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Much ritual studies scholarship still focuses on central religious rites. For this reason, Grimes argues, dominant theories, like the data they consider, remain stubbornly conservative. This book issues a challenge to these theories and to popular conceptions of ritual. Rite Out of Place collects 10 revised essays originally published in widely varied sources across the past five years. Grimes has selected for inclusion those essays that track ritual as it haunts the edges of cultural boundaries-ritual converging with theater, ritual on television, ritual at the edge of natural environments and so on. The writing is non-technical, and the implied audience is sufficiently broad than any educated person interested in religion and public life should find it intelligible and engaging.
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Rite out of Place: Ritual, Media, and the Arts RONALD L. GRIMES OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS Rite out of Place This page intentionally left blank Rite out of Place Ritual, Media, and the Arts ronald l. grimes 1 2006 3 Oxford University Press, Inc., publishes works that further Oxford University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education. Oxford New York Auckland Cape Town Dar es Salaam Hong Kong Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi New Delhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto With oYces in Argentina Austria Brazil Chile Czech Republic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore South Korea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam Copyright © 2006 by Oxford University Press, Inc. Published by Oxford University Press, Inc. 198 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10016 www.oup.com Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of Oxford University Press. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Grimes, Ronald L., 1943Rite out of place : ritual, media, and the arts / Ronald L. Grimes. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN-13: 978-0-19-530144-1; 978-0-19-530145-8 (pbk.) ISBN-10: 0-19-530144-7; 0-19-530145-5 (pbk.) 1. Rites and ceremonies. 2. Mass media. 3. Performing arts. GN473.G75 2006 390—dc22 2005025826 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper I. Title. To Bryn, making a place for himself To Cailleah, out of place in a great place This page intentionally left blank Acknowledgments In addition to colleagues, students, readers, and publishers thanked or acknowledged in the notes, my deep appreciation goes to Carolina Echeverria for envisioning the whole book in a single cover image. Thank you as well, Cynthia Read, for taking the risk, and, Susan Ecklund, for doggedly deleting the overdone dashes and ferreting out the misplaced commas. This page intentionally left blank Preface Because I am a ritual studies scholar, the center of my attention is typically upon a boundary condition rather than a tradition. The theoretical and methodological commitments that ensue from focusing on religion and the performing arts require scouting disciplinary boundaries that separate and connect religion, theater, Wlm, and media. These commitments require deWnitions of ritual that do not restrict it to religion. The presumed proper place of ritual—in temples, synagogues, and churches—is barely explored here. Instead, this is a book about ritual’s out-of-place appearances: ritual hawked on television, ritual shot on Wlm, ritual in the classroom, ritual in the wilds. Ask anyone and you’ll be assured, “Sure, ritual has its place.” L