When Rituals go Wrong: Mistakes, Failure, and the Dynamics of Ritual

Cover......Page 1
Title Page......Page 4
Contents......Page 6
Preface......Page 10
Introduction [Edward L. Schieffelin]......Page 14
Mistakes, Procedural Errors and Incorrect Performances......Page 34
Types of Ritual Failure and Mistakes in Ritual in Cuneiform Sources [Claus Ambos]......Page 38
Failure and Mistakes in Rituals of the European Santo Daime Church: Experiences and Subjective Theories of the Participants [Jan Weinhold]......Page 62
Failure Impossible? Handling of Rules, Mistakes and Failure in Public Rituals of Modern Western Societies [Burckhard Dücker]......Page 86
Dealing with Deviations in the Performance of Masonic Rituals [Jan A.M. Snoek]......Page 112
Perfection and Mishaps in Vedic Rituals [Axel Michaels]......Page 134
‘All the King’s Horses and All the King’s Men’: the 2004 Red Matsyendrantha Incident in Lalitpur [Christoph Emmrich]......Page 146
Preventive Measures and “Quality Control”......Page 178
The Sixteenth Piṇḍa as a Hidden Insurance Against Ritual Failure [Johanna Buss]......Page 180
Ensuring Ritual Competence in Ancient Greece. A Negotiable Matter: Religious Specialist [Eftychia Stavrianopoulou]......Page 196
Contingencies and Emergence......Page 210
Social Consequences of Ritual Failure: a Garhwali Case Study [Karin Polit]......Page 212
When a Goddess Weeps—Ritual Failure or Failed Performance? A Case Study from Nepal [Brigitte Merz]......Page 222
Change of View: the Ritual Side of Serial Killings and the Conditions for Fortunate Failure [Maren Hoffmeister]......Page 236
Competing Perspectives: The Discursive Production of Ritual......Page 254
Rivalling Rituals, Challenged Identities: Accusations of Ritual Mistakes as an Expression of Power Struggles in Bali (Indonesia) [Brigitta Hauser-Schäublin]......Page 258
Contested Ritual Property. Con icts over Correct Ritual Procedures in a South Indian Viṣṇu Temple [Ute Hüsken]......Page 286
The Unwanted Offering. Ubiquity and Success of Failure in a Ritual of the Hindu Right [Christiane Brosius]......Page 304
Failure of Ritual Reinvention? Efficacious New Rituals among Taiwan’s Aborigines under the Impact of Religious Conversion and Competition between Elites [Michael Rudolph]......Page 338
Ritual Dynamics and Ritual Failure [Ute Hüsken]......Page 350
Index......Page 380