Informal Shrines and Social Transformations

2019/09/ezdie-1568440746.jpg
Read: 1633     12:00     14 Сентябрь 2019    

The Murids as new religious Mediators among Yezidis  in Armenia

Hamlet Melkumyan

This chapter will describe new trends on the religious life of Yezidis in Armenia. It will examine the attempts of the “low” murids to obtain more prestigious positions in the community comparable to the sheikhs through the construction and ownership of informal shrines, which are the alternative to already existing official temples and shrines. Current trends of arising private shrines have new social impacts on the traditional relation between sheikhs as high class and muridis as the layman caste. Traditionally Yezidi society is organized by strong hierarchical order (Omarkhali 2008) and has three hereditary castes: Sheiks, Pirs and Murids. Sheikhs are the highest religious leaders , pirs are the second highest, ‘clerical’ caste, and the murids are the lowest, mundane caste (Omarkhali 2008). The murids are considered impure from the point of view of sheikhs and pirs. Thus any connection to the sacral world on behalf of murids is made possible solely through sheikhs and pirs (Omarkhali 2008: 105; 107). Each murid clan is assigned a respective pirs and sheikh  (Kreyenbroek 1995; Asatrian and Arakelova 2004; Arakelova 2004: 20; Omarkhali 2008), whose prestigious functions are to organize the religious life of the community (baptism, wedding, funerals etc.) (see Arakelova and Amrian 2012).

Though religious canons put the sheikhs’ caste in a highly ranked position, the owners of informal shrines  assume that they will obtain new, more prestigious social status as well, which can be interpreted as social modernization from below.





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Informal Shrines and Social Transformations

2019/09/ezdie-1568440746.jpg
Read: 1634     12:00     14 Сентябрь 2019    

The Murids as new religious Mediators among Yezidis  in Armenia

Hamlet Melkumyan

This chapter will describe new trends on the religious life of Yezidis in Armenia. It will examine the attempts of the “low” murids to obtain more prestigious positions in the community comparable to the sheikhs through the construction and ownership of informal shrines, which are the alternative to already existing official temples and shrines. Current trends of arising private shrines have new social impacts on the traditional relation between sheikhs as high class and muridis as the layman caste. Traditionally Yezidi society is organized by strong hierarchical order (Omarkhali 2008) and has three hereditary castes: Sheiks, Pirs and Murids. Sheikhs are the highest religious leaders , pirs are the second highest, ‘clerical’ caste, and the murids are the lowest, mundane caste (Omarkhali 2008). The murids are considered impure from the point of view of sheikhs and pirs. Thus any connection to the sacral world on behalf of murids is made possible solely through sheikhs and pirs (Omarkhali 2008: 105; 107). Each murid clan is assigned a respective pirs and sheikh  (Kreyenbroek 1995; Asatrian and Arakelova 2004; Arakelova 2004: 20; Omarkhali 2008), whose prestigious functions are to organize the religious life of the community (baptism, wedding, funerals etc.) (see Arakelova and Amrian 2012).

Though religious canons put the sheikhs’ caste in a highly ranked position, the owners of informal shrines  assume that they will obtain new, more prestigious social status as well, which can be interpreted as social modernization from below.





Tags: