2 0 0 0 OA 『ギルガメシュ叙事詩』は「知恵文学」か : 「死生の秘密」への旅路
- 著者
- 渡辺 和子
- 出版者
- リトン
- 雑誌
- 死生学年報 = Annual of the Institute of Thanatology, Toyo Eiwa University
- 巻号頁・発行日
- vol.6, pp.65-104, 2010-03-31
The Epic of Gilgamesh (the Standard Babylonian version) was probably composed by Sin-l?qi-unninni as its editor in the Akkadian language to thebest of our knowledge in about the 12th century BC, using as its base the older version of the epic (the Old Babylonian version) established in the early second Millennium BC. The Standard Babylonian version is known to us through the copies made in the 7th century BC in Nineveh. These copies were excavated in the 19th century AD and brought to the British Museum.In the epic, Gilgamesh grieved over the death of Enkidu, his friend, and was afraid of his own death. Longing for the ‘secret of death and life,’ he made a trip to visit ?ta-napi?ti who had been a human but was bestowed with eternal life by the gods after the Deluge. But ?ta-napi?ti told Gilgamesh that there was “now” no one to summon an assembly of the gods, the only place where Gilgamesh could also obtain eternal life. Then, he told Gilgamesh not to sleep for six days and seven nights. However, Gilgamesh fell asleep immediately. When he finally was woken up by ?ta-napi?ti and realized that he really had slept for seven nights, he received the insight that death was inevitable. On the way home, he found the special ‘heartbeat herb’ (?ammu nikitti) in accordance with ?ta-napi?ti’s instructions. But a snake ate the plant, presumably became rejuvenated by it, and cast off his skin while Gilgamesh was bathing. Gilgamesh was enormously discouraged and returned to Uruk, his home city.The ending of the story may seem to impresses upon the audience or the reader that the main intent of the story is to tell about Gilgamesh’s failure in his quest. But this impression is incompatible with the introduction of the story, in which the editor as a narrator introduces Gilgamesh as a man who indeed obtains wisdom after his painful journey to the other world.
2 0 0 0 OA 誰が話を聴くのか? : 被災地における霊の話と宗教者
In this paper, the author provides an overview of how religious professionals (i.e. Buddhist monks, Christian pastors, etc.) are dealing with socalled occult phenomena in the tsunami stricken areas after the Great East Japan Earthquake. Most of the ghost tales seem to result from a variety of unconscious anxieties but there are no professional support workers available for people to consult with about them other than religious people, especially Buddhist monks. Furthermore, even these religious people do not necessarily have any particular prescription that has been prepared by their sect or denomination to deal with such tales. However, this could be an advantage for them from the viewpoint of spiritual care, because it makes it possible for them to listen in an open and frank manner, and with an unbiased view to these stories.The main characteristics of the care provided by such religious professionals is that they aim not only at removing troubling symptoms as medical doctors do, but also aim for creating a better quality of life for people by restoring their views of life and the world. The experts do this through conducting religious ceremonies intended to bring peace to the restless souls of the dead. Even if they believe that the “true” cause of occult phenomena is some secular anxiety, they deal with these phenomena as religious or spiritual issues instead of reducing them to secular matters to be resolved by secular means. This is why religious people can take a unique role among caregivers and it is of importance to reconsider the role of the religious professionals as social capital.
2 0 0 0 ヨセフスと新約聖書
- 著者
- スティーヴ・メイソン著 浅野淳博訳
- 出版者
- リトン
- 巻号頁・発行日
- 2007
2 0 0 0 『ブレイブ・ストーリー』で考える物語の役割 (生と死に寄り添う)
2 0 0 0 OA 鯰絵にみる震災体験の心理的関与によるイメージ化過程
- 著者
- 福田 周
- 出版者
- リトン
- 雑誌
- 死生学年報 = Annual of the institute of thanatology
- 巻号頁・発行日
- vol.10, pp.207-236, 2014-03-31
In this article, the process of psychological recovery from trauma caused by a major earthquake through the use of namazu (gigantic catfish) drawings (called namazue in Japanese) is examined. Namazue can bee seen in the tile block print pictures found in kawaraban, newspapers of the Tokugawa Period, several of which were published around the time of the Great Ansei Earthquake (1855) which struck Edo (Tokyo) at the end of the Edo Period.Ordinary people in Edo used catfish to symbolize the damage caused by the earthquake and their feelings toward it. According to Komatsu (1995), they were able to reduce their earthquake-related fear and anxiety through namazue. Komatsu classified the psychological modification process of the images of namazue into four categories: a) Direct expression, b) Imagery representing cursing, c) Personified and ambiguous images, and d) Images of recovery.This process is then compared with that of post-traumatic play therapy. Using a drawing of one elementary school student who suffered from a recent earthquake experience as an example, the same self-healing process of creating images of namazue can be seen.In conclusion, for reconstruction in the disaster area of the Great East Japan Earthquake to proceed, the author recommends that: 1) people should be mindful of the potential psychological effects that namazue may have on psychological recovery from trauma; 2) people should trust their own, innate human power of recovery; and 3) an environment should be created in which the psychological recovery process can proceed smoothly.
