Sacred darkness : a global perspective on the ritual use of caves / edited by Holley Moyes.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Moyes, Holley.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Anthropology of religion.

Caves--Cross-cultural studies.

Caves.

Caves--Religious aspects.

Ritual.

Sacred space.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (431 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Boulder : University Press of Colorado, c2013.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Caves have been used in various ways across human society, but despite the persistence within popular culture of the iconic caveman, deep caves were never used primarily as habitation sites for early humans. Rather, in both ancient and contemporary contexts, caves have served primarily as ritual spaces. In Sacred Darkness, contributors use archaeological evidence as well as ethnographic studies of modern ritual practices to envision the cave as place of spiritual and ideological power that emerges as a potent venue for ritual practice. Covering the ritual use of caves in Europe, Asia, Australia, Africa, Mesoamerica, and the US Southwest and Eastern woodlands, this book brings together case studies by prominent scholars whose research spans from the Paleolithic period to the present day. These contributions demonstrate that cave sites are as fruitful as surface contexts in promoting the understanding of both ancient and modern religious beliefs and practices. This state-of-the-art survey of ritual cave use will be one of the most valuable resources for understanding the role of caves in studies of religion, sacred landscape, or cosmology and a must-read for any archaeologist interested in caves.

Contents:

""Cover""; ""Contents""; ""Figures""; ""Tables""; ""Preface""; ""Note on Radiocarbon Dating""; ""Introduction""; ""Part I: Old World Ritual Cave Traditions""; ""1. Ritual Cave Use in European Paleolithic Caves""; ""2. Constructed Caves""; ""3. Caves of the Living, Caves of the Dead""; ""4. Landscapes of Ritual, Identity, and Memory""; ""5. Caves and the Funerary Landscape of Prehistoric Britain""; ""6. The Subterranean Landscape of the Southern Levant during the Chalcolithic Period""; ""7. The Chamber of Secrets""; ""8. Caves as Sacred Spaces on the Tibetan Plateau""

""9. Differential Australian Cave and Rockshelter Use during the Pleistocene and Holocene""""Part II: New World Ritual Cave Traditions""; ""10. Caves as Sacred Space in Mesoamerica""; ""11. Footsteps in the Dark Zone""; ""12. Forty Years� Pursuit of Human Prehistory in the World Underground""; ""13. A New Overview of Prehistoric Cave Art in the Southeast""; ""14. Reevaluating Cave Records""; ""15. Ceremonial Use of Caves and Rockshelters in Ohio""; ""16. The Ritual Use of Caves and Rockshelters in Ozark Prehistory""; ""Part III: Case Studies in Ritual Cave Use""

""17. The Prehistoric Funerary Archaeology of the Niah Caves, Sarawak (Malaysian Borneo)""""18. Recognizing Ritual in the Dark""; ""19. Sacred Spaces, Sacred Species""; ""20. Ritual Cave Use in the Bahamas""; ""Part IV: Ethnographic and Ethnohistoric Studies""; ""21. Caves in Ireland""; ""22. Caves in Black and White""; ""23. Where the Wild Things Are""; ""24. Ritual Uses of Caves in West Malaysia""; ""25. A Quantitative Literature Survey Regarding the Uses and Perceptions of Caves among Nine Indigenous Andean Societies""; ""26. Caves and Related Sites in the Great Plains of North America""

""Part V: New Approaches""""27. Civilizing the Cave Man""; ""28. Caves and Spatial Constraint""; ""29. Why Dark Zones Are Sacred""; ""Contributors""; ""Index""

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781457117503

1457117509

9781607321781

1607321785

OCLC:

834144291