Rite out of Place Ritual, Media, and the Arts

by Grimes, Ronald L.

• ISBN13: 9780195301458
• ISBN10: 0195301455
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-08-10
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

We have been led to believe that rituals are well-behaved and predictable, but they sometimes behave in unpredictable ways, especially when they emerge in unexpected places. However much rites may seem to be at home in churches, temples, mosques, and synagogues, they are not captives of sacred spaces. Rituals appear on television, stare back at the lens in family photographs, slip into university classrooms, haunt the wilds, and attend movies. Rite Out of Place makes provocative discoveries by scouting out some of the unexpected places where ritualizing takes root. Most 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. Grimes writes in an accessible, engaging style, using a broad, interdisciplinary approach. This collection of seminal essays by one of the founders of the discipline appeals to anyone interested in the intersection of ritual and public life.

Author Biography

Ronald L. Grimes is Professor of Religion and Culture at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. He also holds the Chair of Ritual Studies at Radboud University in Nijmegen, the Netherlands. He is the author of Deeply into the Bone, Readings in Ritual Studies, and several other books on ritual.

Table of Contents

Part I: Ritual in Mediated Space
Ritual and the Media	3	(12)
Documenting Ritual	15	(12)
Shooting Rites	27	(12)
Fiddling with Fiddler	39	(22)
Part II: Ritual in Classroom and Conceptual Space
Ritual in the Classroom	61	(12)
Ritualizing September 11	73	(14)
Sequestering Sacred Space	87	(14)
Putting Space in Its Place	101	(16)
Part III: Ritual in Environmental Space
The Barn and the Lab	117	(14)
Ritual Theory and the Environment	131	(16)
Performance Is Currency	147	(14)
Notes	161	(18)
Sources Cited	179	(8)
Index	187