The problem of ritual efficacy / edited by William S. Sax, Johannes Quack & Jan Weinhold.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Sax, William Sturman, 1957- editor.

Quack, Johannes, editor.

Weinhold, Jan, editor.

Series:

Oxford ritual studies.

Oxford Ritual Studies

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Ritual.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (204 p.)

Place of Publication:

New York, New York : Oxford University Press, 2010.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

How do rituals work? Although this is one of the first questions that people everywhere ask about rituals, little has been written explicitly on the topic. In The Problem of Ritual Efficacy, nine scholars address this issue, ranging across the fields of history, anthropology, medicine, and biblical studies. For ""modern"" people, the very notion of ritual efficacy is suspicious because rituals are widely thought of as merely symbolic or expressive, so that - by definition - they cannot be efficacious. Nevertheless people in many cultures assume that rituals do indeed ""work,"" and when we take

Contents:

Contents; Contributors; 1. Ritual and the Problem of Efficacy; 2. Ritual Healing and the Investiture of the Babylonian King; 3. Jesus and his Followers as Healers: Symbolic Healing in Early Christianity; 4. Healing Rituals in the Mediaeval West; 5. Excommunication in the Middle Ages: A Meta-Ritual and the Many Faces of Its Efficacy; 6. The Work of Zâr: Women and Spirit Possession in Northern Sudan; 7. Ritual Humility in Modern Laboratories: Or, Why Ecuadorian IVF Practitioners Pray; 8. Ritual, Medicine, and the Placebo Response; 9. Bell, Bourdieu, and Wittgenstein on Ritual Sense; Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references at the end of each chapters and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

0-19-045316-8

1-282-40287-0

9786612402876

0-19-974236-7

OCLC:

536309496