The Palgrave Handbook of Anthropological Ritual Studies

Ritual Studies have achieved prominence since the 1980s, when interest in ritual as an object of inquiry was established, bridging over a number of humanities and social science disciplines. Both connected with religious studies and independent of it; overlapping with social and cultural anthropology, but also with history; related to science and health practices and ranging across the life course to education, Ritual Studies has come to encompass studies of change and dynamism in social life. Rituals are determinate in form, but not static. They enunciate distinctive social values within specific contexts that frame them; and they relate to the wider concerns and issues of their practitioners.

Due to this broad and wide-ranging scope, it is often difficult to find a single resource on Ritual Studies, and even more so to find one which moves beyond the beginnings of anthropological theorizing to grapple with the present-day contexts of ritual. Bringing togetherrecent ethnographies of ritual practice and ritualization from across the globe, this Handbook provides case study of ritual in the light of Emotion and Cognition, Identity, Religious Power, Performance and Literature, Ecology and Ecological Disaster, Media, and other topics. While each chapter provides a deep ethnography of a specific society, ritual, or ritualized practice, each also engages with current theoretical and substantive approaches to the relevant topic.

The scholars collected here provide original synoptic and indicative pieces as guideposts and pathways through the complex, varied and cross-disciplinary, and vast landscape of scholarship that constitutes Ritual Studies today and points to developments in the future.

Provides synoptic and cutting-edge analyses of a broad range of topics and theories in Ritual Studies, taking account of the many disciplines that the field encompasses Features a global ethnographic reach, using a broad array of international case studies to inform theory-based chapters Engages with and respects the multi-disciplinary approach characteristic of Ritual Studies

Autorentext

Pamela J. Stewart is Senior Research Associate in Anthropology at the University of Pittsburgh, USA.

Andrew J. Strathern is Andrew Mellon Professor of Anthropology at the University of Pittsburgh, USA.

Stewart and Strathern have a long history of joint publications and research, with nearly fifty book publications and over two hundred co-authored articles. They are the long-standing co-editors of the Journal of Ritual Studies, and co-editors of the book series Ritual Studies and the volume Ritual: Key Concepts in Religion (2014).

Inhalt

1. Ritual Studies: Whence and Where to? (Andrew J. Strathern and Pamela J. Stewart).- 2. Ritual Dream Sharing and Charismatic Church Routinization (Roger Ivar Lohmann).- 3. Sacrifices in the Ancient World: Research on Complex Rituals (Günther Schörner).- 4. Economic Thought, Ritual and Religion (Thomas Widlok).- 5. Thanks For Your Visit, But You Can Go Now: Cortesia, hospitality and rites of distinction in Angola (Ruy Llera Blanes).- 6. Formulas of Home: On the religious performance of personal rituals (Nigel Rapport).- 7. Contesting Masculinity and Ritual Embodiment in Youth Baseball (John W. Traphagan).- 8. Ritual, Performance and Cognition (Andrew J. Strathern and Pamela J. Stewart).- 9. Grave-visiting rituals in Northwestern Europe (Anne Kjærsgaard and Eric Venbrux).- 10. The Device of the Spirit Medium for connecting Humans to the Supernatural: A Case Study of Shamanic Healing in the Qorin Region of Inner Mongolia, China (Saijirahu Buyanchugla).- 11. Empathy and Ritual Practices (Anne Sigfrid Grønseth).- 12. Ritual, Place, and Experience in Hindu Home-temple Visitation (Sanjoy Mazumdar and Shampa Mazumdar).- 13. Designing Enchanted Rituals for Modern Man (Anne-Christine Hornborg).- 14. Mo(nu)ments of Vulnerability: The Centrality of Ritual Creativity in Pilgrimages to Catholic Shrines in France and Portugal (Anna Fedele).- 15. Rituals Surrounding Sorcery and Witchcraft in Traditional Societies: Issues for Researchers (G.W. Trompf).- 16. On the Partiality of Pentecostal Ritual (Simon Coleman).- 17. Infrastructures of Interrituality and the Aesthetics of Saint Veneration Rituals among Orthodox Christians and Arab Alawites in Hatay (Jens Kreinath).- 18. Moka (ceremonial exchange) with Death (Pamela J. Stewart and Andrew J. Strathern). <p