The Palgrave Handbook of Anthropological Ritual Studies

Description

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 together recent 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.  Contents Notes on Contributors List of Figures 1 Ritual Studies: Whence and Where to? Ritualization Ritual: Handsome Is as Handsome Does References Part I New Perspectives, Established Themes 2 Ritual Dream Sharing and Charismatic Church Routinization Introduction Asabano Religion Prior to Contact and Conversion Asabano Religion Through Contact and Conversion Routinized Asabano Charismatic Christianity Asabano Dreams of Routinization Maintaining Charismatic Routine Through Dream Sharing Conclusion: Assessing Proportions of Charisma and Routine in Ritual Regimes References 3 Sacrifices in the Ancient World: Research on Complex Rituals Introduction General Remarks Research in the Second Half of the Twentieth Century: Grand Theories Directions of Research in the Twenty-First Century New Definitions Call for Emic Approaches The Distinction of Action and Interpretation Involvement of Archaeology Still a Favorite: Two New Approaches to Animal Sacrifice The Social Function of Animal Sacrifice Pictorial Representations of Animal Sacrifice in the Roman Empire Studying Sacrifices in Classics and Anthropology (from the Perspective of a Classical Archaeologist) Adoption of Contemporary Approaches: Performativity Reversion of Cultural Fixation: Sacrifice of Domesticated and Wild Animals Conclusion References 4 Economic Thought, Ritual, and Religion Introduction: Economic Biases in the Anthropology of Ritual and Religion Small Everyday San Rituals Small, Everyday Christian Rituals Small, Everyday Rituals in the Tanakh or Old Testament Conclusion: The Politics and Economics of Religion References 5 Thanks for Your Visit But You Can Go Now: Cortesia, Hospitality, and Rites of Distinction in Angola Strange Hospitalities Cortesia and Rites of Distinction Community, Hospitality, and the Fear of Contagion The National Construction of Foreignness in Angola Dangerous Ethnicities Conclusion References 6 Formulas of Home: On the Religious Performance of Personal Rituals Introduction Homeliness and Ritualism Albert Forrester’s Smoking Breaks Sid Askrig’s Sexual Bragging and Doris Harvey’s Maternal Scolding Rachel Silberstein’s Desert Ceramics The Ritualistic Formulaicism of Practice The Ritualistic Formulaicism of Thought and Feeling Howie’s Inner Life of Rhythmic Thought-Processes Conclusion References 7 Contesting Masculinity and Ritual Embodiment in Youth Baseball Youth Baseball and Ethnographic Research The Anthropology of Sport and Ritual Thinking About Sport and Ritual Youth Baseball Embodiment, Ritual, and Youth Baseball References 8 Ritual, Performance, and Cognition Performance, Embodiment, Language, and the Senses The Senses and Cognition Ritual, Performance, and Meaning Metaphor and Abduction Abduction and Metaphor Abduction in Oral Genres of Expression Prehension Conclusion References Part II Sickness and Healing 9 Grave-Visiting Rituals in Northwestern Europe Introduction A Distinctive and Vernacular Ritual Ritual Communication with the Dead Ritual Change: The Crisis of the Cemetery Concluding Remarks References 10 The Device of the Spirit Medium for Connecting Humans to the Supernatural: A Case Study of Shamanic Healing in the Qorčin Region of China’s Inner Mongolia Introduction Mongolian Shamanism and Folk Medicine from the Perspective of Medical Pluralism Mongolian Shamanism and Folk Medicine Alternative Medicine and Ancestral Communication The Initiation Process and Shamanic Illness Treatment in Shamanism Motivation to Become a Shaman Characteristics of Shamanic Illness The Treatment Ritual for Shamanic Illness Structural and Anti-structural Mechanisms of Shamanic Healing Particularity of the Healing Principle The Process of Becoming a Shaman and Identity Politics Conclusion References 11 Empathy and Ritual Practices Introduction Empathic Mode of Knowledge: Everyday Rituals as a Pathway to Well-Being Refugees in Norway An Asylum-Seeker Reception Center: Open River Tamil Resettlement: Arctic Harbour Four Cases Empathy and Ritual: A Pathway to Identities and Well-Being in the Becoming Ritual Practice: A Pathway to Well-Being Concluding Remarks References Part III Cultural Intimacy and Innovation 12 Ritual, Place, and Experience in Hindu Home-Temple Visitation Introduction Home-Temple Arrival Arrival Rituals Presence Place Physicality Place Sensoriality Hearing—Auditory Sensations Touching—Haptic Sensations Smelling—Olfactory Sensations Tasting—Gustatory Sensations Seeing—Visual Sensations Ambience Departure Discussion: Understanding Some Noteworthy Aspects of Ritual Hinduism and Hindu Philosophical Ideas The Spatial and Physical Environmental Component of Ritual The Experiential Dimension of Ritual The Emotional Dimension of Ritual Methodological Considerations for the Study of Hindu Rituals Propaedeutic Considerations for Studies of Hinduism and Hindu Ritual References 13 Designing Enchanted Rituals for Modern Man The Birth of New Ritualized Practices Models of What Kind of Society Generated the New Practices? What Characterizes the New Modern Rituals? Models for—What Visions Are Created in the Practices? The Journey: “Deep Inside a Huge Potential Beckons” Unleash the Power Within! May the Ritual Fail? Conclusion References 14 Mo(nu)ments of Vulnerability: The Centrality of Ritual Creativity in Pilgrimages to Catholic Shrines in France and Portugal Fieldwork, Methods, and State of the Art Ritual Creativity Encouraged: Magdalene Pilgrims and Their Christo-Pagan Rituals Wild Pilgrimages and Ritual Creativity Discouraged: Fátima Pilgrims “the Craziness Arrived to My Head” Pilgrimages as Mo(Nu)Ments of Vulnerability Conclusions References Part IV Comparative Studies 15 Rituals Surrounding Sorcery and Witchcraft in Traditional Societies: Issues for Researchers Some Background in History and Research Cross-Disciplinary Framing and Theory Sorcery and Witchcraft as Ritual: Traditional Patterns, from Melanesian Cases Sorcery and Witchcraft in the Shifts of Time: Lessons from Melanesia and Beyond References 16 On the Partiality of Pentecostal Ritual Introduction: Initial Encounters Ritual Against Ritual Ritual and Rupture On Ritualization and Partiality Concluding Remarks References 17 Infrastructures of Interrituality and the Aesthetics of Saint Veneration Rituals Among Orthodox Christians and Arab Alawites in Hatay Introduction Research Problem Theoretical and Methodological Framework Introducing Interrituality and the Aesthetics of Sensory Perceptions in Mimetic Acts Sacred Sites and the Shared Traditions of Saint Veneration Rituals The Şeyh Yusuf El-Hekim Ziyaret of Harbiye The Mar Corcus Kilisesi in Iskenderun The Hz. Hızır Ziyaret in Samandağ Conceptualizing Interrituality Conclusion References 18 Moka (Ceremonial Exchange) with Death Church Rivalries, Claims of Precedence, Marking Death References 19 Epilogue: Covid-19 Tales and Tolls References Index