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18:17 Jul 4, 2010
This question was closed without grading. Reason: No acceptable answer
Dutch to English translations [PRO] Art/Literary - History
Dutch term or phrase:cultusplaats
'Kerkhoven en cultusplaats kregen een belangrijke, zij het wisselende plaats in de gemeenschap.'
'Places of worship' are typically churches / gebedshuizen (I am not saying 'worshipping' has to happen indoors). Cultusplaatsen zijn typisch historische, buitengelegen locaties. Zie bv hier: http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oud-Griekse_godsdienst#Cultuspl...
De topografie van de dood - Achter elk graf gaat een man, een vrouw, een kind of een gemeenschap schuil. Kerkhoven en cultusplaats kregen een belangrijke, zij het wisselende plaats in de gemeenschap. Praalgraven en grafmonumenten contrasteerden met de gewone graven en de massagraven.
IMO when the writer uses the word "kerkhoven" he refers to what people used to invest in their physical appearance and when he uses the word "cultusplaats" he refers to these same "kerkhoven" but now in terms of the amount of time people used to spend there for performing certain religious activities
First sentence:
"Achter elk graf gaat een man, een vrouw, een kind of een gemeenschap schuil."
we could clearly be talking about a churchyard (kerkhof), couldn't we?
but couldn't we also be talking about a "cultusplaats"? A place where it is possible for visitors to perform religious acts related or unrelated to this man, this woman, this child, this community buried there?
So the next sentence continues:
Kerkhoven en cultusplaats kregen een belangrijke plaats in de gemeenschap.
They took care of their physical state and they spent religious time there
"-> Thank you, Frank. IMO it is primarily about making sense of this strange utterance. What is the speaker/writer referring to with "cultusplaats"?"
There is no reference to any kind of "cult" as we understand these days, so just church or place of worship will suffice. Unless Michael has some other context that changes things, I read this very simply as a reference to a church of any size or denomination, and his own conclusion sounds logical to me.
I am wondering if perhaps it might not be better to use 'places of worship' here instead. Where the Dutch and English would look like this:
'Kerkhoven en cultusplaats kregen een belangrijke, zij het wisselende plaats in de gemeenschap.' -> 'Cemeteries and places of worship had an important, albeit changing place in the community.'
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Answers
26 mins confidence: peer agreement (net): +2
cult location
Explanation: One example:
At one point, for example, wandering around in the dark cult location and faced with the possibility of the living dead, he remarks, "This is f…ing weird!" and we agree. http://metapsychology.mentalhelp.net/poc/view_doc.php?type=b...
Lianne Van De Ven United States Local time: 04:44 Native speaker of: Dutch PRO pts in category: 16
2 hrs confidence:
place for religious contemplation
Explanation: Churchyards, both in the physical sense and in the sense of serving as a place for religious contemplation, acquired an important, although changing, place within the community.
in this particular context "cultusplaats" only makes sense to me when it is understood in connection with "kerkhoven"
I believe the speaker/ writer refers to two aspects of the same place, namely:
the physical aspect: the way the churchyards were set up, the types of graves you could find there, maintenance, in short, the effort invested in their appearance
the spiritual aspect: the churchyard as a place for the living to deal with death and the death
-------------------------------------------------- Note added at 3 hrs (2010-07-04 22:04:54 GMT) --------------------------------------------------
as I pointed out, I believe it is about the place churchyards acquired in a religious sense, that's my personal take on it
remember that places of worship, churches, The Church, were at the summit of their power in the Middle Ages, they held a more than important place already!
perhaps you could replace "contemplation" with "acts" or "rituals", I don't know what is best
we can be sure that it is about Christian religious practices, but you had many kinds of Christians in the Middle Ages
just read The Name of the Rose :-)
-------------------------------------------------- Note added at 4 hrs (2010-07-04 22:19:53 GMT) --------------------------------------------------
".. serving as a place" should be "serving as places"
-------------------------------------------------- Note added at 4 hrs (2010-07-04 22:42:46 GMT) --------------------------------------------------
it is true that you can read "kregen" also as "were given" and not as "acquired" but this would not change my opinion, I would still believe the speaker/ writer is referring to churchyards as "cultusplaatsen"
they would gather around those mausoleums and monuments to do their religious thing, everyone in his own way
Barend van Zadelhoff Netherlands Local time: 10:44 Native speaker of: Dutch PRO pts in category: 13
Notes to answerer
Asker: Thanks Barend! I am kind of leaning towards the following: 'Cemeteries and places of worship acquired an important although changing place within the community.' (The next sentence reads: 'Praalgraven en grafmonumenten contrasteerden met de gewone graven en de massagraven.')
Reference comments
1 hr
Reference: actual context
Reference information: TUSSEN HEMEL EN HEL
Sterven in de middeleeuwen
3) De topografie van de dood - Achter elk graf gaat een man, een vrouw, een kind of een gemeenschap schuil. Kerkhoven en cultusplaats kregen een belangrijke, zij het wisselende plaats in de gemeenschap. Praalgraven en grafmonumenten contrasteerden met de gewone graven en de massagraven.
The translation workplace 
peer agreement (net): +2
