Ritual: Perspectives and Dimensions Revised Edition - Couverture souple

Bell, Catherine

Couverture souple

ISBN 10 : 0199735107 ISBN 13 : 9780199735105

Editeur : Oxford University Press, USA, 2009

Synopsis

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.

A propos du livre

À propos de l?auteur

Former Professor Emeritus of Religious Studies, Santa Clara University

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: Oxford University Press, USA
• Date d'édition: 2009
• ISBN 10: 0199735107
• ISBN 13: 9780199735105
• Reliure: Broché
• Langue: anglais
• Nombre de pages: 368
• Coordonnées du fabricant: non disponible