"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.

"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.

Third book in a series on Kalapalo narrative discourse uses nine stories collected between 1967-82 to interpret Kalapalo history. Primarily concerned with what these stories can tell us about a particular native history, how individuals are remembered, and meanings given to decisions and choices made in the past"--Handbook of Latin American Studies, v. 58.

"These essays, most of them in the tradition of anthropological study of folklore, expand the current boundaries of the discipline and provide additional case studies to a growing literature in discourse analysis of oral performance." Dan Ben-Amos

Authors examine weeping, double-talk, community-building, music, myth, humor and play, and concepts of time and history in various native Latin American communities."