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Ritual: Perspectives and Dimensions
By Catherine Bell
368 pages
- Contributors:
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- Place of publication:
- New York
- Publication year:
- 1997
- Subjects:
Synopsis
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 ...
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.
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Table of contents
The first page of every section is available free to non-members – click a section heading to start reading now!
- Title Page iii
- Preface ix
- Contents xiii
- Part I Theories - The History of Interpretation 1
- One Myth or Ritual - Questions of Origin and Essence 3
- Conclusion 20
- Two Ritual and Society - Questions of Social Function and Structure 23
- Conclusion 59
- Three Ritual Symbols, Syntax, and Praxis - Questions of Cultural Meaning and interpretation 61
- Conclusion 88
- Part II Rices - The Spectrum of Ritual Activities 91
- Four Basic Genres of Ritual Action 93
- Conclusion 135
- Five Characteristics of Ritual-like Activities 138
- Conclusion 164
- Part III Contexts - The Fabric of Ritual Life 171
- Title Page iii
- Preface ix
- Contents xiii
- Part I Theories - The History of Interpretation 1
- One Myth or Ritual - Questions of Origin and Essence 3
- Conclusion 20
- Two Ritual and Society - Questions of Social Function and Structure 23
- Conclusion 59
- Three Ritual Symbols, Syntax, and Praxis - Questions of Cultural Meaning and interpretation 61
- Conclusion 88
- Part II Rices - The Spectrum of Ritual Activities 91
- Four Basic Genres of Ritual Action 93
- Conclusion 135
- Five Characteristics of Ritual-like Activities 138
- Conclusion 164
- Part III Contexts - The Fabric of Ritual Life 171
- Six Ritual Density 173
- Conclusion 209
- Seven Ritual Change 210
- Conclusion 251
- Eight Ritual Reification 253
- Conclusion 266
- Notes 269
- References 313
- Index 343