The first comprehensive study of rituals in early modern Europe,
this new and expanded edition argues that between about 1400 and
1700 a revolution in ritual theory took place that utterly
transformed concepts about time, the body, and the presence of
spiritual forces in the world. Edward Muir draws on extensive
historical research to emphasize the persistence of traditional
Christian ritual practices even as educated elites attempted to
privilege reason over passion, textual interpretation over ritual
action, and moral rectitude over gaining access to supernatural
powers. Edward Muir discusses wide ranging themes such as rites of
passage, carnivalesque festivity, the rise of manners, Protestant
and Catholic Reformations, the alleged anti-Christian rituals of
Jews and witches. The new edition examines the impact on the
European understanding of ritual from the discoveries of new
civilizations in the Americas and missionary efforts in China and
adds more material about rituals peculiar to women.
目錄:
Introduction: what is ritual?
Part I. The Ritual Moment:
1. Rites of passage
2. The ritual calendar
Part II. Rituals of the Body:
3. Carnival and the lower body
4. Manners and the upper body
Part III. Ritual Representation:
5. The Reformation as a revolution in ritual theory
6. The Reformation as a ritual process
7. Government as a ritual process
Epilogue: mere ritual