early masterpiece</a> “Mean Streets.” Scorsese even began seminary training, but he quickly realized the priesthood was not for him.</p>
<p>Yet the church proved influential. Scorsese has described St. Patrick’s as <a href="https://www.franciscanmedia.org/st-anthony-messenger/martin-scorsese-s-trilogy-of-faith/">a spiritual alternative</a> to the violence in the streets around his neighborhood. A priest <a href="https://www.ncronline.org/filmmaker-martin-scorsese-talks-about-his-faith-upcoming-movie-silence?fbclid=IwAR1JWRy3irXQQlldezkIduAqJ3zH3iBUaU5qPh6Llr1v6ylXl1GnwlbyO48">introduced the young Scorsese</a> to classical music and books that widened his cultural horizons.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578968/original/file-20240229-16-2fnzga.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="The view of a sanctuary with stained-glass windows, seen from above with a man playing the organ in the foreground." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578968/original/file-20240229-16-2fnzga.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578968/original/file-20240229-16-2fnzga.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578968/original/file-20240229-16-2fnzga.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578968/original/file-20240229-16-2fnzga.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578968/original/file-20240229-16-2fnzga.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578968/original/file-20240229-16-2fnzga.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578968/original/file-20240229-16-2fnzga.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Organist Jared Lamenzo performs at the Basilica of St. Patrick’s Old Cathedral on June 21, 2019.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/organist-jared-lamenzo-perform-during-the-friends-of-the-news-photo/1151298772?adppopup=true">Kris Connor/Getty Images for NAMM</a></span>
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<p>A similar tension runs through many of his films: Catholic devotion, mystery and ritual interwoven with ruthless crime. Indeed, the struggle with faith amid brutality is a theme Scorsese returns to over and over, asking what religion might have to offer the world as it actually exists, with all its cruelties, greed and despair.</p>
<h2>Presence and absence</h2>
<p>That struggle can be described as one between “<a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/books/9780674984592">presence” and “absence</a>,” to use the terms of <a href="https://history.northwestern.edu/people/faculty/affiliated-faculty/robert-orsi.html">religious studies scholar Robert A. Orsi</a>. </p>
<p>Religious presence refers to all the ways people experience their gods’ existence in the world and in their lives. For Catholics, for example, the Eucharist is not just a symbol of Christ; the consecrated bread and wine in Communion actually <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-communion-matters-in-catholic-life-and-what-it-means-to-be-denied-the-eucharist-163560">become Jesus’ flesh and blood</a>, according to Catholic teaching.</p>
<p>Orsi describes religious absence, on the other hand, as the experience of doubt and spiritual struggle about a god not felt directly on Earth.</p>
<p>Both presence and absence shape Scorsese’s rendering of religion. God’s absence takes the form of violence and greed in his films. But some characters also carry their gods with them in the world. This is most dramatically seen in “Silence,” released in 2016, which was based on the novel by <a href="https://www.americamagazine.org/arts-culture/2023/04/25/shusaku-endo-245116">Japanese Catholic writer Shusaku Endo</a>. </p>
<p>“Silence” is the story of two Jesuit missionaries who travel to 17th century Japan in search of their mentor, another Jesuit who is believed to have renounced the faith during a wave of violent persecutions. One of them, Father Rodrigues, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/dec/10/silence-review-the-last-temptation-of-liam-neeson-in-scorseses-shattering-epic">profoundly questions his own faith</a> after witnessing the torture of Japanese Christians.</p>
<figure>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">‘Silence’ dramatically explores faith, doubt and suffering.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Why, he wonders, does God allow such suffering? Eventually he himself will renounce his faith in order to save the lives of those to whom he ministers.</p>
<p>The silence of God is the film’s major preoccupation, yet it is filled with devotional imagery. At <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EOX8-c-_uVY">the climax of the film</a>, Rodrigues tramples on an image of Christ in order to end the torture of other Christians. But just at that moment, he experiences the presence of his God.</p>
<p>The very final scene depicts his burial, years after the film’s main events – a small crucifix clasped in his hand.</p>
<h2>Penance ‘in the streets’</h2>
<p>This preoccupation with Catholicism stretches back to Scorsese’s 1973 breakthrough film, “Mean Streets.” Harvey Keitel plays a young Italian American man, Charlie, who <a href="https://www.americamagazine.org/issue/5130/film/his-catholic-conscience">grapples with his faith</a> in the unforgiving world of New York’s Lower East Side. </p>
<p>Presence, as Orsi points out, <a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/books/9780674984592">is often as much a burden</a> as a solace. Indeed, part of the emotional power in “Mean Streets” lies in Charlie’s own impatience toward Catholic practices and rules. He wants the freedom to be Catholic in his own way.</p>
<p>“You don’t make up for your sins in the church,” he insists <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AdQ4_AzBxXg">in the opening voice-over</a>. “You do it in the streets. You do it at home. The rest is bullshit, and you know it.”</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578972/original/file-20240229-24-ca054r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A black and white photo of a man in a jacket and sunglasses leaning against a lamppost on a street with graffiti." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578972/original/file-20240229-24-ca054r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578972/original/file-20240229-24-ca054r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=431&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578972/original/file-20240229-24-ca054r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=431&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578972/original/file-20240229-24-ca054r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=431&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578972/original/file-20240229-24-ca054r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=542&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578972/original/file-20240229-24-ca054r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=542&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578972/original/file-20240229-24-ca054r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=542&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Martin Scorsese at the corner of Hester and Baxter streets in 1973, one of the locations he used in his New York film ‘Mean Streets.’</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/full-length-portrait-of-american-director-martin-scorsese-news-photo/3204086?adppopup=true">Jack Manning/New York Times Co./Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Over the years, Scorsese’s own ambitions have led him far beyond the streets of Little Italy. A number of his films have little to do with religion. Yet movies such as “Casino,” “The Aviator” and “The Wolf of Wall Street” elaborate the same basic question as “Mean Streets”: What is important in a world that so often feels dominated by absence, money and violence? Through a long career, Scorsese has framed both the sacred and profane as compelling but competing forces of human desire.</p>
<p>Shortly before the release of “Silence,” Scorsese <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/27/magazine/the-passion-of-martin-scorsese.html">visited St. Patrick’s</a> during an interview with The New York Times. “I never left,” he said. “In my mind, I am here every day.”</p>
<p>One might take him at his word. Even in his most recent movie, “Killers of the Flower Moon,” <a href="https://www.americamagazine.org/arts-culture/2023/10/26/killers-flower-moon-osage-catholics-246377">a Catholic sensibility sneaks through in numerous ways</a>. Characters attend Mass at parish churches and bury their dead on consecrated Catholic ground. </p>
<p>Further, the film’s attention to Osage religious practices demonstrates Scorsese’s sensitivity to the power of ritual and devotion. The movie opens with the burial of a ceremonial pipe, highlighting how objects can assume sacred significance. As Mollie’s mother dies, she has a vision of the elders.</p>
<p>But the questions that haunt Scorsese hang over moments that hardly feel religious, too. </p>
<p>Toward the end of the film, when Mollie asks her duplicitous husband, Ernest, to come clean, his refusal to fully confess the harm he did to her and her family epitomizes the depths of his ethical emptiness. Her silence as she gets up and leaves, with an FBI agent standing quietly in the corner, offers a more powerful moral indictment than any legal sentence. The refusal to pay for one’s sins at home and in the streets has rarely looked so damning.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/223630/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anthony Smith does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Though only a few of Scorsese’s films focus on religious stories, deeper questions about faith, doubt and living in a violent world tend to haunt his movies.Anthony Smith, Associate Professor of Religious Studies, University of DaytonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2224722024-03-05T13:59:14Z2024-03-05T13:59:14ZCan witches fly? A historian unpacks the medieval invention − and skepticism − of the witch on a broomstick<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578977/original/file-20240229-24-sr8g1w.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C1417%2C1009&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">One of the earliest depictions of flying witches is in a 15th-century text entitled "Le champion des dames," or "The Defender of Ladies."</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Champion_des_dames_Vaudoises.JPG">Martin Le Franc/W. Schild. Die Maleficia der Hexenleut' via Wikimedia Commons</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The image of a witch flying on a broomstick is iconic, but it is not nearly as old as the idea of witchcraft itself, which dates to the <a href="https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300238679/the-witch/">earliest days of humankind</a>.</p>
<p>Several theologians, church inquisitors, secular magistrates and other authorities first wrote about such flight in the early 1400s. The earliest known visual depiction of flying witches appears in a 1451 manuscript copy of one such text, “<a href="https://mcfarlandbooks.com/product/the-trial-of-womankind/">Le champion des dames</a>” (“The Defender of Ladies”), by the French poet Martin Le Franc.</p>
<p>Witchcraft accusations at this time were increasingly <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/39656">focused on women</a>. The clothing of the figures in <a href="https://www.loc.gov/item/49030810/">Le Franc’s text</a> depicts them as coming from non-elite ranks of medieval society. So do the implements on which they fly. Staffs and brooms were tools for ordinary housework.</p>
<p>The notion that witches could fly served to support the idea that they gathered in large groups <a href="https://www.psupress.org/books/titles/978-0-271-08910-2.html">called sabbaths</a>. These gatherings, in turn, heightened the supposed threat witches posed to Christian society. </p>
<p>Even after the idea of witches flying on brooms was introduced to European society, it was not readily accepted. Many who wrote about witchcraft at this time, including Le Franc, were quite skeptical about the reality of flying witches.</p>
<p>As it turned out, however, authorities could still perceive a threat even if they believed witches’ flight was imaginary. </p>
<h2>The scope of skepticism</h2>
