What are People in Bali Doing in Pandemic: Understanding the Shape of Health Behavior and the Pitutur Tua

In the early occurrence of the Covid-19 pandemic, Indonesian and the world regarded Bali having a unique mechanism. Balinese or Bali residents are assumed excellently immune or difficulty infected from Covid-19. Interestingly, Balinese do not show overwhelmed panic as occurs in other areas although the Covid-19 cases in Bali are not low. There are various reasons why Balinese's actions to protect their health consider beliefs, religion, and culture. This paper is a survey of the Balinese's distinctive perception and behavior to face Covid-19. The information was gained from comments, opinions, and information about typical behavior posted on mass media and social media. The main source of the information was the WhatsApp groups of Banjar community (60 people), Bali academicians (76 people), Hindu organization alumni (113 people), and Bali medical staff (30 people). This study collected the information and conversations during early months of the pandemic in 2020 and 2021 when the Covid-19 cases skyrocketed and the government implemented the Community Activities Restrictions Enforcement (PPKM). This study concludes that the belief in the power of nature makes the sincerity and acceptance more easily appear. Moreover, tradition strengthens the trust. Support in social life also increases cooperative actions to the rules or advices of the Bali government and the custom village assembly to protect society from the pandemic.Copyright © 2021 Muslim OT et al.

Learning from Ritual: Covid-19 Public Health Measures and Messaging in Timor-Leste

In this paper, I reflect on the significance of ritual activity directed towards COVID-19 in Timor-Leste. What, if anything, it tells us about East Timorese beliefs and attitudes regarding infectious disease and why understanding the cultural dimensions of infectious disease is critical to public health responses. Timor-Leste recorded its first COVID-19 case on March 21st, 2020. Over the course of the following weeks elders held ritual ceremonies across the country to mobilise the ancestors and ask for their assistance to keep COVID-19 at bay. These ceremonies circulated widely on social media within Timor-Leste and among the East Timorese diaspora. In parallel to this initial flourishing of ritual activity the government swiftly enacted legislation to declare a state of emergency, closing international borders and establishing quarantine centres across the country. In many ways the health authorities' response to COVID-19 has been exemplary, with low case numbers and 0 deaths throughout 2020. However, since February 2021 COVID-19 cases have increased exponentially, exposing social cleavages based on education, language and socio-economic position. With limited resources, the health authorities, and in particular the Centre for Integrated Crisis Management, have focused on prevention, contact tracing and testing, adhering to WHO guidelines and emphasising `best practices. Yet, the response has been criticized for being top-down and heavy handed. For example, certain public health measures, such as mandatory testing and burial protocols, have been poorly communicated to the broader community. The use of bio-medical language and introduction of new terms and concepts has been excessively didactic and lacks local contextualization. For the majority of the population of Timor-Leste, especially those living in rural areas, lived experiences of illness and disease are interpreted primarily through and by customary beliefs and practices. The rituals directed towards COVID-19 demonstrate a clear understanding of the nature of infection, contamination, disease, models of causality and fears around infection. They also reveal local capacities to contain epidemics and the ability to learn with the bio-medical response. The levels of participation observed in COVID-19 rituals online and local support for these initiatives expressed on social media suggests at the very least that health authorities should engage with local communities in a two-way dialogue to discuss beliefs and existing prevention strategies that can assist and support public health objectives and measures.

Azan Pitu: The Pacification of Plagues rituals during the COVID-19 pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has spread to the whole world, including Indonesia. People have made various efforts to overcome this outbreak. One of them is through local wisdom, such as in Cirebon-Indonesia. Cirebon people carry out the Azan Pitu ritual to overcome the COVID-19 pandemic that has spread in Cirebon. This study aims to explore the local knowledge system or local wisdom regarding Azan Pitu in overcoming the COVID-19 outbreak. The method used in this research is a qualitative method with observation and in-depth interviews for collecting data. In the analysis process, this study uses Victor Turner's ritual theory and Bronislaw Malinowski's functional analysis theory. The study's results found that people first performed the Azan Pitu ritual to overcome the outbreak of menjangan wulung during the Sunan Gunung Djati era. However, Cirebon people maintain it as a tradition to prevent disease outbreaks, including during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Azan Pitu ritual to ward off COVID-19 has changed form and function, but it does not diminish its essential meaning: the community's efforts to expel COVID-19. Contribution: This study contributes to broadening insights into ritual studies, especially those related to epidemics and disasters.

