Ritual : perspectives and dimensions

by Catherine M. Bell, 1953-2008

Other authorsReza Aslan (Foreword)

Paperback, 2009

Status

Available

Call number

BL600.B45 2009

Genres

Anthropology

Religion & Spirituality

General Nonfiction

All Topics

Nonfiction

Collection

Numinous

Publication

New York : Oxford University Press, 1997, c2009.

Description

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.… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member DeFor

ALL HUMAN INTERACTION AND UNDERSTANDING IS BASED ON A LOGICAL FALLACY!

Subjects

Psychology, religious

Language

English

Physical description

xv, 351 p.; 23.4 cm

ISBN

9780199735105

Copy notes

Contents: Theories: The History of Interpretation -- Myth or Ritual: Questions of Origin and Essence -- Early Theories and Theorists -- The Myth and Ritual Schools -- The Phenomenology of Religions -- Psychoanalytic Approaches to Ritual -- Profile: Interpreting the Akitu Festival -- Ritual and Society: Questions of Social Function and Structure -- Early Theories of Social Solidarity -- Functionalism -- Neofunctional Systems Analyses -- Structuralism -- Magic, Religion, and Science -- Profile: Interpreting the Mukanda Initiation -- Ritual Symbols, Syntax, and Praxis: Questions of Cultural Meaning and Interpretation -- Symbolic Systems and Symbolic Action -- Linguistics -- Performance -- Practice -- Profile: Interpreting British and Swazi Enthronement Rites -- Rites: The Spectrum of Ritual Activities -- Basic Genres of Ritual Action -- Rites of Passage -- Calendrical Rites -- Rites of Exchange and Communion -- Rites of Affliction -- Feasting, Fasting, and Festivals -- Political Rites -- Characteristics of Ritual-like Activities -- Formalism -- Traditionalism -- Invariance -- Rule-Governance -- Sacral Symbolism -- Performance -- Contexts: The Fabric of Ritual Life -- Ritual Density -- Systems -- Typologies -- Orthopraxy and Orthodoxy -- Traditional and Secular -- Oral and Literate -- Church, Sect, and Cult -- Ritual Change -- Tradition and Transformation -- Ritual Invention -- Media and Message -- Ritual Reification -- Repudiating, Returning, Romancing -- The Emergence of "Ritual."
Includes bibliographical references (pages 313-341) and index.
Grey and dark navy pictorial wraps.
Text block and cover rubbed and discolored at lower right corner.