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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.
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Chapter Title Ritual 1 This page intentionally left blank RITUAL Perspectives and Dimensions CATHERINE BELL 1 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 offices in Argentina Austria Brazil Chile Czech Republic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore South Korea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam Copyright © 1997 by Catherine Bell Foreword © 2009 by Oxford University Press Published by Oxford University Press, Inc. 198 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10016 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 Bell, Catherine M., 1953– Ritual : perspectives and dimensions / Catherine Bell. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-19-973510-5 1. Ritual. 2. Religion. I. Title. BL600.B47 1997 291.3'8—dc20 96-23945 1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2 Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper To my mother and in memory of my father The meaning of ritual is deep indeed. He who tries to enter it with the kind of perception that distinguishes hard and white, same and different, will drown there. The meaning of ritual is great indeed. He who tries to enter it with the uncouth and inane theories of the system-makers will perish there. The meaning of ritual is lofty indeed. He who tries to enter with the violent and arrogant ways of those who despise common customs and consider themselves to be above other men will meet his downfall there. Xunzi (third century B.C.E.) Foreword vii Foreword Catherine M. Bell was, until her untimely death on May 23, 2008, Professor of Religious Studies at Santa Clara University and one of the world’s leading experts in the field of ritual studies. She was also a close friend, a brilliant teacher, and a mentor to me and to hundreds of other students who were fortunate enough to pass through her classes at SCU. As an academic and theorist of religion, Dr. Bell was unmatched. Her seminal work, Ritual Theory, Ritual Practice, which has become required reading among students of religious studies, launched a revolution in the way scholars think about those peculiar, unique, and difficult to define activities that are