<p>In my work as a <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=E0RaQ-oAAAAJ&hl=en">scholar of medieval European history</a>, I have researched texts describing <a href="https://www.psupress.org/books/titles/978-0-271-08910-2.html">witchcraft in the early 1400s</a>. </p>
<p>Some texts fully accepted the idea that witches flew, often on brooms or staffs. One described witches traveling to sabbaths on staffs anointed with a magical ointment and flying into the mountains to gather ice to cause hailstorms.</p>
<p>Other texts, however, were not sure that such flight was real. One noted that accused witches claimed to fly from mountaintop to mountaintop on chairs, but it also hinted that demons might have tricked them into thinking they did. Another text stated that accused witches who claimed to fly were “deluded” by the devil. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/574238/original/file-20240207-24-dtpy1k.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Illustration of witch in a red dress flying on a staff, from the 'Champion des dames'" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/574238/original/file-20240207-24-dtpy1k.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/574238/original/file-20240207-24-dtpy1k.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=586&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/574238/original/file-20240207-24-dtpy1k.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=586&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/574238/original/file-20240207-24-dtpy1k.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=586&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/574238/original/file-20240207-24-dtpy1k.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=737&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/574238/original/file-20240207-24-dtpy1k.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=737&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/574238/original/file-20240207-24-dtpy1k.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=737&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Witches were often depicted flying on household implements such as brooms and staffs.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Champion_des_dames_Vaudoises.JPG">Martin Le Franc/W. Schild. Die Maleficia der Hexenleut' via Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Skepticism about flying witches drew on an early 10th-century church law about women who claimed to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1353/mrw.2021.0009">ride at night on “certain beasts</a>” in the train of the pagan goddess Diana, whom Christian authorities understood to be a demon in disguise. The law declared that such flight was not real, and anyone who thought so had been “seduced by illusions and phantasms of demons.” It prescribed no direct punishment but mandated priests <a href="https://www.faculty.umb.edu/gary_zabel/Courses/Phil%20281b/Philosophy%20of%20Magic/Arcana/Witchcraft%20and%20Grimoires/canon.html">preach against such “infidels</a>.”</p>
<p>Skeptics of magical flight were quite specific in their doubts. Le Franc, for example, declared that anyone who thought that witches could fly <a href="https://mcfarlandbooks.com/product/the-trial-of-womankind/">lacked “common sense</a>.” On the other hand, he fully accepted that magicians, who were generally male, could conjure demons and that “magic arts” had been practiced as far back as ancient Persia.</p>
<p>The story, however, is not so simple as male authorities accepting the reality of magic practiced by men but doubting that women flew on brooms. These same authorities were, in general, taking other aspects of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1353/ems.2003.0002">witchcraft more seriously</a>.</p>
<h2>Imagining flight</h2>
<p>Did women accused of witchcraft really insist that they flew on brooms? </p>
<p>Scholars have speculated that the ointments often mentioned in accounts of such flight might have functioned as hallucinogens, producing sensations of flying. The most thorough study of these accounts, however, finds that such references <a href="https://doi.org/10.1353/mrw.2016.0008">rarely appear in voluntary testimony</a>. They come instead from authorities recording, and often reshaping, what accused witches said.</p>
<p>In the end, allegations of flight and dismissal of its reality may have sprung entirely from the minds of <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-invention-of-satanic-witchcraft-by-medieval-authorities-was-initially-met-with-skepticism-140809">legal and religious authorities</a> who codified and condemned the idea of witchcraft. </p>
<p>Their skepticism hardly mattered. Courts could execute convicted witches regardless of whether they believed they could fly. </p>
<p>Although witch-hunting ended – at least in Europe and North America – <a href="https://www.routledge.com/The-Witch-Hunt-in-Early-Modern-Europe/Levack/p/book/9781138808102">in the 18th century</a>, the image of witches flying on brooms endures.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/222472/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael D. Bailey does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The iconic image of a witch on a broomstick has apocryphal origins. But whether they could actually fly didn’t stop Christian society from persecuting them.Michael D. Bailey, Professor of History, Iowa State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2224842024-03-04T13:38:53Z2024-03-04T13:38:53ZHow non-English language cinema is reshaping the Oscars landscape<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579014/original/file-20240229-28-jndcqr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=46%2C1%2C1153%2C715&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Best picture nominee 'Past Lives' was directed by South Korean-Canadian filmmaker Celine Song and has scenes in Korean and English.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://media.gq.com/photos/64ea9f7905e3a8acb2fa7700/16:9/w_2560%2Cc_limit/MCDPALI_EC043.jpeg">A24/Everett Collection</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Over the past few years, the Oscars have taken a decidedly international turn. </p>
<p>This year, of the 10 films nominated for an Academy Award for best picture, <a href="https://abc7news.com/oscars-2024-lily-gladstone-native-american-oppenheimer/14453217/">three of them</a> – “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt17009710/">Anatomy of a Fall</a>,” “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt13238346/">Past Lives</a>” and “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7160372/">The Zone of Interest</a>” – are non-English language films. </p>
<p>In the first two decades of the Academy Awards, only three foreign films – all European – earned Oscar nominations: the 1938 French film “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0028950/">La Grande Illusion</a>,” which was <a href="https://newrepublic.com/article/118332/world-war-i-film-la-grande-illusion">nominated for best picture</a>, or outstanding production, as it was then known; the 1944 Swiss film “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0037899/">Marie Louise</a>,” which was the <a href="https://collider.com/oscars-first-non-american-film-win-marie-louise/">first foreign film to win an Academy Award</a>, for best screenplay; and the 1932 French film “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0022599/">À nous la liberté</a>,” nominated for best production design.</p>
<p>As a <a href="https://miamioh.edu/profiles/cas/kerry-hegarty.html">scholar of film history</a>, I see the recent recognition of non-English language films as the result of demographic changes in the industry and within the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences itself. </p>
<h2>Hollywood’s dominance wanes</h2>
<p>During World War II, Hollywood experienced record financial success, with <a href="https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/culture-magazines/motion-picture-industry-during-world-war-ii#Foreign_Markets">one-third of its revenue</a> coming from foreign markets – mainly the United Kingdom and Latin America. The industry leveraged the appeal of American movies to employ them as cultural ambassadors to promote democratic ideals. Notably, a popular film like “Casablanca” not only entertained audiences but also <a href="https://brightlightsfilm.com/casablanca-romance-propaganda/">served as potent anti-fascist propaganda</a>. </p>
<p>After the war, co-productions and distribution agreements with foreign studios opened new markets, <a href="https://www.mheducation.com/highered/product/film-history-introduction-thompson-bordwell/M9781260837476.html">boosting Hollywood’s economic influence</a> and reinforcing English language cinema’s global dominance. </p>
<p>However, by the late 1940s, Hollywood experienced some challenges: Studios lost an anti-trust case that <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/paramount-decrees-antitrust-hollywood-1235581215/">challenged their monopoly</a> over producing, distributing and exhibiting films, while television threatened to siphon away theatergoers. With studios undergoing major budget and production cuts, a 1949 Fortune magazine article posed the question “<a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/paramount-decrees-antitrust-hollywood-1235581215/">Movies: The End of an Era?</a>” </p>
<p>During that same period, <a href="https://www.mheducation.com/highered/product/film-history-introduction-thompson-bordwell/M9781260837476.html">art film movements</a> in nations such as Sweden, France, Italy and Japan arose to contest Hollywood’s dominance, breathing new life into the cinematic arts. </p>
<p>These works <a href="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/cultureshock/beyond/hollywood.html">contrasted sharply with Hollywood films</a>, many of which had become formulaic by the 1950s and were constrained by an outdated censorship code. </p>
<h2>A category of their own</h2>
<p>Between 1947 and 1956, foreign films received honorary Oscars, with <a href="https://www.mheducation.com/highered/product/film-history-introduction-thompson-bordwell/M9781260837476.html">France and Italy dominating the accolades</a>. In 1956, the category of “best foreign language film” was officially established as an annual recognition, marking a pivotal moment in Oscars history. </p>
<p>However, any film nominated in that category is also <a href="https://www.oscars.org/sites/oscars/files/96o_complete_rules.pdf">eligible to be nominated</a> in the broader best picture category. The only stipulation is that it needs to have had a theatrical run in a Los Angeles County commercial movie theater for at least seven consecutive days. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Black and white photo of a middle-aged man running his hands through his hair while sitting in a chair next to a large camera." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579017/original/file-20240229-25-5t3mij.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579017/original/file-20240229-25-5t3mij.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=469&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579017/original/file-20240229-25-5t3mij.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=469&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579017/original/file-20240229-25-5t3mij.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=469&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579017/original/file-20240229-25-5t3mij.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=590&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579017/original/file-20240229-25-5t3mij.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=590&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579017/original/file-20240229-25-5t3mij.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=590&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Italian director Federico Fellini’s ‘La Strada’ won the first Academy Award for best foreign language film in 1957.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/federico-fellini-on-the-set-of-the-film-rome-shot-at-news-photo/956703168?adppopup=true">Louis Goldman/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Until this year, only 10 foreign films have garnered this dual nomination. </p>
