Publisher's Synopsis
Held in Heidelberg from September 29 to October 2, 2008 by the collaborative research center SFB 619 "Ritual Dynamics", the international conference "Ritual Dynamics and the Science of Ritual" assembled most of the leading experts on rituals studies and more than 600 participants for the purpose of reassessing the traditional subject in view of the latest research. The results, which are presented in five volumes (see below), are pathbreaking for future transcultural, interdisciplinary and multi methodical research on rituals. The convention was marked by the broad range of disciplines and the corresponding diversity of methods. It embraced a tremendous variety of topics in terms of cultural geography and spanned a time horizon from the antiquity to the present. The proceedings show how broadly the term ritual can be defined, as well as the conditions, modes and functions of ritual actions in different cultures of the present and past. One of the most important conclusions of the conference is that there cannot be "one single" model for rituals and that interdisciplinary collaborations are the key to research on rituals. This also includes the development and use of creative research methods. Other volumes in this series (also available as a 5-Volume set): Volume I: Grammars and Morphologies of Ritual practices in Asia; Volume II: Body, Performance, Agency and Experience; Volume III: State, Power and Violence; Volume IV: Reflexivity, Media and Visuality; Volume V: Transfer and Spaces.