2 0 0 0 霊媒から腹話術師へ (死後世界と死生観)
2 0 0 0 エピクロスの神と原子論的救済 (〈スピリチュアル〉をめぐって)
1 0 0 0 OA 記憶される死者 忘却される死者
From the 14th century, Japanese people experienced an enormous shift in terms of intellectual history. The idea of “the other world,” which during the early part of the medieval period had been overpowering reality, went through a rapid process of decline. While a wave of secularization swept society as a whole, the image of a far away Pure Land as the place for one’s rebirth after death faded among people, and the view that this present world was the only reality, began to spread. As a result, peace for dead people was no longer found in setting off for a distant Pure Land, but in abiding in a specific spot in this world, waiting for periodic visits by descendants and listening to the chanting of sutras.The formation of a general social notion according to which the dead abided in their graves meant the rise of the belief that in the afterlife, one would also be able to keep an eye on the daily lives of one’s loved ones from inside the grave. The feeling of “resting under the sod” shared by modern people developed after this cosmological shift, gradually spreading throughout early modern Japanese society. These days, as the notion of a person’s death occurring at a specific point in time demonstrates, people think there is a clear line to be drawn between life and death. Most people nowadays have a general image of someone passing from the world of the living to that of the dead more or less in an instant. However this understanding which might now be thought to have been so familiar to people in the middle ages, is entirely peculiar to the modern and contemporary periods of human history.
1 0 0 0 死生学の拡がり
- 著者
- 東洋英和女学院大学死生学研究所編
- 出版者
- リトン
- 巻号頁・発行日
- 2023
- 出版者
- リトン
- 巻号頁・発行日
- 2005
1 0 0 0 OA 『ギルガメシュ叙事詩』における永遠の命と知恵
- 著者
- 渡辺 和子
- 出版者
- リトン
- 雑誌
- 死生学年報 = Annual of the Institute of Thanatology, Toyo Eiwa University
- 巻号頁・発行日
- vol.1, pp.105-128, 2005-03-31
The standard version of the Epic of Gilgamesh composed in Akkadian in the second millennium BC narrates the adventures of Gilgamesh, the tyrannical ruler of Uruk, and his heroic quest for immortality. After Gilgamesh grieved over the death of his beloved friend Enkidu, he became frightened by the inevitability of death and he set out on a long journey to visit Ut-napishtim, the wise, who had survived the flood in ancient times and had been endowed with immortality by the gods. Ut-napishtim, tells Gilgamesh, how he survived the flood with the help of Ea, the god of wisdom. Then he says to Gilgamesh, “But now, who will bring the gods to assembly for you, so you can find the life you search for? Come, for six days and seven nights do not sleep!” (XI 207-209) Gilgamesh fails this challenge and realizes it is impossible for him to obtain eternal life. On the return journey, Gilgamesh manages to find the herb of rejuvenation, which Ut-napishtim had told him about. But a snake chances upon the herb, eats and casts off its skin, depriving of Gilgamesh the rejuvenation he had hoped for.The present author does not agree with M. Eliade who argued that the Epic of Gilgamesh narrates the failed initiation of Gilgamesh due to his lack of wisdom. The editor of the Epic, possibly Sin-l?qi-unninni, must have intended to bring the immortal Ut-napishtim and the mortal Gilgamesh together by incorporating the flood myth into the Epic. The purpose of the editor seems to have been to declare that the times in which immortality could have been given to a human being were 128 long past.At the beginning of the Epic, the editor introduced Gilgamesh as the extremely wise man who “came a distant road and was weary but was granted rest.”Although Gilgamesh had returned to Uruk in vain, it is suggested that he became wise and overcame the fear of death. The Epic narrates, in my view, a story of a successful initiation which has been appealing to the people until today.
