Ritual Theory, Ritual Practice

Ritual Theory, Ritual Practice
Title Ritual Theory, Ritual Practice PDF eBook
Author Catherine Bell
Publisher Oxford University Press
Pages 292
Release 1992-01-30
Genre Religion
ISBN 9780199760381

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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.

Ritual: A Very Short Introduction

Ritual: A Very Short Introduction
Title Ritual: A Very Short Introduction PDF eBook
Author Barry Stephenson
Publisher Oxford University Press
Pages 143
Release 2015-01-28
Genre Religion
ISBN 0199943583

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Ritual is part of what it means to be human. Like sports, music, and drama, ritual defines and enriches culture, putting those who practice it in touch with sources of value and meaning larger than themselves. Ritual is unavoidable, yet it holds a place in modern life that is decidedly ambiguous. What is ritual? What does it do? Is it useful? What are the various kinds of ritual? Is ritual tradition bound and conservative or innovative and transformational? Alongside description of a number of specific rites, this Very Short Introduction explores ritual from both theoretical and historical perspectives. Barry Stephenson focuses on the places where ritual touches everyday life: in politics and power; moments of transformation in the life cycle; as performance and embodiment. He also discusses the boundaries of ritual, and how and why certain behaviors have been studied as ritual while others have not. Stephenson shows how ritual is an important vehicle for group and identity formation; how it generates and transmits beliefs and values; how it can be used to exploit and oppress; and how it has served as a touchstone for thinking about cultural origins and historical change. Encompassing the breadth and depth of modern ritual studies, Barry Stephenson's Very Short Introduction also develops a narrative of ritual's place in social and cultural life. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

Ritual

Ritual
Title Ritual PDF eBook
Author Catherine Bell
Publisher Oxford University Press
Pages 369
Release 2009-12-29
Genre Social Science
ISBN 0199739471

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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.

Witch School Ritual, Theory & Practice

Witch School Ritual, Theory & Practice
Title Witch School Ritual, Theory & Practice PDF eBook
Author Donald Lewis-Highcorrell
Publisher Llewellyn Worldwide
Pages 217
Release 2008
Genre Wicca
ISBN 0738713392

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The Witch School teaching series offers instruction and intiation in Correllian Wicca, one of the largest and fastest-growing Wiccan traditions in the world. As an additional bonus, WitchSchool.com offers many optional interactive features to enhance your learning experience. Master the Art of Ritual From the Dance of Death for Samhain to fire jumping for Bealteine, ritual is at the heart of religious devotion. Reverend Donald Lewis-Highcorrell, author of the Witch School series, is back with an in-depth exploration of ritual from a Correllian perspective. The Wheel of the Year is an ideal framework for mastering the art of ritual. Moving through the sabbats, Lewis-Highcorrell covers every step of formal ritual--casting the circle, invoking the quarters, performing the magical working, sharing the offering, and closing the circle. Encouraging improvisation and innovation, Lewis-Highcorrell also offers tips for keeping ceremonies fresh. There are suggestions for decorating, costumes, colors, and props. Sample ceremonies, which can easily be adapted for solitary practitioners, are offered as inspiration for creating your own effective and moving rituals.

Readings in Ritual Studies

Readings in Ritual Studies
Title Readings in Ritual Studies PDF eBook
Author Ronald L. Grimes
Publisher Pearson
Pages 612
Release 1996
Genre Religion
ISBN

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This is the most comprehensive collection of articles on ritual ever assembled. The book includes selections by internationally known scholars such as Victor Turner and Clifford Geertz, as well as innovative piece s that illustrate the extraordinary interdisciplinary range of contemporary ritual studies. Grimes has drawn readings from the entire range of ritual--encompassing its secular, political and dramatic expressions as well as its religious ones.

The Ritual Process

The Ritual Process
Title The Ritual Process PDF eBook
Author Victor Turner
Publisher Routledge
Pages 234
Release 2017-07-05
Genre Social Science
ISBN 1351474901

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In The Ritual Process: Structure and Anti-Structure, Victor Turner examines rituals of the Ndembu in Zambia and develops his now-famous concept of "Communitas." He characterizes it as an absolute inter-human relation beyond any form of structure.The Ritual Process has acquired the status of a small classic since these lectures were first published in 1969. Turner demonstrates how the analysis of ritual behavior and symbolism may be used as a key to understanding social structure and processes. He extends Van Gennep's notion of the "liminal phase" of rites of passage to a more general level, and applies it to gain understanding of a wide range of social phenomena. Once thought to be the "vestigial" organs of social conservatism, rituals are now seen as arenas in which social change may emerge and be absorbed into social practice.As Roger Abrahams writes in his foreword to the revised edition: "Turner argued from specific field data. His special eloquence resided in his ability to lay open a sub-Saharan African system of belief and practice in terms that took the reader beyond the exotic features of the group among whom he carried out his fieldwork, translating his experience into the terms of contemporary Western perceptions. Reflecting Turner's range of intellectual interests, the book emerged as exceptional and eccentric in many ways: yet it achieved its place within the intellectual world because it so successfully synthesized continental theory with the practices of ethnographic reports."

Ritual Criticism

Ritual Criticism
Title Ritual Criticism PDF eBook
Author Ronald L. Grimes
Publisher Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
Pages 0
Release 2010-10-04
Genre North America
ISBN 9781453758243

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This book takes an interdisciplinary approach to a topic seldom written about: the evaluation of rites. Enacting ritual and thinking critically are often imagined as mutually exclusive activities, but Ritual Criticism demonstrates their complementarity by presenting case studies in which ritual and criticism require one another. The cases are drawn from contemporary, urban, North American social contexts in which specific rites are undergoing evaluation, interpretation, or revision. The cases eventuate in essays, more theoretical treatments of critical issues in ritual studies. The rituals studied are as varied as the strategies utilized. The diversity of approaches illustrates the ways criticism shifts as types of ritual vary. One rite is a traditional liturgy; another is invented rather than traditional; a third is a hybrid ritual drama; and in a fourth instance the ritualization is so tacit that some would deny that it is ritual at all. Many of the contexts that provide data for the chapters are typified by syncretism, the eclectic mixing and matching of ritual elements from diverse traditions. Other examples involve attempts to engage in ritual invention and experimentation. The essays are likewise diverse, taking readers into territories traditionally the purview of several disciplines. Drama, literature, education, psychology, medicine, archaeology, anthropology, philosophy, and theology are traversed in this effort to understand ritual, an unusually complex genre of human activity.