RLG101H5 Chapter Notes - Chapter 6: Roy Rappaport, Carl Jung
Document Summary
Being religious not matter of holding certain ideas in head involves in doing things. Ritual does sometimes win over religion since it covers a more immediate and less abstract concept than religion. Maurice bloch: study of religion would be better framed as study of ritual. Catherine bell: the term ritual is itself misleading. Rituals are not things nor do they do things, but people do rituals. Breaks it down into four (rites of passage, calendrical rites, rites of exchange and communion, rites of affliction) Roy rappaport: ritual as the performance of more or less invariant sequences of formal acts and utterances not entirely encoded by performers". Victor turner: ritual is formal behaviour prescribed for occasions not given over to technological beings or powers. 8 particular ways of looking at rituals: meaning, symbolism, communication, performance, society f)repetition g)transformation, power. Basic definition of rituals: actions carried out for more than their utilitarian purpose. John beattie: distinction between instrumental and expressive actions.
