Academic literature on the topic 'Alms beggars'

John Iliffe has argued that the Yoruba, almost uniquely among African peoples not substantially affected by the world religions, had developed by the nineteenth century a syndrome of institutions – a culture of begging, the valorization of poverty, asceticism – more typical of literate, stratified societies with intensive agriculture.It is agreed that the Yoruba towns of the nineteenth century knew poverty on a substantial scale, aggravated by the endemic warfare and social upheaval. However, the supposed ‘indigenous tradition of begging’ which Iliffe cites as evidence, is shown to rest on a cultural misreading of social practices reported by the missionaries, notably the offering of cowries to the devotees of gods, especially Esu. These acts were not almsgiving to beggars but sacrifices to deities, continuous with other forms of sacrifice. The ‘beggars’ were by no means always poor. Sociologically, offerings to the devotees of deities ranged from a ‘commercial’ mode, where material blessings were anticipated in return, to a ‘tributary’ mode (particularly common with devotees of Sango) where they were analogous to placatory sacrifices (etutu). So dominant was the notion of sacrifice that a concept of Islamic origin, saraa, originally meaning ‘alms’, came to take the meaning of ‘sacrifice’ in Yoruba (as in many other West African languages).Other aspects of the alleged poverty/asceticism syndrome are shown to be equally invalid. The pronounced this-worldliness of Yoruba religious attitudes is incompatible with idea that the poor might enjoy special religious favour. Acts of self-mortification did not indicate an attitude of religious asceticism. There was no ideal that religious personnel should be poor. It is argued in conclusion that the changes which we can see in Yoruba religion arise from the active engagement of Yorubas with external influences, rather than purely from endogenous developments or purely reactive responses.

Each parish had to provide maintenance to all the poor living on that area. Some of them used to live by the church in the parish houses called hospitals while others lived in villages. Few hospitals used the money put down to their bank accounts by the rich, the others were supported thanks to the alms of the parishioners and help of the parish-priest. Residents of hospitals cleaned the church, rang the bell for church, served during the mess or helped on the farm. Other poor people were called beggers. The parish-priest kept a record of beggers, issued certificates qualifying them to alms on the area of his parish, encouraged his parishioners to generosity. Civil authorities often criticized the quantity of beggers, idlers and wanderers. They tried to find any solution even by sending such people to the army or by forcing them to work. They mainly stressed that that was the duty of the parish. After the January Uprising communes got self-governed powers and since then they took care of the poor. On the turn of the century charity organizations came into being.

Abstract This essay departs from documenta 14’s reading of Gustave Courbet’s drawing Alms from a Beggar at Ornans (1868) in the opening room of the Neue Galerie in Kassel and seeks to unravel the complex aesthetic and semantic web drawn across the exhibits in the room in relation to the drawing. Based on this close reading, the article critically engages with some of the core concepts of documenta 14’s curatorial project including solidarity, hospitality, alternative economies, and non-reciprocal forms of exchange, in order to reflect on the discrepancies embedded in the radical public rhetoric of the show.

The phenomenon of beggars is a problem faced by many cities, including Padang city. Permindo street of Padang city is a strategic location to serve as the location of the activity of begging. There are some beggars who take advantage of the real physical limitations, and there also beggars deliberately creating impressions as a beggar. The problem is how the beggars creating impressions on themselves to bring in the mercy of the other people (prospective benefactors). The purpose of this study is to describe how form the impression management that created by beggars. This research was carried out by using qualitative research methods and the type is descriptive. From the results of the data obtained, impression management by beggars, covering by verbal and non verbal aspects. Verbal aspect that used in front stage area (front stage) by saying Assalamualaikum and Alhamdulillah, while the non-verbal aspects include tone of voice, body language, appearance, face expressions, tools, and mystification. In the back stage area (back stage), beggars doing impression management through tone of voice, body language, appearance, and face expressions. Beggars showing a different impression on the two settings. In front stage area (front stage), beggars deliberately forming an impression to get a gift or alms from others (prospective benefactors), while in the back stage area (back stage), beggars forming an impression as ordinary people in a social environment.

Beggars are an inescapable part of our society and one has to deal with this reality. Begging is a global phenomenon and not found in our society alone but rather it is found everywhere, in both developed and developing countries. A large proportion of beggars are the people who are unable to get on with life in a normal passion because of poverty, disability or other reasons. They can find no way out but to live on alms of others at the expanse of their dignity. The study throws lights on the socio-economic conditions of beggars; to find out the causes and factors that lead to their begging life; to identify the problems faced by the beggars while they beg and to give remedial measures for improving their socio-economic condition. Data was collected from 51 beggars by adopting purposive sampling method during May to June 2015 and techniques like Chi-square test; Garrett’s rating scale; Likert’s summated scale and Factor analysis were used. The study revealed that the main cause for begging was illiteracy, no source of food and illness and also they faced problems like harassment from municipal officers and police, fellow beggars, sexual abuse and health hazards. The study concludes that as they are also humans who have the right to live with dignity and respect, help them to get job in productive works according to their potentialities and skill rather than giving them kind and cash to get rid of them.