The show must go on(line): Livestreamed concerts and the hyper-ritualisation of genre conventions

This paper examines audience engagement at livestreamed concerts, a form of mediatised cultural consumption that saw an immense growth in popularity during the COVID-19 pandemic. Concerts, as events that draw large groups of people with similar intentions, are the perfect location for the establishment of large-scale interaction rituals – moments of group behaviour characterised by a highly intense collective emotion. Furthermore, as social occasions, concerts are organised around a set of routine interactions that construct and define the collective experience. We argue that in moving online, the definition of the (concert) situation is highly impaired due to a context collapse. In comparing two distinct audiences (classical and Dutch popular music), the first aim of this research is to explore how these differing audiences adapt their cultural behaviour to the virtual sphere. Secondly, by adopting a microsociological perspective, we aim to broaden the theoretical understanding of virtual large-scale interaction rituals, an area becoming increasingly important due to the growth in online communication. This paper uses discourse analysis of the synchronised comments, left on livestreamed concerts on Facebook Live (n = 2,075), to examine the interaction between audience members. We find that both classical and Dutch popular music audiences use a form of hyper-ritualised interaction. In an attempt to combat the plurality of meanings online, they explicitly refer back to the central conventions of the face-to-face concert. This emphasises not only the significance of genre conventions, but also presents a form of virtual interaction distinct form interpersonal interaction.

Introduction An Appraisal of Participant Observation Methodology

All different sciences are defined in a specific way. It is not enough to define anthropology as a science that has studied human beings at all times and all places. It is the methodology of anthropology that is unique and increasingly appreciated by other fields. With the spread of COVID-19, as displacement became a problem, for the researcher and for those s/he had to be with, this methodology was temporarily put into question: social media or simply telephone contacts to gather data was used. The collection of articles in this issue reconfirms that it is through participant observation that the researcher can diligently and exhaustively study a topic or shine new light upon well-studied topics. Our topics are varied this time, some papers are from different fields, our methodology remains the same. © The Author(s)

The Coronavirus Came with the (One of the) World: What the Ritual Treatment of Coronavirus in a Himalayan Valley Can Teach Us

April 2019. In an indigenous community in the Nepalese Himalayas, a ritual is performed for Sansari, "the One of the World," to ward off coronavirus. Why respond to an epidemic with a ritual? On what basis do we associate a virus with a spiritual entity? How do we articulate anchoring in tradition and innovation? What does all this tell us about the relationship of this population to the world? In addition to a film on this ritual, this article proposes avenues of analysis and reflection on procedures of interpretation, of integration of the new and the foreign into a local system of knowledge and defense. © OpenEditions Journals. All Rights Reserved.

Engagement, Community, Activity, and Helpfulness as Predictors of Social Solidarity during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Poland

In light of the COVID-19 epidemic, this paper aimed to scientifically validate Randall Collins' eclectic interaction ritual theory. It was anticipated that a crisis scenario would result in the discharge of emotional energy, which would be conveyed through contacts in the form of participation, community, action for the benefit of others, and helpfulness. Accordingly, it was hypothesized that this energy influences the perception of social cohesion, but its potency may be contingent on pandemic waves. Based on data acquired in Poland during the first and third pandemic waves, April-May 2020 (T1) and April 2021 (T2), respectively, the accepted analytic framework was developed. Through social networking sites, the sample was collected in a non-random fashion. It included 116 respondents between the ages of 17 and 77 (M = 40.10, SD = 15.05) from various parts of the country. Principal analyses were performed using multiple linear regression with the MLR (Robust Maximum Likelihood) estimator. As a result of our analyses, we discovered, firstly, that the sense of solidarity in a world destabilized by the COVID-19 pandemic was influenced by various predictors of varying strengths, depending on the wave of the pandemic, and, secondly, that the civic sector in Poland is crucial for the formation of civic attitudes involving independent management in social life. © 2022, Oxbridge Publishing House. All rights reserved.