<p>In 2020, the South Korean film “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6751668/">Parasite</a>” became the first non-English language film to win both best international feature film – formerly known as best foreign language film – and best picture. Director Bong Joon-Ho also won the award for best director that year. Accompanied by an interpreter, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekMl5VHBH4I&ab_channel=Oscars">he gave his acceptance speech in Korean</a>. </p>
<p>During the 2019 Oscars, Mexican director Alfonso Cuarón – introduced in Spanish by actor Javier Bardem – accepted the Academy Award for what was then still called best foreign language film for his film “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6155172/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_1_tt_3_nm_4_q_roma">Roma</a>.” During his speech, he joked that he had grown up “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHk957dxJsI&ab_channel=Oscars">watching foreign language films</a> and learning so much from them. … Films like ‘Citizen Kane,’ ‘Jaws,’ ‘Rashomon,’ ‘The Godfather’ and ‘Breathless.’” </p>
<h2>Breathing new life into film</h2>
<p>Cuarón’s comments wryly question why English is considered the default language of a global industry. They also highlight how the categories of “Hollywood film” and “foreign film” aren’t necessarily mutually exclusive.</p>
<p>As in the past, many of the filmmakers pushing the boundaries of the medium are from outside the U.S. This isn’t due to a lack of talent within the U.S.; instead, it’s <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1353/cj.2020.0041">largely due to a lack of institutional funding</a> for independent productions. </p>
<p>On the other hand, in countries such as France, Germany, Canada, South Korea and Iran, there are state-sponsored programs to support filmmakers. These programs, which aim to promote national cultural expression, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/screen/hjr014">allow for more experimentation</a>. </p>
<p>In recent decades, the cinematic landscape has been revitalized by movements from abroad, such as Denmark’s <a href="https://www.artforum.com/columns/dogma-95-201300/">Dogma 95 collective</a>, <a href="https://asia.nikkei.com/Life-Arts/Arts/How-South-Korea-became-the-home-of-noir-film">South Korea’s IMF noir genre</a> and <a href="https://www.curzon.com/journal/greek-weird-wave/">Greek Weird Wave films</a>. Filmmakers associated with these movements often transition to making English language cinema.</p>
<p>Take Yorgos Lanthimos, director of the Best Picture nominee “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14230458/">Poor Things</a>.” Lanthimos <a href="https://collider.com/yorgos-lanthimos-greek-weird-wave/">first gained recognition</a> for his contributions to the Greek Weird Wave, a cinematic movement that uses absurdist humor to critique societal norms and power structures. It emerged during <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2015/06/24/greece-debt-crisis-timeline-it-all-started-in-2001.html">the country’s economic crisis in the 2010s</a>. </p>
<p>Similarly, “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6751668/">Parasite</a>” director Bong Joon-ho, known for his earlier Korean language films, is emblematic of the IMF noir movement, which explored the profound repercussions of <a href="https://courses.washington.edu/globfut/req%20readings/KimFinchKoreanStudies.pdf">the late 1990s financial crisis in South Korea</a> that was caused by policies dictated by the International Monetary Fund.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Balding middle-aged man with beard and red jacket." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579018/original/file-20240229-18-efk0yl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579018/original/file-20240229-18-efk0yl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579018/original/file-20240229-18-efk0yl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579018/original/file-20240229-18-efk0yl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579018/original/file-20240229-18-efk0yl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579018/original/file-20240229-18-efk0yl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579018/original/file-20240229-18-efk0yl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/yorgos-lanthimos-attends-the-50th-telluride-film-festival-news-photo/1655989058?adppopup=true">Vivien Killilea/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The nomination process</h2>
<p>As Michael Schulman, author of “<a href="https://www.harpercollins.com/products/oscar-wars-michael-schulman?variant=41063519387682">Oscar Wars</a>,” argues, viewing the Academy Awards as a “<a href="https://www.harpercollins.com/products/oscar-wars-michael-schulman?variant=41063519387682">pure barometer of artistic merit or worth</a>” is a mistake. </p>
<p>Numerous factors, including the aggressiveness of Oscar campaign strategists and publicists working around the clock, as well as the composition of the awards committee, exert great influence over the outcome. </p>
<p>In the case of foreign films, the process is twofold. To secure an Oscar nomination as a country’s entry, a foreign film must first gain approval from a committee in its native country. It is then submitted to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and subjected to a vote by the academy. Only one entry is allowed per country. </p>
<p>The intricate dynamics of this process are illustrated by the case of the French film “Anatomy of a Fall,” which was nominated for a best picture Academy Award but not best international feature from France. This decision was <a href="https://variety.com/2024/film/global/france-dysfunctional-oscar-committee-anatomy-of-a-fall-1235880857/">influenced by France’s small national nominating committee</a>, which, disconnected from the current climate of the U.S. academy, favored the nostalgic, culinary romance “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt19760052/">The Taste of Things</a>,” starring Juliette Binoche. </p>
<h2>A more diverse academy</h2>
<p>The role of the voting committee in determining which films even reach consideration cannot be overstated. Over the last few years, this is what has most radically changed in the academy. In 2012, <a href="https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/la-et-unmasking-oscar-academy-project-20120219-story.html">its composition was 94% white, 77% male</a> and had a median age of 62.</p>
<p>As highlighted by Schulman, the #Oscarssowhite controversy in 2015 <a href="https://www.harpercollins.com/products/oscar-wars-michael-schulman?variant=41063519387682">spurred changes</a> to the academy’s makeup, in the hopes of addressing the industry’s under-recognition of the achievements of people of color. </p>
<p>There was also a concerted effort to enhance geographical diversity and infuse the awards with a more global perspective. In 2016, the new invitees to the academy <a href="https://press.oscars.org/news/96th-oscarsr-nominations-announced">were more diverse</a>: 46% were female, 41% were nonwhite, and they came from 59 different countries. This year, a groundbreaking 93 countries submitted nomination ballots, signifying unprecedented global participation in the Oscars. </p>
<p>Perhaps most significantly, beginning in 2024, the academy has required that, for a film to qualify for a Best Picture nomination, it must meet <a href="https://www.oscars.org/awards/representation-and-inclusion-standards">two out of four standards</a> established by the academy. </p>
<p>The criteria include having at least one lead or significant supporting actor from an underrepresented racial or ethnic group, or centering the main storyline on an underrepresented group. They also require representation in creative leadership positions and crew roles, along with paid apprenticeships for underrepresented groups. Even senior marketing teams require representation. All of these requirements lend themselves to the inclusion of more international film nominees. </p>
<p>Streaming distribution has also <a href="https://variety.com/2019/film/awards/oscar-international-film-category-name-change-1203393900/">democratized access</a> to non-English language cinema, which was previously limited only to niche audiences in art house theaters in large cities.</p>
<p>The distribution company Neon, established in 2017, has been another crucial factor in reshaping the Oscars landscape. Led by Elissa Federoff, Neon is <a href="https://cineuropa.org/en/interview/1369/432732/">committed to breaking industry barriers</a>, diversifying content, transcending language barriers and engaging with younger audiences through platforms like YouTube and TikTok. Neon distributed both “Parasite” and “Anatomy of a Fall.”</p>
<p>As the Oscars evolve into a more globally conscious platform, the future of film seems destined to be shaped by those who think beyond the limitations of what was once considered “foreign,” and remain advocates for the universal language of the cinema.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/222484/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kerry Hegarty does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Non-English language cinema – previously seen by niche audiences – is increasingly finding acceptance and recognition, reflecting the many demographic changes taking place within the academy.Kerry Hegarty, Associate Professor of Film Studies, Miami UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2232732024-03-04T13:35:14Z2024-03-04T13:35:14ZIsraeli peace activists are more anguished than ever − in a movement that has always been diverse and divided, with differing visions of ‘peace’<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578455/original/file-20240227-18-cypqgm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C1%2C1024%2C680&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A demonstration on Dec. 28, 2023, in Tel Aviv, organized by the peace group Standing Together, calls for a cease-fire. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/people-gather-to-stage-demonstration-calling-for-peace-and-news-photo/1883324720?adppopup=true">Anadolu via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The months since Hamas’ attacks on Oct. 7, 2023, have been excruciating ones for Israeli peace activists. As the country rallies behind the war effort, critics <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/jan/13/it-is-a-time-of-witch-hunts-in-israel-teacher-held-in-solitary-confinement-for-posting-concern-about-gaza-deaths">have been arrested</a> <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/19/world/middleeast/israel-oct-7-left-wing-peace.html">and condemned</a> by opponents who say the attacks proved how misguided the peace movement is.</p>
<p>But in activists’ eyes, the horrific violence of Oct. 7 and Israel’s sweeping military response only prove its urgency. Vivian Silver, who spent a decade leading Women Wage Peace – a solidarity group of Israelis and Palestinians – was <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/10/world/middleeast/peace-activists-killed-israel.html">one of several peace activists</a> <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/pictureshow/2023/11/17/1213523321/israel-gaza-peace-activist-vivian-silver-funeral-service">murdered that day</a>. “If we want a future here, we have to make the conflict a thing of the past,” her son Yonatan Zeigen <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/2024-02-11/ty-article/.premium/my-mother-vivian-silver-is-gone-who-carries-her-flag/0000018d-9974-d92c-a9ed-fbfd75300000">wrote in an op-ed</a> after her death.</p>
<p>For some activists, in other words, Oct. 7 only underscored the urgency of their cause. Yet the peace movement has always been diverse and often fragmented. In reality, there are multiple movements, each with its own definition of peace. As <a href="https://kroc.nd.edu/faculty-and-staff/atalia-omer/">a scholar of religion, ethics and politics</a>, I have traced how divergent accounts of Israel’s founding connect to <a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/W/bo15288847.html">different visions of justice</a>.</p>
<h2>The ‘peace camp’</h2>
<p>The Israeli demographics most associated with the “peace camp” are predominately <a href="https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/who-are-ashkenazi-jews/">Ashkenazi Jews</a>, meaning they are descended from communities in Central and Eastern Europe. They also tend to be secular, meaning they do not closely observe traditional Jewish religious law.</p>
