Professional Priesthood List
A viewset for viewing and editing Professional Priesthoods.
GET /api/sc/professional-priesthoods/?format=api&page=9
{ "count": 464, "next": "https://seshat-db.com/api/sc/professional-priesthoods/?format=api&page=10", "previous": "https://seshat-db.com/api/sc/professional-priesthoods/?format=api&page=8", "results": [ { "id": 401, "polity": { "id": 775, "name": "mw_northern_maravi_k", "long_name": "Northern Maravi Kingdom", "start_year": 1500, "end_year": 1621 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "IFR", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Professional_priesthood", "professional_priesthood": "present", "comment": "EMPTY_COMMENT", "description": null }, { "id": 403, "polity": { "id": 223, "name": "ma_almoravid_dyn", "long_name": "Almoravids", "start_year": 1035, "end_year": 1150 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Professional_priesthood", "professional_priesthood": "present", "comment": null, "description": "\"the fuqaha (legal scholars) armed Yusuf with a fatwa (legal opinion) that condemned the Taifa (petty Muslim rulers in Spain) kings for their 'worldliness' and their willingness to pay tribute to the Christian kings. The fatwa said that it was not only Yusuf's right but his duty to dethrone the Andalusian Muslim kings without delay, justifying his conquest and long-term occupation.\" §REF§(Messier 2013, 65-66)§REF§" }, { "id": 404, "polity": { "id": 284, "name": "hu_avar_khaganate", "long_name": "Avar Khaganate", "start_year": 586, "end_year": 822 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "SSP", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Professional_priesthood", "professional_priesthood": "unknown", "comment": "no data.", "description": null }, { "id": 405, "polity": { "id": 210, "name": "et_aksum_emp_2", "long_name": "Axum II", "start_year": 350, "end_year": 599 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Professional_priesthood", "professional_priesthood": "present", "comment": "\"high-quality grave goods, have been interpreted as those of 'middle-class' Aksumites ... It might be expected that such a class would include ... priests of temple or church ...\" <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/YB8JYYEZ\">[Connah 2015, p. 141]</a> Temple or church officials. <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/YB8JYYEZ\">[Connah 2015, p. 141]</a>", "description": null }, { "id": 406, "polity": { "id": 213, "name": "et_aksum_emp_3", "long_name": "Axum III", "start_year": 600, "end_year": 800 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Professional_priesthood", "professional_priesthood": "present", "comment": "\"high-quality grave goods, have been interpreted as those of 'middle-class' Aksumites ... It might be expected that such a class would include ... priests of temple or church ...\" <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/YB8JYYEZ\">[Connah 2015, p. 141]</a> Temple or church officials. <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/YB8JYYEZ\">[Connah 2015, p. 141]</a>", "description": null }, { "id": 407, "polity": { "id": 379, "name": "mm_bagan", "long_name": "Bagan", "start_year": 1044, "end_year": 1287 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Professional_priesthood", "professional_priesthood": "present", "comment": null, "description": "All Pagan kings \"undertook or patronized\" the building of shrines \"the soil of Pagan got crowded with solid as well as hollow pagodas and also with monastic establishments.\"§REF§(Soni 1991, xxvii) Sujata Soni. 1991. Evolution of Stupas in Burma. Pagan Period: 11th to 13th centuries A.D. Motilal Banarsidass Publishers Pvt. Ltd. Delhi.§REF§ Buddhist monks in monasteries." }, { "id": 408, "polity": { "id": 226, "name": "ib_banu_ghaniya", "long_name": "Banu Ghaniya", "start_year": 1126, "end_year": 1227 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "IFR", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Professional_priesthood", "professional_priesthood": "present", "comment": "Islamic clerics.", "description": null }, { "id": 409, "polity": { "id": 321, "name": "es_castile_k", "long_name": "Castile Kingdom", "start_year": 1065, "end_year": 1230 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Professional_priesthood", "professional_priesthood": "present", "comment": "Full-time specialists", "description": null }, { "id": 410, "polity": { "id": 246, "name": "cn_chu_dyn_spring_autumn", "long_name": "Chu Kingdom - Spring and Autumn Period", "start_year": -740, "end_year": -489 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "IFR", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Professional_priesthood", "professional_priesthood": "present", "comment": "\"According to the Shiki, the Chu leader Yu Xiong served King Wen as a ritualist\" <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/NTSIVZX6\">[Major_Cook 1999, p. 10]</a> - that is, King Wen of the preceding Zhou dynasty.", "description": null }, { "id": 411, "polity": { "id": 299, "name": "ru_crimean_khanate", "long_name": "Crimean Khanate", "start_year": 1440, "end_year": 1783 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "IFR", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Professional_priesthood", "professional_priesthood": "present", "comment": null, "description": "\"Neighboring the Latin West and the Orthodox East, the Tatar state was the northern stronghold of the Ottoman Empire and the Islamicate world for more than three centuries.