Competing Perspectives: The Discursive Production Of Ritual

Abstract

Diverse assessments of ritual events can exist side by side: varying perspectives result in diverse evaluations of what counts as 'mistake' or as successful performance. In this chapter competing perspectives within certain ritual traditions or social settings are unfolded. In many cases, these rituals are not a means to conflict resolution but are objects of conflicts themselves. The contributions to the chapter clearly shows that these conflicts refer to the realm external to the ritual: not only the ritual process, but also the authority and authenticity of the ritual experts, internal hierarchies of the participants as well as relations beyond the ritual frame are evaluated, negotiated and reorganized. Ritual mistake and failure in this sense therefore originate inside as well as outside the ritual.Keywords: diverse evaluations; ritual traditions