The Routledge encyclopedia of religious rites, rituals, and festivals
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Bibliographic Information
The Routledge encyclopedia of religious rites, rituals, and festivals
（Routledge encyclopedias of religion and society）（A Berkshire reference work）
Routledge, 2010
- : pbk
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Inludes bibliographical references and index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
Many rituals and festivals take place in public, meaning that such expressions of faith are societal as well as individual forms of human behaviour. The similarity in the general patterns of rituals and festivals across cultures and religions is striking. For example, most cultures and religions mark major life-course transitions such as birth, marriage, and death with public ritual expressions, and numerous festivals are tied to food-producing activities such as planting and harvesting. Where religions and societies vary is in the meanings associated with ritual behaviour and the specific forms those behaviours take.
The Encyclopedia of Religious Rites, Rituals and Festivals explores this complex topic through articles covering the following general categories of information:
general concepts and ideas such as communitas, inversion, purity and pollution, and pilgrimages
major forms of ritual and festival such as rites of passage, devotional rites, sacrifice, calendrical rites, carnival, and fasting
religious rites and festivals of major religions, including Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, Catholicism and Judaism
rites and festivals in cultural regions such as China, sub-Saharan Africa, and the Pacific islands
life-cycle rites, including those associated with birth, coming of age, marriage and death
specific rites and festivals, such as Divali, Easter, Ramadan, snake handling and Yom Kippur.
The Encyclopedia of Religious Rites, Rituals, and Festivals contains 130 entries contributed and signed by scholars from international universities and institutes, with expertise in such fields as Asian and Pacific studies, archaeology, communication studies, cultural anthropology, cultural studies, international studies, philosophy, psychological anthropology, religious studies, social anthropology, sociology and theology.
An unprecedented resource, this new encyclopedia provides in-depth coverage of a vast array of worldwide practices with entries that draw on the latest research available, offering fresh insights while maintaining a connection with established scholarship. The cross-cultural coverage will help foster interfaith understanding as well as present and explain unfamiliar behaviours and rituals.
Table of Contents
Contents Include: Agricultural Rituals. Altered States of Consciousness. Ancestor Worship - Africa. Animal Rituals. Asceticism. Australian Aboriginal. Birth Rituals. Blood Rituals. Body and Ritual. Buddhism. Calendrical Rituals. Cannibalism. Catholicism. Chinese New Year. Christmas. Day of the Dead. Death Rituals. Divination Rituals. Diwali. Easter. Fire Walking. Food and Rituals. Gender Rituals. Glossalalia. Greco-Roman. Healing and Rituals. Hinduism. Hopi. Humor and Rituals. Hunting Rituals. Iban. Islam. Jainism. Javanese. Judaism. Magic. Mardi Gras. Marriage Rituals. Matsu. Mbuti. Melanesian. Micronesian. Millennialism. Music. Naming Rituals. Nature Worship. Navan Ceremony. New Year's Celebrations. Newala Ritual. Nuer. Oaths and Ordeals. Orthodoxy. Paganism and Personal Rituals. Pilgrimage. Political Rituals. Polynesian. Possession/Trance. Prayer. Protestantism. Puberty Rites. Purity and Pollution. Ramadan. Rastafarianism. Revitalization Rituals. Rites of Communitas. Rites of Passage. Ritual and Symbol. Ritual as Communication. Ritual as Performance. Ritual of Performance. Ritual Specialists. Rituals of Purity. Sacred Places. Sacrifice. Santeria. Satanic Rituals. Scatological Rituals. Secular Rituals. Shakers. Shamanism. Shintoism. Sikhism. Snake Handling
by "Nielsen BookData"