In October 2002 a bomb blast in a Balinese nightclub killed more than two hundred people; many of them young Australian tourists. This event and subsequent attacks on foreign targets in Bali and Jakarta in 2003; 2004; and 2005 brought Indonesia into the global media spotlight as a site of Islamist terrorist violence. Yet the complexities of political and religious struggles in Indonesia; the most populous Muslim country in the world; remain little known and poorly understood in the West.In Riots; Pogroms; Jihad; John T. Sidel situates these terrorist bombings and other "jihadist" activities in Indonesia against the backdrop of earlier episodes of religious violence in the country; including religious riots in provincial towns and cities in 1995-1997; the May 1998 riots in Jakarta; and interreligious pogroms in 1999-2001. Sidel's close account of these episodes of religious violence in Indonesia draws on a wide range of documentary; ethnographic; and journalistic materials. Sidel chronicles these episodes of violence and explains the overall pattern of change in religious violence over a ten-year period in terms of the broader discursive; political; and sociological contexts in which they unfolded.Successive shifts in the incidence of violence-its forms; locations; targets; perpetrators; mobilizational processes; and outcomes-correspond; Sidel suggests; to related shifts in the very structures of religious authority and identity in Indonesia during this period. He interprets the most recent "jihadist" violence as a reflection of the post-1998 decline of Islam as a banner for unifying and mobilizing Muslims in Indonesian politics and society. Sidel concludes this book by reflecting on the broader implications of the pattern observed in Indonesia both for understanding Islamic terrorism in particular and for analyzing religious violence in all its varieties.
#1683850 in Books Cornell University Press 1997-12-23Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 9.75 x 6.50 x 1.25l; 1.49 #File Name: 0801433991352 pages
Review
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Important pieces of the overall pictureBy DAJBooks composed of chapters by different scholars often cover their subjects rather spottily; as did Religion in Ancient Egypt: Gods; Myths; and Personal Practice; which Shafer also edited. This book has that flaw too; but not to the same extent. Shafer's introduction; covering the overall purpose and important rituals of Egyptian temples; helps a good bit in that respect.The subsequent essays are undeniably important for anyone studying temples in depth; but not necessarily for people who want a general introduction. Dieter Arnold studies the early evolution of temple architecture from the beginning of Egyptian history to the Middle Kingdom. Gerhard Haeny discusses New Kingdom "mortuary temples" and questions the validity of that term. Lanny Bell discusses Luxor Temple as an example of the New Kingdom "divine" (non-mortuary) temple; focusing on a vivid description of the Opet Festival. Ragnhild Bjerre Finnestad discusses how temples in the Ptolemaic and Roman periods adapted the Egyptian traditions of earlier times. Finnestad and especially Haeny tend to get bogged down in rebutting the arguments of other scholars; so Shafer's; Arnold's; and Bell's essays may be the most accessible for those looking for a starting point for understanding the Egyptian temple.10 of 11 people found the following review helpful. The Real Meaning of TempleBy Friend of Ancient EgyptI read this book from two perspectives: 1) being an architect 2) being a serious Egyptophile studying teaching about Egypt for years. It is a highly scholarly work containing academic information of Egypt that may seem out of context to the casual reader; for example: knowing the transliteration script of hieroglyphs and having previous knowledge of Egyptian deities. As cumbersome as this may be to some; it is an engaging series of essays.This work describes the human elements of ritual and the physical world the ancients created to define their place in the cosmos. Architecture defines a culture. Each of the authors admit; however; that there is so much symbolism within any given society; so much diversity and connotation; that a completely accurate portrait of any building is impossible. But their extensive and informed analysis is enlightening.The beauty of this book is that it tells the tale of rituals; offerings and links to the divine as we have always known it; and practice it; in our own individual and collective subconscious; and how the Egyptians were the first to develop these systems. The role of these buildings is set in the backdrop of the culture they came from; the significance of temple architecture to the creation myths of Egypt and how the concept and practice of worship have come full circle into our own world today.This book is an eye-opener I wish existed back in college. The previous writings of Mircea Iliade; Sigmund Freud; Carl Jung and even Joseph Campbell on the subject of Egyptian symbolism are dated by comparison to this work. A great book on the nature of ancient spirituality; piety and concepts of the divine. A must read for any serious Egyptophile (probably mandatory reading now for all budding Egyptologists!).19 of 20 people found the following review helpful. For the avid EgyptophileBy Brian V. HuntShafer; et al have compiled a very well written and extremely in-depth examination of the meaning and importance of temples in ancient Egypt. All the sections were fascinating but I especially found Lanny Bell's treatment of Luxor temple (derived from his many years of work there); Gerhard Haeny's section on Mansions of Millions of Years; and Finnestad's chapter on Ptolemaic temples (really a discussion of the context of this period of temples) to be especially engaging. All of these added greatly to my understanding of the topics they addressed. I would recommend this to any serious Egyptophile with the caveat that it is all written largely in scholarly terms. They don't entirely assume prior knowledge but without some foundation in Egyptological literature; readers might find this interesting but a bit thick.
