Ritual in Early Modern Europe

The 2005 second edition of a comprehensive study of the ritual practices in traditional Christian Europe.

Edward Muir (Author)

9780521602402, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 18 August 2005

334 pages, 9 b/w illus.
22.6 x 15.2 x 2 cm, 0.48 kg

'… the book remains an extremely important introduction to early modern European ritual studies for students and scholars alike. And it remains a wonderful example of how to write engaging and well-informed history.' Sixteenth Century Journal

The comprehensive 2005 study of rituals in early modern Europe argues that between about 1400 and 1700 a revolution in ritual theory took place that utterly transformed concepts about time, the body, and the presence of spiritual forces in the world. Edward Muir draws on extensive historical research to emphasize the persistence of traditional Christian ritual practices even as educated elites attempted to privilege reason over passion, textual interpretation over ritual action, and moral rectitude over gaining access to supernatural powers. Edward Muir discusses wide ranging themes such as rites of passage, carnivalesque festivity, the rise of manners, Protestant and Catholic Reformations, the alleged anti-Christian rituals of Jews and witches. This edition examines the impact on the European understanding of ritual from the discoveries of new civilizations in the Americas and missionary efforts in China and adds more material about rituals peculiar to women.

Introduction: what is ritual?
Part I. The Ritual Moment: 1. Rites of passage
2. The ritual calendar
Part II. Rituals of the Body: 3. Carnival and the lower body
4. Manners and the upper body
Part III. Ritual Representation: 5. The Reformation as a revolution in ritual theory
6. The Reformation as a ritual process
7. Government as a ritual process
Epilogue: mere ritual.

Subject Areas: Social & cultural anthropology, ethnography [JHMC], Religion: general [HRA], Social & cultural history [HBTB], Early modern history: c 1450/1500 to c 1700 [HBLH], European history [HBJD]