<p>Even within this larger camp, however, there are divergent perceptions of justice, shaped by how people understand the root causes of the conflict. Did it truly start in 1917, when a British lord <a href="https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/text-of-the-balfour-declaration#google_vignette">promised a home for Jews</a>? In 1948, with Israel’s War of Independence – which Palestinians experienced as <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-nakba-at-75-palestinians-struggle-to-get-recognition-for-their-catastrophe-204782">the Nakba, their “catastrophe</a>”? Or is the most important date 1967, when Israel occupied the Golan Heights, east Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip?</p>
<p>For the most part, this “peace camp” believes “Israel proper” consists of <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-54116567">land within the “Green Line</a>,” set by the armistice agreements at the end of the 1948 war. The Green Line does not include the territories Israel has occupied since the end of the 1967 war, which most of the peace camp considers <a href="https://peacenow.org.il/en/about-us/who-are-we">a morally wrong occupation</a>.</p>
<p>More broadly, their vision is grounded in preserving Israel as a democracy with a Jewish majority. This necessitates the creation of a sovereign Palestinian nation-state in the occupied territories.</p>
<p>A prominent example of a secular group <a href="https://www.wiley.com/en-us/Beyond+the+Two+State+Solution%3A+A+Jewish+Political+Essay-p-9780745662947">accepting the Green Line as a peace premise</a> is <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/30246797?seq=3">the once-robust Peace Now movement</a>, created in 1978 by Israeli veterans. They argue, using human rights and international law, that a permanent occupation will threaten the character of Israel as a Jewish democracy. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578464/original/file-20240228-26-h0r0mi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Four adults and a child walk together, leading a march with city buildings in the background, in a black and white photo." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578464/original/file-20240228-26-h0r0mi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578464/original/file-20240228-26-h0r0mi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578464/original/file-20240228-26-h0r0mi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578464/original/file-20240228-26-h0r0mi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578464/original/file-20240228-26-h0r0mi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=514&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578464/original/file-20240228-26-h0r0mi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=514&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578464/original/file-20240228-26-h0r0mi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=514&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Members of the Peace Now movement arrive in Tel Aviv, finishing a 1983 march for peace that began at Israel’s northern border.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/moshe-ben-baruch-gives-the-peace-sign-to-applauding-members-news-photo/516513418?adppopup=true">Bettmann via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>… and its dissenters</h2>
<p>Ever since the early days of Zionism, however, other Jews have challenged the movement’s basic objective of creating a Jewish-majority state, given <a href="https://fathomjournal.org/the-bride-is-beautiful-but-she-is-married-to-another-man-the-tenacity-of-an-anti-zionist-fable/">the reality that other groups of people, in addition to Jews, already lived</a> in historic Palestine. For example, <a href="https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/brit-shalom-a-covenant-of-peace/">the group Brit Shalom</a>, established in 1926 by European Jewish intellectuals, <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/27917784?casa_token=a5y8GUrm5WIAAAAA%3AW1hlB5xoTqIhVXHUbp0eaVzhED1b8N5_M4_z3pYUN7Dv4FXzKJfiSNL9UBLM4Db07JqnB8YwESoc_zCyXJTIuboUoGpypsNHrv5metvIOk0oLcTC5mQ">envisioned a binational state</a> that would include equality for non-Jewish Palestinian communities. </p>
<p>In Brit Shalom’s view, a commitment to democratic principles contradicted ambitions for creating a majoritarian Jewish state, which they predicted would depend on driving out Palestinians and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1525/jps.2002.31.3.36">preventing their return</a>.</p>
<p>Other contemporary secular groups that are mostly made up of Jewish Israelis also oppose the Green Line as a basis for peace building. <a href="https://www.zochrot.org/articles/view/17/en?Our_Story">Zochrot, for example</a>, emphasizes <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-nakba-at-75-palestinians-struggle-to-get-recognition-for-their-catastrophe-204782">the Nakba</a> of 1948 as a root cause of the conflict. Therefore, they advocate for Palestinian refugees’ <a href="https://www.zochrot.org/sections/view/19/en?Return_Vision">right of return</a>, which is central to Palestinians’ own conceptions of justice.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578747/original/file-20240228-22-juzwz.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A black and white photograph of a long line of people, including women and children, walking uphill as they hold bags of possessions." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578747/original/file-20240228-22-juzwz.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578747/original/file-20240228-22-juzwz.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578747/original/file-20240228-22-juzwz.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578747/original/file-20240228-22-juzwz.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578747/original/file-20240228-22-juzwz.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=563&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578747/original/file-20240228-22-juzwz.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=563&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578747/original/file-20240228-22-juzwz.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=563&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The displacement of Palestinians during the 1948 war, often referred to as the Nakba, is central in shaping some activists’ ideas of justice.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Refugees_in_Galilee.jpg">Fred Csasznik/'Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem' via Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Other critics of the mainstream peace movement have criticized it for ignoring <a href="https://doi.org/10.2979/jmiddeastwomstud.7.2.56">the social justice struggles of non-Ashkenazi Jewish Israelis</a>, such as Arab Jews or “Mizrahim” and Ethiopian Jews, or connecting those issues with Palestinians’ experience.</p>
<h2>Palestinian voices</h2>
<p>The continuous expansion of <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/29/world/middleeast/israel-west-bank-settlements-expansion.html">Israeli settlements in the West Bank</a> has eroded the Green Line as the basis for peace. This <a href="https://jstreet.org/de-facto-annexation-the-israeli-rights-plan-for-permanent-occupation/">de facto annexation</a>, <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2023/06/08/israel-palestine-west-bank-annexation-netanyahu-smotrich-far-right/">as many analysts call it</a>, makes it increasingly unlikely that “peace” could mean most Israelis living within the line and most Palestinians outside it.</p>
<p>Yet with the erosion of the Green Line, various organizations are reemphasizing a binational vision of a single state, or two states joined in a confederation. Compared with the “mainstream” peace camp, some of these groups have more Palestinian representation, coming mostly from Palestinian citizens of Israel.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.alandforall.org/english/?d=ltr">A Land for All: Two States One Homeland</a>, known as ALFA, was formed in 2012 and is co-led by Palestinian and Jewish Israelis. In <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDKmPvsywEM">events after Oct. 7</a>, members <a href="https://www.alandforall.org/pain-and-opportunity/?d=ltr">grappled with their grief</a> by resolving to imagine a political future together.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578751/original/file-20240228-30-nubrrn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A woman in a white shirt kisses the forehead of another woman in a headscarf, whose eyes are closed, as they stand in front of a purple sign." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578751/original/file-20240228-30-nubrrn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578751/original/file-20240228-30-nubrrn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578751/original/file-20240228-30-nubrrn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578751/original/file-20240228-30-nubrrn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578751/original/file-20240228-30-nubrrn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578751/original/file-20240228-30-nubrrn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578751/original/file-20240228-30-nubrrn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Israeli activist Yael Admi embraces Arab Israeli activist Ghadir Hani following a speech during a Dec. 28, 2023, demonstration in Tel Aviv organized by the group Standing Together.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/israeli-activist-yael-admi-embraces-arab-israeli-activist-news-photo/1883322050?adppopup=true">Ahmad Gharabli/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>ALFA’s foundational assumption is that “<a href="https://www.alandforall.org/english/?d=ltr">both people belong in the whole land</a>.” While it believes that, realistically, Jewish settlers will remain in the territories occupied in 1967, it envisions them becoming Israeli residents of a future State of Palestine – one half of a larger confederation with the state of Israel.</p>
<p>Similarly, the organization <a href="https://www.standing-together.org/about-us">Standing Together</a> sent two representatives – one Jewish Israeli, one Palestinian Israeli – to the United States together to hold events with the message that “both Jewish people and Palestinians are going to stay on this land. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/17/world/middleeast/israel-palestinians-standing-together.html">No one is going anywhere</a>.”</p>
<p>Notably, the Palestinian members of groups seeking Palestinian-Israeli dialogues tend to be Israeli citizens from within the Green Line, with a few exceptions, such as <a href="https://cfpeace.org/">Combatants for Peace</a> – a group of Palestinians and Jews committed to nonviolence but made up of former fighters.</p>
<p>However, after decades of “peace process,” many Palestinians interpret coexistence initiatives as a form of <a href="https://www.972mag.com/what-is-normalization/">normalizing the occupation</a>.</p>
<h2>The Faithful Left</h2>
<p>The tension between Israel’s Jewish and democratic identities has been present since before the state’s founding. Under the current hard-line government, however, critics fear the state has been <a href="https://www.btselem.org/publications/fulltext/202101_this_is_apartheid">relinquishing the democratic part</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1215/26410478-9355297">in favor of Jewish supremacy</a>.</p>
<p>Religious politicians have been <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israeli-ministers-join-ultranationalist-conference-urging-gaza-resettlement-2024-01-29/">some of the most visible advocates</a> for measures that decrease the likelihood of a contiguous Palestinian sovereign state, such as by <a href="https://apnews.com/article/israel-settlements-hamas-gaza-war-netanyahu-smotrich-1d2306d55c24c8559b630d9f20db30e2">constructing new settlements</a>. Yet the <a href="https://www.crisisgroup.org/middle-east-north-africa/east-mediterranean-mena/israelpalestine/israels-winning-coalition">current right-wing coalition</a> has provided an impetus for more Israelis who are observant Jews to join peace efforts: <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/eyeing-their-communitys-rightward-shift-left-wing-religious-jews-form-new-movement/">the “Faithful Left</a>,” or Smol Emuni in Hebrew. </p>
