Cyber Execration: a case study of Ushi no Koku Mairi and its Re-Enchantment through online cursing
Journal Title: ESSACHESS - Journal for Communication Studies - Year 2011, Vol 4, Issue 2
Abstract
The practice of Ushi no Koku Mairi, a Japanese form of casting curses, has sustained changes from a pre-modern tradition to an online form of execration. Though once a practice imbued with magical qualities, rigid rationalization has undermined such qualities, resulting in disenchantment. The current form of cyber execration, however, and its seemingly limitless virtual features have served to reinstate cursing’s enchanting potential. This article provides a case study of Ushi no Koku Mairi as a phenomenon that is at once rationalized through systematic precepts of digital technology, and re-enchanted through the spectacle of simulation, implosion and the manipulation of time and space.
Authors and Affiliations
Salvador JIMENEZ MURGUIA| Maître de conférences, Miyazaki International College, Japon
Keywords
Related Articles
- EP ID EP9095
- DOI -
- Views 436
- Downloads 24
Are social media networks reinventing museum education tools? The case of the Suzon Facebook page at the Caen Memorial Museum
The focus of this study is the use of digital social networks in French museums. In this paper we wish to explore and understand the transformations brought about by digital social networks regarding the relation betwe...
The paradox of the research on project between communicative overcharge and cognitive silence
Funded Research by project is a common frame for scientific communities and institutions today. Scientific project management set up actors in a new double bind: to contribute to a large scale dissemination of scienti...
The semiotics of the sacred
What is called sacred is an identity, a practice or a social actor who escapes ordinary social practices. In the 18th century, Kant call transcendancy a non religious way of sublimying identities, independant from spac...
Challenges to Freedom of Expression in the Digital World: Lessons from WikiLeaks and the Arab Spring
Two recent developments – the WikiLeaks releases and the Arab Spring – have demonstrated the capacities of individuals and movements in advancing free expression, transparency and social change through the use of o...
Influence of the digit in receipt of information: a comparative approach
This article focuses on studying the potential power of influence of an information supported by statistics. The authors seek to explore this proposal from various hypotheses by comparing the relative effect on a group...