Michael Rudolph 2006 (ed. with K-P. Köpping und B. Leistle):

Ritual and Identity: Performative Practices as Effective Transformations of Social Reality. Hamburg/Münster/London: LIT (Reihe: Performanzen/ Performances) (ISBN:3-8258-8042-7).

Abstract

It is a contested question in anthropological theory whether rituals must be considered as mere structures of representation that just preserve and strengthen social, cultural and personal identities, or whether rituals should rather be seen as performative practices that negotiate, change and reconstitute these identities, thereby transforming and subverting social reality. The articles in this book pay special attention to the latter approach, deepening the reader’s insight into the issue not only with theoretical discussions, but also by providing new ethnographic material from Africa, Asia, and Europe. The editors are members of a cross-disciplinary research project ‘Ritual Dynamics’ centered at Heidelberg University and funded by the German Research Foundation. Klaus-Peter Köpping is professor of anthropology at the Institute of Ethnology at Heidelberg University and guest-professor at Goldsmith College London. His research focusses on popular and folk-religious practices in Japan through the lens of performance theories. Bernhard Leistle is a doctoral candidate at the Institute of Ethnology at Heidelberg University. In his research focussing on Moroocan trance rituals he concentrates on theories of the phenomenology of perception. Michael Rudolph, Institute of Ethnology at Heidelberg University, conducts his post-doctoral research on rituals of Taiwanese aborigines under the impact of nativism and globalization.

Contents of the book:

Klaus-Peter Köpping, Bernhard Leistle, Michael Rudolph: Introduction

1. Bernhard Leistle: Ritual as Sensory Communication: A Theoretical and Analytical Perspective

2. Katja Neves-Graca: Dynamic Intersections of Relational Ontologies and Objectified Identities: The Whalers' Ritual in Lajes do Pico

3. William Sax: A Devine Identity-Crisis in India

4. Klaus-Peter Köpping: Generative Embodiment: Ritual Construction of Japanese Identity

5. Michael Nijhawan: Ritual, Identity, Reflexivity

6. Laurel Kendall: When the Shaman becomes a Cultural Icon, What Happens to Efficacy? Some Observations from Korea

7. Michael Rudolph: Competition among Elites, Ritual Modification, and Identity Formation: The Efficacy of the Contemporary ‘Harvest-Festivals’ of Taiwan’s Ami

8. Christiane Brosius: Making a Place for the Forgotten Dreams of the Past: Territory and Identity in Hindu Nationalist Processions