<p>The movement was born when hundreds showed up to <a href="https://www.972mag.com/religious-jewish-left-israel/">a Jerusalem conference</a> in January 2023, discussing their discomfort with how Jewish tradition was being used politically, and <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/under-shadow-of-war-conference-of-left-wing-religious-jews-grows-its-numbers/">a second conference</a> was held in February 2024. Because many of the Faithful Left are products of religious Zionist schools, their key advantage within the peace movement is the ability <a href="https://www.academicstudiespress.com/9798887193243/">to challenge</a> arguments for annexation or domination on religious grounds.</p>
<p>Older groups such as <a href="https://www.rhr.org.il/eng?lang=en">Rabbis for Human Rights</a>, whose members range from humanist to Orthodox, have also drawn on religious ideas for decades.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578756/original/file-20240228-9454-66bbn5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A man wearing blue, with a white beard and black hair, carries a large bundle through a dry grove of small trees." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578756/original/file-20240228-9454-66bbn5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578756/original/file-20240228-9454-66bbn5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578756/original/file-20240228-9454-66bbn5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578756/original/file-20240228-9454-66bbn5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578756/original/file-20240228-9454-66bbn5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578756/original/file-20240228-9454-66bbn5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578756/original/file-20240228-9454-66bbn5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">U.S.-born Israeli Reform Rabbi Arik Ascherman, a member of Rabbis for Human Rights, helps Palestinians during the olive harvest outside Ramallah in November 2023.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/born-israeli-reform-jewish-rabbi-arik-ascherman-a-member-of-news-photo/1777936330?adppopup=true">Aris Messinis/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Some activists within the Faithful Left have also been a part of <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/2022-12-04/ty-article/.premium/whos-an-anarchist/00000184-d9c3-dc05-adae-fff3834a0000">Bnei Avraham</a>, a group that <a href="https://www.mekomit.co.il/%D7%99%D7%A9-%D7%9E%D7%90%D7%A4%D7%99%D7%99%D7%A0%D7%99%D7%9D-%D7%93%D7%95%D7%9E%D7%99%D7%9D-%D7%91%D7%99%D7%9F-%D7%9E%D7%94-%D7%A9%D7%A7%D7%A8%D7%94-%D7%9C%D7%A0%D7%95-%D7%95%D7%91%D7%99%D7%9F/">shows solidarity with Palestinians</a> by building relationships in the West Bank – specifically Hebron, where Palestinians routinely experience <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/11/09/west-bank-israel-settlers-violence/">violence and harassment</a>.</p>
<p>Secular anti-occupation groups such as <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2017-01-08/ty-article/.premium/masked-israelis-attack-activists-accompanying-palestinian-farmers/0000017f-ecd3-d3be-ad7f-fefb6cda0000">Ta'ayush</a> take this idea one step further by trying to provide in-person protection against violence. For example, Ta'ayush activists walk kids to school or accompany Palestinian shepherds as a buffer to prevent harassment.</p>
<p>The erosion of the Green Line has challenged many peace groups’ visions for peace and justice, as diverse as those are. Even more fundamentally, it has reopened the question of what it means for Israel to be Jewish and democratic – a question at the heart of Israeli peace activists’ challenges today.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/223273/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Atalia Omer does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Secular Jewish groups have historically made up the majority of solidarity and peace groups. But Palestinian citizens and observant Jews are also key.Atalia Omer, Professor of Religion, Conflict and Peace Studies, University of Notre DameLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2189922024-03-01T13:33:52Z2024-03-01T13:33:52ZThe tools in a medieval Japanese healer’s toolkit: from fortunetelling and exorcism to herbal medicines<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578362/original/file-20240227-20-ng0qz.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C979%2C466&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">An 'onmyoji,' an expert on yin and yang, performs divination with counting rods in an Edo-period illustration.
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tamamonomae_Onmyoji.jpg">Kyoto University Library/Wikimedia</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>“The Tale of Genji,” often called <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/530271/the-tale-of-genji-by-murasaki-shikibu/">Japan’s first novel</a>, was written 1,000 years ago. Yet it still occupies a powerful place in the Japanese imagination. A popular TV drama, “Dear Radiance” – “<a href="https://www.nhk.jp/p/hikarukimie/ts/1YM111N6KW/">Hikaru kimi e</a>” – is based on the life of its author, Murasaki Shikibu: the lady-in-waiting whose experiences at court inspired the refined world of “Genji.”</p>
<p>Romantic relationships, poetry and political intrigue provide most of the novel’s action. Yet illness plays an important role in several crucial moments, most famously when one of the main character’s lovers, Yūgao, <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/66057/pg66057-images.html#page_92">falls ill and passes away</a>, killed by what appears to be a powerful spirit – as later happens <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/66057/pg66057-images.html#page_250">to his wife, Aoi</a>, as well.</p>
<p>Someone reading “The Tale of Genji” at the time it was written would have found this realistic – as would some people in different cultures around the world today. Records from early medieval Japan document numerous descriptions <a href="https://academiccommons.columbia.edu/doi/10.7916/d8-46cs-wq63">of spirit possession</a>, usually blamed on spirits of the dead. As has been true in many times and places, physical and spiritual health were seen as intertwined.</p>
<p>As <a href="https://ealc.wustl.edu/people/alessandro-poletto">a historian of premodern Japan</a>, I’ve studied the processes its healing experts used to deal with possessions, and illness generally. Both literature and historical records demonstrate that the boundaries between what are often called “religion” and “medicine” were indistinct, if they existed at all.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578356/original/file-20240227-28-gqyl6g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="An intricate illustration of a ceremony attended by people in robes, with the background covered in a golden color." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578356/original/file-20240227-28-gqyl6g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578356/original/file-20240227-28-gqyl6g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578356/original/file-20240227-28-gqyl6g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578356/original/file-20240227-28-gqyl6g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578356/original/file-20240227-28-gqyl6g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578356/original/file-20240227-28-gqyl6g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578356/original/file-20240227-28-gqyl6g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A 17th-century scroll, ‘Maboroshi no Genji monogatari emaki,’ showing the funeral of Genji’s wife, Aoi.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/leaves-of-wild-ginger-from-the-phantom-genji-scrolls-mid-news-photo/1206222207?adppopup=true">Heritage Art/Heritage Images via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Vanquishing spirits</h2>
<p>The government department in charge of divination, the Bureau of Yin and Yang, established in the late seventh century, played a crucial role. Its technicians, known as <a href="https://nirc.nanzan-u.ac.jp/journal/6/issue/186">onmyōji</a> – yin and yang masters – were in charge of divination and fortunetelling. They were also responsible for observing the skies, interpreting omens, calendrical calculations, timekeeping and eventually a variety of rituals.</p>
<p>Today, onmyōji appear as wizardlike figures in <a href="https://books.bunshun.jp/sp/onmyoji">novels</a>, <a href="https://www.viz.com/twin-star-exorcists">manga</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEiZuDTEq6A">anime</a> and <a href="https://en.onmyojigame.com/">video games</a>. Though heavily fictionalized, there is a historical kernel of truth in these fantastical depictions.</p>
<p>Starting from around the 10th century, Onmyōji were charged with carrying out iatromancy: divining the cause of a disease. Generally, they distinguished between disease caused by external or internal factors, though boundaries between the categories were often blurred. External factors could include local deities known as “kami,” other kami-like entities the patient had upset, minor Buddhist deities or malicious spirits – often revengeful ghosts. </p>
<p>In the case of spirit-induced illness, Buddhist monks would work to winnow out the culprit. Monks who specialized in exorcistic practices were known as “genja” and were believed to know how to <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/300922/the-pillow-book-by-sei-shonagon">expel the spirit from a patient’s body</a> through powerful incantations. Genja would then transfer it onto another person and force the spirit to reveal its identity before vanquishing it.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578368/original/file-20240227-26-dx583p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A faded picture of a broom, branch with a few leaves, and a fan, as well as Japanese script on top of it." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578368/original/file-20240227-26-dx583p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578368/original/file-20240227-26-dx583p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=665&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578368/original/file-20240227-26-dx583p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=665&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578368/original/file-20240227-26-dx583p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=665&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578368/original/file-20240227-26-dx583p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=836&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578368/original/file-20240227-26-dx583p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=836&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578368/original/file-20240227-26-dx583p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=836&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A 19th century print by Kubo Shunman shows objects representing the New Year’s ceremony of exorcising demons.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/objects-representing-the-ceremony-of-exorcising-demons-one-news-photo/1338629689?adppopup=true">Heritage Images/Hulton Archive via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Court physicians</h2>
<p>While less common than spirit possessions, the idea that physical factors could also cause illness appears in sources from this period. </p>
<p>Since the late seventh century, the government of the Japanese archipelago had established a bureau in charge of the well-being of aristocratic families and high-ranking members of the state bureaucracy. This <a href="https://rekihaku.repo.nii.ac.jp/records/2657">Bureau of Medications</a>, the Ten’yakuryō, was based on similar systems in China’s Tang dynasty, <a href="https://search.worldcat.org/title/3414658">which Japanese officials</a> adapted for their own culture.</p>
<p>The bureau’s members, whom scholars today often call “court physicians” in English, created medicinal concoctions. But the bureau also included technicians tasked with using spells, perhaps to protect high-ranking people from maladies.</p>