Abstract This article aims to explore how people make pilgrimages not as a temporary journey but as a persistent way of life, using case studies I collected from fieldwork in Shikoku Island, Japan. The Shikoku pilgrimage is one of the most popular Buddhist pilgrimages, involving a 1,400-kilometre journey, where pilgrims visit 88 temples spread across the island. While previous studies have argued that the tradition of almsgiving helps marginal people such as the poor and those with Hansen’s disease to survive, it is not yet clear how those people, in reality, make a living on alms alone. In recent years, the pilgrimage authority and some of the local people have attempted to regulate begging and exclude “beggars” from the pilgrimage sites, differentiating them from the “true” pilgrims. This article will clarify how pilgrims, nevertheless, struggle to reconstruct their lives and then cultivate the self through their everyday practice of begging.

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O trabalho tem por objeto o estudo da ação dos esmoleiros da Bula da Santa Cruzada, no período de 1748 a 1828, na região das Minas. Buscou-se entender o significado da arrecadação da esmola para Portugal cujo objetivo era combater os infiéis no norte da África e defender a fé cristã, além da manutenção das praças mercantis. A tese aborda os significados da arrecadação das esmolas, a importância para Portugal da defesa da cristandade e as representações simbólicas da doação, além de tratar da desconfiança dos doadores na Colônia. Procurou-se ainda caracterizar as modalidades de esmoleiros mores e menores e a especificidade dos tesoureiros da Bula como agentes a serviço do Estado e os privilégios detidos em razão do exercício da função e o lugar de distinção na sociedade da época. O trabalho ainda aborda a importância da Bula através das festas e rituais que tinham lugar na Colônia à época de sua publicação anual, onde compareciam autoridades civis e eclesiásticas, ato que legitimava os benefícios da Bula e conferia aos seus oficiais, reconhecimento, posição e autoridade. E mostra como a representação simbólica do infiel atualizava-se nas cavalhadas, onde a luta entre mouros e cristãos era ritualizada, momento de atualização do mito constitutivo da história política portuguesa.
This work it takes as an object the study of the meaning of the action of the Alms beggar of the Bull of the Saint Crusade, in the period from 1748 to 1828, in the region of the Mines. It was looked to understand the meaning of the tax revenue of the donation of Portugal which objective was to fight the unfaithful ones in the north of Africa and to defend the Christian faith, besides the maintenance of the mercantile squares. The dissertation boards the meanings of the tax revenue of the charities, the importance for Portugal of the defense of the Christhendom and the symbolic representations of the donation, besides treating the suspicion of the donors in the Colony. It tried still to characterize the kinds of Alms beggars live and juveniles and the especifical of the treasurers of the Bull like agents to service of the State and privileges detained on account of the exercise of the function and the place of distinction in the society of the time. The work still boards the importance of the Bull through parties and rituals what had place in the Colony to the time of his annual publication, where there were appearing civil and ecclesiastical authorities, act that was legitimizing the benefits of the Bull and was tallying to his officials, recognition, position and authority. And display like the symbolic representation of the unfaithful one was updating in the herds of horses, where the struggle between Moorish and Christian was ritualized, moment of updating of the constitutive myth of the Portuguese political history.

Beggars and begging were ubiquitous features of pre-Famine Irish society, yet have gone largely unexamined by historians. Begging, Charity and Religion in Pre-Famine Ireland explores at length for the first time the complex cultures of mendicancy, as well as how wider societal perceptions of and responses to begging were framed by social class, gender and religion. The study breaks new ground in exploring the challenges inherent in defining and measuring begging and alms-giving in pre-Famine Ireland, as well as the disparate ways in which mendicants were perceived by contemporaries. A discussion of the evolving role of parish vestries in the life of pre-Famine communities facilitates an examination of corporate responses to beggary, while a comprehensive analysis of the mendicity society movement, which flourished throughout Ireland in the three decades following 1815, highlights the significance of charitable societies and associational culture in responding to the perceived threat of mendicancy. The instance of the mendicity societies illustrates the extent to which Irish commentators and social reformers were influenced by prevailing theories and practices in the transatlantic world regarding the management of the poor and deviant. Drawing on a wide range of sources previously unused for the study of poverty and welfare, this book makes an important contribution to modern Irish social and ecclesiastical history.