Does social distancing make the heart grow fonder? The impact of work spouse interaction frequency on organizational outcomes

PurposeThe shift to remote work brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic dramatically limited spontaneous workplace interpersonal interactions. For one interpersonal relationship in particular, the work spouse, the sudden physical distance may impact the energy work spouses draw from one another. Drawing on interactional ritual theory, this study aims to investigate the relationship between interaction frequency and organizational outcomes mediated by relational energy amid the pandemic.Design/methodology/approachDuring the COVID-19 pandemic, working adults who indicated they had a work spouse were recruited via Qualtrics to participate in a two-part online study.FindingsComplete data from 120 participants across both time periods revealed that more frequent interaction between work spouses is associated with increased job satisfaction and affective commitment mediated by relational energy.Originality/valueThis study represents the first empirical examination of individual and organizational outcomes of a unique interpersonal workplace relationship. Additionally, this study enhances our understanding of the impact of relational energy in socially distanced situations between employees in a close, intimate (non-sexual) pair bond.

Bereavement in the Time of Covid-19: Learning from Experiences of the Bereaved

Introduction The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in many people experiencing bereavement in challenging circumstances. In April 2020 at a large London Trust, a "Bereavement Welfare Hub" (BWH) was established to offer support and advice by telephone to relatives and carers of all adults who died as inpatients. Data from these calls has been used to examine and learn from experiences of the bereaved at this time. Methods Data from BWH call records regarding 809 adults who died at the Trust in March - May 2020 were collated and analysed quantitatively. A random selection of 149 call records were examined using thematic analysis. Results 809 adults died at the Trust between March and May 2020. The mean age at death was 76 (SD=14) and 86% of deaths occurred on medical wards (outside intensive care). Bereavement calls were completed in 663 (82%) of cases. From analysis of call records, several themes that influenced the bereavement experience were identified. These included support from family and community, communication and contact with the dying person, support from bereavement services and ability to carry out usual rituals associated with dying. Conclusions Age is a significant risk factor for death from COVID-19 and the majority of deaths have occurred on medical wards. Improving hospital care of dying patients during the pandemic or at any time is relevant to geriatricians and other healthcare professionals working with older people. Our analysis identifies several factors which positively or negatively influenced the experiences of people bereaved during the first wave of COVID-19. From these findings, recommendations have been made which have the potential to improve the bereavement experience, particularly during the pandemic era.

‘The Jews are our Misfortune!' Contemporary antisemitism as a hydra-headed phenomenon

Antisemitism has once again proven itself to be an international phenomenon, crossing borders and cultures with ease and adept at finding major issues in the public square, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, upon which to hang its claims. This article argues that antisemitism currently takes four major forms: Anti-Zionist antisemitism, which targets the State of Israel as a Jewish collectivity;Neo-Traditionalism, which revives pre-modern anti-Judaic notions in contemporary guise;Holocaust relativisation, which involves instrumentalizing and distorting the nature of the Holocaust without denying it outright;and anti-Judaism, which manifests in efforts to ban circumcision, kosher slaughter and other core Jewish rituals. The article concludes by examining whether the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) Working Definition of Antisemitism is an adequate tool for engaging with a growing problem, suggesting ways in which the definition might be amended to make it more effective.

'My memories of the time we had together are more important': Direct cremation and the privatisation of UK funerals

Funerals have long been of interest to social scientists. Previous sociological work has examined the relationship between individuality, belief and tradition within funeral services, founded on the assumption that public rituals have psycho-social benefit for organisers and attendees. With the introduction of direct cremation to the UK, and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on funeral service attendance in 2020 and 2021, critique of this assumption is now needed. Drawing on interviews with recently bereaved people who organised a direct cremation in late 2017, this article illustrates how compromise, control and consistency are key drivers for not having a funeral service. The article argues that a declining importance in the fate of the body and a move towards 'invite-only' commemorative events represents a waning need for social support offered by a public, communal funeral service. In turn, this indicates a sequestration, or privatisation, of the contemporary funeral. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

Between the Tibetan Plateau and Eastern China—Religious Tourism, Lay Practice and Ritual Economy during the Pandemic

