Zoroastrian Rituals in Context

Octavo. x, 737, (1)pp. Plus plates. Pictorial lavender buckram, spine a touch sunned to gray, lettered in white & black. Illustrated with approx. 20 text drawings and 16 plates (most plates in color). A near fine, but ex-library copy with a minimal rubber library stamp on title page and at bottom edge of text block. Rituals, it is agreed, play a prominent role in Zoroastrianism, one of the oldest continuous traditions of mankind. In this book, scholars from a broad range of disciplines make the first ever collective effort to address this issue. From a historical and geographical perspective, texts and contexts studied in these pages range from antiquity to modernity, all the way from Japan, China, India, Iran, Europe to California. The essays touch on questions of theory, ritual texts, change and performances, gender and professional religion (priesthood/lay-people). The rituals studied are placed in a broad scope of social and local settings ranging from the royal court to the needy, from the rural village to the urban metropolis, from the domestic to the public. (Publisher) Contents: Contextualizing the Contexts. On the Study of Zoroastrian Rituals /; M. Stausberg; 1 --; Modelling Theory -- Theoretical Approaches --; Sequenzierung von Riten und die Ordnung der Rituale /; B. Gladigow; 57 --; 'Initiations' in Theory and in Zoroastrianism /; J. Snoek; 77 --; Meta-Theoretical Parameters for the Analysis and Comparison of Two Recent Approaches to the Study of the Yasna /; J. Kreinath; 99 --; Comparative Studies --; The Art of Ritual in a Comparative Context /; J.W. Boyd, R.G. Williams; 137 --; Bruch und Kontinuitat in Todesritualen. Beobachtungen zu westeuropaischen und zoroastrischen Bestattungen /; D. Luddeckens; 153 --; Zoroastrian and Taoist Ritual: Cosmology and Sacred Numerology /; G. Windfuhr; 173 --; Aspects of the 'Interiorization' of the Sacrifice in the Zoroastrian Tradition /; A. Panaino; 233 --; Ritual Texts -- Rituals in Texts --; Smashing Urine: On Yasna 48.10 /; P.O. Skjaervo; 253 --; Les precautions rituelles et la triade du comportement /; J. Kellens; 283 --; On the Ritual Significance of the Yasna Haptaghaiti /; A. Hintze; 291 --; Ritual and Rituals in the Nerangestan /; Ph. Kreyenbroek; 317 --; The Yasna Ritual in Pahlavi Literature /; Sh. Shaked; 333 --; Ritual Performances and Practices --; Sub specie maiestatis: Reflections on Sasanian Court Rituals /; A. de Jong; 345 --; Ritual Community Meals in Ancient Iranian Religion /; A. Hultgard; 367 --; To Praise the Souls of the Deceased and the Immortal Spirits of the Righteous Ones: The Staomi or Stum Ritual's History and Functions /; F. Kotwal, J.K. Choksy; 389 --; The Baj-dharna (Dron Yast) and its Place in Zoroastrian Rituals /; R.P. Karanjia; 403 --; Fires and the Establishment of atas bahrams in the Zoroastrian Tradition /; M. Vitalone; 425 --; The Atas nu git: A Reconstitutive Ritual of Recital /; S. Stewart; 443 --; Prejudice vs. Reality. Zoroastrians and their Rituals as Seen by two 19th Century Italian Travellers /; C.G. Cereti; 461 --; Manekji on the Religious/Ritual Practices of the Iranian Zoroastrians: An English Translation of a Passage from his Travel Report in Gujarati (1865) /; M. Giara, R.P. Karanjia, M. Stausberg; 481 --; The Interaction of Ritual Traditions --; Zarathustra der Priester und Prophet in der Lehre der Manichaer /; W. Sundermann; 517 --; Supernatural Intercession to Earthly Problems: Sofreh Rituals Among Shiite Muslims and Zoroastrians in Iran /; S. Kalinock; 531 --; "O Herr, erhore unser Monagat": Zarathustrische Traditionslinien einer persischen Gebetsgattung zwischen Indien und Iran /; B. Schmermbeck; 547 --; From Private Shrine to Pilgrim-Center: The Spectrum of Zoroastrian Shrines in Iran /; R. Langer; 563 --; Ritual Change -- Changing Rituals --; Archaeological Evidence of Zoroastrian Funerary Practices /; D. Huff; 593 --; Kontinuitat und Wandel in den Ritualen der iranischen Zarathustrier /; K. Mazdapour; 631 --; Monday-Ni. …