Art and Ritual Life
Key Terms
Altar: a sacrificial or offertory table.
Animist: the belief that spirits are associated with objects in the natural world.
Burial Mounds: early cultural collections of skeletal remains and grave goods.
Cromlech: a circular arrangement of megaliths.
Dolmen: a large upright stone or marker.
Effigy Mounds: earth mounds formed in the shape of animals or symbols.
Egungun: a general term for Yoruba masquerade rituals.
Elevated Platform: a raised area intended to confer status.
Gateway: a structure intended to mark a passage from one state, world, or phase to another.
Grave Goods: artifacts interred with deceased members of family or tribes.
Imam: the Islamic prayer leader charged with issuing the call to prayer at appointed times.
Mandala: a ritual diagram with cosmic significance. Includes circular or circular components designed for contemplating specific teachings or tenets related to the particular belief system. Varieties are used by diverse sects of Hinduism, Buddhism, Native American tribal worship, and others.
Mausolea: plural of mausoleum. An above-ground structure designed for the entombment of the deceased.
Megalith: literally, "large stone."
Minaret: a tower, usually tall and slender, associated with a mosque and signifying Islamic presence in a location.
Pagoda: a Buddhist structure in China, Japan, and elsewhere that signifies the practice of Buddhism. The form evolved from the burial mound conception of the Stupa that appeared in India as the primary structural symbol of the belief system. It spread to China and took on the native architectural form of the watchtower.
Portal: an exceptionally grand entrance, most often referring to a cathedral or other church architecture.
Ritual Mask: masks used in religious or secular ceremonial events.
Sacred Interior: interior spaces devoted to ritual or ceremony invoking the highest good.
Sacred: held as the highest good.
Sarcophagi: plural of the sarcophagus, a burial container, usually of stone or other masonry material, often embellished with sculptural decoration.
Stonehenge: a famous arrangement of vertical stones from prehistoric Britain.
Stupa: a Buddhist monument signifying the presence of relics of Sakyamuni Buddha or sacred objects associated with the beliefs. Formed of an earthen mound faced with brick, stone, or stucco. Worshippers circumambulate outside the stupa rather than enter it.
Temple Mound: earthen mounds formed to elevate a ceremony, ritual, or elite.
Terra Cotta: porous low-fired ceramic.
Terracotta Army: famous arrangement of 6,000 clay soldiers meant to guard the grave of the first emperor of China.
Toranas: stone structures placed at the Buddhist Stupa at Sanchi and at other stupa sites, which form gateways to the circular path around the stupa.