Ritual and Religion in the Making of Humanity

559 Pages·1999·2.264 MB·English

by  Roy A. Rappaport

RITUAL AND RELIGION IN THE MAKING OF
HUMANITY
RoyRappaportarguesthatreligioniscentraltothecontinuingevolution
of life, although it has been displaced from its original position of
intellectual authority by the rise of modern science. His book, which
could be construed as in some degree religious as well as about religion,
insists that religion can and must be reconciled with science. Combining
adaptive and cognitive approaches to the study of humankind, he
mounts a comprehensive analysis of religion’s evolutionary significance,
seeing it as co-extensive with the invention of language and hence of
cultureasweknowit.Atthesametimeheassemblesthefulleststudyyet
of religion’s main component, ritual, which constructs the conceptions
which we take to be religious and has been central in the making of
humanity’sadaptation.Thetextamountstoamanualforeffectiveritual,
illustrated by examples drawn from anthropology, history, philosophy,
comparativereligionandelsewhere.
ROY RAPPAPORT taught at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
from 1965 until his death in 1997. He was President of the American
Anthropological Association from 1987 to 1989. Among his many
publications are Pigs for the Ancestors (1968; revised edition 1984) and
Ecology,Meaning,andReligion(1979).
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CambridgeStudiesinSocialandCulturalAnthropology
110
RITUAL AND RELIGION IN THE MAKING OF
HUMANITY
CambridgeStudiesinSocialandCulturalAnthropology
FoundingEditors
MeyerFortesUniversityofCambridge
JackGoodyUniversityofCambridge
EdmundLeachUniversityofCambridge
StanleyJ.TambiahHarvardUniversity
ThemonographseriesCambridgeStudiesinSocialandCultural
Anthropologypublishesanalyticalethnographies,comparativeworks,
andcontributionstotheory.Allcombineanexpertandcriticalcommand
ofethnographyandasophisticatedengagementwithcurrenttheoretical
debates.
Alistofbooksintheserieswillbefoundattheendofthevolume
RITUAL AND RELIGION IN
THE MAKING OF HUMANITY
ROY A. RAPPAPORT
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Thisbookisincopyright.Subjecttostatutoryexceptionandtotheprovisionsofrelevant
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Firstpublished1999
PrintedintheUnitedKingdomattheUniversityPress,Cambridge
TypesetinTimes10/13[ce]
AcataloguerecordforthisbookisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary
ISBN0521228735hardback
ISBN0521296900paperback
Dedication
I dedicate this book to four anthropologists who have very much
influenced the ideas expressed in it and who have been otherwise
important in my life and career. In the order in which they entered my
life,theyare:
RobertLevy
EricWolf
MervynMeggitt
KeithHart
All of them have acted like elder brothers to me, even Keith who is
manyyearsmyjunior.
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Contents
Foreword KeithHart page xiv
Preface xxi
1 Introduction 1
Theevolutionofhumanity 3
Adaptation 5
Thesymbol 7
Thegreatinversion 9
Thelie 11
Alternative 17
2 Theritualform 23
Ritualdefined 24
Thelogicalentailmentsoftheritualform 26
Ritualandformalcause 27
Formandsubstanceinritual 29
Thefirstfeatureofritual:encodingbyotherthanperformers 32
Thesecondfeature:formality 33
Thethirdfeature:invariance(moreorless) 36
Thefourthfeature:performance(ritualandother
performanceforms) 37
Thefifthfeature:formality(vs.physicalefficacy) 46
Ritualascommunication 50
Self-referentialandcanonicalmessages 52
Symbols,indices,andthetwostreamsofmessages 54
Appendix 58
ix