The six essays in Understanding Rituals examine ritual within the context of contemporary social anthropology. They show how diverse theoretical viewpoints lead to the common belief that rituals now constitute one of the most fertile fields of anthropological research. The contributors' cross-cultural analysis links the Vedic time to the present situation in India; a West African society to Wittgenstein's theories; compares the different modes of participation in a Nuba village of Sudan, as well as the confrontation between Punjabi and English communities in a London suburb.
Author(s): D. De Coppet
Publisher: Routledge
Year: 1992
Language: English
Pages: 130
Front Cover......Page 1
Title Page......Page 5
Copyright......Page 6
Contents......Page 7
List of contributors......Page 9
Introduction......Page 11
1. Ritual as spatial direction and bodily division......Page 21
2. From one rite to another: the memory in ritual and the ethnologist’s recollection......Page 36
3. Brothers and sisters in Brahmanic India......Page 47
4. The brother—married-sister relationship and marriage ceremonies as sacrificial rites: a case study from northern India......Page 62
5. Transforming Tobelo ritual......Page 84
6. Ritual implicates ‘Others’: rereading Durkheim in a plural society......Page 107
Name index......Page 127
Subject index......Page 129
Back Cover......Page 131
