Ritual and Its Consequences: An Essay on the Limits of Sincerity
- ISBN-10
- 0199887411
- ISBN-13
- 9780199887415
- Category
- Religion
- Pages
- 248
- Language
- English
- Published
- 2008-03-24
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press
- Authors
- Simon, Adam B. Seligman, Robert P. Weller
Description
This pioneering, interdisciplinary work shows how rituals allow us to live in a perennially imperfect world. Drawing on a variety of cultural settings, the authors utilize psychoanalytic and anthropological perspectives to describe how ritual--like play--creates "as if" worlds, rooted in the imaginative capacity of the human mind to create a subjunctive universe. The ability to cross between imagined worlds is central to the human capacity for empathy. Ritual, they claim, defines the boundaries of these imagined worlds, including those of empathy and other realms of human creativity, such as music, architecture and literature. The authors juxtapose this ritual orientation to a "sincere" search for unity and wholeness. The sincere world sees fragmentation and incoherence as signs of inauthenticity that must be overcome. Our modern world has accepted the sincere viewpoint at the expense of ritual, dismissing ritual as mere convention. In response, the authors show how the conventions of ritual allow us to live together in a broken world. Ritual is work, endless work. But it is among the most important things that we humans do.
Get the book
Other editions
-
- 2008-03-24
- 248 pages
- Ebook
- Oxford University Press
Similar books
-
Ritual and Its Consequences: An Essay on the Limits of Sincerity
Drawing on examples from many places and times, this work argues for the continuing tension across historical contexts between movements emphasizing ritual and movements emphasizing sincerity.
-
Rethinking Pluralism: Ritual, Experience, and Ambiguity
By Adam B. Seligman, Robert P. WellerThe authors argue that resorting to rules and categories cannot adequately address the pervasive problems of ambiguity, difference, and boundaries - that is to say, the challenge of pluralism in our world.
-
Ritual as a Missing Link: Sociology, Structural Ritualization Theory, and Research
By J. David KnottnerusGestures of dominance are expressed during the parades as the Orange Order marches through predominantly Catholic neighborhoods (Kenney 1991). For instance, Protestants normally march in Cookstown, a town with a Catholic population that ...
-
Ritual and Religion in the Making of Humanity
By Roy A. Rappaport“ Introduction , ” in E. Durkeim and M. Mauss ( eds . ) , Primitive Classification . ... M. C. Bateson and M. Mead ( conveners ) . New York : Wenner - Gren Foundation . ... Otto , Rudolph . 1907. Naturalism and Religion . Trans .
-
When Rituals Go Wrong: Mistakes, Failure and the Dynamics of Ritual
By Ute HuskenThis volume investigates the implications of breaking ritual rules, of failed performances and of the extinction of ritual systems.
-
The Kiss of Peace: Ritual, Self, and Society in the High and Late Medieval West
By Kiril PetkovThis study of the medieval rites of peace and reconciliaton highlights the role of ritual as a strategic device in the attempts of the medieval church and state to monopolize political sovereignty and order individual identities around an ...
-
The Craft of Ritual Studies
By Ronald L. GrimesWatching Peter Moran, his sketch artist, Bourke writes, “As long as he [Moran] could manage to endure the noisome hole, his pencil flew over the paper, obtaining material which will one day be serviceable in placing upon canvas the ...
-
Rituals Of Blood: The Consequences Of Slavery In Two American Centuries
By Orlando PattersonIn the first essay, Patterson analyzes the very latest survey data to delineate the different attitudes, behaviors, and circumstances of Afro-American men and women, dissecting both the external and internal causes for the great disparities ...
-
Ritual Abuse in the Twenty-first Century: Psychological, Forensic, Social, and Political Considerations
By Pamela Perskin NoblittAllegations of ritual abuse are universal and mental health professionals, theologians, law enforcers, scholars, victim advocates, and others struggle to comprehend the enormity of the devastation left in the wake...
-
The Politics of Ritual and Remembrance: Laos Since 1975
By Grant EvansThis fascinating work of political anthropology examines the case of Laos from the heady days of the 1975 revolution to the more sober "post-socialist" present.