Are Rituals Causally Opaque?: The Case of Ritual Fasting and Drug Use
Xygalatas (2022) states that rituals are causally opaque, meaning they have symbolic value and lack a practical outcome in the external world. In this commentary, I address my concerns with Xygalatas' definition of ritual, which are framed as follows: first, are rituals causally opaque, or does...
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| Beteiligte: | |
| Medienart: | Elektronisch Rezension |
| Sprache: | Englisch |
| Verfügbarkeit prüfen: | HBZ Gateway |
| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Veröffentlicht: |
2025
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| In: |
Journal for the cognitive science of religion
Jahr: 2022, Band: 10, Heft: 1/2, Seiten: 171-181 |
| weitere Schlagwörter: | B
Rezension
B Fasting B Ritual B Gender B Drug use |
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Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Zusammenfassung: | Xygalatas (2022) states that rituals are causally opaque, meaning they have symbolic value and lack a practical outcome in the external world. In this commentary, I address my concerns with Xygalatas' definition of ritual, which are framed as follows: first, are rituals causally opaque, or does the way researchers think and ask about rituals create a response bias? Second, if rituals consist of transparent outcomes, does this negate their classification as a ritual? Third, must a ritual lead to impractical outcomes to still be considered a ritual? I focus primarily on fasting and drug use in reference to the stated questions to illustrate the complexity underlying the definition of ritual. Using ethnographic examples, I highlight the need for further discussion of the definition of ritual to discern if causal opacity is truly necessary to establish a series of behaviors as ritualistic. |
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| ISSN: | 2049-7563 |
| Enthält: | Enthalten in: Journal for the cognitive science of religion
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1558/jcsr.24897 |
