William R. Arfman Mphil
Doing interdisciplinary research is my passion and I therefore consider myself lucky to have had the opportunity to follow a Research Master in Archaeology/Anthropology of Mesoamerica and a Master in Comparative Religion as well as having worked at the highly interdisciplinary Centre for Thanatology of the Radboud University.
As a result of these forays into various disciplines my interests in the highly interdisciplinary fields of ritual studies and material culture studies have started to run like a red thread through my own research. On a more thematic level I’m particularly interested in the influences of globalisation, secularisation and modernity on religion in general, and rituals for the dead in particular.
Currently I am working on a PhD project for the University of Tilburg.
Books by this author
Analysing allerzielen alom. Material culture in an emerging riteWilliam R. Arfman – 2011 – (ISBN: 978-90-8890-061-7) | |
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Since 2005 Dutch artists Ida van der Lee’s Allerzielen Alom (or All Souls’ All Around) project has flowered throughout the Netherlands. In doing so it has brought a diverse public of various ages and religious as well as non-religious backgrounds together at hospitably decorated cemeteries and crematoria. William Arfman, archaeologist and Scholar of religion, has studied this modern tradition.
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Visiting the Calvario at Mitla, Oaxaca. A critical look at the continuity of a religious practiceWilliam R. Arfman – 2008 – (ISBN: 978-90-8890-008-2) | |
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In the centre of the Mexican town of Mitla stands a run-down chapel on an overgrown pre-colonial pyramid. This book explores the origins of the offerings of elaborate arrangements of flowers, fruits, black candles, cacao beans and bundles of copal incense on this location. To achieve this, current theories are combined with a study of archaeological, historical, iconographical and anthropological sources as well as ethnographic fieldwork.
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