Jürgen Wasim Frembgen
Biographic Data
| ID | 149157 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Jürgen Wasim Frembgen |
| GIVEN NAMES | Jürgen Wasim |
| FAMILY NAME | Frembgen |
| SIGNATURE | FREMBGEN J W |
| AFFILIATIONS | Five Continents Museum |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 22 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 23 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 22 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1992 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2021 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
Thus Spake the Dervish
Light at Pakistani Sufi Shrines
In Pakistan, the burning of oil lamps at Sufi shrines shapes the visitor’s sensual perception, but is above all connected with the practice of making vows. The offering of light is therefore considered auspicious in popular devotional Islam. Consequently, the lighting of lamps at shrines also marks the beginning of commemorative rituals and festivities. The present article documents and investigates contemporary lampstands, lamp niches, and lamp…
In brief
DHamāl and the Performing Body
Guided by the hypnotic repetitive sound of drums, the ritual trance dance known as dh amāl belongs to the multiple worlds of Pakistani Sufi shrines and is characteristic of the concrete devotional practices of rural people and the urban poor, especially in Sindh and the Punjab. Drawing on Ronald L. Grimes’s concept of distinguishing various modes of embodied ritual attitudes, the study explores the performance and aesthetics of this public, predo…
Itinerary Ear-Cleaners. Notes on a Marginal Profession in Urban Muslim Punjab
Anthropos , Seite 180 - 184
Jahn, Wiegand
Anthropos , Seite 258 - 260
Marginality, Sexuality and the Body
In contemporary Muslim Punjab, massage is an important body oriented practice that highlights the complex relationship between embodiment, sociality, marginality and sexuality. It constitutes a specific culture and technique of the body, not only embedded in systems of indigenous healing and care, but even more associated with feelings of pleasure, ease and wellbeing, with inherent sensory experiences. As such, it is actualised in different situa…
Honour, Shame, and Bodily Mutilation. Cutting off the Nose among Tribal Societies in Pakistan
Bodily mutilations, such as nose-cutting, are recorded worldwide from different cultural settings. Hence the custom is not solely an example of “Oriental violence and cruelty” (at times quoted in Orientalist sources from the colonial period). I want to emphasise that I am not arguing from the vantage point of a colonial discourse with its criticism of “degenerate and barbaric” social customs. Instead, this paper deals with the human body as a sym…
Divine Madness and Cultural Otherness
This article portrays several little-known examples of unusual and eccentric individuals embodying different forms of divine ‘madness’ and representing cultural otherness among local people in the high mountain areas of Northern Pakistan. The precise position of these men as more or less ‘holy’ ( diwāna and faqīr) or simply ‘crazy’ ( pāgal) remains evidently contested. The article argues that ultimately, through their marginal state, the various …
Embodying Evil and Bad Luck
Like other animals of the magical sphere, the bat is perceived as strange and frightening. Local bat names as well as sayings comparing human and bat behavior reflect the peculiar anatomy and characteristics of this nocturnal flying mammal. Oral traditions in southwest Asia predominantly show the animal as an embodiment of evil and carrier of bad luck. Therefore, body parts and liquids of the bat are used in practices of black magic. Nevertheless…
From Dervish to Saint
Tying and untying the trouser-cord
This paper focuses on a study of the multi-functional trouser-cord (that ties traditional Pakistani trousers) and its connotations within the Islamic dress tradition as well as local concepts of the body. Comparable to the importance of belts and loincloths in other cultures of the Muslim, Christian, and Hindu world, the apparently simple and unpretentious drawstring plays a central role in the Pakistani discourse of chastity and desire. On the o…
Lebensbaum und Kalaschnikow. Krieg und Frieden im Spiegel afghanischer Bildteppiche
Religious Folk Art as an Expression of Identity
Religious Folk Art As An Expression Of Identity
The Magicality of the Hyena
As an animal to which magical properties are attributed, the hyena has moved the imagination of people not only in Africa, where it plays a prominent role in myth and ritual, but also in western and southern Asia. The striped hyena, a nocturnal scavenger, is sometimes caught alive in Asia and employed in animal fights. The A. shows how all parts of a newly dead hyena are used in love magic and to ward off evil
Saints in Modern Devotional Poster-Portraits
Irrigation and State Formation in Hunza
Irrigation and State Formation in Hunza explores the evolution of political complexity and centralization in Hunza, a remote high-mountain kingdom in the western Karakoram mountains. The author follows the argument that the rise of the Hunza state is directly linked to the construction of Hunza's large-scale irrigation works during the late 18th and early-19th centuries
Hunza Proverbs
The Folklore of Geckos