This article presents various institutional responses of Buddhist groups and leaders to COVID-19, adding a focus on how Tibetan Buddhist practitioners in China have responded to the pandemic. In particular, it examines the predicament of practitioners of Tibetan Buddhism. The article focuses on the material characteristics of Tibetan Buddhism and how they were manifested among Han Chinese urbanites during the pandemic through (1) a teleological inquiry, which looks into the concept of merit (sk: puñña, ch: gongde) 功德, and (2) an organizational inquiry, which explores the modalities in which Han Chinese groups practice Tibetan Buddhism in the socio-political sphere of the Chinese state. Within this inquiry, the article deals with a Buddhist community based in Shanghai and an individual account of pilgrimage in Tibet. Based on these two case studies and their contextualization, the article aims to assess how the COVID-19 crisis has affected the practices, modalities and religious technologies of Tibetan Buddhism practiced by Han Chinese. The article argues for a degree of resilience of lay practice in Tibetan Buddhism;it stresses that while some aspects of the practice called for accommodations and change, the particularities of the practice have pre-existing conditions (such as state regulation on religion and the physical distance of their religious authority) which could accommodate the practical, sociological and psychological implications of the COVID-19 pandemic. © 2023 by the author.

Gaining resilience through transformative services in cause-related events: an interaction ritual chain perspective

PurposeThis study aims to unlock a ritual chain mechanism that promotes socio-mental (or socio-psychological) resilience. This study draws on interaction ritual chains theory and the concept of transformative service to answer the question of how people could be inspired toward an elevated level of group solidarity, emotional energy, morality and, thus, socio-mental resilience. Design/methodology/approachThis study took a qualitative approach resting upon online reviews and observations from an augmented food festival about hot pot delicacies dedicated to medical workers fighting hard amid the early coronavirus outbreak. FindingsThe results of this study point to four primary ritual outcomes (e.g. emotional energy, group solidarity, symbols of relationships and standards of morality) along with a two-tier micro-macro socio-mental resilience sustainability paradigm. Research limitations/implicationsEmpirical findings from this study could help operators to justify their transformative initiatives as means for customers to replenish their depleted physical and mental resources. Originality/valueThis inquiry presents new nuances to interaction ritual chains. This study also extends the transformative role of hospitality services to accentuate a linkage among individuals, communities and the society.

Thailand 2019-2021: Military, monarchy, protests

2019-2021 was a peculiar triennium for Thailand. In 2019, the military leaders who had seized power five years earlier with a coup d'état formed a civilian government via a carefully managed general election. Concomitantly, King Maha Vajiralongkorn, on the throne since 2016, underwent his coronation. While the rituals celebrated the formal beginning of his reign, the King exercised his influence over politics in ways deemed unusual for a country that calls itself a constitutional monarchy. In 2020, as COVID-19 spread worldwide, Thailand experienced more an economic than a health crisis. The number of infections remained remarkably low, but the economy recorded its worst performance since the financial crash of 1997. Only in 2021 did the pandemic become more important, the Government responding with Chinese-developed vaccines that many in Thailand deemed little efficacious. Enraged by political instability, economic stagnation, public health emergencies, and deepening relations with China, throughout 2020-2021, young people protested nationwide. Their mobilization marked the biggest instance of generational resistance since the student protests of the 1970s.

The Life of Rituals during the Pandemic: The Ritual Year Sief Wg Roundtable at the Sief 2021 Congress

This paper is an unconventional review of the online roundtable meeting under the heading "Perf 03c: Old Rituals, Changing Environments, New Rules III ", which took place on 23 June 2021, during the 15th Congress of the International Society for Ethnology and Folklore (SIEF), titled "Breaking the Rules? Power, Participation, Transgression ". It includes an analytic introduction and the edited transcript of the roundtable discussion. This roundtable concluded the work of two previous panels organised by the SIEF Ritual Year Working Group, narrowing the discussions to the impact the recent COVID-19 pandemic had on the ritual year. Scholars from nine countries discussed issues related to the changes in the lifecycle and calendric rituals brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. Through various case studies and auto-ethnographic observations, participants considered the changes in social and individual experiences;the increased interest of the society in the essence of rituals;rethinking of the emotional component of daily routine and festive events;the way ritual participants and researchers adapted to the restrictions imposed by local authorities;changes and negotiations of the ritual space;new business proposals related to the ritual sphere, as a response to the restrictions;and the use of new technologies in the ritual contexts.

