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. Inthis 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. INDICE: Part 1 Theories: The History of Interpretation; 1.: Myth or Ritual: Questions of Origin and Essence; Early Theories and Theorists; They Myth and Ritual Schools; The Phenomenology of Religions; Psychoanalytic Approatchesto Ritual; Profile: Interpreting the Akitu Festival; Conclusion; 2.: Ritual and Society: Questions of Social Funciton and Structure; Early Theories of Social Solidarity; Functionalism; Neofunctional Systems Analyses; Structuralism; Magic, Religion, and Science; Profile: Interpreting the Mukanda Initiation; Conclusion; 3.: Ritual Symbols, Syntax, and Praxis: Questions of Cultural Meaningand Interpretation; Symbolic Systems and Symbolic Action; Linguistics; Performance; Practice; Profile: Interpreting British and Swazi Enthronement Rites; Conclusion; Part II Rites: The Spectrum of Ritual Activities; 4.: Basic Genres of Ritual Action; Rites of Passage; Calendrical Rites; Rites of Affliction; Feasting, Fasting, and Festivals; Political Rites; Conclusion; Part III Contexts: The Fabric of Ritual Life; 5.: Ritual Density; Systems; Typologies; Orthopraxy and Orthodoxy; Traditional and Secular; Oral and Literate; Church, Sect, and Cult; Conclusion; 6.: Ritual Change; Tradition and Transformation; Ritual Invention; Media and Message; Conclusion; 7.: Ritual Reification; Repudiating, Returning, Romancing; The Emergence of 'Ritual'; Conclusion; Notes; Reference; Index
- ISBN: 978-0-19-973510-5
- Editorial: Oxford University
- Encuadernacion: Rústica
- Páginas: 368
- Fecha Publicación: 28/01/2010
- Nº Volúmenes: 1
- Idioma: Inglés