Rituals transform citizens into presidents and princesses into
queens. They transform sick persons into healthy ones, and public
space into prohibited sanctuary. Shamanic rituals heal, legal
rituals bind, political rituals ratify, and religious rituals
sanctify. But how exactly do they accomplish these things? How do
rituals work? This is the question of ritual efficacy, and although
it is one of the very first questions that people everywhere ask of
rituals, surprisingly little has been written on the topic. In
fact, this collection of 10 contributed essays is the first to
explicitly address the question of ritual efficacy. The authors do
not aspire to answer the question 'how do rituals work?' in a
simplistic fashion, but rather to show how complex the question is.
While some contributors do indeed advance a particular theory of
ritual efficacy, others ask whether the question makes any sense at
all, and most show how complex it is by referring to the
sociocultural environment in which it is posed, since the answer
depends on who is asking the question, and what criteria they use
to evaluate the efficacy of ritual. In his introduction, William
Sax emphasizes that the very notion of ritual efficacy is a
suspicious one because, according to a widespread 'modern' and
'scientific' viewpoint, rituals are merely expressive, and
therefore cannot be efficacious. Rituals are thought of as
superficial, 'merely symbolic,' and certainly not effective.
Nevertheless many people insist that rituals 'work,' and the
various positions taken on the question tell us a great deal about
the social and historical background of the people involved. One
essay, for example, illuminates a dispute between 'materialist' and
'enlightenment' Catholics in Ecuador, with the former affirming the
notion of ritual efficacy and the latter doubting it. In other
essays, contributors address instances in which orthodox religious
figures (mullahs, church authorities, and even scientific
positivists) discount the efficacy of rituals. In several of the
essays, 'modern' people are suspicious of rituals and tend to deny
their efficacy, confirming the theme highlighted in Sax's
introduction.
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