Abstract
Rituals and/or rites traditionally belong to the religious realm, denoting actions with a repetitive character, which are performed by members of religious communities. They are, however, universal in their character and purpose and can thus be easily observed outside ecclesiastical contexts as well. This extension of the ritual concept is denoted as the “global turn,” finding itself closely related to historical circumstances and changes in (ritual) habits of everyday life. Globalization, in particular, has led to fundamental changes in what can be perceived as ritual behavior, with fundamentalism being one of the extremes. Religious scientific research is thus left with the notion that modern rituals have more or less detached from religious life and shifted towards the individual realm. Besides definition and history of the ritual, this chapter points out ambivalences that come with changes in the ritual concept, exploring ways towards an appropriate ritual criticism.
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Notes
- 1.
Andréa Belliger/David J. Krieger, Ritualtheorien. Ein einführendes Handbuch, Wiesbaden: Westdeutscher Verlag 2003, p. 7.
- 2.
Emile Durkheim, Les formes élémentaires de la vie religieuse, Paris: Félix Alcan, 1912.
- 3.
Arnold van Gennep, Les rites de passage, Paris: E. Nourry, 1909.
- 4.
George H. Mead, Mind, Self and Society, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1934.
- 5.
Victor Turner, The Anthropology of Performance, New York: PAJ Publications, 1982.
- 6.
Émile Durkheim, Les formes élémentaires de la vie religieuse, Paris: Félix Alcan, 1912, p. 630f.
- 7.
Benedikt Kranemann/Paul Post, Die modernen Ritual Studies als Herausforderung für die Liturgiewissenschaft. – Modern Ritual Studies as a challenge for Liturgical Studies, Leuven: Uitgiverij Peeters, 2009, p. 51.
- 8.
David I. Kertzer, Rituals, Politics, and Power, New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1988, p. 3.
- 9.
Victor Turner, From Ritual to Theatre. The Human Seriousness of Play, New York: PAJ Publications, 1982, p. 55.
Literature
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Meyer-Blanck, M. (2019). Rituals. In: Kühnhardt, L., Mayer, T. (eds) The Bonn Handbook of Globality. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-90382-8_56
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