Theorizing Rituals ─ Classical Topics, Theoretical Approaches, Analytical Concepts

Having recently published an annotated bibliography of work on theories of human ritual (publish in 1998 as volume 82 of the same Numen book series on "Studies in the History of Religions"), Kreinath (Institute for Religious Studies, U. of Heidelberg, Germany), Snoek (sciences of religion, U. of Heidelberg), and Stausberg (history of religions, U. of Bergen, Norway) planned this volume as a complement that would review the key subjects of the emerging field. They present 35 chapters in all, the first four dealing with such methodological and metatheoretical issues, including definitions, the relationship between rituals and other forms of social action, conceptual alternatives to "ritual," and a lexicographic survey of terms related to ritual from an emic perspective. The next six revisit such classical topics as ritual and the psyche, the societal role of ritual, and ritual and meaning. Theoretical approaches are reviewed in chapters on action, aesthetics, cognition, communication, ethology, gender, performance, praxis, relationality, and semiotics. The remaining chapters explore paradigmatic concepts: agency, complexity, deference, dynamics, efficacy, embodiment, emotion, framing, language, media, participation, reflexivity, rhetorics, transmission, and virtuality. Annotation c2007 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Jens Kreinath (Dr. phil.) is affiliated to the Institute for Religious Studies at the University of Heidelberg and currently Visiting Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Wichita State University (U.S.A.). He is co-editor of The Dynamics of Changing Rituals (2004) and his publications include Semiose des Rituals (2006). His research interests focus upon theoretical and methodological issues in the anthropological study of religions. He is planning a publication on Ritual and Reflection: Tropes in Transformation and Transgression.Jan Snoek studied in Leiden (The Netherlands). In 1996 he held the Theodore Verhaegen Chair (Freemasonry) of the Free University of Brussels (ULB). Currently he teaches Sciences of Religions at the University of Heidelberg (Germany). He published widely about the development of masonic rituals. The edited volume Women's Agency and Rituals in Mixed and Female Masonic Orders (with Alexandra Heidle) will appear with Brill this year. In preparation is a monograph Transferring Masonic Rituals from Male to Mixed and Female Orders.Michael Stausberg (Dr. phil.) is professor of the History of Religions at the University of Bergen (Norway). His publications include Die Religion Zarathushtras (3 vols. 2002-2004). He is the editor of Zoroastrian Rituals in Context (2004). Apart from a study of the contemporary Zoroastrian priesthood in India and essays on a variety of topics (from the history of the study of religion to modern tourism), Stausberg is currently preparing a work on the terminology used in the study of religion (working title: The Vocabulary of Religious Studies).