\"§REF§(Klein 2012, 3) Denise Klein. Introduction. Denise Klein. ed. 2012. The Crimean Khanate between East and West. (15th-18th Century). Harrassowitz Verlag. Wiesbaden.§REF§" }, { "id": 412, "polity": { "id": 307, "name": "fr_aquitaine_duc_1", "long_name": "Duchy of Aquitaine I", "start_year": 602, "end_year": 768 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Professional_priesthood", "professional_priesthood": "present", "comment": "Full-time specialists", "description": null }, { "id": 413, "polity": { "id": 54, "name": "pa_cocle_1", "long_name": "Early Greater Coclé", "start_year": 200, "end_year": 700 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "UND", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Professional_priesthood", "professional_priesthood": "uncoded", "comment": "In the Early Chibcha tradition in general, 'The religious life appears to have been in the hands of mystics and trained specialists.' <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/6ERS93SR\">[Hoopes_Peregrine_Ember 2001, p. 104]</a> In Central Panama specifically, 'The principal evidence for religious practitioners comes from the iconography of goldwork and polychrome ceramics, especially from Sitio Conte ... Individuals with prominent fangs and menacing claws wearing deer antlers on their heads may represent shamans communicating simultaneously the essences of both predators and prey.' <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/6ERS93SR\">[Hoopes_Peregrine_Ember 2001, p. 104]</a> However, it is unclear whether such people would be full-time professionals: Hoopes speculates that Early Chibcha shamans may have 'assumed political roles'. <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/6ERS93SR\">[Hoopes_Peregrine_Ember 2001, p. 104]</a> If this was the case, a 'present' code would not be justified here, as ritual duties would be just one aspect of a more general leadership role.", "description": null }, { "id": 414, "polity": { "id": 774, "name": "mw_early_maravi", "long_name": "Early Maravi", "start_year": 1400, "end_year": 1499 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "IFR", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Professional_priesthood", "professional_priesthood": "present", "comment": "On the priesthood and shrine system supposedly established in Pre-Maravi times, which still existed up until the 19th century (most of the information available dates to the 19th century and after, though some of the written sources are based on long-held local oral histories): \"A common feature were the 'spirit wives', women living in permanent celibacy and set apart from the cult of the godhead. One of their tasks was to transmit to those concerned mesages of communal interest which they received in dreams. [...] [T]hey were held in high esteem, their office being considered the highest in the cult hierarchy. They acted as overseers of the female initiation rites, and they are said to have been [...] confidantes of local rulers. The spirit wives were members of the Banda clan and thus were associated with the prestate period in Malawi. This is emphasized in oral traditions cited by Ntara, according to which the Chewa at first had no chiefs but spirit wives, suggesting that they embodied a form of regional jural authority before the emergence of centralized state systems.\" <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/A88E23E4\">[Schoeffeleers 1992]</a>", "description": null }, { "id": 415, "polity": { "id": 218, "name": "ma_idrisid_dyn", "long_name": "Idrisids", "start_year": 789, "end_year": 917 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Professional_priesthood", "professional_priesthood": "present", "comment": "Imams.", "description": null }, { "id": 416, "polity": { "id": 369, "name": "ir_jayarid_khanate", "long_name": "Jayarid Khanate", "start_year": 1336, "end_year": 1393 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Professional_priesthood", "professional_priesthood": "present", "comment": "e.g. imams.", "description": null }, { "id": 417, "polity": { "id": 406, "name": "in_kalachuri_emp", "long_name": "Kalachuris of Kalyani", "start_year": 1157, "end_year": 1184 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "UND", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Professional_priesthood", "professional_priesthood": "uncoded", "comment": null, "description": "Hinduism had its representatives in Brahmanas §REF§L. Rocher, The Dharmasastras, in G. Flood (ed), The Balckwell Companion to Hinduism (2003), p. 103§REF§, Jainism and Buddhism in monks §REF§<a rel=\"nofollow\" class=\"external free\" href=\"http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/jainism/worship/ministry.shtml\">http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/jainism/worship/ministry.shtml</a>§REF§§REF§L. Aldritt, Buddhism (2009), p. 12§REF§. Virashaivists rejected the notion that one needs intermediaries between oneself and the gods, and therefore did not not have priests §REF§J.P. Schouten, Revolution of the Mystics (1995), p. 4§REF§." }, { "id": 418, "polity": { "id": 273, "name": "uz_kangju", "long_name": "Kangju", "start_year": -150, "end_year": 350 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "IFR", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Professional_priesthood", "professional_priesthood": "present", "comment": null, "description": "The Kangju had a 'sacred center'.§REF§(Andrianov 2016, 213) Boris V Andrianov. Chapter 5. The Lower Syrdarya. Boris V Andrianov. Simone Mantellini. ed. 2016. Ancient Irrigation Systems of the Aral Sea Area: Ancient Irrigation Systems of the Aral Sea Area. Oxbow Books Limited. Oxford.