<h2>Not either/or</h2>
<p>Some scholars, both Japanese and non-Japanese, compare the practices of members of the Bureau of Medications with what is now called “traditional Chinese medicine,” or just “medicine.” They typically consider the onmyōji and Buddhist monks, meanwhile, to fall under the label of “religion” – or perhaps, <a href="https://search.worldcat.org/title/7306973">in the case of onmyōji, “magic</a>.”</p>
<p>But I have found numerous signs that these categories do not help people today make sense of early medieval Japan.</p>
<p>Starting in the seventh century, as a centralized Japanese state began to take shape, Buddhist monks from the Korean Peninsula and present-day China brought healing practices to Japan. These techniques, such as herbalism – treatments made of plants – later became associated with court physicians. At the same time, though, monks also employed <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780199340378.013.980">healing practices rooted in Buddhist rituals</a>. Clearly, <a href="https://academiccommons.columbia.edu/doi/10.7916/d8-46cs-wq63">the distinction between ritual and physical healing</a> was not part of their mindset.</p>
<p>Similarly, with court physicians, it is true that sources from this period mostly show them <a href="https://rekihaku.repo.nii.ac.jp/records/2657">practicing herbalism</a>. Later on, they incorporated simple needle surgeries and moxibustion, which involves burning a substance derived from dried leaves from the mugwort plant near the patient’s skin.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578349/original/file-20240227-28-9evlnl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A drawing showing the outline of the human body from behind and in front, with one arm outstretched, and Chinese characters written on it." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578349/original/file-20240227-28-9evlnl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578349/original/file-20240227-28-9evlnl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=453&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578349/original/file-20240227-28-9evlnl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=453&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578349/original/file-20240227-28-9evlnl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=453&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578349/original/file-20240227-28-9evlnl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=569&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578349/original/file-20240227-28-9evlnl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=569&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578349/original/file-20240227-28-9evlnl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=569&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An 18th-century engraving identifying parts of the body treated by moxibustion.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/engraving-of-the-meridian-points-on-the-human-body-which-news-photo/90731089?adppopup=true">Science & Society Picture Library via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>However, they also incorporated ritual elements from various Chinese traditions: spells, divination, fortunetelling and hemerology, the practice of identifying auspicious and inauspicious days for specific events. For example, moxibustion was supposed to be avoided on certain days because of the position of a deity, <a href="https://cir.nii.ac.jp/crid/1520853832664346880">known as “jinshin</a>,” believed to reside and move inside the human body. Practicing moxibustion on the body part where “jinshin” resided in a specific moment could kill it, therefore potentially harming the patient. </p>
<p>Court physicians were also expected to ritually “rent” a place for a pregnant woman to deliver, <a href="https://doi.org/10.3390/rel12110907">producing talismans</a> written in red ink that were meant to function as “leases” for the birthing area. This was done in order to keep away deities who might otherwise enter that space, possibly because childbirth was believed to be a source of defilement. They also used hemerology to determine where the birthing bed should be placed.</p>
<p>In short, these healing experts straddled the boundaries between what are often called “religion” and “medicine.” We take for granted the categories that shape our understanding of the world around us, but they are the result of complex historical processes – and look different in every time and place.</p>
<p>Reading works like “The Tale of Genji” is not only a way to immerse ourselves in the world of a medieval court, one where spirits roam freely, but a chance to see other ways of sorting human experience at work.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/218992/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alessandro Poletto does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>In medieval Japan, healing might mean taking medicine, undergoing an exorcism or sidestepping harm in the first place by avoiding inauspicious days.Alessandro Poletto, Lecturer in East Asian Religions, Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. LouisLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2169672024-02-29T13:39:18Z2024-02-29T13:39:18ZBias hiding in plain sight: Decades of analyses suggest US media skews anti-Palestinian<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/572260/original/file-20240130-29-5jyhe6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=26%2C17%2C2941%2C1922&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Palestinian families seeking refuge in makeshift tents in vacant areas in Rafah, Gaza Strip. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/palestinian-families-seeking-refuge-from-israeli-attacks-on-news-photo/1965323426?adppopup=true">Abed Rahim Khatib/Anadolu via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>News organizations are often <a href="https://theintercept.com/2024/01/09/newspapers-israel-palestine-bias-new-york-times/">accused of lacking impartiality</a> <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/the-bbc-is-under-fire-for-its-coverage-of-the-israel-hamas-war-rightly-so/">when covering the Israeli-Palestinian</a> conflict. In November 2023, over <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/style/media/2023/11/09/open-letter-journalists-israel-gaza/">750 journalists</a> signed an open letter alleging bias in U.S. newsrooms against Palestinians in the reporting of the ongoing fighting in the Gaza strip. </p>
<p>More recently, two articles in respected U.S. newspapers highlight the debate over bias.</p>
<p>A Feb. 2, 2024, op-ed in The Wall Street Journal described a Michigan city, where many Arab immigrants live, <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/welcome-to-dearborn-americas-jihad-capital-pro-hamas-michigan-counterterrorism-a99dba38">as a center of antisemitic terrorism sympathizers</a>. On the same day, another op-ed in The New York Times depicted the U.S. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/live/2024/01/30/opinion/thepoint#friedman-middle-east-animals">as a lion engaged in combat</a> with Iran – characterized as a “parasitoid wasp” – and Hamas – portrayed as a “trap-door spider,” executing rapid, predatory maneuvers. The pieces were attacked by critics as <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/detroit/news/dearborn-community-says-wsj-article-is-a-distraction/">being Islamaphobic</a> and falling <a href="https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/thomas-friedman-animal-kingdom-nyt-rcna137283">back on racist tropes</a>. </p>
<p>Broadcast media is similarly being scrutinized for bias. According to the Guardian, CNN has <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2024/feb/04/cnn-staff-pro-israel-bias">faced scrutiny for its alleged pro-Israel bias</a>, with claims that Israeli official statements receive expedited clearance and trustful on-air portrayal. Conversely, statements from Palestinians, including those not affiliated with Hamas, are frequently delayed or remain unreported. A notable instance cited by the Guardian involved former Israeli intelligence official Rami Igra asserting on CNN that the entire Palestinian population of Gaza could be considered combatants, a statement allowed to go unchallenged. </p>
<p>From the other side, Jonathan Greenbatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, has accused U.S. media of a bias that <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/politics-news/anti-defamation-league-director-msnbc-coverage-israel-1235612659/">dehumanizes Israelis while sanitizing Hamas</a>. During an appearance on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” in October 2023, he raised concerns over the networks framing of Hamas, asking, “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BXsC-7WSqI">Who’s writing the scipts</a>?” </p>
<p>The issue of bias isn’t confined to the U.S. In the U.K.,the state-funded BBC has <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2023/oct/16/bbc-gets-1500-complaints-over-israel-hamas-coverage-split-50-50-on-each-side">received complaints on its Gaza coverage</a> from both sides as well.</p>
<p>With accusation of bias being levied by both sides in the conflict, what does academic research say about newsroom prejudice?</p>
<p>Support for the assertion of anti-Israeli bias in media occasionally emerges in research. A <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/13537121.2016.1244381">2016 study</a> uncovered anti-Israeli bias in German and British newspapers, although results for U.S. publications were mixed. However, when scholars look at media coverage data as a whole, rather than pick and choose, they demonstrate that leading U.S. outlets tend to be <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1081180X03256999%22%22">more sympathetic toward the Israeli perspective</a> than that of Palestinians.</p>
<p>As a <a href="https://iac.gatech.edu/people/person/natalie-khazaal">scholar of media bias and the Arab world</a>, in my own research, I have found that anti-Palestinian bias in the U.S. and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/1461670X.2011.571818">other countries’ media</a> is often subtle, albeit in plain view.</p>
<h2>Measuring bias</h2>
<p>Typically, scholars examine this form of media bias using both <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amc.2023.128219">quantitative</a> and qualitative measures of the <a href="https://libguides.lehman.edu/c.php?g=733610&p=5241445">framing, selection and portrayal of news</a>. Content analyses of <a href="https://www.rochester.edu/newscenter/study-of-headlines-shows-media-bias-growing-563502/">news articles, headlines and images</a> are common methodologies, seeking patterns that may favor one perspective over the other.</p>
<p>Additionally, scholars examine the <a href="https://doi.org/10.2307/3512176">sources cited and the prominence given to different voices</a>. Historical context, the overall tone and language, how often the media talks about suffering on one side compared with the other – all are indicators used to analyze media bias. </p>
<h2>Historical bias in language and reporting</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.cambridge.org/us/universitypress/subjects/politics-international-relations/comparative-politics/media-and-political-conflict-news-middle-east?format=PB">Several</a> <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Reporting-the-Israeli-Arab-Conflict-How-Hegemony-Works/Liebes/p/book/9781138864580">studies</a> scrutinizing U.S. media coverage during the first Palestinian uprising, or intifada, spanning from 1987 to 1993, consistently revealed pronounced biases. </p>
<p>The analyses indicated a propensity to emphasize Israeli deaths despite higher Palestinian casualties. The media’s reliance on Israeli sources shaped the narrative, omitting crucial context such as the illegality of Israeli settlements on occupied Palestinian lands under peace agreements. Overlooking this fact obscured the <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/41858380">correlation between increasing settlements and a rise in Palestinian attacks</a>, thus compromising a comprehensive understanding.</p>
<p>Throughout the second intifada from 2000 to 2005, the prevalence of bias in media coverage persisted. </p>
