Other Religion Commons^™

¡Salud! Sacrificing The Sacred Sip: A Critical Analysis Of The Impact Of The Spiritual Conquest On Alcohol Traditions In Central México, Elizabeth Vilchis

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

By thoroughly investigating the available primary sources, this thesis will convey the importance of the Mesoamerican inebriating drink pulque in both the ethos and mythos of ancient Nahua society, examining how the ritual use of pulque became problematic in the eyes of the Spaniards, by investigating the cultural and ideological contradictions or double standards that enabled the tensions, struggles, and violence with which the Spanish colonial regime repressed the ritual use of pulque. This thesis compares the Nahua ethos and mythos of pulque to the Christian ethos and mythos of wine, highlighting the parallels perceived by Spaniards in Central México …

The Influence Of Religion On Gender Roles, Julianna R. Cutcher

The Downtown Review: An Interdisciplinary Journal Written and Peer-Reviewed by Mandel Honors College Students at Cleveland State University

Religion plays a pivotal role in shaping cultural norms, values, and power structures within societies. Religious discourse, as a socially constructed form of knowledge, defines gender roles, norms, and stereotypes, often reinforcing systems of privilege that favor straight, cisgender, white, and male individuals. This paper explores how religious teachings contribute to gender inequality, limiting opportunities for women and marginalized groups while enforcing rigid expectations of gender identity and sexual orientation. The analysis highlights the intersection of religion and power, exploring the topic through four lenses: systems of privilege and inequality, gender, social implications, and media and culture; it also presents …

The Cycle Of Control: How Men Convince Women To Doubt Their Minds And Bodies, Zoe C. Bowman

Augustana Center for the Study of Ethics Essay Contest

In ultra-conservative religious communities, men in positions of power will often use tactics that cause women to doubt their thoughts, emotions, and bodies. Women are gaslighted into believing they are failing in some way when they feel anxious or depressed, as though they have not trusted God enough. While these practices are archaic and are seen less often in modern churches, there are still instances which give cause for concern. In order for women to be more confident in their understanding of the signals their bodies and minds give them, they must be aware of the help that is offered …

Marginalized, Secularized, And Popularized? The Prevalence And Patterns Of Paranormal Belief In The United Kingdom, Tom Clark, Joseph O. Baker, Christoper D. Bader

Sociology Faculty Articles and Research

There is growing recognition of the prevalence of paranormal beliefs in Western countries. However, most of this interest has been focused on the United States and robust, comparative data remain limited. This study extends this literature to report findings from a national survey of the United Kingdom designed to assess the prevalence and patterns of paranormal beliefs. Although there are many similarities to previous research, the results also suggest that there are significant differences in the scope, clustering, and patterns of paranormalism across contexts. The study makes four contributions to research on the paranormal by a) reiterating the continuing popularity …

Measuring Religious Evil: Examining The Use Of Single-Item Measures In Religious Research, Tom Clark, Scott A. Desmond, Christoper D. Bader

Sociology Faculty Articles and Research

Multiple-item indexes are ubiquitous within the sociology of religion. However, there are a growing number of articles in other disciplines that have advocated the use of single-item measures in specific circumstances. Using quantitative survey data taken from the United Kingdom, this paper contributes to this literature by exploring the impact of single and multiple item measures of religious evil on a series of social and political attitudes. The findings suggest that belief in the devil is the most consistent predictor within a multiple-item measure of religious evil and the multiple-item measure does not significantly outperform single-item measures. Indeed, the item …

The Preservation Of Ancient Wisdom In Dmt: A Literature Review, Miranda Cox

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

Abstract

Dance has a long and evocative history within humanity. This literature review explores the integration and impact dance has within religious and spiritual practices and how dance movement therapy can support these practices within a therapeutic model. Dance profoundly affects individuals during their healing journey and has impacted them through transcendental experiences. The review covers important topics regarding the therapeutic alliance and cultural humility, dance and the history of religion and spiritual practices, and the complications and benefits of religion and spirituality within a clinical therapeutic process. The intention is to explore how dance, religion, and spirituality can work …

Echoes Of Pazuzu: The Influence Of A Mesopotamian Demon In World Music, Jonathan Jauregui