This paper is based on an empirical study of human behavior, attitudes, and beliefs toward geckos in South and West Asia. Proverbs, sayings, and information provided by numerous informants show that the common small house geckos are regarded as ominous creatures associated with ill fortune. They are also considered highly impure, and thought to be carriers of leprosy and other diseases. People are nevertherless rather ambivalent on the question o…
Alltagsverhalten in Pakistan
The Arts and Crafts of the Swat Valley
The upper Swat valley in the mountain region of north Pakistan, not well known even to those with a special interest in the Orient, has one of the most remarkable cultures in the Islamic world, influenced by the cultures of central Asia, China and India. The harvests from the valley's fertile soil have made possible the development of various castes practising a variety of crafts, and the mountains have long provided the raw material most importa…
The Magicality of the Hyena
As an animal to which magical properties are attributed, the hyena has moved the imagination of people not only in Africa, where it plays a prominent role in myth and ritual, but also in western and southern Asia. The striped hyena, a nocturnal scavenger, is sometimes caught alive in Asia and employed in animal fights. The A. shows how all parts of a newly dead hyena are used in love magic and to ward off evil
The Folklore of Geckos
This paper is based on an empirical study of human behavior, attitudes, and beliefs toward geckos in South and West Asia. Proverbs, sayings, and information provided by numerous informants show that the common small house geckos are regarded as ominous creatures associated with ill fortune. They are also considered highly impure, and thought to be carriers of leprosy and other diseases. People are nevertherless rather ambivalent on the question o…
Honour, Shame, and Bodily Mutilation. Cutting off the Nose among Tribal Societies in Pakistan
Bodily mutilations, such as nose-cutting, are recorded worldwide from different cultural settings. Hence the custom is not solely an example of “Oriental violence and cruelty” (at times quoted in Orientalist sources from the colonial period). I want to emphasise that I am not arguing from the vantage point of a colonial discourse with its criticism of “degenerate and barbaric” social customs. Instead, this paper deals with the human body as a sym…
Marginality, Sexuality and the Body
In contemporary Muslim Punjab, massage is an important body oriented practice that highlights the complex relationship between embodiment, sociality, marginality and sexuality. It constitutes a specific culture and technique of the body, not only embedded in systems of indigenous healing and care, but even more associated with feelings of pleasure, ease and wellbeing, with inherent sensory experiences. As such, it is actualised in different situa…
Divine Madness and Cultural Otherness
This article portrays several little-known examples of unusual and eccentric individuals embodying different forms of divine ‘madness’ and representing cultural otherness among local people in the high mountain areas of Northern Pakistan. The precise position of these men as more or less ‘holy’ ( diwāna and faqīr) or simply ‘crazy’ ( pāgal) remains evidently contested. The article argues that ultimately, through their marginal state, the various …
From Dervish to Saint
Saints in Modern Devotional Poster-Portraits
The Arts and Crafts of the Swat Valley
The upper Swat valley in the mountain region of north Pakistan, not well known even to those with a special interest in the Orient, has one of the most remarkable cultures in the Islamic world, influenced by the cultures of central Asia, China and India. The harvests from the valley's fertile soil have made possible the development of various castes practising a variety of crafts, and the mountains have long provided the raw material most importa…
Embodying Evil and Bad Luck
Like other animals of the magical sphere, the bat is perceived as strange and frightening. Local bat names as well as sayings comparing human and bat behavior reflect the peculiar anatomy and characteristics of this nocturnal flying mammal. Oral traditions in southwest Asia predominantly show the animal as an embodiment of evil and carrier of bad luck. Therefore, body parts and liquids of the bat are used in practices of black magic. Nevertheless…
Tying and untying the trouser-cord
This paper focuses on a study of the multi-functional trouser-cord (that ties traditional Pakistani trousers) and its connotations within the Islamic dress tradition as well as local concepts of the body. Comparable to the importance of belts and loincloths in other cultures of the Muslim, Christian, and Hindu world, the apparently simple and unpretentious drawstring plays a central role in the Pakistani discourse of chastity and desire. On the o…
The Arts and Crafts of the Swat Valley
The upper Swat valley in the mountain region of north Pakistan, not well known even to those with a special interest in the Orient, has one of the most remarkable cultures in the Islamic world, influenced by the cultures of central Asia, China and India. The harvests from the valley's fertile soil have made possible the development of various castes practising a variety of crafts, and the mountains have long provided the raw material most importa…
Alltagsverhalten in Pakistan
The Folklore of Geckos