<p>A <a href="https://fair.org/home/the-illusion-of-balance/?fbclid=IwAR02QPzY5_l3cg7NwKcZTKyr4ISHxt1PrWJiiWoumHT1nqlb1nAFlcU88rc">study conducted by the independent media watchdog FAIR</a> highlighted a notable instance concerning NPR’s reporting during the initial six months of 2001. While NPR initially presented similar figures of Israeli and Palestinian deaths — 62 versus 51 — FAIR’s comprehensive analysis revealed a stark disparity. When considering the total six-month death toll of 77 versus 148, NPR reported on eight out of 10 Israeli deaths but only three out of 10 Palestinian deaths, creating a skewed impression of balance. </p>
<p>NPR’s ombudsman, Jeffrey Dvorkin, <a href="https://fair.org/home/the-illusion-of-balance/?fbclid=IwAR02QPzY5_l3cg7NwKcZTKyr4ISHxt1PrWJiiWoumHT1nqlb1nAFlcU88rc">responded</a> to this assessment saying that numerical equivalence doesn’t always equate to journalistic fairness. </p>
<h2>Selective coverage</h2>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/572259/original/file-20240130-29-wp5qc8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Protestors hold a banner which reads 'In Gaza, the State of Israel also kills journalists,' while displaying names and photographs of those killed on the ground.," src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/572259/original/file-20240130-29-wp5qc8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/572259/original/file-20240130-29-wp5qc8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/572259/original/file-20240130-29-wp5qc8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/572259/original/file-20240130-29-wp5qc8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/572259/original/file-20240130-29-wp5qc8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/572259/original/file-20240130-29-wp5qc8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/572259/original/file-20240130-29-wp5qc8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A large number of journalists have been killed in Palestinian territories.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/protestors-holding-a-banner-which-reads-as-in-gaza-the-news-photo/1775804380?adppopup=true">Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Selective coverage has the potential to align with Israeli claims of self-defense, as scholars <a href="https://libcat.colorado.edu/Author/Home?author=Friel%2C+Howard%2C+1955-">Howard Friel</a> and <a href="https://politics.princeton.edu/people/richard-falk">Richard Falk</a> highlighted in their 2007 analysis of the <a href="https://www.versobooks.com/products/1998-israel-palestine-on-record">New York Times’ coverage of the second intifada</a>. The framing of attacks in Palestinian territories appeared to reflect a narrative that supported Israel’s stance.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://regener-online.de/journalcco/2003_2/pdf_2003_2/ross_engl.pdf">portrayal of Palestinian suffering</a>, encompassing deaths, home destruction and daily humiliation, tends to be downplayed both in the language used in coverage and by its reduced frequency compared with Israeli experiences. Media law scholar <a href="https://english.wsu.edu/susan-ross/">Susan Dente Ross</a> underscored in her 2003 study how the U.S. media often labeled Palestinians as aggressors rather than victims, thereby <a href="https://regener-online.de/journalcco/2003_2/pdf_2003_2/ross_engl.pdf">normalizing their losses and suffering</a>. </p>
<p>Echoing this perspective, media studies scholar <a href="https://scholar.google.ae/citations?user=iRAw1rUAAAAJ&hl=en">Mohamad Elmasry</a> argued in 2009 that the U.S. media rationalizes Israeli violence as a <a href="https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Death-in-the-Middle-East%3A-An-Analysis-of-How-the-in-Elmasry/686de091177e68331f80427b604c0ce030c32ce6">reluctantly understandable aspect of war</a>, framing Israel’s actions as “<a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/israel-palestine-war-west-press-context-sacrosanct-palestinians">retaliatory and legitimate</a>” while depicting Palestinian violence as “<a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/israel-palestine-war-west-press-context-sacrosanct-palestinians">barbaric and senseless</a>.”</p>
<p>The <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511816659">displacement</a> of around 750,000 <a href="https://theconversation.com/gaza-bombing-adds-to-the-generations-of-palestinians-displaced-from-their-homes-216142">Palestinians in 1948</a> remains a top Palestinian concern, because it turned about 80% of Palestinians into <a href="https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/palestinian-refugees-dispossession">stateless refugees</a>.</p>
<p>“Rarely, however, is the history of how these people became refugees incorporated into the reporting,” and neither is the body of international law and consensus on their rights, states journalism scholar <a href="https://www.qatar.northwestern.edu/directory/profiles/dunsky-marda.html">Marda Dunsky</a>, who conducted the analysis. An analysis of 30 <a href="https://cup.columbia.edu/book/pens-and-swords/9780231133487">major U.S. print and broadcast outlets</a> over four years – from 2000 to 2004 – found that the coverage lacked this important context during the second intifada. </p>
<p>The issue of sources is also contentious. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/073953290602700407">Three in every four major U.S. outlets</a> consistently favor Israeli sources over Palestinian and accord Israeli officials more positive media coverage, according to a 2006 study by scholars <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Kuang-Kuo-Chang">Kuang-Kuo Chang</a> and <a href="https://comartsci.msu.edu/our-people/geri-alumit-zeldes">Geri Alumit Zeldes</a>. For the most part, U.S. outlets avoid quoting Palestinian officials, the study noted. </p>
<h2>AI confirms anti-Palestinian bias</h2>
<p>Recently, experts have started to study big data on the media portrayals of the conflict with the help of artificial intelligence. For example, in 2023, MIT’s <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=QnYHj40AAAAJ&hl=en">Holly Jackson</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/17506352231178148">conducted a study</a> of 33,000 news articles from 1987-1993 and 2000-2005 – that cover the two intifadas – with the help of state-of-the-art AI technology that provides large-scale historical data.</p>
<p>Jackson confirmed that there was anti-Palestinian bias that persisted during the first and second intifadas. The discernible bias was manifested in the level of objectivity and the tone of language employed by outlets such as The New York Times. The bias was further underscored by the manner in which media outlets attributed sentiments of violence to either side involved in the conflict.</p>
<p>For instance, an article highlighted that “They [Jews] threw rocks at hotels housing Arabs, who hurled objects from their windows in return.” Notably, the article employs the more neutral verb “throw” to portray Israeli violence and the less neutral verb “hurl” to describe Palestinian violence. Journalists sometimes use synonyms; however, the cumulative effect of repeatedly using more negative synonyms for Palestinians and more positive ones for Israelis implies the existence of bias, Jackson noted.</p>
<p>Jackson’s findings revealed a significant disparity, with more than 90% of articles focusing on Israelis compared with less than 50% covering Palestinians. Additionally, the articles used negative language and the passive voice to refer to Palestinians twice as often as Israelis. For example, she reveals that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/17506352231178148">the passive construction “killed” is used</a> in “Palestinian killed as clashes erupt with troops” to avoid specifying the perpetrators of the violence, contrasting with the active “slay” in “Palestinians slay 2 Israeli hikers,” used to emphasize the perpetrators.</p>
<p>The anti-Palestinian sentiment increased from the first intifada to the second, the same study showed. As an illustration, <a href="https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781627798556/thehundredyearswaronpalestine">Palestinian deaths surged from 1,422 to 4,916</a>, a stark increase of three and a half times. They were also four and a half times greater than the 1,100 Israeli casualties. Yet, their reporting failed to correspond proportionately to the heightened occurrences.</p>
<p>How the media reports on events can greatly influence <a href="https://catalog.lib.uchicago.edu/vufind/Record/8530692">public perceptions</a> of what is really going on. Reporting can prime audiences to see a Palestinian fighter in a mask as either an icon of <a href="https://www.plutobooks.com/9781783710751/more-bad-news-from-israel/">terrorism or a hero</a> resisting occupation, depending on how the news is presented.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/216967/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Natalie Khazaal does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>How the media talks about suffering on one side compared with the other can often reveal bias in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict coverage, writes a scholar of media bias and the Arab world.Natalie Khazaal, Associate Professor of Arabic and Arab Culture, Georgia Institute of TechnologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2226902024-02-27T15:05:30Z2024-02-27T15:05:30ZGifts that live on, from best bodices to money for bridge repairs: Women’s wills in medieval France give a glimpse into their surprising independence<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/577678/original/file-20240223-20-h7u1l8.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=17%2C1%2C949%2C949&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Women's wills and last testaments provide a more nuanced picture of life in the Middle Ages than medieval stereotypes allow, such as that depicted in "Death and the Prostitute" by Master of Philippe of Guelders.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://inpress.lib.uiowa.edu/feminae/DetailsPage.aspx?Feminae_ID=37729">Gallica/Bibliothèque nationale de France/Feminae</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In medieval Europe, views of women could often be summed up in two words: sinner or saint.</p>
<p>As <a href="https://web.uri.edu/history/meet/joelle-rollo-koster/">a historian of the Middle Ages</a>, I teach a course entitled Between Eve and Mary: the two biblical figures who sum up this binary view of half of humanity. In the Bible’s telling, Eve <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis%203&version=KJV">got humans expelled from the Garden of Eden</a>, unable to resist biting into the forbidden fruit. Mary, meanwhile, <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke%201&version=KJV">conceived the Son of God</a> without human intercourse. </p>
<p>Either way, they’re daunting models – and either way, patriarchy considered women in need of protection and control. But how can we know what medieval women thought? Did they really accept this vision of themselves? </p>
<p>I do not believe that we can totally understand someone who lived and died hundreds of years ago. However, we can try to somewhat reconstruct their frame of mind with the resources we have available. </p>
<p>Few documents that survive from medieval Europe were written by women or even dictated by women. Those that do are often formulaic, full of legal and religious language. Yet the wills <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/363743">and censuses</a> that survive, and which I study, open a window into their lives and minds, even if not produced by women’s hands. These documents suggest that medieval women had at least some form of empowerment to define their lives – and deaths.</p>
<h2>A centuries-old census</h2>
<p>In 1371, the city of Avignon, in present-day France, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1353/jowh.2010.0480">organized a census</a>. The resulting document is ripe with the names of more than 3,820 heads of household. Of these, 563 were female – women who were in charge of their own household and did not shy away from declaring it publicly.</p>
<p>These were not women of high social status but individuals scarcely remembered by history, who left only traces in these administrative documents. One-fifth of them declared an occupation, including both single and married women: from unskilled laborer or handmaid to innkeeper, bookseller or stonecutter. </p>
