"This edited volume, full of new and original
perspectives, makes an important contribution to the
anthropological and historical study of ritual. . . .
this fine collection of essays is a challenging and
provocative contribution to the study of ritual, and
certainly one that ought to change the ways in which
anthropologists conceive of ritual." · Journal of the
Royal Anthropological Institute Historically, canonic
studies of ritual have discussed and explained ritual
organization, action, and transformation primarily as
representations of broader cultural and social orders.
In the present, as in the past, less attention is given
to the power of ritual to organize and effect
transformation through its own dynamics. Breaking with
convention, the contributors to this volume were asked
to discuss ritual first and foremost in relation to
itself, in its own right, and only then in relation to
its socio-cultural context. The results attest to the
variable capacities of rites to effect transformation
through themselves, and to the study of phenomena in
their own right as a fertile approach to comprehending
ritual dynamics. Born in Montreal, Don Handelman is
Sarah Allen Shaine Professor of Anthropology &
Sociology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and a
member of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities.
He has written extensively on ritual, play, expressive
culture, and bureaucratic logic and the modern state.
Galina Lindquist was born in Russia, and trained as
anthropologist in Sweden. She received her degree at the
Department of Social Anthropology, University of
Stockholm, for the study of urban shamans in
Scandinavia. Since then she has done work in medical
anthropology and anthropology of religion, with a
special focus on folk religious and healing
practices.
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