Follow a question. Examine the evidence.

Explore investigations

Search customs, ideas and practices, or combine filters to follow a connection across cultures. Evidence assessments describe editorial conclusions, not scores or rankings.

4 investigations found · Page 1 of 1

Pilgrims walking around a Buddhist stupa, illustrating ritual circumambulation of a sacred place

Historically Practical

Why Do Devotees Circumambulate Sacred Places?

Walking around a shrine, temple, stupa, sacred mountain or holy object appears in many traditions. Tradivior will investigate why movement around a centre became sacred, how direction matters, and whether…

A Buddhist practitioner making a full-body prostration in a monastic or pilgrimage setting

Primarily Symbolic/Cultural

Why Do Buddhists Make Prostrations?

Prostration appears across Buddhist traditions as reverence, training and deliberate lowering of the self. Tradivior will compare its meanings across regions and ask what repetitive full-body ritual may do to…

Christians kneeling or standing in church during embodied prayer and worship

Partially Supported

Why Do Christians Kneel, Stand and Make the Sign of the Cross?

Christian worship has long used posture and gesture to make belief visible in the body. Tradivior will examine how kneeling, standing and the sign of the cross developed across churches,…

Offerings of fruit, powders and ritual items arranged during a Hindu puja ceremony

Primarily Symbolic/Cultural

Why Do Hindus Perform Puja With Lamps, Water, Flowers and Food?

Puja brings together light, water, scent, food, touch and gesture in a highly structured act of worship. Tradivior will trace how these offerings developed, what they mean within Hindu traditions,…