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

This project delves into the intersection of Mesopotamian mythology and world music through the lens of Pazuzu, a prominent demon from ancient Mesopotamia. Pazuzu's presence and malevolent attributes in Mesopotamian lore have sparked curiosity and fascination, transcending ancient civilizations to influence contemporary cultural expressions, including music. This research explores how Pazuzu's imagery, symbolism, and mythology have influenced various world music genres, ranging from metal to modern electronic compositions. This study will examine how Pazuzu's character is portrayed and interpreted within diverse musical traditions worldwide by analyzing musical compositions, lyrical themes, and cultural contexts. Through a comparative approach, it examines how …

At The Intersection Of Religion, Spirituality, And Clinical Psychology: A Conversation With Two Jewish Psychologists, Robert A. Demayo, David A. Levy

Psychology Division Scholarship

This article presents a dialogue between two Jewish psychologists who share their respective personal and professional journeys on how spirituality and religious affiliation impacts their work as clinicians. They address the following questions: How would you identify your cultural background with respect to your religious or spiritual history and identity? How do you manage the competing demands of respecting both individual cultural identity and group cultural identity? How did your early experiences with Judaism influence your professional practice? What were your earliest academic influences on the question of spirituality in psychology? How have religion and spirituality manifested in your clinical …

Demonstration Of Nonviolence In Modern Day: Through The Lens Of Christianity, Jainism, Hinduism, And Buddhism, Lauren Mertz

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Throughout history, many groups of people have experimented with nonviolent demonstrations and concepts. Religions, countries, and a variety of movements have put the demonstration of nonviolence at the forefront of their reasoning and defenses. When people hear the word nonviolence, there is usually a person or idea that comes to mind. People in the United States often think of figures like Martin Luther King Jr. and his Civil Rights Movement demonstrations. This paper will provide a detailed literary and research analysis of the concept of nonviolence, demonstrating that it is more than just a Christian concept. I will look at …

A Brief Analysis Of Contemporary Confucianism's Research On Feminine Topics, Jingzhi Pan

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

Although Confucianism has been recognized as a world religion for more than a hundred years today, recent research, which studies it as a religion, still seems numbed to or ignores day-to-day feminine topics like sexual crimes, domestic violence, male patronize, and even gendered religious value itself. More often, even if they announce they are studying the religion, people study Confucianism as a philosophy, an ethic, a phenomenon, a political strategy…everything else but a religion with transcendent values like other world religions. This essay will overview the research of contemporary Confucian feminine topics and analyze and argue their utilities in helping …

Demythologizing Homer: Investigating Religion In Minoan Crete, Elizabeth Rybarczyk

Departmental Honors & Graduate Capstone Projects

The Minoan civilization of Bronze-Age Crete has, until recently, been obscured in mythological uncertainty. As a prehistoric civilization, the available evidence for historic analysis is sparse and ambiguous. This paper evaluates the material evidence for ritual activity to chart the religious developments of Minoan Crete. In the earliest periods of their civilization, the Minoans practiced animism, which reflected their ideals towards survival and cooperation. As their prosperity grew due to technological advancements, a social hierarchy formed. The emerging elite employed religion to justify their claim to power by appropriating religion, which culminated in a dual-monotheistic Knossian theocracy. This lasted until …

God Games: An Experimental Study Of Uncertainty, Superstition, And Cooperation, Aidin Hajikhameneh, Laurence R. Iannaccone

Economics Faculty Articles and Research

This paper uses a novel lab experiment to test claims about the origins and functions of religion. We modify the standard public goods game, adding a computer-based agent that adjusts earnings in ways that might depend on players' contributions. Our treatments employ three different descriptions of the adjustment process that loosely correspond to monotheistic, atheistic, and agnostic interpretations of the computer's role. The adjustments neither mask players' contributions nor magnify their impact. Yet players in all three adjustment treatments contribute much more than those who play the standard public goods game. Players' contributions and survey responses show that adjustments induce …

The Kin-Ship, Zheng Moham Wang

Comparative Woman

This is a group of two English poems the author composed separately in 2019 and 2021 about the imaginary scenes of his grandpa and mother from a Iu-Mien family of Southeast Asia and Southwestern China. The group was submitted to the upcoming Kinship volume of the Comparative Woman journal of Louisiana State University.

As Fewer Young Americans Say They Believe In God, A Look At Why So Many Have Abandoned Religion And What Motivates Others To Keep The Faith, Briana Ellis-Gibbs

Capstones

Generation Z, defined by the Pew Research Center as those born after 1997, is the least religious generation yet, according to a recent report from the American Survey Center. More than one-third of Generation Zers are religiously unaffiliated, along with 29 percent of Millenials, those born between 1981 and 1996. On the other hand, only 18 percent of baby boomers and 9 percent of the silent generation claim no religious affiliation.

