Tag: Inuit

"Santa Claus executed", or the eternal return of an immortal rite

Published on: Last updated on: Written by: Categorized into: Anthropology, Esotericism, folklore, History, History of Religions

With an essay with a provocative title, "Santa Claus executed", Claude LΓ©vi-Strauss is inspired by a bizarre news event at his time - the hanging and holocaust of a puppet of Santa Claus by the Dijonese clergy - to arrive to the understanding of the "true meaning of Christmas", based on the reciprocal relationship between the world of children and that of the dead. The method used for this purpose is a synchronic and confrontational approach with non-European societies.

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Auras and inner lights

Published on: Last updated on: Written by: Categorized into: Anthropology, Philosophy, Psychology, History, History of Religions

Since the perception of a light characterizes the apparition of the divine, the luminous has always been associated with the numinous. The great dilemma that Walter Benjamin proposes is whether the visual impression is determined exclusively by the biology of the human eye or is also characterized by cultural and historical specificities. This contribution seeks to reconstruct how the experience of light in the West has changed over the centuries in intensity and suddenness and how its modes of manifestation have changed.

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