<p>Nearly 50% of the women declared a place of origin. The majority came from around Avignon and other parts of southern France, but some 30% came from what is now northern France, southwest Germany and Italy. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/577715/original/file-20240224-24-qcjvza.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="An illustration of a blond woman in a pink dress carrying a wooden vessel on top of her head outside." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/577715/original/file-20240224-24-qcjvza.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/577715/original/file-20240224-24-qcjvza.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577715/original/file-20240224-24-qcjvza.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577715/original/file-20240224-24-qcjvza.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577715/original/file-20240224-24-qcjvza.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=948&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577715/original/file-20240224-24-qcjvza.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=948&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577715/original/file-20240224-24-qcjvza.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=948&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An illustration from 11th-century physician Ibn Butlan’s text Tacuinum sanitatis.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b105072169/f186.image.r=%22Latin%209333%22?lang=EN#">Bibliothèque nationale de France</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The majority of ladies who arrived from faraway regions arrived alone, suggesting medieval women were not always necessarily “stuck” at home under the domination of a father, brother, cousin, uncle or husband. Even if they wound up that way, they seemed to show some guts by leaving in the first place. </p>
<h2>New cities, new lives</h2>
<p>In cities like Avignon, with a large proportion of immigrants, long-lasting lineages disappeared. As <a href="https://ehess.academia.edu/JacquesChiffoleau">historian Jacques Chiffoleau</a> <a href="https://search.worldcat.org/title/9196772">has suggested</a>, most late medieval Avignonese were “orphans” who lacked extended family networks in their new surroundings – <a href="https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203866085">and this was reflected in the culture</a>.</p>
<p>Since the 12th century, women in the south of France had been considered “sui iuris” – capable of managing their own legal affairs – if they were not under a father or husband’s control. They could dispose of their own possessions and distribute them at will, both <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Death-in-Medieval-Europe-Death-Scripted-and-Death-Choreographed/Rollo-Koster/p/book/9781138802131">before and after death</a>. Married daughters’ dowries often prevented them from inheriting parents’ property, but they could when no male descendants could be found.</p>
<p>In the late Middle Ages, women’s legal rights expanded as urbanization and immigration changed social relationships. They could become legal guardians of their children. What’s more, judging by women’s testaments, widows and older daughters did make legal decisions of their own without the “required” male guardianship.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/577717/original/file-20240224-20-gv83x8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="An old manuscript page with lines of font and a brightly colored illustration of men and women standing in a field while others climb trees." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/577717/original/file-20240224-20-gv83x8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/577717/original/file-20240224-20-gv83x8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=768&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577717/original/file-20240224-20-gv83x8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=768&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577717/original/file-20240224-20-gv83x8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=768&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577717/original/file-20240224-20-gv83x8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=965&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577717/original/file-20240224-20-gv83x8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=965&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577717/original/file-20240224-20-gv83x8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=965&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A page from the Book of Hours by Master d'Alelaide of Savoia, a 15th-century artist, shows the harvesting of pears and apples.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/book-of-hours-by-master-dalelaide-of-savoia-detail-news-photo/1011961044?adppopup=true">PHAS/Universal Images Group via Getty Images</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>In addition, married women could <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Across-the-Religious-Divide-Women-Property-and-Law-in-the-Wider-Mediterranean/Sperling-Wray/p/book/9780415807173">make legally binding decisions</a> as long as their husbands were present with them in front of a notary. Although husbands were technically considered their wives’ “guardians,” they could declare them legally free of guardianship. Wives would then be allowed to name their witnesses, appoint their universal heir and list donations and bequests to individuals and the church, which they hoped would save their soul.</p>
<h2>Speaking beyond the grave</h2>
<p>European archives literally overflow with legal documents that are awaiting discovery in musty boxes. What is lacking is a new generation of historians who can analyze them and paleographers who can read the handwriting.</p>
<p>Everyone high and low used notaries’ services for contractual forms, from an engagement and marriage to the sale of property, business transactions and donations. In this mass of documentation, <a href="https://research-repository.st-andrews.ac.uk/handle/10023/3052">wills provide a refreshing perspective</a> into medieval women’s agency and emotions as they contemplated the end of their lives.</p>
<p>In the 60 or so <a href="https://research-repository.st-andrews.ac.uk/handle/10023/3052">women’s testaments kept in Avignon</a>, women named where and with whom they wanted to be buried, often choosing their children or parents over their husbands. They named which charities, religious orders, hospitals for the poor, parishes and nunneries would benefit from their generosity, including bequests for repairs on Avignon’s famous bridge. </p>
<p>These women may have dictated their last wishes lying in bed, waiting for death, with the notary guiding their decisions. Still, given the things they dictated – donations for the dowries of poor girls, for their relatives and friends, to have their names remembered in Catholic Masses for the dead – I would argue that we are hearing their own voices. </p>
<h2>Rosaries, repairs and furs</h2>
<p>In 1354, Gassende Raynaud of Aix asked to be buried with her sister, Almuseta. She left a house to her friend Aysseline, while Douce Raynaud – who may have been another sister – received six dishes, six pitchers, two platters, a pewter jug, a cauldron, her best cooking pot, a cloak of fur with muslin, a big blanket, two large sheets, her best bodice, a little coffer, and all the mending thread and hemp that she possessed. She left a coffer, a copper warmer, the best trivet of the house and four new sheets to her friend Alasacia Boete.</p>
<p>Gassende’s generosity didn’t stop there. Jacobeta, Alasacia’s daughter, received a rosary of amber; Georgiana, Alasacia’s daughter-in-law, a bodice; and Marita, Alasacia’s granddaughter, a tunic. To her friend Alasacia Guillaume, Gassende left the unusual gift of a portable altar for prayers and an embroidered blanket. To Dulcie Marine, she bequeathed a choir book called an antiphonary and the best of her cloaks or furs.</p>
<p>In another Avignon will, written in 1317, Barthélemie Tortose made bequests to several Dominican friars, including her brother. She left funds to the prior of the order, her brother’s supervisor: perhaps rewarding the “boss” in order to keep her brother in his favor. She provided for charities and repairs for two bridges over the violent Rhône River, but also substantial support to provide food and clothing to all nuns’ convents of the city. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/577716/original/file-20240224-22-2jvol2.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="An illustration in shades of green and red showing two towns connected by a bridge over a river with a few small islands in it." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/577716/original/file-20240224-22-2jvol2.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/577716/original/file-20240224-22-2jvol2.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=226&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577716/original/file-20240224-22-2jvol2.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=226&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577716/original/file-20240224-22-2jvol2.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=226&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577716/original/file-20240224-22-2jvol2.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=284&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577716/original/file-20240224-22-2jvol2.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=284&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577716/original/file-20240224-22-2jvol2.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=284&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A 16th-century illustration of the Rhone River, with Avignon on the right.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>More especially, she supported her female kin, such as leaving rental income to her niece, a Benedictine nun. She then requested that her clothes be cut into habits for nuns and liturgical garments. </p>
<p>We can get a glimpse at <a href="https://research-repository.st-andrews.ac.uk/bitstream/handle/10023/3052/WomenandWillsFrance2012Rollo-KosterandReyerson.pdf?sequence=7&isAllowed=y">just how personal these bequests were</a>: These women assumed that what they had touched, or what had touched their skin, would also touch another’s. Most of all, they expected that their possessions would transmit their memory, their existence, their identity. </p>
<p>What’s more, medieval women could be pretty radical.</p>
<p>At least 10 women whose wills I’ve read asked to be buried in monks’ cassocks, including Guimona Rubastenqui. Widow of an Avignon fishmonger – usually a profitable occupation – she requested that Carmelite brother Johannes Aymerici give her one of his old habits, for which she paid him six florins.</p>
<h2>Asserting their will</h2>
<p>So, what do we make of all this?</p>
<p>It is impossible to completely reconstruct how people lived, loved and died centuries ago. I have spent my adult life thinking “medieval,” yet know I will never get there. But we certainly have clues – and what I call an educated intuition.</p>
<p>By modern standards, these women faced real limits on their power and independence. However, I have argued that they “freed” themselves at death – their wills presenting a rare opportunity to make personal legal decisions and to live on in written records.</p>
<p>Medieval women could have agency. Not all of them, not all the time. But this small sample shows that they could choose whom they wanted to reward and whom they could help. </p>
<p>As for the burial in men’s garb, I have no way of knowing whether their wishes were followed. But from my perspective, there is something extremely satisfying in knowing that at least they tried.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/222690/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Joelle Rollo-Koster does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>European women’s rights expanded in early medieval cities, though they were still limited. Last wills and testaments were some of the few documents women could dictate themselves.Joelle Rollo-Koster, Professor of Medieval History, University of Rhode IslandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.