Ritual in Its Own Right

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Ritual in Its Own Right is written by Don Handelman and published by Berghahn Books. It's available with International Standard Book Number or ISBN identification 0857458884 (ISBN 10) and 9780857458889 (ISBN 13).

Historically, canonic studies of ritual have discussed and explained ritual organization, action, and transformation primarily as representations of broader cultural and social orders. In the present, as in the past, less attention is given to the power of ritual to organize and effect transformation through its own dynamics. Breaking with convention, the contributors to this volume were asked to discuss ritual first and foremost in relation to itself, in its own right, and only then in relation to its socio-cultural context. The results attest to the variable capacities of rites to effect transformation through themselves, and to the study of phenomena in their own right as a fertile approach to comprehending ritual dynamics.