Refuting prophecies of an unstoppable increase in secularization the fascination of religious
rituals proofs to be unbroken in the late modern world. This book contests classical paradigms
that reduce the rationale of rituals to normativity (Durkheim) intelligibility (Geertz) and
dialectics (Turner). Instead it shows that rituals assert their significance in the
post-colonial and globalizing world by successfully negotiating structure and contingency
identity and hybridity script and embodiment. Its case studies are dealing with a broad
variety of ritual genres and expressions including initiation ceremonies and spirit possession
new harvest ceremonies cults of ancestors deities and saints ceremonial receptions
inaugurations and memorials ritual theatre carnival and ritual painting in contemporary
Brazil Germany France India Japan Taiwan USA Vietnam and Yemen.
