When Rituals go Wrong: Mistakes, Failure, and the Dynamics of Ritual

Octavo. xi, (1), 377, (1)pp. Index and bibliography. Pictorial boards with lilac/gray spine lettered in white. Illustrated with a few photos. A fine but ex-library copy (with minimal markings; i.e. rubber stamps on title page & bottom of text block). The present volume is entirely dedicated to the investigation of the implications and effects of breaking ritual rules, of failed performances and of the extinction of ritual systems. While rituals are often seen as infallible mechanisms which 'work' irrespective of the individual motivations of the performers, it is clearly visible here that rituals can fail, and that improper performances do in fact matter. These essays break new ground in their respective fields and the comparative analysis of rituals that go wrong introduces new perspectives to ritual studies. As the first book-length study on ritual mistakes and failure, this volume begins to fill a significant gap in the existing literature. Contributors include: Claus Ambos, Christiane Brosius, Johanna Buss, Burckhard Dücker, Christoph Emmrich, Brigitta Hauser-Schäublin, Maren Hoffmeister, Ute Hüsken, Brigitte Merz, Axel Michaels, Karin Polit, Michael Rudolph, Edward L. Schieffelin, Jan A.M. Snoek, Eftychia Stavrianopoulou, and Jan Weinhold. (Publisher) Contents: Mistakes, procedural errors and incorrect performances --; Types of ritual failure and mistakes in ritual in cuneiform sources /; Claus Ambos --; Failure and mistakes in rituals of the European Santo Daime church : experiences and subjective theories of the participants /; Jan Weinhold --; Failure impossible? : handling of rules, mistakes and failure in public rituals of modern Western societies /; Burckhard Ducker --; Dealing with deviations in the performance of masonic rituals /; Jan A.M. Snoek --; Perfection and mishaps in Vedic rituals /; Axel Michaels --; All the king's horses and all the king's men' : the 2004 red Matsyendranatha incident in Lalitpur /; Christoph Emmrich --; Preventive measures and "quality control" --; The sixteenth Pinda as a hidden insurance against ritual failure /; Johanna Buss --; Ensuring ritual competence in ancient Greece : a negotiable matter : religious specialist /; Eftychia Stavrianopoulou --; Contingencies and emergence --; Social consequences of ritual failure : a Garhwali case study /; Karin Polit --; When a goddess weeps -- ritual failure or failed performance? : a case study from Nepal /; Brigitte Merz --; Change of view : the ritual side of serial killings and the conditions for fortunate failure /; Maren Hoffmeister --; Competing perspectives : the discursive production of ritual --; Rivalling rituals, challenged identities : accusations of ritual mistakes as an expression of power struggles in Bali (Indonesia) /; Brigitta Hauser-Schaublin --; Contested ritual property : conflicts over correct ritual procedures in a South Indian Visnu temple /; Ute Husken --; The unwanted offering : ubiquity and success of failure in a ritual of the Hindu right /; Christiane Brosius --; Failure of ritual reinvention? : efficacious new rituals among Taiwan's aborigines under the impact of religious conversion and competition between elites /; Michael Rudolph --; Ritual dynamics and ritual failure /; Ute Husken. (OCLC) Volume 115 in the Brill's series, "Numen Book Series. Studies in the History of Religions.". …