1 0 0 0 OA 身体の傷と心の傷:フリーダ・カーロの絵画にみる生と死の語り
Frida Kahlo was a woman painter born in Mexico in the first half of the 20th century. Many of her works were self-portraits in which she expressed her own personal suffering in her work. This suffering included the aftermath of childhood poliomyelitis, distress due to disability after a traffic accident, and her agony over her love for her husband, Diego Rivera.In Kahlo’s life she was repeatedly deprived of attachment figures. Kahlo’s suffering can be traced to two major experiences:[1] She was deprived of the relationship with her mother due to the birth of her sister.[2] Her relationship with her body was seriously altered due to polio and the traffic accident.Regarding [1], she was first left without a relationship with her mother at the time of her sister’s birth. This was because Kahlo came to be brought up by her nanny, instead of her mother who was more focused on her sister. A close relationship with one’s mother gives a child a sense of basic trust. Regarding [2], she lost the freedom to take action; therefore, she developed an introverted character. As a child, Kahlo asked for salvation from imaginary companions while she was under medical treatment. In her adult life, she turned to the canvas for salvation.A theme appeared in her later self-portraits that had not been seen in her early work. This was a transformation of her relationship with her mother into one with the Great Mother or Mother Earth. In the end, Kahlo could not connect intimately with others in direct relations. She could, however, connect with Rivera thorough symbolic relations that represented a unity rooted in Mother Earth. It was here that Kahlo finally found peace.
1 0 0 0 OA 江戸の怪談にみる死生観
Many people would probably agree that ghosts are one of the most interesting subjects in Japanese thought and culture, and a subject that has always drawn interest from abroad. In addition to considering the remarkable popularity the ghost theme has enjoyed, another interesting perspective presents itself which involves a comparison of the ghost-related culture in different societies of the world. Because death is a universal phenomenon, the problem of the unhappy dead and ghosts appears throughout the world, across both geographical and temporal boundaries. Therefore, with ghosts being established as an important focus for scholarship, the author offers one perspective on the topic in this paper. In this article, the question of why ghosts and ghost-related culture came to be so popular in the Edo period will be addressed.It goes without saying that fearful tales of the dead have been told in all periods and places. On the Japanese archipelago, however, the majority of these tales have their origins in the early modern period or later. Why is it that ghost stories and tales of the supernatural in Japan emerged predominantly in the early modern and modern periods, when society was undergoing a process of secularization? The author will answer this question by a comparison of the customs of the Japanese medieval and early modern periods, taking account of the changes which occurred relating to tombs and funerary practices. In searching for the cause of the large-scale emergence of ghosts in the early modern period, the author will also highlight the shift in Japanese cosmology which occurred between the medieval and early modern periods.
People in Ancient Mesopotamia (ca. 3000-500 BC) believed that they would continue to exist as spirits (et.emmu) after death in the netherworld and they must be fed with kispu, which their living family had to periodically offer to them (see the author's "Offering for the Dead in Mesopotamia," Annual of the Institute of Thanatology 2007).If the spirits were not adequately buried or taken care of, they could cause various troubles for the living. These could be evil omens, frightening apparitions, or physical or mental diseases. The professionals who handled these problems were called ??ipu which is still defined by standard Akkadian dictionaries as 'magician.' Recent studies have shown that the ??ipu belonged to a temple and had not one but several functions including priest, magician and physician. And the asu, which is conventionally translated as 'physician,'was proved to have been the pharmacist, bone setter and performer of minor surgery and to have assisted the ??ipu. JoAnn Scurlock (esp. 2002, 2005 and 2006) contributed greatly in presenting a much clearer image of the ??ipu caring for spirits and healing diseases caused by them in Mesopotamia. It is not easy to understand ancient phenomena as belonging to several modern categories such as religion, magic and science, at the same time. These categories, however, are undergoing reconsideration today.Departed spirits are the responsibility of the living family. But many texts assumed the existence of all kinds of spirits, of both known and unknown people, which might cause trouble for unspecified reasons. It can be compared with the long Japanese tradition caring for not only メソポタミアの「慰霊」と「治療」 the spirits of one's own family, shouryou( 精霊), but also the spirits of strangers, muen-botoke( 無縁仏), mainly on the occasion of urabon( 盂蘭盆). Anthropology and Ethnology have been the analyzing ambiguous attitude of living people toward their ancestors and the dead who might be merciful or frightening for them.V. Jankelevitch (1966), a French philosopher, distinguished 'the death in the third person, in the second person and in the first person.' However, he added that death in each person is reflexively death in the first person. Ph. Aries (1977) adopted certain key terms such as 'the death of the self (la mort de soi)' and 'thy death (la mort de toi)' from Jankelevitch for his reconstruction of a history of Western Europe from the Middle Ages to fit the respective attitudes toward death. Aries added that death has come to be thought of as taboo in the latter half of 20th century in Europe.K. Yanagida (1995) applied the theory of 'person' in death to describe matters related to death in contemporary Japan. He explained that 'my death,' 'your death' and 'his/her/people's death' are all totally different. He later (2002) suggested, however, the idea of 'death in person two-pointfive(' 二・五人称), so that we could have an empathy with 'death in the third person.' It is not rare now in Japan to hear : 'His/Her death is for me the death in 'person two-point-three(' 二・三人称), that is: 'nearer to the second person than to the third person.' In Japanese, grammatical person is usually expressed in cardinal numbers, (such as 'person one' (一人称), not in ordinal numbers such as 'the first person' (第一人称). This makes it possible to add further divisions between two and three.It is not wrong to adopt foreign thoughts and terminologies and to improve on or change them to make them fit for our situation in Japan. We should, however, consider the ambiguity of both death and the dead. We should also be aware of distortions that occur when we use modern and contemporary terms for ancient phenomena.
