Bodies and Structures 2.0: Deep-Mapping Modern East Asian HistoryMain MenuGet to Know the SiteGuided TourShow Me HowA click-by-click guide to using this siteModulesRead the seventeen spatial stories that make up Bodies and Structures 2.0Tag MapExplore conceptsComplete Grid VisualizationDiscover connectionsGeotagged MapFind materials by geographic locationLensesCreate your own visualizationsWhat We LearnedLearn how multivocal spatial history changed how we approach our researchAboutFind information about contributors and advisory board members, citing this site, image permissions and licensing, and site documentationTroubleshootingA guide to known issuesAcknowledgmentsThank youDavid Ambaras1337d6b66b25164b57abc529e56445d238145277Kate McDonald306bb1134bc892ab2ada669bed7aecb100ef7d5fThis project was made possible in part by a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Deities
12019-11-27T22:35:10-05:00Evan Dawley7a40080bd5bb656cee837d5befaa3ea8e7a2ac44351A subsidary of Actorsplain2019-11-27T22:35:10-05:00Evan Dawley7a40080bd5bb656cee837d5befaa3ea8e7a2ac44Not all actors in this history were human, or even mortal, many were deities or ancestral spirits. Indeed, these were the figures who were able to cross the divide between sacred and physical geography. Humans could invite a deity to inhabit a particular temple, but only the deity could make the journey from one realm into the other. Humans could, at appointed times of the year, open the Hell Door to allow ghosts into the world, but only ghosts could cross through that portal. For both Taiwanese and Japanese, the deities manifested in the physical world in active ways, able to influence and guide the course of individual lives or collective processes. This presence was seen most clearly in the bureaucratic model of the pantheon of deities inherited from Chinese societies and embraced by the Taiwanese. The realm of the gods was envisioned as a hierarchy, with low-ranking deities, mapped to magistrates and lower-ranked bureaucrats, reporting up a chain of command, ultimately to the Yellow Emperor, who was a heavenly counterpart to the imperial rulers of China’s dynasties. Although Japanese traditions did not have such a highly schematic vision, in popular Shinto, the spirits (kami神) were everywhere.
This page has paths:
12019-11-27T22:32:33-05:00Evan Dawley7a40080bd5bb656cee837d5befaa3ea8e7a2ac44ActorsEvan Dawley4In this sub-pathway, I define the principal actors in the module.plain2020-02-29T20:35:54-05:00Evan Dawley7a40080bd5bb656cee837d5befaa3ea8e7a2ac44