Synopses & Reviews
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.
About the Author
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
Ellen Basso and Gunter Senft 1 Little Rituals John B. Haviland 2 Everyday Ritual in the Residential World N. J. Enfield 3 Trobriand Islanders' Forms of Ritual Communication Gunter Senft 4 “Like a Crab Teaching its Young to Walk Straight”: Proverbiality, semantics and indexicality in English and Malay Cliff Goddard 5 Access Rituals in West African Communities: an Ethnopragmatic Perspective Felix K. Ameka 6 Ritual and the Circulation of Experience Suzanne Oakdale 7 Communicative Resonance across Settings: Marriage Arrangement, Initiation and Political Meetings in Kenya Corinne A. Kratz 8 Ritualised Performances as Total Social Facts: the House of Multiple Spirits Ingjerd Hoëm 9 “Pengunjuk Rasa” (expression of feelings) in Sumba: “Bloody Thursday” in its Cultural and Historical Context Joel C. Kuipers 10 Civility and Deception in two Kalapalo Ritual Forms Ellen B. Basso 11 Private Ritual Encounters, Public Ritual Indexes Michael Silverstein 12 “Kantámpranku awiúnkanam enkémturnai…” “While I sing I am Sitting in a Real Air-Plane…” Innovative Contents in Shuar and Achuar Ritual Communication. Maurizio Gnerre 13 Interior Dialogues: The Co-Voicing of Ritual in Solitude John W. Du Bois Index