Male and Female Traditions in Ritual
Caroline Humphrey, Urgunge Onon
Oxford University Press eBooks March 28, 1996 DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780198279419.003.0005 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Key points | Argues that the traveller's tale's facticity is constructed rather than transparent, and that ritualization constructs further interpretations of reality that can intensify a group's or individual's worldview. Contends that although "shamanism" does not exist without ritualization, rituals are not all there is to it, and proposes examining which parts of religious life remain unritualized and why. |
Abstract
Abstract The traveller’s tale shows how even a deliberately prosaic representation of reality has its subtleties and its point of view. Its facticity is not transparent but constructed. Ritualization introduces other kinds of construction that can intensify the particular interpretations of reality of social groups and individuals. Just as ‘reading a book’ evokes a different visualization of the places and characters from ‘seeing a film’, the particular compositions of rituals make possible their own otherworldly and enchanted ways of putting ideas together. But although ‘shamanism’ does not exist anywhere without ritualization, we should beware of thinking that rituals are all there are to it. It is interesting to think about which parts of religious life are not ritualized and why this should be so.