A Radio 4 Book of the Week WINNER OF THE CAROL R. EMBER BOOK PRIZE FOR SCIENTIFIC ANTHROPOLGY
SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2023 BRITISH ACADEMY BOOK PRIZE From fire walking to funerals the hidden
science of the rituals that give life meaning Ritual is perhaps the oldest and certainly the
most enigmatic thread in human culture. Apparently pointless ceremonies pervade every
documented society: from handshakes to hexes hazings to parades. Before we learned to farm we
were gathering in giant stone temples. And yet though rituals exist in every culture and can
persist nearly unchanged for centuries their logic has remained a mystery until now. Today a
fearless new generation of anthropologists is venturing into this shadowy realm. Armed with
cutting-edge technology and drawing on discoveries from a huge range of disciplines they
emerge with a powerful new perspective on our place in the world. Join the pathfinding
scientist Dimitris Xygalatas on a tour of human culture at its strangest. In coronations in
silent prayer in fire-walks and in all the bewildering variety of humanity's ritual life
Xygalatas reveals the deep and subtle mechanisms that bind us together.
