Ritual: Perspectives and Dimensions [Paperback]

Catherine Bell (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 20, 1997 | ISBN-10: 0195110528 | ISBN-13: 978-0195110524

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.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Certainly the most ambitious and comprehensive introduction to ritual studies yet attempted....[it] will serve well as a text on the study of religion and ought not be consigned to courses focusing exclusively or even mainly on ritual."--Religious Studies Review

"A rich and detailed interdisciplinary analysis of the nature and functions of ritual. Scholars in all fields will profit from this sound and probing study."--Religious Studies Review

"A very impressive achievement....[Bell's] is one of the most interesting and important voices in the field of ritual studies today."--Worship

"Unrivalled for its combination of clarity, scope, and originality. ...a touchstone for any scholar who wishes to write seriously on ritual."--Patrick J. Nugent, Earlham College

"...this is a readable introduction that will no doubt serve as a valuable teaching resource....the author has provided an impressive and valuable study, one that serves a widespread need in the broader field of religious studies, and for that reason is highly recommended."--Journal of Religion

About the Author

Catherine Bell is at Santa Clara University, California.

Product Details

• Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (November 20, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0195110528
• ISBN-13: 978-0195110524
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,000,298 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great book, December 6, 2004

By 

wanda73 (New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ritual: Perspectives and Dimensions (Paperback)

I beg to disagree with the other reviewer. I am a complete newcomer to ritual studies and this book is every novice's dream. Both detailed and wide-ranging, it gives sufficient exposure to the key questions to start using ritual in your own work, or to simply appreciate the pervasiveness of ritual in social life.

The book is divided into three parts: Part one summarizes various theories of ritual from the mid 19th century to the present while discussing key aspects of ritual. Frazer, Durkheim, Levi-Strauss, Van Gennep, Douglas, Turner are some of the many key figures presented. Part two examines types of ritual, while Part three explores "the broader relationships between ritual activities and social life." A wealth of examples and brief case studies complete this extraordinary volume.

The coverage and precision of this book are outstanding but I was most impressed by the objectivity and fairness with which Bell presents thinkers and positions now dated. If you are looking for a single volume introduction to ritual look no further.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Plumbs the depths and spans the breadth of a complex topic, November 9, 2006

By 

Stephen C. Getman (Portland, OR) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Ritual: Perspectives and Dimensions (Paperback)

Catherine Bell is certainly one of the preeminent scholars of ritual studies. This book is a fantastic demonstration of why that is the case. It's a tour de force of scholarship and quite a tour of the vast territory covered by the term "ritual" as well. Ritual is one of those words (like "religion" itself) that we all think we can define easily until we're actually asked to do it. Bell gets around the problem of slippery and ethnocentric definitions of ritual by encompassing a wide range of activities she calls "ritualization." This strategic shift from noun to verb brings ritual out of the dusty display cabinet of pinned-down "things" and into the dynamic and contested realm of ongoing human activity. She sees the doing of "ritual" and "ritual-like" activities as well as the interpretation of those activities as acts of ritualization. A bit post-modern? Yes. If this discursive approach to understanding human behavior turns you off, then this isn't the book for you. If you're looking for a sweeping introduction to the field of ritual studies from a scholar at the top of her game who has an impressive command of work in that field and in many related ones besides, then this is a tasty treat indeed.

0 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It is a wonderful book. It came the way it was described., December 2, 2008

By 

Enoch O. Gbadegesin "Enoch Gbadegesin" (Cambridge MA, USA) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Ritual: Perspectives and Dimensions (Paperback)

The purpose of my purchasing the book in the first instance was to use it to prepare my Statement of Purpose for my PhD application. Apart from the fact that the book served this purpose, it also came the way the seller described the product. I think I am very satisfied with the book.
Thanks .
Enoch