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The Dangers of Ritual : Between Early Medieval Texts and Social Scientific Theory / Philippe Buc.

By: Material type: TextTextPublisher: Princeton, NJ : Princeton University Press, [2021]Copyright date: ©2001Description: 1 online resource (288 p.)Content type:
Media type:
Carrier type:
ISBN:
  • 9781400832491
Subject(s): DDC classification:
  • 390.0940902
Other classification:
  • online - DeGruyter
Online resources:
Contents:
Frontmatter -- CONTENTS -- PREFACE -- ABBREVIATIONS -- INTRODUCTION -- PART I Late Antique and Early Medieval Narratives -- Chapter One WRITING OTTOMAN HEGEMONY: GOOD RITUALS AND BAD RITUALS IN LIUDPRAND OF CREMONA -- Chapter Two RITUAL CONSENSUS AND RITUAL VIOLENCE: TEXTS AND EVENTS IN NINTH-CENTURY CAROLINGIAN POLITICAL CULTURE -- Chapter Three RITES OF SAINTS AND RITES OF KINGS: CONSENSUS AND TRANSGRESSION IN THE WORKS OF GREGORY OF TOURS -- Chapter Four THE LATE ANTIQUE MATRIX: MARTYRDOM AND RITUAL -- PART II From Theology to the Social Sciences, ca. 1500-ca. 1970 -- Introduction -- Chapter Five RITES, RITUALS, AND ORDER, CA. 1500-CA. 1800 -- Chapter Six MEDIEVAL HISTORY AND THE SOCIAL SCIENCES, CA. 1800-CA. 1970 -- Chapter Seven EPILOGUE -- Index
Summary: Central to current understandings of medieval history is the concept of political ritual, encompassing events from coronations to funerals, entries into cities, civic games, banquets, hunting, acts of submission or commendation, and more. ''Ritual?'' asks Philippe Buc. In The Dangers of Ritual he boldly argues that the concept shouldn't be so central after all. Modern-day scholars, gently seduced by twentieth-century theories of ritual, often misinterpret medieval documents that ostensibly describe such events, in part because they fail to appreciate the intentions behind them.The book begins with four case studies whose arrangement--backward from texts on tenth-century kingship to fourth-century representations of Christian martyrdom--allows for the line of development to be peeled back layer by layer. It then turns to an analysis of the formation of the intellectual traditions that contemporary historians have employed to interpret medieval documents. Tracing the emergence of the concept of ritual from the Reformation to the mid-twentieth century, Buc highlights the continuities yet also the profound transformations between the early medieval understandings and our own, social-scientific models.Medieval historians will find this book an indispensable resource for its insights into methodological issues crucial to their discipline. As Buc demonstrates, only rigorous attention to the contexts within which authors worked can allow us to reconstruct from medieval documents how ''rituals'' might have functioned. Ultimately, he argues, too swift an application of contemporary models to highly complex textual artifacts blinds us to the specificities of early medieval European political culture.
Holdings
Item type Current library Call number URL Status Notes Barcode
eBook eBook Biblioteca "Angelicum" Pont. Univ. S.Tommaso d'Aquino Nuvola online online - DeGruyter (Browse shelf(Opens below)) Online access Not for loan (Accesso limitato) Accesso per gli utenti autorizzati / Access for authorized users (dgr)9781400832491

Frontmatter -- CONTENTS -- PREFACE -- ABBREVIATIONS -- INTRODUCTION -- PART I Late Antique and Early Medieval Narratives -- Chapter One WRITING OTTOMAN HEGEMONY: GOOD RITUALS AND BAD RITUALS IN LIUDPRAND OF CREMONA -- Chapter Two RITUAL CONSENSUS AND RITUAL VIOLENCE: TEXTS AND EVENTS IN NINTH-CENTURY CAROLINGIAN POLITICAL CULTURE -- Chapter Three RITES OF SAINTS AND RITES OF KINGS: CONSENSUS AND TRANSGRESSION IN THE WORKS OF GREGORY OF TOURS -- Chapter Four THE LATE ANTIQUE MATRIX: MARTYRDOM AND RITUAL -- PART II From Theology to the Social Sciences, ca. 1500-ca. 1970 -- Introduction -- Chapter Five RITES, RITUALS, AND ORDER, CA. 1500-CA. 1800 -- Chapter Six MEDIEVAL HISTORY AND THE SOCIAL SCIENCES, CA. 1800-CA. 1970 -- Chapter Seven EPILOGUE -- Index

restricted access online access with authorization star

http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_16ec

Central to current understandings of medieval history is the concept of political ritual, encompassing events from coronations to funerals, entries into cities, civic games, banquets, hunting, acts of submission or commendation, and more. ''Ritual?'' asks Philippe Buc. In The Dangers of Ritual he boldly argues that the concept shouldn't be so central after all. Modern-day scholars, gently seduced by twentieth-century theories of ritual, often misinterpret medieval documents that ostensibly describe such events, in part because they fail to appreciate the intentions behind them.The book begins with four case studies whose arrangement--backward from texts on tenth-century kingship to fourth-century representations of Christian martyrdom--allows for the line of development to be peeled back layer by layer. It then turns to an analysis of the formation of the intellectual traditions that contemporary historians have employed to interpret medieval documents. Tracing the emergence of the concept of ritual from the Reformation to the mid-twentieth century, Buc highlights the continuities yet also the profound transformations between the early medieval understandings and our own, social-scientific models.Medieval historians will find this book an indispensable resource for its insights into methodological issues crucial to their discipline. As Buc demonstrates, only rigorous attention to the contexts within which authors worked can allow us to reconstruct from medieval documents how ''rituals'' might have functioned. Ultimately, he argues, too swift an application of contemporary models to highly complex textual artifacts blinds us to the specificities of early medieval European political culture.

Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.

In English.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 29. Nov 2021)