§REF§ Religious complexes. \"'Kangiui' [Kangju], sees the full flourishing of an independent region. Fortresses, farmsteads, 'urban' sites and religious complexes were built at this time, while the material culture experienced a period of conservatism lasting until the late first or early second century ad, suggesting little outside influence until contact with the Kushan empire effected a major cultural shift.\"§REF§(Hermann and Cribb 2007, 437) Georgina Hermann. Joe Cribb. 2007. After Alexander: Central Asia before Islam. Oxford University Press.§REF§" }, { "id": 419, "polity": { "id": 298, "name": "ru_kazan_khanate", "long_name": "Kazan Khanate", "start_year": 1438, "end_year": 1552 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Professional_priesthood", "professional_priesthood": "present", "comment": null, "description": "\"Kazan, the sizeable capital, which had a population of about 20,000, was the centre of the Volga trade, and was inhabited by Tatar merchants, craftsmen, clergymen and scholars.\"§REF§(Kappeler 2014, 25) Andreas Kappeler. Alfred Clayton trans. 2014. The Russian Empire: A Multi-ethnic History. Routledge. London.§REF§" }, { "id": 420, "polity": { "id": 241, "name": "ao_kongo_2", "long_name": "Kingdom of Congo", "start_year": 1491, "end_year": 1568 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Professional_priesthood", "professional_priesthood": "present", "comment": null, "description": "\"The padroado [padroado regio] granted the Iberian crown control over the clergy and, later, bishops of central Africa ... These rights, in fact, did not allow Portugal much power in the Kongo; throughout the period, the local crown maintained financial responsibility for and de facto authority over the priests active in the region.\"§REF§(Fromont 2014, 5) Cecile Fromont. 2014. The Art Of Conversion. Christian Visual Culture In The Kingdom Of Kongo. The University of North Carolina Press.§REF§" }, { "id": 421, "polity": { "id": 290, "name": "ge_georgia_k_2", "long_name": "Kingdom of Georgia II", "start_year": 975, "end_year": 1243 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Professional_priesthood", "professional_priesthood": "present", "comment": null, "description": "Christian priests clergy with literary culture.§REF§(Suny 1994, 38-39) Ronald Grigor Suny. 1994. The Making of the Georgian Nation. Indiana University Press. Bloomington.§REF§" }, { "id": 422, "polity": { "id": 326, "name": "it_sicily_k_2", "long_name": "Kingdom of Sicily - Hohenstaufen and Angevin dynasties", "start_year": 1194, "end_year": 1281 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Professional_priesthood", "professional_priesthood": "present", "comment": "EMPTY_COMMENT", "description": null }, { "id": 423, "polity": { "id": 53, "name": "pa_la_mula_sarigua", "long_name": "La Mula-Sarigua", "start_year": -1300, "end_year": 200 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "UND", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Professional_priesthood", "professional_priesthood": "uncoded", "comment": "In the Early Chibcha tradition in general, 'The religious life appears to have been in the hands of mystics and trained specialists.' <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/6ERS93SR\">[Hoopes_Peregrine_Ember 2001, p. 104]</a> However, the evidence Hoopes provides for this in Central Panama specifically seems to come mainly from the succeeding Greater Coclé period, i.e. 'the iconography of goldwork and polychrome ceramics, especially from Sitio Conte ... Individuals with prominent fangs and menacing claws wearing deer antlers on their heads may represent shamans communicating simultaneously the essences of both predators and prey.' <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/6ERS93SR\">[Hoopes_Peregrine_Ember 2001, p. 108]</a> I have left this uncoded until I come across stronger statements that there were trained religious specialists at the La Mula-Sarigua site or contemporaneous settlements in the region. It is also unclear whether such people would be full-time professionals: Hoopes speculates that Early Chibcha shamans may have 'assumed political roles'. <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/6ERS93SR\">[Hoopes_Peregrine_Ember 2001, p. 108]</a> If this was the case, a 'present' code would not be justified here, as ritual duties would be just one aspect of a more general leadership role.", "description": null }, { "id": 424, "polity": { "id": 355, "name": "iq_lakhmid_k", "long_name": "Lakhmid Kigdom", "start_year": 400, "end_year": 611 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Professional_priesthood", "professional_priesthood": "present", "comment": null, "description": "\"they adopted Christianity, which also became latterly the official religion of the Lakhmids of al-Hira.\"§REF§(Bosworth et al 1982, 632) C E Bosworth. E Van Donzel. B Lewis. Ch Pellat. eds. 1982. The Encyclopaedia of Islam. New Edition. Volume V. E J BRILL. Leiden.§REF§ Founder of the dynasty Amr b. Adi \"appears as the protector of Manichaeism after it was outlawed in Persia.\"§REF§(Bosworth et al 1982, 633) C E Bosworth. E Van Donzel. B Lewis. Ch Pellat. eds. 1982. The Encyclopaedia of Islam. New Edition. Volume V. E J BRILL. Leiden.§REF§ \"al-Hira, became the great centre of Arab Christianity and of its transmission to the Arabs of the Peninsula. The city was adorned with churches and monasteries, was the seat of a bishopric, and the refuge for many a persecuted ecclesiastic.