The Palgrave Handbook of Anthropological Ritual Studies

Ritual Studies have gained prominence since the 1980s, bridging religious studies, social and cultural anthropology, history, science, and health practices. This Handbook offers case studies of ritual in the light of Emotion and Cognition, Identity, Religious Power, Performance and Literature, Ecology and Ecological Disaster, Media, and other topics, providing a deep ethnography of a specific society, ritual, or ritualized practice and engaging with current theoretical and substantive approaches.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 395 pages
Publication date: 26 August 2022
Publisher: Springer Nature Switzerland AG

Ritual Studies have gained significant prominence since the 1980s, when the study of ritual as a subject of inquiry gained recognition, spanning various humanities and social science disciplines. While connected to religious studies and independent of it, overlapping with social and cultural anthropology, and related to science and health practices, Ritual Studies has expanded to encompass the study of change and dynamism in social life. Rituals are characterized by their determinate form, which expresses distinct social values within specific contexts that shape them, and their connection to the broader concerns and issues of their practitioners. Due to the broad and diverse nature of Ritual Studies, it can be challenging to find a single comprehensive resource that covers the field in its entirety. Moreover, it is even more challenging to find a resource that goes beyond the initial anthropological theorizing and engages with the contemporary contexts of ritual. To address this need, this Handbook presents a collection of recent ethnographies of ritual practice and ritualization from across the globe. Each chapter provides a deep ethnography of a specific society, ritual, or ritualized practice, while also engaging with current theoretical and substantive approaches to the relevant topic. The scholars gathered here offer original synoptic and indicative pieces that serve as guideposts and pathways through the complex, varied, and cross-disciplinary landscape of Ritual Studies. They provide insights into the current state of the field and point to future developments.

Weight: 629g
Dimension: 235 x 155 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9783030768270
Edition number: 1st ed. 2021