Perceptions of begging and beggars were not universally shared in pre-Famine Ireland. Fears of the spread of disease and frustration at the inconvenience caused by beggars coloured many hostile reactions to the soliciting beggar. Yet, for some, the itinerant mendicant was an accepted part of (urban and rural) life. Solicitations for assistance provided people with the opportunity to engage in an act of Christian charity (the giving of alms), foregoing any distinctions between the ‘deserving’ and ‘undeserving’ poor.

This chapter examines the challenges inherent in defining what precisely constituted begging in pre-Famine Ireland and who were considered beggars. For many poor persons, begging was just one of a number of survival strategies in the ‘economy of makeshifts’ and was resorted to according to fluctuating family circumstances. The giving of alms, meanwhile, was undertaken in various guises and oftentimes was undertaken as much to relieve genuine distress as it was to be rid of an unwanted mendicant.

There are some pilgrims who live permanently as homeless itinerants on the route. They are often viewed negatively as beggars who are only doing the pilgrimage to solicit alms and avoid work. However, this chapter presents a more nuanced picture, showing that while some itinerant pilgrims beg and succumb to drink and theft, others lead disciplined ascetic lives. It presents case studies of homeless itinerants who have lived for many years on the pilgrimage, from one who turned to drinking and theft, to an ascetic Buddhist practitioner who eschewed alcohol, to a famous fugitive from the law who had a devoted group of supporters and a colourful history of crime, and whose dualistic nature as a revered pilgrim and infamous felon encapsulates the contradictory dimensions of itinerant pilgrims in Shikoku.

Attempts to measure the extent of beggary and the amount doled out in alms to mendicants was part of a desire among the ‘respectable’ middling classes to understand the ‘problem’ of mendicancy. Merchants and social commentators sought to reduce the financial burden of beggary, and the Poor Law debates of the 1830s devoted much energy to the impact of indiscriminate alms-giving. The casual giving of alms far outweighed the amount subscribed to anti-begging charitable societies, yet the significance placed on the monetary impact of beggary was not shared by all social classes.

This chapter analyses the disparate views and responses towards beggary and alms-giving within Irish Protestantism. The significant role played by evangelicalism in framing approaches towards mendicancy is discussed. Themes which are explored, and which mirror the discussion in the previous chapter on Catholic approaches, include the ‘deserving’ / ‘undeserving’ distinction, the morality of indiscriminate alms-giving, and the role of Protestant commentators and churches on the Poor Law question.

Beggary was seen as a threat to society on a number of fronts, yet, the practices of mendicancy and alms-giving were also framed by a universal sense of Christian obligation amongst all classes of society to assist those poorer than themselves. The example and teaching of Christ, as expounded in the New Testament, was intrinsic to the language of private and public charity in this period and deeply influenced how individuals and corporate bodies perceived and responded to begging. The long-held distinction between the ‘deserving’ and ‘undeserving’ poor coloured approaches to beggary. Begging and alms-giving were central features of the public discourse on the question of the poor of Ireland and their relief. This discourse was shaped by wider social and economic factors, and in line with these fluctuating forces societal perceptions and responses varied.

Just as Partridge had uttered that good and pious doctrine with which the last chapter concluded, they arrived at another crossway, when a lame fellow in rags asked them for alms, upon which Partridge gave him a severe rebuke, saying, ‘Every parish ought to...

Spenser and Shakespeare also diverge in portraying intellect. Alma’s stately tour strikingly contrasts Lear’s impassioned self-stripping, shedding housing, clothing, and sanity with a shivering fool and demon-haunted beggar on a stormy waste. Alma shows the hierarchic harmony of belly, heart, and brain. Lear distraughtly reacts to raw nature, wounded self-love, anguished severance of bonds. The contrary depiction of intellect is evident in temptings. Spenser’s patterned sinning recaps Eden’s triple tempting, a doctrinal trope so awkwardly used by Shakespeare in Macbeth 4.3 that the scene is often cut. Spenser’s temptings(the Sansboys, Despair, Mammon, Acrasia) learnedly allude to most epic temptings. In striking contrast is theexperientialsubjectivity and psychic complexity of Shakespeare’s temptations.Divergent use of intellect also appears in moral counsel. Spenserian heroesareeducated to achieve virtue, but in books 1-6 moral advice schematically shrinks in scope–intellective authorities in 1 and 2, equivocal passional advisors in 3 and 4, problematic sensatecounsel in 5 and 6. (Would this development reverse in books 7-12?) Shakespeare’s moral authorities show a contrary development: early farces of parents and friars (notably Polonius), counselors who grow by suffering in the tragedies, artfully effective counselors in the romances.