\"§REF§(Bosworth et al 1982, 634) C E Bosworth. E Van Donzel. B Lewis. Ch Pellat. eds. 1982. The Encyclopaedia of Islam. New Edition. Volume V. E J BRILL. Leiden.§REF§" }, { "id": 425, "polity": { "id": 56, "name": "pa_cocle_3", "long_name": "Late Greater Coclé", "start_year": 1000, "end_year": 1515 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "UND", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Professional_priesthood", "professional_priesthood": "uncoded", "comment": "For the Late Chibcha tradition in general: 'There is [...] a great deal of artwork with representations of figures that appear to be shamans in the midst of performances with masks, rattles, and flutes. Shamans made regular use of expressive performances.' <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/FCM2EVGT\">[Hoopes_Peregrine_Ember 2001, p. 243]</a> Spanish accounts provide evidence of 'tequinas (seers) and shaman-curers' in Panamanian societies in the early 16th century. <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/HH4NQZBM\">[Spencer_Drennan_Uribe 1987, p. 372]</a> Were these full-time specialists, or did they also take on political leadership roles, as suggested by Hoopes for the Early Chibcha tradition? <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/6ERS93SR\">[Hoopes_Peregrine_Ember 2001, p. 104]</a>", "description": null }, { "id": 426, "polity": { "id": 257, "name": "cn_later_qin_dyn", "long_name": "Later Qin Kingdom", "start_year": 386, "end_year": 417 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Professional_priesthood", "professional_priesthood": "present", "comment": null, "description": "Buddhist Monks.§REF§(Wong 2004, 49) Dorothy C Wong. 2004. Chinese Steles: Pre-Buddhist and Buddhist Use of a Symbolic Form. University of Hawaii Press.§REF§ Ruler Yao Xing (394-416 CE) was a Buddhist.§REF§(Xiong 2009, 14) Xiong, V C. 2009. Historical Dictionary of Medieval China. Scarecrow Press, Inc., Plymouth.§REF§" }, { "id": 427, "polity": { "id": 815, "name": "es_castile_crown", "long_name": "Crown of Castile", "start_year": 1231, "end_year": 1515 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Professional_priesthood", "professional_priesthood": "present", "comment": "Full-time specialists", "description": "" }, { "id": 428, "polity": { "id": 212, "name": "sd_makuria_k_1", "long_name": "Makuria Kingdom I", "start_year": 568, "end_year": 618 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Professional_priesthood", "professional_priesthood": "present", "comment": "\"The conversion of Makuria is recorded by John of Biclar who, while in Constantinople in 568, notes that 'about this time, the people of the Maccurritae received the faith of Christ'.\" <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/2ZCVEFNQ\">[Welsby 2002, p. 33]</a>", "description": null }, { "id": 429, "polity": { "id": 215, "name": "sd_makuria_k_2", "long_name": "Makuria Kingdom II", "start_year": 619, "end_year": 849 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Professional_priesthood", "professional_priesthood": "present", "comment": "The Cathedral at Ibrim had a bishops list. <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/2ZCVEFNQ\">[Welsby 2002, p. 76]</a>", "description": null }, { "id": 430, "polity": { "id": 219, "name": "sd_makuria_k_3", "long_name": "Makuria Kingdom III", "start_year": 850, "end_year": 1099 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Professional_priesthood", "professional_priesthood": "present", "comment": "The Cathedral at Ibrim had a bishops list. <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/2ZCVEFNQ\">[Welsby 2002, p. 76]</a>", "description": null }, { "id": 431, "polity": { "id": 383, "name": "my_malacca_sultanate", "long_name": "Malacca Sultanate", "start_year": 1396, "end_year": 1511 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Professional_priesthood", "professional_priesthood": "present", "comment": null, "description": "Wealth attracted Indian merchants, who brought teachers of Hindu theology\".§REF§(Matsuda 2012, 38) Matt K Matsuda. 2012. Pacific Worlds: A History of Seas, Peoples, and Cultures. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge.§REF§ \"The Sejarah Melayu carried within its lengthy account seven verses of the Qur'an in their Arabic original ... There is a passing reference by Ibn Batutah to Qur'an recitation sessions attended by the Sultan of Pasai in the mid-14th century, suggesting that 'the copying of Qur'ans had commenced in the region'.\"§REF§(Riddell 2017, 6) Peter G Riddell. 2017. Malay Court Religion, Culture and Language: Interpreting the Qurʾan in 17th Century Aceh. BRILL. Leiden.§REF§" }, { "id": 432, "polity": { "id": 235, "name": "my_malacca_sultanate_22222", "long_name": "Malacca Sultanate", "start_year": 1270, "end_year": 1415 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Professional_priesthood", "professional_priesthood": "present", "comment": "Islamic clerics.", "description": null }, { "id": 433, "polity": { "id": 776, "name": "mw_maravi_emp", "long_name": "Maravi Empire", "start_year": 1622, "end_year": 1870 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "IFR", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Professional_priesthood", "professional_priesthood": "present", "comment": "On the priesthood and shrine system supposedly established in Pre-Maravi times, which still existed up until the 19th century (most of the information available dates to the 19th century and after, though some of the written sources are based on long-held local oral histories): \"A common feature were the 'spirit wives', women living in permanent celibacy and set apart from the cult of the godhead. One of their tasks was to transmit to those concerned mesages of communal interest which they received in dreams. [...] [T]hey were held in high esteem, their office being considered the highest in the cult hierarchy. They acted as overseers of the female initiation rites, and they are said to have been [...] confidantes of local rulers. The spirit wives were members of the Banda clan and thus were associated with the prestate period in Malawi. This is emphasized in oral traditions cited by Ntara, according to which the Chewa at first had no chiefs but spirit wives, suggesting that they embodied a form of regional jural authority before the emergence of centralized state systems.\" <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/A88E23E4\">[Schoeffeleers 1992]</a>", "description": null }, { "id": 434, "polity": { "id": 209, "name": "ma_mauretania", "long_name": "Mauretania", "start_year": -125, "end_year": 44 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "IFR", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Professional_priesthood", "professional_priesthood": "present", "comment": null, "description": "In North Africa Phoenician/Libyan religion persisted into Roman times.§REF§(Mahjoubi and Salama 1981, 463) A Mahjoubi and P Salama. The Roman and post-Roman period in North Africa. G Mokhtar. ed. 1981. General History of Africa II. Ancient Civilizations of Africa. Heinemann. California.§REF§ In the c1st century BCE: \"Lix (or Lixus) was a commercial city on the west coast of Mauretania Tingitana. The observe of the coin illustrated here depicts an Egyptian North African deity similar to the Greek god Hephaistos (Roman Vulcan). The reverse seems to be a distyle entrace, with large capitals, most likely part of a temple to the deity honored on this coin.\"§REF§(Sayles 1998, 115) Wayne G Sayles. 1998. Ancient Coin Collecting IV. Roman Provincial Coins. Krause Publications. Iola.§REF§" }, { "id": 435, "polity": { "id": 345, "name": "ir_median_emp", "long_name": "Median Persian Empire", "start_year": -715, "end_year": -550 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "IFR", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Professional_priesthood", "professional_priesthood": "present", "comment": null, "description": "The Magi were certainly priests and soothsayers. There is some debate whether the Magi were a profession or whether they were a tribe from whom professional priests were drawn. §REF§Diakonoff, I.M. 1985. Media. In Gershevitch, I. (ed.) The Cambridge History of Iran. Volume 2 The Median and Achaemenian Periods. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 141§REF§" }, { "id": 436, "polity": { "id": 55, "name": "pa_cocle_2", "long_name": "Middle Greater Coclé", "start_year": 700, "end_year": 1000 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "UND", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Professional_priesthood", "professional_priesthood": "uncoded", "comment": "In the Early (pre-800 CE) Chibcha tradition in general, 'The religious life appears to have been in the hands of mystics and trained specialists.' <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/6ERS93SR\">[Hoopes_Peregrine_Ember 2001, p. 104]</a> In Central Panama specifically, 'The principal evidence for religious practitioners comes from the iconography of goldwork and polychrome ceramics, especially from Sitio Conte ... Individuals with prominent fangs and menacing claws wearing deer antlers on their heads may represent shamans communicating simultaneously the essences of both predators and prey.' <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/6ERS93SR\">[Hoopes_Peregrine_Ember 2001, p. 108]</a> However, it is unclear whether such people would be full-time professionals: Hoopes speculates that Early Chibcha shamans may have 'assumed political roles'. <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/6ERS93SR\">[Hoopes_Peregrine_Ember 2001, p. 108]</a> If this was the case, a 'present' code would not be justified here, as ritual duties would be just one aspect of a more general leadership role. For the Late Chibcha tradition (after 800 CE): 'There is [...] a great deal of artwork with representations of figures that appear to be shamans in the midst of performances with masks, rattles, and flutes. Shamans made regular use of expressive performances.' <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/FCM2EVGT\">[Hoopes_Peregrine_Ember 2001, p. 243]</a> But again, were these full-time specialists?", "description": null }, { "id": 437, "polity": { "id": 52, "name": "pa_monagrillo", "long_name": "Monagrillo", "start_year": -3000, "end_year": -1300 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "UND", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Professional_priesthood", "professional_priesthood": "uncoded", "comment": "In the Early Chibcha tradition in general, 'The religious life appears to have been in the hands of mystics and trained specialists.' <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/6ERS93SR\">[Hoopes_Peregrine_Ember 2001, p. 104]</a> However, the evidence Hoopes provides for this in Central Panama specifically seems to come mainly from the considerably later Greater Coclé period, i.e. 'the iconography of goldwork and polychrome ceramics, especially from Sitio Conte ... Individuals with prominent fangs and menacing claws wearing deer antlers on their heads may represent shamans communicating simultaneously the essences of both predators and prey.' <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/6ERS93SR\">[Hoopes_Peregrine_Ember 2001, p. 108]</a> I have left this uncoded until I come across stronger statements that there were trained religious specialists in the Monagrillo culture. It is also unclear whether such people would be full-time professionals: Hoopes speculates that Early Chibcha shamans may have 'assumed political roles'. <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/6ERS93SR\">[Hoopes_Peregrine_Ember 2001, p. 108]</a> If this was the case, a 'present' code would not be justified here, as ritual duties would be just one aspect of a more general leadership role.", "description": null }, { "id": 438, "polity": { "id": 531, "name": "mx_monte_alban_5_b", "long_name": "Monte Alban V Late Postclassic", "start_year": 1101, "end_year": 1520 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Professional_priesthood", "professional_priesthood": "present", "comment": null, "description": "Spanish written records describe the presence of full-time priests (bigaña) who lived in temples and were the sons of the Zapotec nobility. A professional priesthood is therefore inferred to be present, although the extent to which this information can be extended back to the entire period is not known.§REF§Flannery, K. V. and J. Marcus (1976). \"Formative Oaxaca and Zapotec Cosmos.\" American Scientist 64(4): 374-383. p376§REF§§REF§Flannery and Marcus (1983) The Cloud People. New York. p350§REF§" }, { "id": 439, "polity": { "id": 775, "name": "mw_northern_maravi_k", "long_name": "Northern Maravi Kingdom", "start_year": 1500, "end_year": 1621 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "IFR", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Professional_priesthood", "professional_priesthood": "present", "comment": "On the priesthood and shrine system supposedly established in Pre-Maravi times, which still existed up until the 19th century (most of the information available dates to the 19th century and after, though some of the written sources are based on long-held local oral histories): \"A common feature were the 'spirit wives', women living in permanent celibacy and set apart from the cult of the godhead. One of their tasks was to transmit to those concerned mesages of communal interest which they received in dreams. [...] [T]hey were held in high esteem, their office being considered the highest in the cult hierarchy. They acted as overseers of the female initiation rites, and they are said to have been [...] confidantes of local rulers. The spirit wives were members of the Banda clan and thus were associated with the prestate period in Malawi. This is emphasized in oral traditions cited by Ntara, according to which the Chewa at first had no chiefs but spirit wives, suggesting that they embodied a form of regional jural authority before the emergence of centralized state systems.\" <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/A88E23E4\">[Schoeffeleers 1992]</a>", "description": null }, { "id": 440, "polity": { "id": 313, "name": "ru_novgorod_land", "long_name": "Novgorod Land", "start_year": 880, "end_year": 1240 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Professional_priesthood", "professional_priesthood": "present", "comment": "EMPTY_COMMENT", "description": null }, { "id": 441, "polity": { "id": 206, "name": "dz_numidia", "long_name": "Numidia", "start_year": -220, "end_year": -46 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "IFR", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Professional_priesthood", "professional_priesthood": "present", "comment": null, "description": "\"The Numidian court also adopted elements of Phoenician religion: for example, the occurrence in the Numidian royal family of the names Adherbal (a purely Phoenician name) and Mastanabal (a hybrid form, combining Numidian and Phoenician components) advertises its devotion to the Phoenician god Baal.\"§REF§(Law 1978, 184) R C C Law. North Africa in the Hellenistic and Roman periods, 323 BC to AD 305. J D Fage. Roland Anthony Oliver. eds. 1978. The Cambridge History of Africa, Volume 2. c. 500 B.C. - A.D. 1050. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge.§REF§" }, { "id": 442, "polity": { "id": 542, "name": "tr_ottoman_emp_4_copy", "long_name": "Yemen - Ottoman period", "start_year": 1873, "end_year": 1920 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Professional_priesthood", "professional_priesthood": "present", "comment": null, "description": "Full-time specialists Islamic legal scholars primarily adhered to the Zaydi and Shafi'i sub-sects: 'Islam is the major force that unifies Yemenis across social, sexual, and regional boundaries. Yet most adherents of the different schools of Islam reside in distinct sections of the country, and this fact has certain political implications. Zaydis, who belong to the Shia subsect of Islam, are located in the northern and eastern parts of Yemen, whereas Shafis, orthodox Sunnis, live in the southern and coastal regions. Location in the highlands apparently enables Zaydis more successfully to repel invasions than Shafis in the lower lying areas. A smaller Shia subsect, the Ismaili, and also the remnants of an ancient Jewish community, may still be found in certain parts of Yemen. As Muslims, Yemenis aspire to fulfill the five tenets of Islam: affirmation of the Islamic creed, prayer, fasting, charity, and pilgrimage. In the Shafi areas of Yemen, the tombs of certain holy men are visited by believers for their special healing and other powers.' §REF§Walters, Dolores M.: eHRAF Cultural Summary for the Yemenis§REF§ Islamic scholarship has a long history in Yemen: 'Yemeni society is hierarchically organized on the basis of birth status and occupation. Until relative political stability was achieved in the late 1970s, birth and occupational statuses were legitimized as ascribed social categories. The elimination of practical barriers that restrict power and privilege?especially through marriage and education?to certain members of the society has only just begun. Under the system of ranked social categories, members of respectable groupings recognized their own noble descent and considered themselves the protectors of servants, former slaves, artisans, and certain farmers, all of whom were thought of as ?deficient,? either because they provided a service or craft?such as bloodletting, butchery, or barbering?that involved contact with polluting substances, or because their origins were discredited as ignoble. The tribal code of protection was also extended to elites at the top of the social scale, especially to sayyids, the reputed descendants of the Prophet, who originally came to Yemen to serve as mediators between tribes and who are respected for their religious expertise. Another social category, that of legal scholars, also inherits high status in the ranking order. Scholars, along with shuyukh (sing. shaykh ), who are tribal leaders, typically serve as village administrators. The majority of Yemenis use various equivalent or substitute terms to identify themselves within the social hierarchy, including qaba\\??\\il in the northern highlands to connote tribal membership, ra\\??\\iyah in the south to mean ?cultivators,? and \\??\\arab along the coast to signify respectable ancestry. Former slaves continue to act as agents and domestics in the households of former masters, but the most menial jobs (e.g., removing human waste from the street) are reserved for Yemenis who are alleged descendants of Ethiopians of the pre-Islamic era. In addition, Yemen relies on a range of foreigners from the East and West for professional, technical, and custodial services.' §REF§Walters, Dolores M.: eHRAF Cultural Summary for the Yemenis§REF§ 'Imamic government was of a religious character, sharing power with and at times dominating, but never entirely restructuring or supplanting, rural political, military and legal structures. Its rule rested on an uneasy pact with northern leaders and groups. The allegiance of the prominent shaikhs was rewarded by alliance and simultaneously controlled by a system of holding (and educating) young hostages from their families. During the reign of Imam Yahya, the developing administration of the Imamic state moved to institutionalize status differences. The cadre of the Imamic administration proclaimed themselves the bearers of the civilizing tradition of Islamic learning and law. Under the Imamate Islamic shari'ah was to conquer divisive tribal custom and the ulema (the scholars) would rule and not merely serve the shaikhs.' §REF§Mundy, Martha 1995. \"Domestic Government: Kinship, Community and Polity in North Yemen\", 13§REF§ Sayyids remained significant in Yemeni Islamic scholarship: 'Being of sayyid status, even in contemporary Yemeni society, still validates (but does not necessarily guarantee) one's access to religious learning. Men gather at the mosque for prayers and sermons on the Sabbath, which in Yemen occurs on Friday. Strict segregation of the sexes usually does not permit women to worship in public.' §REF§Walters, Dolores M.: eHRAF Cultural Summary for the Yemenis§REF§" }, { "id": 443, "polity": { "id": 773, "name": "mw_pre_maravi", "long_name": "Pre-Maravi", "start_year": 1151, "end_year": 1399 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "UND", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Professional_priesthood", "professional_priesthood": "uncoded", "comment": "\"A common feature were the 'spirit wives', women living in permanent celibacy and set apart from the cult of the godhead. One of their tasks was to transmit to those concerned mesages of communal interest which they received in dreams. [...] [T]hey were held in high esteem, their office being considered the highest in the cult hierarchy. They acted as overseers of the female initiation rites, and they are said to have been [...] confidantes of local rulers. The spirit wives were members of the Banda clan and thus were associated with the prestate period in Malawi. This is emphasized in oral traditions cited by Ntara, according to which the Chewa at first had no chiefs but spirit wives, suggesting that they embodied a form of regional jural authority before the emergence of centralized state systems. \"A final feature to be considered is the apparent universality of a priesthood at the great shrines, which consisted of members of the Mbewe clan. These Mbewe were also of pre-Maravi stock, and their presence at the great shrines functioned as an additional factor which bound these shrines together into some form of common organization. The central cult object was conceived of as a snake, called tunga, which was associated both with the shrine hut and with the sacred pool, another invariable feature of each cult complex. The snake spirit was visibly represented by the senior Mbewe official, who was himself known as tunga and who acted as the spirit wife's ritual consort.