EBOOK Ritual:Perspectives and Dimensions--Revised Edition

From handshakes and toasts to chant and genuflection, ritual pervades our social        interactions and religious practices. Still, few of us could identify all of our        daily and festal ritual behaviors, much less explain them to an outsider. Similarly,        because of the variety of activities that qualify as ritual and their many        contradictory yet, in many ways, equally legitimate interpretations, ritual seems to        elude any systematic historical and comparative scrutiny. In this book, Catherine        Bell offers a practical introduction to ritual practice and its study; she surveys        the most influential theories of religion and ritual, the major categories of ritual        activity, and the key debates that have shaped our understanding of ritualism. Bell        refuses to nail down ritual with any one definition or understanding. Instead, her        purpose is to reveal how definitions emerge and evolve and to help us become more        familiar with the interplay of tradition, exigency, and self- expression that goes        into constructing this complex social medium.