Comment: Transforming Persons, Transforming Places

"The scope of the seminar is ritual transformation processes in public space. The boundaries between the religious and the secular in many ritual contexts are blurred as argued in the nearly 30 year old text by S. Moore and B. Myerhoff (Secular Ritual, 1977) in which the two authors call for an...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of ritual studies 2009-01, Vol.23 (2), p.1-3
Main Authors: Strathern, Andrew, Stewart, Pamela J.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Civic rituals
Comparative analysis
Identity
Material culture
Place
Public spaces
Religion
Religious rituals
Religious studies
Ritual
Rituals
Sacred
Secularism
Self
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Summary:"The scope of the seminar is ritual transformation processes in public space. The boundaries between the religious and the secular in many ritual contexts are blurred as argued in the nearly 30 year old text by S. Moore and B. Myerhoff (Secular Ritual, 1977) in which the two authors call for an understanding of 'the sacred' as 'a wider category than the religious'. Much has happened in the business of interpreting rituals since then, but still complexity and hybridization are on the agenda of cultural theory. The seminar will focus on interfaces between the secular and religious constitution of identity in the public space with reference to ultimate values, i.e. the sacred. The pivotal point for our discussions will be the individual ritual subject in the larger social context: how is the formation of a new self practiced and experience in public rituals covering a wide field from citizenship ceremonies to ordinations. The aim is to uncover, analyze, compare and discuss the complex and ambiguous cultural and social processes involved in ritualizations of public space, imbued with both secular and religious traditions and structures." Cecilie Rubow, Copenhagen University and Tine Damsholt, Copenhagen University
ISSN:0890-1112