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.
