The Ambivalence of Denial

Danger and Appeal of Rituals

Ute Hüsken, Udo Simon, Ute Hüsken, Udo Simon

• Publisher: Harrassowitz Verlag
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN: 9783447105705
• eBook ISBN: 9783447195201
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Cultural & Social Anthropology
• Index: Social Sciences

Rituals, as universal modes of human action, are always evaluated and criticized. Humans seem to need rituals, but they also reject them. Criticism is an inevitable part of ritual traditions, and is often even part of a ritual itself. Denial and critique are forms of relation, albeit defined in negative terms: even new or renewed traditions always strongly relate to the old and rejected. A ritual then becomes an ideal ground to negotiate and fight over ideologies, modernity and backwardness, tradition and innovation, and diverging ideologies. This volume deals with different forms of denial and the critique of rituals, and uses the denial of rituals to learn more about the role of rituals in their performers' lives, and about the ambivalences this denial uncovers. The ambivalence, complexity, and processuality of denial are consequences of the fact that there is usually not only one, but a chain of denials, one responding to the other.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Table of Contents
• Ute HÜSKEN and Udo SIMON, Introduction
• Ute HÜSKEN, Hindu Priestesses in Pune Shifting Denial of Ritual Agency
• Christof ZOTTER, The Cremation Ground and the Denial of Ritual The Case of the Aghoris and Their Forerunner
• Udo SIMON, Contested Devotion Wahhabi and Salafi Opposition to the Celebration of Prophet Muḥammad’s Birthday
• Ingvild FLASKERUD, Ritual Creativity and Plurality Denying Twelver Shia Blood-Letting Practices
• Jürgen SCHAFLECHNER, Denial and Repetition Towards a Solidification of Tradition
• Cezary GALEWICZ, Anxiety and Innovation On Denial of Sacrifice in Vedic Ritual
• Lokesh OHRI, Rights versus Rites Bali and Ritual Reform in the Himalayas
• Astrid ZOTTER, The Making and Unmaking of Rulers On Denial of Ritual in Nepal
• Liang CHEN, Negotiating Text and Denying Practice in a Confucian Context Social Change and the Emergence of the Apotropaic Burial Custom ("jiechu") in the Funeral Ritual of the Eastern Han (25-220 CE)
• Stuart LACHS, Denial of Ritual in Zen Writing
• Ian READER, Afterword. On Denials, Inclusions, Exclusions and Ambivalence