Contents -- List of Figures -- Acknowledgments -- List of Contributors -- Introduction -- 1 Little Rituals -- 2 Everyday Ritual in the Residential World -- 3 Trobriand Islanders' Forms of Ritual Communication -- 4 "Like a Crab Teaching Its Young to Walk Straight" -- 5 Access Rituals in West African Communities -- 6 Ritual and the Circulation of Experience -- 7 Communicative Resonance across Settings -- 8 Ritualized Performances as Total Social Facts -- 9 Unjuk Rasa ("Expression of Feeling") in Sumba -- 10 Civility and Deception in Two Kalapalo Ritual Forms -- 11 Private Ritual Encounters, Public Ritual Indexes -- 12 "While I Sing I Am Sitting in a Real Airplane" -- 13 Interior Dialogues -- References Cited -- Index.

Ritual Communication examines how people create and express meaning through verbal and non-verbal ritual. Ritual communication extends beyond collective religious expression. It is an intrinsic part of everyday interactions, ceremonies, theatrical performances, shamanic chants, political demonstrations and rites of passage. Despite being largely formulaic and repetitive, ritual communication is a highly participative and self-oriented process. The ritual is shaped by time, space and the individual body as well as by language ideologies, local aesthetics, contexts of use, and relations among participants. Ritual Communication draws on a wide range of contemporary cultures - from Africa, America, Asia, and the Pacific - to present a rich and diverse study for students and scholars of anthropology, sociology and sociolinguistics.

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, 2018. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries.