Something Old and Something New: Illustrating Spousal Ceremonies in "Religious Ceremonies of the Known World"

Middle Eastern and Asian Spousal Ceremonies

Like with the “idolatrous peoples” of the Americas, Bernard’s writing and Picart’s illustrations for the marriage ceremonies of people from the Middle East and Asia concern both the unsurprising reveal of polytheism (not, as many Europeans had supposed, atheism) and the surprising reveal of universality. They begin in India. Hunt and her colleagues point out that it was from learning about places like India—a more familiar place because of early colonial and trade efforts—“knowledge of other peoples no longer served only the purpose of religious conversion.” Rather, “it served as a platform for questioning the previously unquestionable nature of European customs.” Picart’s illustrations of spousal events like sati (a new widow burning herself alive with her dead husband) provide a stark view of Eastern cultural practices. There is a mix of fascination and horror embedded in his engravings, even as he and Bernard treated these customs with more sympathy than other contemporary writers.
             The illustrations and marriage customs included here cover a huge swath of the world—a swath that was complex, bustling, inventive, and innovative, despite many European narratives to the contrary. Picart’s engravings and Bernard’s commentary give a rich depiction of each marriage or spousal ceremony, covering hundreds of thousand of miles in under 400 pages. Nuptial ceremonies represented celebration and honor, and are without fail joyful, albeit exhausting, occasions. While the first two volumes focused exclusively on a singular religion, their commentary and depictions of indigenous peoples, in the Americas, Middle East, and Asia, make the turn towards ethnicity and region complete. Religious Ceremonies of the World becomes, in many ways, Traditions of the World, a clearly secular distinction. Once again, toleration and skepticism appear together for Bernard and Picart, in the East as everywhere else.
 

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