Ritual Theory, Ritual PracticeOxford University Press, 1992 M01 30 - 288 pages Ritual studies today figures as a central element of religious discourse for many scholars around the world. Ritual Theory, Ritual Practice, Catherine Bell's sweeping and seminal work on the subject, helped legitimize the field. In this volume, Bell re-examines the issues, methods, and ramifications of our interest in ritual by concentrating on anthropology, sociology, and the history of religions. Now with a new foreword by Diane Jonte-Pace, Bell's work is a must-read for understanding the evolution of the field of ritual studies and its current state. |
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Page ix
... strategies of " ritualization , " initially defined as a way of acting that differentiates some acts from others . To approach ritual within the framework of practical activity raises , I suggest , potentially more fruitful questions ...
... strategies of " ritualization , " initially defined as a way of acting that differentiates some acts from others . To approach ritual within the framework of practical activity raises , I suggest , potentially more fruitful questions ...
Page 4
... strategies by which ritualized activities do what they do . I do not provide a comprehensive history of the term , a review of the most famous ethnographic examples , or a revised theory of ritual - useful though these projects might be ...
... strategies by which ritualized activities do what they do . I do not provide a comprehensive history of the term , a review of the most famous ethnographic examples , or a revised theory of ritual - useful though these projects might be ...
Page 7
... strategic way of acting and then turn to explore how and why this way of acting differentiates itself from other practices . When analyzed as ritualization , acting ritually emerges as a particular cultural strategy of differentiation ...
... strategic way of acting and then turn to explore how and why this way of acting differentiates itself from other practices . When analyzed as ritualization , acting ritually emerges as a particular cultural strategy of differentiation ...
Page 13
... the nature of objectivity itself rests on historical paradigms and strategies of human inquiry effective within a specific milieu . Subsequent attempts to relegitimate knowledge have made even 13 I: THE PRACTICE OF RITUAL THEORY.
... the nature of objectivity itself rests on historical paradigms and strategies of human inquiry effective within a specific milieu . Subsequent attempts to relegitimate knowledge have made even 13 I: THE PRACTICE OF RITUAL THEORY.
Page 35
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Contents
3 | |
10 | |
13 | |
Constructing Ritual | 19 |
Constructing Meaning | 30 |
Constructing Discourse | 47 |
Notes | 55 |
THE SENSE OF RITUAL | 67 |
Ritual Traditions and Systems | 118 |
Notes | 143 |
RITUAL AND POWER | 169 |
Ritual Control | 171 |
Ritual Belief and Ideology | 182 |
The Power of Ritualization | 197 |
Notes | 224 |
Bibliography | 239 |
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Common terms and phrases
Abner Cohen Althusser analysis analyze Anthropology Approach to Ritual argues basic behavior beliefs Biogenetic Structural Bloch Bourdieu Chicago Press Claude Lévi-Strauss Comaroff concept consensus constituted construction context contrast David Cannadine defined dichotomy differentiation discourse discussion distinction dominant Durkheim dynamics E. E. Evans-Pritchard effective Eric Hobsbawn example focus formal Foucault Frits Staal Geertz Goody hegemony hierarchy ideology integration Interpretation of Cultures involves Jameson Jonathan Z Julian Huxley Lévi-Strauss logic Marxist meaning Merquior Meyer Fortes Michel Foucault Mircea Eliade notion of ritual object objectification oppositions participants particular performance perspective Political power relations Rappaport reality relationship religion religious rites ritual activities ritual practices ritual studies ritual theory schemes simply social body social control society specific strategies of ritualization structure suggests Tambiah textual theoretical theorist Theory of Practice theory of ritual thought and action tion tradition Turner Valeri Victor Turner York
Popular passages
Page 147 - The mode of production in material life determines the general character of the social, political and spiritual processes of life. It is not the consciousness of men that determines their existence, but, on the contrary, their social existence determines their consciousness.
Page 11 - Johannes Fabian, Time and the Other: How Anthropology Makes Its Object (New York: Columbia University Press, 1983); James Clifford, The Predicament of Culture: Twentieth-Century Ethnography, Literature, and Art (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1988).
Page 30 - Whenever Madrasi Brahmans (and non-Brahmans, too, for that matter) wished to exhibit to me some feature of Hinduism, they always referred to, or invited me to see, a particular rite or ceremony in the life cycle, in a temple festival, or in the general sphere of religious and cultural performances. Reflecting on this in the course of my interviews and observations, I found that the more abstract generalizations about Hinduism (my own as well as those I heard) could generally be checked, directly...
Page 172 - Norms and values, on the one hand, become saturated with emotion, while the gross and basic emotions become ennobled through contact with social values.
Page 201 - Every power relationship implies, at least in potentia, a strategy of struggle, in which the two forces are not superimposed, do not lose their specific nature, or do not finally become confused. Each constitutes for the other a kind of permanent limit, a point of possible reversal.
Page 27 - In a ritual, the world as lived and the world as imagined, fused under the agency of a single set of symbolic forms, turn out to be the same world, producing thus that idiosyncratic transformation in one's sense of reality to which Santayana refers in my epigraph.
Page 74 - As such, ritualization is a matter of various culturally specific strategies for setting some activities off from others, for creating and privileging a qualitative distinction between the 'sacred' and the 'profane,' and for ascribing such distinctions to realities thought to transcend the powers of human actors.