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Bringing Ritual to Mind
Psychological Foundations of Cultural Forms

$34.99 (G)

Authors:
Robert N. McCauley, Emory University, Atlanta
E. Thomas Lawson, Western Michigan University

Date Published: September 2002
availability: Available
format: Paperback
isbn: 9780521016292

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About the Authors

This study explores the psychological foundations of religious ritual systems. In practice, participants recall rituals to ensure a sense of continuity across performances, and those rituals motivate them to transmit and re-perform them. Most religious rituals exploit either high performance frequency or extraordinary emotional stimulation to enhance their recollection. Robert N. McCauley and E. Thomas Lawson assert that participants' cognitive representations of ritual form explain much about the systems. Reviewing a wide range of evidence, they explain religions' evolution.
- Employs cognitive science to explain patterns among religious ritual systems
- Stands out from other books in the field in its use of tools from dynamical systems theory to represent the variables shaping the patterns in religious ritual systems
- Explores and combines evidence from Melanesian materials from cultural anthropology, and Christian materials from the history of religions
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Reviews & endorsements
'Bringing Ritual to Mind makes a substantial contribution to one corner of the cognitive field, the cognitive basis of ritual forms. The book extends and clarifies aspects of the theory of ritual competence presented in the authors' Rethinking Religion (1990).' Numen
'… a provocative and very stimulating set of ideas …'. Anthropos
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Product details
- Date Published: September 2002
- format: Paperback
- isbn: 9780521016292
- length: 252 pages
- dimensions: 228 x 152 x 19 mm
- weight: 0.405kg
- contains: 3 b/w illus. 5 tables
- availability: Available
Table of Contents
1. Cognitive constraints on religious ritual form: a theory of participants' competence with religious ritual systems
2. Ritual and memory: frequency and flashbulbs
3. Two hypotheses concerning religious ritual and emotional stimulation
4. Assessing the two hypotheses
5. General profiles of religious ritual systems: the emerging cognitive science of religion.
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Authors
Robert N. McCauley, Emory University, Atlanta
ROBERT N. MCCAULEY is Professor of Philosophy and Director of the Emory College Center for Teaching and Curriculum, Emory University.
E. Thomas Lawson, Western Michigan University
E. THOMAS LAWSON is Professor of Comparative Religion at Western Michigan University and executive editor of the Journal of Cognition and Culture.