Encyclopedia of Religious Rites, Rituals, and Festivals: A Religion and Society Encyclopedia
- Book Review,
by Frank A. Salamone
From School Library Journal
Grade 10 Up–As stated in the introduction, this is not intended to be a comprehensive description of all religions or all social rituals. Articles describing types of practices common to many cultures treat such topics as death rituals, hunting rituals, puberty rites, and sport and ritual. Specific occasions that involve ceremonies include Divali, Easter, Ramadan, and Yom Kippur. Some practices like cannibalism, haircutting rituals, and snake handling are described in separate articles. While Catholicism, Protestantism, Judaism, and Islam receive the most attention, religious traditions such as Buddhism, Shinto, Jainism, and Wicca also find places here. Iban, Aztec, and other less generally known cultures are revealed through some of their ceremonies. Native North American belief systems and some of their cultural activities also receive attention. Origins and histories often form part of the articles. Each major entry concludes with a significant list of titles for further reading. Sidebars focus primarily on accounts of personal observation of specific ceremonies or quotes from important religious texts. Occasional black-and-white photographs depict significant sites or people practicing their beliefs. Most captions offer clear descriptions of the scenes and include the year of their occurrence. An alphabetical list of entries precedes the text while the index allows access to specific topics within the longer entries. This work is not a detailed, alphabetical list of specific rites, ceremonies, or beliefs but, rather, a more sociologically relevant discussion of such practices.–Ann G. Brouse, Steele Memorial Library, Elmira, NY Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
Whether it's the Ghost Festival in China or a Good Friday procession among Christians, "ritual is often the most visible manifestation of religion and the one that first comes to the attention of outside observers." Rituals, however, are not only to be found among the world's religious traditions. Societies have secular rituals, although many of them have their roots in religion and belief. Employing an anthropological approach and drawing upon scholars from a variety of disciplines, this encyclopedia consists of 130 alphabetically arranged entries on rituals, both religious and secular. Each is signed by its author and concludes with a nice supplemental bibliography. There are illustrations throughout. Entries treat concepts applicable to rituals of many religious traditions, such as Asceticism, Divination, Ecstatic worship, or Prayer, citing specific examples of how they are employed. Some entries are surveys for types of rituals (e.g., Agricultural rituals, Food and rituals, Naming rituals), but, again, tradition-specific information is included. The major rituals of the world's largest religious traditions are described in entries for Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, Shinto, and Taoism. Christianity is treated in multiple entries, such as Catholicism, Orthodoxy, Pentecostalism, and protestantism. Finally, there are entries for specific rituals (e.g., Day of the Dead, Passover, and ramadan).Noteworthy is the inclusion of rituals and religious traditions less well known than the aforementioned. For example, there are two survey articles on Africa (i.e., Africa, Central and Africa, West) along with entries on the Azande, Yoruba, and zulu. A description of the Naven ceremony of the Iatmul tribe of New Guinea, along with entries for Australian Aboriginal, melanesia, and micronesia, and treatment of Vodun in Haiti and a survey of Afro-Caribbean rituals, all demonstrate the volume's inclusiveness.The encyclopedia contains an interesting combination of religious and anthropological information. But an in-depth anthropological survey article on a topic such as marriage rituals would be difficult enough to keep to a manageable length without the addition of tradition-specific information. Readers should be aware that the work will serve, at best, as a cursory introduction to topics. Nevertheless, academic and large public libraries may want to consider acquiring it. Christopher McConnell
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Book Description
The sixth volume in the acclaimed Religion and Society series, the Encyclopedia of Religious Rites, Rituals, and Festivals examines religious beliefs expressed through ritualized behavior and festivals. Exploring expressions of faith across cultures and religions throughout the world, the 120-plus entries in this fascinating resource fall into five general categories: * General concepts and ideas--such as communitas, inversion, purity and pollution, and pilgrimage. * Major forms of rituals and festivals--such as rites of passage, devotional rites, sacrifice, calendrical rites, carnival, rites of conflict, and fasting. * Religious rites and festivals of major religions and cultural regions. Entries discuss variation within the religion/culture/region. * Life cycle rites including those associated with birth, coming of age, marriage, and death. * Specific rites and festivals--such as Easter, Christmas, Passover, Ramadan, potlatch, Ghost Dance, kava rituals, and snake handling. With a generous complement of illustrations, and a variety of engaging sidebars throughout, this is a key resource for students at undergraduate and high school levels, as well as general readers.
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