Ritual Communication

by Senft, Gunter; Basso, Ellen B.

• ISBN13: 9781847882950
• ISBN10: 1847882951
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2009-12-15
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic

Summary

Ritual Communication examines how people create and express meaning through verbal and non-verbal ritual. Ritual communication extends beyond collective religious expression. It is an intrinsic part of everyday interactions, ceremonies, theatrical performances, shamanic chants, political demonstrations and rites of passage. Despite being largely formulaic and repetitive, ritual communication is a highly participative and self-oriented process. The ritual is shaped by time, space and the individual body as well as by language ideologies, local aesthetics, contexts of use, and relations among participants. Ritual Communication draws on a wide range of contemporary cultures from Africa, America, Asia, and the Pacific to present a rich and diverse study for students and scholars of anthropology, sociology and sociolinguistics.

Author Biography

ELLEN B. BASSO is Professor Emerita of Anthropology, University of Arizona.

 

GUNTER SENFT is Senior Research Fellow at the Max-Planck-Institute for Psycholinguistics in Nijmegen and extraordinary Professor of General Linguistics at the University of Cologne.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Ritual Communication

Little Rituals

Everyday Ritual in the Residential World

Trobriand Islanders' Forms of Ritual Communication

"Like a Crab Teaching its Young to Walk Straight": Proverbiality, semantics and Indexicality in English and Malay

Access Rituals in West African Communities: an Ethnopragmatic Perspective

Ritual and the Circulation of Experience

Communicative Resonance across Settings: Marriage Arrangement, Initiation and Political Meetings in Kenya

Ritualised Performances as Total Social Facts: the House of Multiple Spirits

"Pengunjuk Rasa" (expression of feelings) in Sumba: "Bloody Thursday" in its Cultural and Historical Context

Civility and Deception in two Kalapalo Ritual Forms

Private Ritual Encounters, Public Ritual Indexes

"Kantámpranku awiúnkanam enkémturnai..." "While I sing I am Sitting in a Real Air-Plane..." Innovative Contents in Shuar and Achuar Ritual Communication

Interior Dialogues: The Co-Voicing of Ritual in Solitude

Index

Table of Contents provided by Publisher. All Rights Reserved.