Document Type
Book Chapter
Publication Date
1992
Publisher
Oxford University Press
Abstract
Ritual Theory, Ritual Practice, reissued here more than 17 year after its initial publication, changed the fra1nework for understanding the nature and function of ritual. Catherine M. Bell's profound insight was that ritual, long understood as thoughtless action stripped of context, is more interestingly understood as strategy: a culturally strategic way of acting in the world. Ritual is a form of social activity. This argument is meticulously established and beautifully presented in the chapters that follow. Unfolding like a commanding lecture, Ritual Theory, Ritual Practice remains Catherine's greatest contribution to the study of religion.
Chapter of
Ritual Theory, Ritual Practice
Editor
Catherine M. Bell
Recommended Citation
Jonte-Pace, Diane. "Foreword: Notes on a Friendship." Ritual Theory, Ritual Practice. By Catherine M. Bell. New York: Oxford UP, 1992. Foreward. Diane Jonte-Pace. 2010. Vii-Xi.
Comments
Foreword: Notes on a Friendship by Diane Jonte-Pace, 2009, reproduced by permission of Oxford University Press. https://global.oup.com/academic/product/ritual-theory-ritual-practice-9780199733620?q=Ritual%20Theory,%20Ritual%20Practice&lang=en&cc=us