Mediated Easter: Constructing Religious Rituals in a Lockdown

The COVID-19 pandemic led to major lockdowns over the world in 2020. This situation severely limited the possibility of several social activities, including religious gatherings. In Russia, the peak of the pandemic coincided with the central period in the Orthodox calendar - the last week of Lent and Easter. As the Patriarch blessed stay-at-home politics, churches were officially closed for everybody but the clergy, and live streams of services on social media were organized;believers had to adapt swiftly to a new mode of copresence in church by participating in services online. To do this, they had to make a choice from the places from which the live stream was organized, transform the space of their homes to accommodate sacrality of the event, rethink the locality of their own body in being instantly at home and "in church", and manage communication with the priest, fellow parishioners, and family members during Easter night. This involved subtle mechanisms of balancing authority within the network of sacred objects, gadgets, and people. Based on digital ethnography (including participant observation online) and 40 in-depth interviews, the paper investi-gates how believers constructed and reflected the space of the Easter service in their homes, and presents three key strategies: synchronization, spacing, and appellation to experience.

'The Jews are our Misfortune!' Contemporary antisemitism as a hydra-headed phenomenon

Antisemitism has once again proven itself to be an international phenomenon, crossing borders and cultures with ease and adept at finding major issues in the public square, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, upon which to hang its claims. This article argues that antisemitism currently takes four major forms: Anti-Zionist antisemitism, which targets the State of Israel as a Jewish collectivity;Neo-Traditionalism, which revives pre-modern anti-Judaic notions in contemporary guise;Holocaust relativisation, which involves instrumentalizing and distorting the nature of the Holocaust without denying it outright;and anti-Judaism, which manifests in efforts to ban circumcision, kosher slaughter and other core Jewish rituals. The article concludes by examining whether the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) Working Definition of Antisemitism is an adequate tool for engaging with a growing problem, suggesting ways in which the definition might be amended to make it more effective.

Examinations in the Higher Education Space

Universities are central to society in that they contribute extensively to the delivery of competencies, skills and knowledge essential to the hi-tech world we have developed since the beginning of the industrial revolution. The Covid pandemic has forced academe to rethink the strategies that are used to assess students' competence. The purpose of this interpretive paper is to reflect on online examinations. In this paper, a short outline of traditional examinations is considered and compared with current examinations. This is important because it appears that examination strategies have not sufficiently evolved over the years to reflect the current circumstances. The different issues that affect the digital learning space are examined and some of the challenges are assessed. The practical implications of this research are that we as academe need to co-create the learning journey with our students. © 2022 Academic Publishing International. All rights reserved.

Understanding interaction rituals: The impact of interaction ritual chains of the live broadcast on people's wellbeing.

With the global pandemic of COVID-19, it has been striking psychological burdens on individuals. Under this background, more and more people get wellbeing by watching live broadcasts. However, the psychological mechanism behind this phenomenon is still a black box. This study finds that when people watch a live broadcast and interact with anchors and other people, an interaction ritual chain is formed, and emotional energy is generated, thus making people experience and understand the meaning of the live interaction ritual chains. Under the effect of the meaning transfer model, people will generate wellbeing. Specifically, the basic meaning of live interaction (emotional meaning and functional meaning) drives people's generation of wellbeing. The meanings of self-participation, self-display, self-concept, and self-renewal play a role in mediation in enhancing people's wellbeing with the basic meaning of live broadcast interaction.

Rituals of Coexistence: Bodies and Technology during Pandemics

Pandemics not only challenge health systems and the economy, they also deeply transform our everyday lives and the ways in which we coexist. People have to find new definitions of what it means to be close to one another, to show empathy and to comfort each other. With social distancing, we must learn how to use digital technologies to create novel forms of closeness. Viruses becomes the new other, alien forces that invisibly permeate social life. They find hosts predominantly in the places where humans get close to each other. Rituals such as eating, drinking, and dancing are the links that hold an otherwise largely disembodied culture together. I will combine a perspective on human cognitive evolution as an embodied process, the hedonist drive towards bodily encounter in Sigmund Freud's sense and the development of technology and the current tendency toward a culture of disembodiment. The article asks what the role of bodily ritual is in public space. Here I will argue that this is a vital role because it is the only way to create feelings of resonance and connectedness amongst larger groups of people. The pandemic prohibits these rituals, so we need to ask further: Does the pandemic lead to new forms of being together? This is closely linked to the accelerated development of technology. The more precise question is: Does technology afford new forms of embodiment? My aim is to introduce ideas of philosophical posthumanism to think in a productive way about incorporating technology in order to satisfy human needs for contact and resonance.