| Alcohol has been the means to induce altered states of consciousness in many religious contexts. This thesis challenges the current scholarly view of ritual drinking as merely a symbolic act. Through a broad cross-cultural survey, the range of ritual uses of alcohol is revealed.;Two cases are explored in more detail. Alcohol is established as the trigger which induced a state of spirit mediumship in the Zhou dynasty Chinese Personator of the Dead. The Ugaritic and Iron Age Palestinian marzeah is interpreted as a descent to the dead induced by alcohol consumption. Principal sources for these two cases are, respectively: Chinese Odes, histories and ritual texts, Ugaritic texts and Biblical prophetic literature. Archaeological evidence also contributes to understanding these two rituals in cultural context.;An analogical model of ancestor veneration is proposed as a comparative framework for analyses of the ritual role of the Personator and the marzeah. Ideologies of corporate family, the view of living and dead as interdependent, and divination as a means of communication across the grave are the central elements of this model. |