1 0 0 0 OA 死後世界の体感 : 聴こえない音を語る
In comparison to visual expressions describing the after-life, there are fewer descriptions of its sounds. At first this might seem to be because of a difficulty of expression, but the importance of certain tales of “sound” in the other world may arise from the very fact that it is so difficult to talk about that aspect.In this paper, the expressions of sound in the iconography and tales of the after-life in Europe of the Middle Ages will first be considered. That will be followed by an explanation of the concept of the “music of spheres”existing since the Pythagoreans. This sound is said to be harmonious and perfect, but quite difficult to hear. Thus it is literally the “ideal” sound. This concept became the basis for a common expression of the sounds in the afterlife in the Middle Ages, contrasting the ideal sounds of heaven with real sounds from life on earth describing the cacophony of hell.A further look will then be taken into the Celtic view of the other world, one that is deeply connected to the classification of tales of “journeys to the other world” during the Middle Ages. That examination leads to a consideration of the manner in which there was an intermingling of, on the one hand, the Pythagorean concept of a vertical heavenly scale (scale of spheres) and a rising musical scale with, on the other hand, the Celtic images of a horizontal movement of a journey to the end of this world. This overlaps with the aspiration for a “kingdom of God” that includes an earthly paradise.In the modern age, there has not necessarily been a successful sharing and handing down of tales of the afterlife. Despite this, in some accounts of near-death experience, much like in the tales of the past, confirmation can be made of an eagerness to express the sounds of the other world that 26 ordinarily would be impossible to express. It is also an important fact that the power of sound holds major significance for humans in terminal care who are striving to hurdle the wall of death. It is believed that hearing is the sense that remains until the very end of a person’s life. It is also clear that familiar songs from childhood fulfill a function of providing peace of mind as well as consoling people with worries.Both in the past and today, people ordinarily are unable to hear the sounds of heaven. Nevertheless, people have been trying to hear and describe the “inaudible sounds” of ascending to heaven in the purest, most ideal sounds that they can hear in this world. People may proceed along a journey to an afterlife ringing with unknown sounds that transcend life while being supported by nostalgic songs and the power of sound.
Coping with disease and taking action to maintain one's health have been both personal and private undertakings in many cultures of the world. In 19th century America, people sought help among family, relatives, and the surrounding community when they were sick, or turned to advice books when they wished to improve their health. Such practices continue even now, though public health interventions have also become common since the early 20th century. In this article, some factors leading to the rise in public health interventions in 20th century America are explained. Initially there was criticism and resistance when unknown persons such as public health officials or well-meaning third persons advised the public to get vaccinated or follow proper sanitation and hygiene rules, so as to be admitted as "decent citizens" by the mainstream. However, through seemingly scientific child-rearing advice given by people who were concerned about decreasing the infant mortality rate, immigrants and poor families began to accept check-ups and interventions by visiting nurses and public health officials. Children were also a channel for promoting modern public health services, and for spreading the ideology that personal health connects to public responsibility.
1 0 0 0 OA ローマ人の死生観:古代ローマの墓について
- 著者
- 島 創平
- 出版者
- リトン
- 雑誌
- 死生学年報 = Annual of the Institute of Thanatology, Toyo Eiwa University
- 巻号頁・発行日
- vol.2, pp.45-58, 2006-03-31
The Romans had to provide for their own burial places. Rich Romans spent huge amount of money to build their monumental tombs. But many poor Romans left no memorial. Their corpses were thrown unceremoniously into collective pits (puticuli) outside the city. So in order to make sure to have their burial places, they became members of cooperative burial clubs (collegia), or they depended on wealthy patrons, who provided collective burial chambers (columbaria) for them.Later as the population of the city of Rome grew, the price of land around the city soared. And the way of burial gradually changed from cremation to interment. Consequently the shortage of place for burial became serious problem. For that reason, burial places were located underground.