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- Convenor:
-
Audrius Beinorius
(Vilnius University)
Send message to Convenor
- Format:
- Panel
- Location:
- Epsilon room
- Sessions:
- Monday 4 September, -
Time zone: Europe/Vilnius
Short Abstract:
Some divinatory tools have a very long history others are used with modern technology. But does change in the tools and devices underlying divinatory practice inevitably lead to a change in the cosmological, cultural and psychological conditioning and interpretative exegesis or "divinatory logic"?
Long Abstract:
Divination is a cross-cultural religious phenomenon that is known in many diverse forms around the world and employs a wealth of devices, technics and methods. It is the practice of determining the hidden significance or cause of events, sometimes foretelling the future, by various natural, psychological, and other techniques. It is also a ritual and a tradition, "often the primary institutional means of articulating the epistemology of a people" (Philip M. Peek), both a way of knowing and a trusted means of decision-making. However, it may also be experienced as a particular religious cosmology or theory on the ordering of the world essential for proper performace of divination procedure. While cognitive and symbolic approaches understand divination as a mostly explanatory device, others emphasise the embodied, world-building and ontological character of divination.
So, this panel is an invitation to talk about the tools, technics and technologies used by practitioners of divination and clients in their ongoing involvement with everyday life. Some tools have a very long history (shells, stones, tea leaves or yarrow sticks for I-Ching divination), others are used with modern technology (Tarot divination apps, Astrology software, digital Ghost Boxes). But, are the procedures and technicalities of divinatory praxis removing diviners from responsibility for authorship of the results, thereby making them disinterested parties, as argued by P. Boyer? Does a change in the methods and tools underlying divinatory practice inevitably lead to a change in the traditional worldview and the various methods of interpreting signs, or in "divinatory logic" (D. Zeitlyn)? Can clients consult divination without necessarily being a part to any ontologies, not believing in it and still receive an appropriate treatment? Is possible to reconcile a different historical/cultural exegetic traditions? These and similar questions will be addressed in the panel discussions.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Monday 4 September, 2023, -Paper short abstract:
Portuguese Inquisition trials from the 17th and 18th century reveal the existence of several recurrent method of urban divination. The 19th brings new forms of divination, but these still refer to the same preoccupations and the same semi-fixed set of relations between signifiers and significances.
Paper long abstract:
The analysis of early modern magic-related trials from the archives of the Portuguese Inquisition reveals the existence of a semi-consistent style of urban folk magic, equally detectable in Spain and South America. Relevant within this style of magic practice is the existence of several recurrent methods of divination, such as coscinomancy, favomancy and hydromancy, all of which exist within a cosmological framework of urban folk Catholicism.
Among these, favomancy appears to be the more versatile and adaptable, since it can be used to analyze complex social situations with large numbers of individuals and different relations and events happening between them.
In the mid-19th century, an anonymous grimoire by the name of Book of Saint Cyprian enters into circulation in the Portuguese market, offering, among other folk magic procedures, various methods of cartomancy; a somewhat rare divination system in the early modern period. Analyzing these new divination systems, it is noticeable that the significance given to the different cards in the Book of Saint Cyprian clearly mimics those used in early modern favomancy. Not only this, but these cartomancy systems also include elements from other early modern divination methods, making them a contemporary synthesis of several early modern divinatory systems.
This talk aims to describe these several methods of divination, their social significance and the elements from each of them which, as the centuries go by, are used in the creation of new systems, not only in the Books of Saint Cyprian, but also in the literary tradition these have created, and which is still existent.
Paper short abstract:
The presentation will discuss the recent anthropological fieldwork data collected among professional astrologers in Kolkata, India. I will show that such divination practice with its diagnostic and predictive functions is not accompanied by any kind of ontological or cosmological elaborations.
Paper long abstract:
The anthropological perspective often overlooks the crucial aspects of astrological counselling, especially those dealing with the increasing person’s awareness of their experiential situation and promoting the proactive psychological attitude. Prediction’ or ‘fortune-telling’ is only the apparent activity of diviner, he is acctually engaged in a heuristically motivated hermeneutical procedure in which destiny is not only revealed, but also negotiated and adjusted.
This presentation is based on the recent fieldwork among professional astrologers in Kolkata (India). Among other questions, I wanted to know where and how did they learn astrological practice? What astrological systems, methods and techniques do they mainly use, what sources or schools do they rely on to interpret for their clients? Which approach is emphasized in the consultation - fatalistic, deterministic or proactive, based on "personal choice"? What role does the religious worldview of clients play in counselling process, and what are the specific remedies prescribed?
I argue, that astrological divination constructs a new narrative of life and dealing with “negotiable fate” affirms the active and pragmatic coping with obstacles and reintegration of the individuals within the society and cosmos. In a context of doubt and uncertainty, astrologers' clients are more interested in the outcomes of consultations, regardless of their symbolic or cosmological significance, or "calculatory ontology". (W.Matthews 2021) It seems that astrological practice with its diagnostic and predictive functions is not accompanied by any kind of systematic ontological elaborations. We should focus instead on the semiotic patterns, the aesthetic elements, the dramaturgical features and the transformation processes that take place in the divination ritual. It is by recognizing the fixed part of their destiny that people can appreciate their responsibility in managing strategically the part that is up to them, often by resorting to specific cultural practices and selected experts.
Paper short abstract:
This paper discusses the ontology developed by ancient Stoics in support of their scientific account of technical divination. It will do so also in light of recent anthropological studies, and by considering the everlasting human need to know the future as a way to appease present anxieties.
Paper long abstract:
Ancient Stoics theorised divination as a form of technical knowledge, based on the decipherment of signs scattered in the world, and fully compatible with scientific thinking. Their idea of divination was founded on an understanding of the cosmos as a perfect mechanism of interconnected phenomena, unfolding according to a predetermined series of causes. Within this framework, divination served the purpose of formulating predictions of future events, thus offering a concrete support to human life.
By exploring the Stoic divinatory system, also in light of recent anthropological studies (Boyer, Zeitlyn), this contribution will assess the interdependence of divinatory theories and cosmological accounts in the Graeco-Roman world and in the modern world (De Martino, Sabbatucci, Ginzburg). Finally, it will address the question as to whether divinatory prediction theories and their connected ontological assumptions can somehow resonate with the world of today, in which technology embodies the illusion to operate in a fully predictable environment.