This paper is based on an empirical study of human behavior, attitudes, and beliefs toward geckos in South and West Asia. Proverbs, sayings, and information provided by numerous informants show that the common small house geckos are regarded as ominous creatures associated with ill fortune. They are also considered highly impure, and thought to be carriers of leprosy and other diseases. People are nevertherless rather ambivalent on the question o…
Irrigation and State Formation in Hunza
Irrigation and State Formation in Hunza explores the evolution of political complexity and centralization in Hunza, a remote high-mountain kingdom in the western Karakoram mountains. The author follows the argument that the rise of the Hunza state is directly linked to the construction of Hunza's large-scale irrigation works during the late 18th and early-19th centuries
Hunza Proverbs
Religious Folk Art as an Expression of Identity
Religious Folk Art As An Expression Of Identity
The Magicality of the Hyena
As an animal to which magical properties are attributed, the hyena has moved the imagination of people not only in Africa, where it plays a prominent role in myth and ritual, but also in western and southern Asia. The striped hyena, a nocturnal scavenger, is sometimes caught alive in Asia and employed in animal fights. The A. shows how all parts of a newly dead hyena are used in love magic and to ward off evil
Saints in Modern Devotional Poster-Portraits
Lebensbaum und Kalaschnikow. Krieg und Frieden im Spiegel afghanischer Bildteppiche
From Dervish to Saint
Tying and untying the trouser-cord
This paper focuses on a study of the multi-functional trouser-cord (that ties traditional Pakistani trousers) and its connotations within the Islamic dress tradition as well as local concepts of the body. Comparable to the importance of belts and loincloths in other cultures of the Muslim, Christian, and Hindu world, the apparently simple and unpretentious drawstring plays a central role in the Pakistani discourse of chastity and desire. On the o…
Honour, Shame, and Bodily Mutilation. Cutting off the Nose among Tribal Societies in Pakistan
Bodily mutilations, such as nose-cutting, are recorded worldwide from different cultural settings. Hence the custom is not solely an example of “Oriental violence and cruelty” (at times quoted in Orientalist sources from the colonial period). I want to emphasise that I am not arguing from the vantage point of a colonial discourse with its criticism of “degenerate and barbaric” social customs. Instead, this paper deals with the human body as a sym…
Divine Madness and Cultural Otherness
This article portrays several little-known examples of unusual and eccentric individuals embodying different forms of divine ‘madness’ and representing cultural otherness among local people in the high mountain areas of Northern Pakistan. The precise position of these men as more or less ‘holy’ ( diwāna and faqīr) or simply ‘crazy’ ( pāgal) remains evidently contested. The article argues that ultimately, through their marginal state, the various …
Embodying Evil and Bad Luck
Like other animals of the magical sphere, the bat is perceived as strange and frightening. Local bat names as well as sayings comparing human and bat behavior reflect the peculiar anatomy and characteristics of this nocturnal flying mammal. Oral traditions in southwest Asia predominantly show the animal as an embodiment of evil and carrier of bad luck. Therefore, body parts and liquids of the bat are used in practices of black magic. Nevertheless…
Marginality, Sexuality and the Body
In contemporary Muslim Punjab, massage is an important body oriented practice that highlights the complex relationship between embodiment, sociality, marginality and sexuality. It constitutes a specific culture and technique of the body, not only embedded in systems of indigenous healing and care, but even more associated with feelings of pleasure, ease and wellbeing, with inherent sensory experiences. As such, it is actualised in different situa…
Itinerary Ear-Cleaners. Notes on a Marginal Profession in Urban Muslim Punjab
Anthropos , Seite 180 - 184
Jahn, Wiegand
Anthropos , Seite 258 - 260
DHamāl and the Performing Body
Guided by the hypnotic repetitive sound of drums, the ritual trance dance known as dh amāl belongs to the multiple worlds of Pakistani Sufi shrines and is characteristic of the concrete devotional practices of rural people and the urban poor, especially in Sindh and the Punjab. Drawing on Ronald L. Grimes’s concept of distinguishing various modes of embodied ritual attitudes, the study explores the performance and aesthetics of this public, predo…
In brief
Light at Pakistani Sufi Shrines
In Pakistan, the burning of oil lamps at Sufi shrines shapes the visitor’s sensual perception, but is above all connected with the practice of making vows. The offering of light is therefore considered auspicious in popular devotional Islam. Consequently, the lighting of lamps at shrines also marks the beginning of commemorative rituals and festivities. The present article documents and investigates contemporary lampstands, lamp niches, and lamp…
Thus Spake the Dervish
Art (11 works) · History (10 works) · Sociology (10 works) · Philosophy (8 works) · Aesthetics (7 works) · History (7 works) · Computer Science (6 works) · Geography (6 works) · Ancient history (5 works) · Gender Studies (5 works)