Ritual: Perspectives and DimensionsOxford University Press - Social Science From handshakes and toasts to chant and genuflection, ritual pervades our social interactions and religious practices. Still, few of us could identify all of our daily and festal ritual behaviors, much less explain them to an outsider. Similarly, because of the variety of activities that qualify as ritual and their many contradictory yet, in many ways, equally legitimate interpretations, ritual seems to elude any systematic historical and comparative scrutiny. In this book, Catherine Bell offers a practical introduction to ritual practice and its study; she surveys the most influential theories of religion and ritual, the major categories of ritual activity, and the key debates that have shaped our understanding of ritualism. Bell refuses to nail down ritual with any one definition or understanding. Instead, her purpose is to reveal how definitions emerge and evolve and to help us become more familiar with the interplay of tradition, exigency, and self-expression that goes into constructing this complex social medium. |
Contents
Theories The History of Interpretation | 1 |
Myth or Ritual Question of Origin and Essence | 3 |
The Myth and Ritual Schools | 5 |
The Phenomenology of Religons | 8 |
Psychoanalytic Approaches to Ritual | 12 |
Interpreting the Akitu Festival | 17 |
Conclusion | 20 |
Ritual and Society Questions of Social Function and Structure | 23 |
Conclusion | 135 |
Characteristics of Rituallike Activities | 138 |
Formalism | 139 |
Traditionalism | 145 |
Invariance | 150 |
RuleGovernance | 153 |
Sacral Symbolism | 155 |
Performance | 159 |
Early Theories of Social Solidarity | 24 |
Functionalism | 27 |
Neofunctional Systems Analyses | 29 |
Structuralism | 33 |
Magic Religion and Science | 46 |
Interpreting the Mukanda Initiation | 52 |
Conclusion | 59 |
Ritual Symbols Svntax and Praxis Questions of Cultural Meaning and Interpretation | 61 |
Symbolic Systems and Symbolic Action | 62 |
Linguistics | 68 |
Performance | 72 |
Practice | 76 |
Interpreting British and Swazi Enthronement Rites | 83 |
Conclusion | 88 |
Rites The Spectrum of Ritual Activities | 91 |
Basic Genres of Rilual Action | 93 |
Rites of Passage | 94 |
Calendrical Rites | 102 |
Rites of Exchange and Communion | 108 |
Rites of Affliction | 115 |
Feasting Fasting and Festivals | 120 |
Political Rites | 128 |
Conclusion | 164 |
Contexts The Fabric of Ritual Life | 171 |
Ritual Density | 173 |
Typologies | 177 |
Orthopraxy and Orthodoxy | 191 |
Traditional and Secular | 197 |
Oral and Literate | 202 |
Church Sect and Cult | 205 |
Conclusion | 209 |
Ritual Change | 210 |
Tradition and Transformation | 212 |
Ritual Invention | 223 |
Media and Message | 242 |
Conclusion | 251 |
Ritual Deification | 253 |
Repudiating Returning Romancing | 254 |
The Emergence of Ritual | 259 |
Conclusion | 266 |
Notes | 269 |
| 313 | |
| 343 | |
Common terms and phrases
action Akitu American analysis analyzed ancient anthropologist argued attempt basic behavior beliefs calendrical ceremonies Chicago Chinese Christian church complex concerned context contrast cultural defined developed dimensions distinctions divine Douglas dramatic Durkheim Edmund Leach effect Eliade Émile Durkheim example experience express festival formal Frazer Frits Staal function Geertz Gennep Gluckman gods historical human identity interpretation Islamic Judaism Kwanzaa linguistic Liturgy magic Mary Douglas means Mircea Eliade modern Mukanda myth and ritual nature Ncwala Ndembu orthopraxy particular patterns performance perspective political potlatch primitive relationships religion religious Richard Schechner rites of passage ritual activities ritual practices Ritual Theory ritual-like Robertson Smith role sacred sacrifice scholars secular society spirit money spirits structure study of ritual style of ritual suggests symbols television tend theorists tion totemic traditional traditionalism Turner University Press values Victor Turner Vodou women York