Though overall, Americans' belief in God has hit an all-time low, from nearly 90 percent in 2017 to 81 percent this year, according to a new poll by Axios …

A New Wave Of “Space Nationalism” In The United States: Why Are Evangelicals Good With It?, Andrea Molle

Political Science Faculty Articles and Research

Despite evidence that shows how the support for space programs correlates with liberal political views and a lower level of religiosity, recent data suggest that more conservative positions may have an even more substantial effect under the appropriate conditions. Using the available data from Pew's American Trends Panel, we seek to clarify this interactional effect of political and religious preferences on the level of interest in the space programs and commitment to space politics support among Evangelicals as it changed during Trump's presidency. Our research hypothesizes that during this time, the simultaneous presence of nationalist views in both accounts of …

​​​​From Repression To Appropriation: Soviet Religious Policy And Reform, 1917-1943, Andriy Dyachenko

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis analyses the dynamics of religious reform in the USSR from 1917 to 1943. It argues that the early Bolshevik policy of persecution was increasingly substituted by state co-optation. This dynamic was shaped primarily by Stalinist concerns with state security and problems of ideology.

The State Of Religion In China, Christian J. Parham

Global Tides

The People's Republic of China has a complicated relationship with religion, which became even tenser within the past decade. This paper will analyze the history of religion within China while contrasting it with the current state of religion within the nation. In so doing, it will describe and highlight the experiences of Chinese people who are religious.

Different Versions Of Myself, Anya Smith

Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts

This is a research-informed screenplay exploring the relationship between religion and recreational pole dancing. While the popularity of recreational pole dancing has grown over the last two decades, it remains a controversial topic in some circles. This study employed interviews, autoethnography, and a literature review to examine the tensions between pole dancing and religion. Creative Analytic Practice was employed as a method of evaluating and presenting the research, which culminated in a fictional screenplay.

The story is about Louise, a young woman caught between two worlds. She feels pressured to conceal her recreational pole dancing activities in order to retain …

Murder And Massacre In Seventeenth Century England, Andrew Quesenberry

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Religion was almost always involved in murder and massacre during seventeenth century England, if not in its content, then at least in its interpretation. This work will support this assertion by examining multiple case studies of murder in seventeenth century England, which will simultaneously give the reader a more complete picture of the nature of homicide during the period. Specifically, the case studies consist of both homicides and infanticides, and explore the relation of the Devil to violent crime in seventeenth century England.

Sikhs And Colonialism: A Study Of Religious Identity Across Time From Guru Nanak To The British Raj, Samrath S. Machra

CMC Senior Theses

This thesis deals with how a religious community shapes itself in the face of powerful external pressures. It explores ways the Sikh religion (code, creed, and cultus) was influenced by its encounters with the British Empire and in process, gave birth to a new combinative tradition. This paper will look at where the Sikh people located themselves during the Colonial period, to understand Colonialism’s imprint on the Sikh tradition. It traces the thread of contact throughout Sikh history and argues that British contact resulted in religious and cultural exchanges which reoriented Sikh creed, code, and cultus. The resulting combinative tradition …

Relationship Between Religion And Native American Identity, Gennaro W. Milo

Graduate Research Posters

The purpose of this study was to determine whether there is a relationship between religious affiliation and Native American Identity. Based on the findings of this study, a component of a Native American's Identity is their religious affiliation. To contribute to the research on Native American and Alaskan Native identity, this study targeted the teenage demographic of ages 12 to 19 years old. Over growing concern, expressed by tribal elders, about a loss of cultural identity amongst teens, this study investigates a connection between a teen’s sense of identity and their religious affiliation (Quigley, 2019). This study used a multiple-choice …

Vaccine Hesitancy, The Covid 19 Pandemic, And Christian Fundamentalism, Nicole Drew

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

Over the past few decades, religion has continued to move to the forefront of American politics, with many viewing fundamental Christianity as synonymous with the Republican Party. Donald Trump's presidency has increased this tenfold, with significant figures within American Christianity voicing their support for him and tying him into Biblical prophecies. In the media, this appears to have affected how this demographic views the COVID 19 pandemic. The literature in this area focuses heavily on American Christians' response to mask mandates, stay-at-home orders, and other attempts to mitigate the spread of the CoronaVirus; however, research on how this same demographic …

