Michaels, Axel, Wulf, Christoph [eds.]:
Emotions in Rituals and Performances. New Delhi [u.a.] : Routledge India, 2012. - 471 S.
ISBN 978-0-415-52304-2
£ 65,00
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Challenging the idea that rituals are static and emotions irrational, the volume explores the manifold qualities of emotions in ritual practices. Focusing explicitly on the relationship between emotions and rituals, it poses two central questions. First, how and to what extent do emotions shape rituals? Second, in what way are emotions ritualized in and beyond rituals? Strong emotions are generally considered to be more spontaneous and uncontrolled, whereas ritual behaviour is regarded as planned, formalized and stereotyped, and hence less emotional. However, as the volume demonstrates, rituals often reveal strong emotions among participants, are motivated by feelings, or are intended to generate them.
The essays discuss the motivation for rituals; the healing function of emotions; the creation of new emotions through new media; the aspect of mimesis in the generation of feelings; individual, collective, and non-human emotions; the importance of trance and possession; staged emotions and emotions on stage; emotions in the context of martyrdom; emotions in Indian and Western dance traditions; emotions of love, sorrow, fear, aggression, and devotion. Furthermore, aesthetic and sensory dimensions, as well as emic concepts, of emotions in rituals are underscored as relevant in understanding social practice. [Verlagsinformation]
Contents
Preface
1. Emotions in Rituals and Performances: An Introduction
Axel Michaels and Christoph Wulf
2. Performative Tears: Emotions in Rituals and Ritualized Emotions
Axel Michaels
3. The Emotional Meaning of Ritual
Birgit Röttger-Rössler
4. Collective Emotions in Rituals: Elicitation, Transmission, and a ‘Matthew-effect’
Christian von Scheve
5. Memory, Mimesis and the Circulation of Emotions in Rituals
Christoph Wulf
6. Interplay of Emotions and Rituals in Religious Ceremonies of Pustimarga
Anand Mishra
7. Rituals, Knowledge, and Method: The Curious Case of Epistemological Sanskritization
Sundar Sarukkai
8. One Nine-Yard Sari, Two Elephants, and Ten Sips of Water: Rituals and Emotions at a South Indian Hindu Temple
Ute Hüsken
9. Trance in Fire Walking Rituals of Goddess Tiraupati Amman Temples in Tamilnadu
M. D. Muthukumaraswamy
10. Emotional Detachment and Expression in Garhwali Possession Rituals
William Sax
11. Ritual Virtuosity, Emotions and Feelings in Shamanic Rituals in Nepal
Anne de Sales
12. Emotion and Healing Rituals in Sri Lanka: Bruce Kapferer Reconsidered
Eva Ambos
13. Aggression and Obscenity: The Annual Annihilation of Evil Spirits on the Occasion of the New Moon in August in Bhaktapur, Nepal
Niels Gutschow
14. Social Construction of ‘Fear’ in Isaki Amman Cult
S. Simon John
15. Gods Going Wild? Enacting Loss of Control in Tulu Possession Rituals: A Photographic Case Study
Heidrun Brückner
16. The Islamic Passion Story: Emotions Banned in Sunnism – Recovered in the Shi’ite Martyr Cult
Angelika Neuwirth
17. The Performance of Contemporary Vedic Sacrifices in Private and Public Spheres of India
Silke Bechler
18. Contesting Emotions. Ritualizing Romantic Love in Neoliberal Urban India
Christiane Brosius
19. A Note on Learning to Express and Feel Appropriate Emotions in the Adult Way: Observations of Monday Morning School Rituals in Germany and India
Iris Clemens
20. Tonight: European Rituals of Initiation and the Production of Men
John Borneman
21. Ritual in Soccer
Gunter Gebauer
22. Induction and Control of Emotions within Family Constellation Workshops
Jan Weinhold and Jochen Schweitzer
23. Emotions in Indian Drama and Dances
Fabrizia Baldissera
24. Many ‘Kuttiyattams’: Emotions and Rituals in Kerala’s Sanskrit Theatre between Tradition and Modernity
Heike Moser
25. Animals as Figurations of Transformation in Modern European Dance
Gabriele Brandstetter
26. The Breast-feeding Mother as Icon and Source of Affect in Visual Practice: A Transcultural Journey
Monica Juneja
27. Ritual, Mimesis and Emotion: A Post-Colonial Case
Alexander Henn.
About the Editors
Notes on Contributors
Index
Courtesy to Peter Wyclik