\" <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/A88E23E4\">[Schoeffeleers 1992]</a>", "description": null }, { "id": 444, "polity": { "id": 293, "name": "ua_russian_principate", "long_name": "Russian Principate", "start_year": 1133, "end_year": 1240 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "UND", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Professional_priesthood", "professional_priesthood": "uncoded", "comment": null, "description": "Monks, nuns and secular clergy. \"The foundation of monasteries in remote places was a development that only took off by the end of the 14th century.\"§REF§(Feldbrugge 2017, 437) Ferdinand J M Feldbrugge. 2017. A History of Russian Law: From Ancient Times to the Council Code (Ulozhenie) of Tsar Aleksei Mikhailovich of 1649. BRILL. Leiden.§REF§ Monasteries and convents run by an abbot (igumen) or abbess (igumen'ia).§REF§(Feldbrugge 2017, 437) Ferdinand J M Feldbrugge. 2017. A History of Russian Law: From Ancient Times to the Council Code (Ulozhenie) of Tsar Aleksei Mikhailovich of 1649. BRILL. Leiden.§REF§ Priests and deacons in town. Capital town had a bishop (only open to monks), who had an \"entourage.\" According to literature priests, monks and nuns frequently got drunk.§REF§(Feldbrugge 2017, 437) Ferdinand J M Feldbrugge. 2017. A History of Russian Law: From Ancient Times to the Council Code (Ulozhenie) of Tsar Aleksei Mikhailovich of 1649. BRILL. Leiden.§REF§" }, { "id": 445, "polity": { "id": 237, "name": "ml_songhai_1", "long_name": "Songhai Empire", "start_year": 1376, "end_year": 1493 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "IFR", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Professional_priesthood", "professional_priesthood": "absent", "comment": null, "description": "Askia Muhammed Toure (r.1493-1529 CE) \"appointed the first qadi of Jenne and extended Islamic judicial administration to other towns by establishing courts and appointing judges.\" §REF§(Lapidus 2012, 593)§REF§ Askia Muhammed Toure (r.1493-1529 CE) made Islam the official state religion, \"built mosques, and brought Muslim scholars ... to Gao.\" §REF§(Lapidus 2012, 593)§REF§" }, { "id": 446, "polity": { "id": 259, "name": "cn_southern_qi_dyn", "long_name": "Southern Qi State", "start_year": 479, "end_year": 502 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Professional_priesthood", "professional_priesthood": "present", "comment": null, "description": "Buddhist monks.§REF§(Xudong 2010, 1158) Hou Xudong. The Buddhist pantheon. John Lagerwey. Lu Pengzhi. ed. 2010. Early Chinese Religion. Part Two: The Period of Division (220-589 AD). Volume One. BRILL. Leiden.§REF§" }, { "id": 447, "polity": { "id": 380, "name": "th_sukhotai", "long_name": "Sukhotai", "start_year": 1238, "end_year": 1419 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Professional_priesthood", "professional_priesthood": "present", "comment": null, "description": "Monks in monasteries.§REF§(Mishra 2010, 38) Patit Paban Mishra. 2010. The History of Thailand. Greenwood. Santa Barbara.§REF§ \"Theravada Buddhism was also used as a political ideology to express the political unity of the state.\"§REF§(Shoocongdej 2007, 386) Rasmi Shoocongdej. The Impact of Colonialism and Nationalism in the Archaeology of Thailand. Philip L. Kohl. Mara Kozelsky. Nachman Ben-Yehuda. eds. 2007. Selective Remembrances. Archaeology in the Construction, Commemoration, and Consecration of National Pasts. The University of Chicago Press. Chicago.§REF§" }, { "id": 448, "polity": { "id": 217, "name": "dz_tahert", "long_name": "Tahert", "start_year": 761, "end_year": 909 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Professional_priesthood", "professional_priesthood": "present", "comment": "Muslim Imams.", "description": null }, { "id": 449, "polity": { "id": 271, "name": "ua_skythian_k_3", "long_name": "Third Scythian Kingdom", "start_year": -429, "end_year": -225 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "IFR", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Professional_priesthood", "professional_priesthood": "present", "comment": null, "description": "\"It is difficult to determine the exact political structure of the Scythians. At best they represented a confederacy of tribes united culturally rather than politically. Division within the Scythian domain followed not only tribal but also social lines. It is quite clear that Scythian society was organized on a tripartite basis: priests, warriors, agriculturalists. This is the ancient Indo-Iranian if not Indo-European division of human society and it places the Scythians firmly in the Indo-Iranian world.\"§REF§(Sinor 1969, 82)Denis Sinor. 1969 [1997]. Uralic and Altaic Series. Volume 96. Inner Asia. History-Civilization-Languages. RoutledgeCurzon. London.§REF§" }, { "id": 450, "polity": { "id": 230, "name": "dz_tlemcen", "long_name": "Tlemcen", "start_year": 1235, "end_year": 1554 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Professional_priesthood", "professional_priesthood": "present", "comment": "Islamic clerics.", "description": null }, { "id": 451, "polity": { "id": 375, "name": "cn_viet_baiyu_k", "long_name": "Viet Baiyu Kingdom", "start_year": -332, "end_year": -109 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Professional_priesthood", "professional_priesthood": "present", "comment": null, "description": "Generic Baiyue reference: \"As the Bai Yue worshipped their ancestors and their dead heroes, the safety of their dead was related to the safety of their tribe, of the living. And so the tremendous effort of raising these coffins so high can be understood.\"§REF§(Walker, Shipley, Malloy, Kailin 1993, 203) Caroline Walker. Robert Shipley. Ruth Lor Malloy. Fu Kailin. 1993. On Leaving Bai Di Cheng: The Culture of China's Yangzi Gorges. NC Press Limited. Toronto.§REF§" } ] }