Animals and Religion in Asia (Tel Aviv University, May 27-29, 2018)
First Day (May 27) (Social Science Building (Naftali), room 527)
Gathering and Greetings (10:00-10:15)
Animals in Chinese Religious Literature (10:15 – 12:15)
Chair: Galia Patt-Shamir (Tel Aviv University)
Vincent Goossaert (École pratique des hautes études) “Animals in Chinese morality books, 19th-20th centuries”
Meir Shahar (Tel Aviv University) “Chinese Animal-Healing Scriptures”
Sonya Özbey, (University of Michigan) “Those that Have Blood and Qi”: The psychophysical continuum of humanity and animality in the Xunzi.
Aviad Kleinberg (Tel Aviv University) “A Christian Response”
From Central Asia to Japan (14:00 – 15:45)
Chair: Gideon Shelach-Lavi (Hebrew University)
Irit Averbuch (Tel Aviv University) “The Cult of Animal Deities/Divine Animals in Japan”
Lewis Mayo (University of Melbourne) “Landscapes, Godscapes, Birdscapes: Guijin Dunhuang and the Religious History of Avian Life.” (Presented by Gad Isay (Tel-Hai College))
Liora Sarfati (Tel Aviv University) “Animal as Supernatural Messengers and Sacrificial Animals in Korean Shamanism”
Animal Gods and Beastly Demons (16:00 – 18:00)
Chair: Mark Gamsa (Tel Aviv University)
Barend ter Haar (Oxford University) “Animal Demons and Local Conflicts”
Keith Knapp (The Citadel) “The Meaning(s) of animals on Hunping 魂瓶 (Spirit Jars): The Religious Imagination of second to fourth century Jiangnan”
Gideon Bohak (Tel Aviv University) “Animals and Demons: A Jewish Perspective”
Second Day (May 28) (Yaglom Auditorium, Senate Building)
Archeological and Anthropological Perspectives (10:00 – 12:00)
Chair: Keith Knapp (The Citadel)
Yitzhack Jaffe (New York University) “To eat or not to eat? Animals and categorical fluidity in Shang society”
Gideon Shelach-Lavi (Hebrew University) “Human vs. Beasts and Wilde vs. Domesticated in Prehistoric Chinese Religions”
Nir Avieli (Ben-Gurion University of the Negev) “Dog Meat Politics in Contemporary Vietnam.”
Sacrificed or Released (14:00 – 15:45)
Chair: Nir Avieli (Ben-Gurion University of the Negev)
Ehud Halperin (Tel Aviv University) “There will be Blood: The Controversy over Animal Sacrifice in the Western Indian Himalaya”
Avi Darshani (McGill University) “Releasing Life or Releasing Death? Buddhist Animal Liberation in Contemporary China”
Ido Ben-Ami (Tel Aviv University) “Early Modern Ottoman Attentiveness to ‘Wonderful’ Animals.”
Between Buddhism and Daoism (16:00 – 18:00)
Chair: Roy Tzohar (Tel Aviv University)
Zhang Xing (Peking University and Université de Montréal) “The Monkey King and the Spread of Rāmāyaṇa in China”
Sylvie Hureau (École pratique des hautes études) “The Speaking Hen and the Buddhist Law”
Huaiyu Chen (Arizona State University) “Daoist Approaches to ‘Tiger Violence’ in Medieval China: A Comparative Perspective .”
Third Day (May 29) (Gilman 496)
Animals From China to the Ancient Near East (09:00-11:00)
Chair: Ori Sela (Tel Aviv University)
Paul R. Katz (Academia Sinica) “Dogs of Grain, Dogs of Rain: Canine Fertility Cults in Southwest China”
Lidar Sapir-Hen (Tel Aviv University) “Animals and Ritual in the Bronze Age of the Ancient Near East”
Liu Shufen (Academia Sinica) “中古佛教「天龍八部」的迦樓羅信仰 (The Fabulous Garuḍa Bird of the Medieval Buddhist ‘Eight Categories of Divine Beings’)” (Presented by Paul R. Katz (Academia Sinica))