Archaeology Of The International Space Station, Justin Walsh, Alice Gorman, Wendy Salmond

Art Faculty Data Sets

The explicit goal of the International Space Station Archaeological Project (ISSAP) is to provide an understanding of material culture as a key component of life in space, on par with the research by biomedical and psychological scholars that has been ongoing since the 1960s. We take as our inspiration a phrase first used in the National Academy of Sciences report Human Factors in Long-Duration Spaceflight, which described a crewed spacecraft as “a microsociety in a miniworld” (Lindsley 1972, 23). One of our primary methods is the cataloguing of people and elements of material culture (objects and built spaces) from photographs …

Digital Occult Library, Alexis Brandkamp

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This capstone project is a website, titled Digital Occult Library, hosted by the CUNY Commons and built with WordPress. The site address is:

digitaloccultlibrary.commons.gc.cuny.edu

It features (in this iteration) twenty-five unique pages with information on and discussion of occult and esoteric topics. It also hosts a forum that can be accessed and utilized by anyone, not just those registered on the Commons. The purpose of the site is to inform three types of interested parties on the highlighted topics: a general audience with no current knowledge of the occult, practitioners of esoteric traditions, and academics. Not only is the …

Religion In George R.R. Martin's "A Song Of Ice And Fire" Franchise, Sydney A. Craven

Honors Theses

This thesis is a study of religion in George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire franchise. Specifically, George R.R. Martin's use of medievalisms, his interpretation of the Middle Ages, when creating the religions in A Song of Ice and Fire.

Networked Religion: Metaphysical Redemption Or Eternal Regret?, Peter Mclaren

Education Faculty Articles and Research

"I’d like to set the tone of this commentary commenting upon the above quotation by Reagan: Can we doubt that war criminals in your administration, under the tutelage of your ‘Reagan Doctrine,’ transformed the country into a harrowing neoliberal horror show starring the nomenklatura of corporate America? They achieved this world-historical assault on the working-class through foreign and domestic policies and acts of clandestine military outlawry that can only provoke a rational mind to contemptuously scoff at your use of the word ‘refuge’ and ‘freedom’ to describe the USA."

Shamanism & Its Basic Spiritual Function To Heal, Carla Frias

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

Shamanism is known as the oldest spiritual and mystical practice still existing in our planet. Its presence dates back 30 to 40 thousand years ago, a time where consciousness emerged into the human mind. Throughout time and evolution, many of the shamanic practices have spread across the world and remain prevalent in a multitude of religious practices. Nevertheless, over time, their esoteric views on healing have become commonly overlooked and replaced by modern science. The holistic interpretation of human nature is being forgotten by a more “rational” approach about humankind. But what does shaman medicine truly entail? And how can …

The Relationship Between Religious Background Of Those Who Disaffiliate From Religion And Presence Of Anxiety, Timothy B. Sellers

Honors College Theses

Religion plays a significant role in the personality and worldview of a many individuals. It can provide one with personal benefits such as coping mechanisms, a framework for meaning-making, and a source of motivation, while also providing social support through connections with others having the same religious beliefs. The removal of said benefits through disaffiliation from a religious identity may lead to distress or anxiety. While much research has been done sociologically regarding the increasing number of people who do not affiliate with a religious group, much less has been done to analyze the individual experience of religious disaffiliation and …

The Quest Of Vision: Visual Culture, Sacred Space, Ritual, And The Documentation Of Lived Experience Through Rock Imagery, Aaron Robert Atencio

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This document will approach the multifaceted concepts that arise through the study of rock art and the cultivation of culture and belief through vision. Through this document the audience will encounter conceptual ideas regarding belief systems, ritual, experience, cognition, sacredness, and space/landscape — and how these are all essential dynamics that take place in the processes that cultivate the Shoshone visual culture. This document will employ an anthropological lens on the mentioned subject matters, while also approaching these concepts with an interdisciplinary curiosity of how they intermingle; creating a cohesive experience that focuses on these processes which empowered these people[s] …

The Lingering Menace, Logan M. Burke

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

This thesis applies modern approaches to better examine a largely neglected nativist publication, The Menace. This thesis also challenges the importance scholars have placed on formal associations, including prominent nativist groups such as the Klan. Instead, this thesis will focus on The Menace, a print publication that was mainstream with respect to its popularity as well as in the way it was produced. At the same time, The Menace was also similar to other nativist groups in the way it viewed race, gender, and religion.