Malcolm Ruel

Biographic Data

ID105382
NAMEMalcolm Ruel
GIVEN NAMESMalcolm
FAMILY NAMERuel
SIGNATURERUEL M
AFFILIATIONSUniversity of Edinburgh
VERIFIEDNo
TOTAL WORKS35
TOTAL CITATIONS78
AUTHOR COUNT35
EDITOR COUNT0
FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR1962
LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR2017
H-INDEX6

  • Christians as Believers

    Malcolm RuelCHAPTERRitual and Religious Belief2017

    Until his retirement, Malcolm Ruel was a University Lecturer in the Department of Social Anthropology, Cambridge University. His research was mostly conducted in West and East Africa and his extensive publications are largely concerned with political anthropology and the anthropology of religion. The peculiarity of the place given to belief in Christian history is a monumental matter, whose importance and relative uniqueness must be appreciated. …

  • Witchcraft, morality, and doubt

    Open AccessMalcolm RuelARTICLEHau Journal of Ethnographic Theory2017Cited by: 2References: 2

    This article is a reprint of Ruel, Malcom. 1965. "Witchcraft, morality, and doubt." In Odu: Journal of Yoruba and Related Studies vol. 2: 3-26

  • The structural articulation of generations in Africa

    Open AccessMalcolm RuelARTICLECahiers d études africaines2002Cited by: 2References: 20

    The article highlights a contrast between West African Niger-Congo and East and Southern African Bantu societies. Amongst the latter, kin-generations are sharply distinguished and alternate generations characteristically merged, whereas among the Niger-Congo peoples it is rather adjacent generations that are merged (a fact Radcliffe-Brown ignored). The difference is integral to the social structures of the two regions, between which however some …

  • Kuria and the Passages of Life

    Wendy James, Malcolm RuelARTICLEJournal of Religion in Africa2000

    Cet article propose une lecture critique de Belief, Ritual and the Securing of Life: Reflexive Essays on a Bantu Religion de Malcolm Ruel, paru en 1997. Le coeur de cette oeuvre est en tout premier concerne par le rituel Kuria tel qu'il etait pratique a la fin des annees 1950

  • The Kuria Homestead in Space and Time

    Malcolm RuelARTICLEJournal of Religion in Africa2000Cited by: 2

    Le present article aborde le theme du rituel dans la societe Kuria, car le systeme rituel et la structure familiale y sont etroitement lies. L'A., qui avait deja traite ce theme il y a quarante ans, le developpe ici en deux directions : d'abord en remettant a jour les implications cosmiques apres quarante ans de changement social ; ensuite en suggerant comment l'innovation rituelle peut s'harmoniser avec le changement cosmologique ou l'innovation…

  • Christians as Believers

    Malcolm RuelCHAPTERBelief, Ritual and the Securing…1997

  • Belief, Ritual and the Securing of Life: Reflexive Essays on a Bantu Religion

    Malcolm RuelBOOKBelief, Ritual and the Securing…1997

    This is a book about understanding an African religion that explores the coherence of the religion and the place of ritual in it, but which also looks at the way studying the religion of a very different society from our own throws up questions and helps to particularize the assumptions we make about religion and ideas we have on personhood. The essays collected in the volume focus upon the Kuria people of East Africa but range well beyond them. …

  • Pluralism and Identity, Studies in Ritual Behaviour

    Malcolm Ruel, Jan Platvoet et al.ARTICLEJournal of Religion in Africa1996

    The subject of this book is ritual behaviour, in particular of groups with a distinctive religious, ethnic or other identity which use rituals to pursue strategic ends ad intra and ad extra. Five essays offer theoretical perspectives on ritual in plural and pluralist societies, on similarity and demarcation, on the negative case of the Australian Aboriginals, on Brazilian religious pluralism, and on Ghanaian churches in the Netherlands. Three ess…

  • The Attraction of Opposites: Thought and Society in the Dualistic Mode

    Malcolm Ruel, David Maybury-Lewis et al.ARTICLEJournal of Religion in Africa1993

  • Passages and the Person

    Malcolm RuelARTICLEJournal of Religion in Africa1993Cited by: 5

    Les erreurs d'interpretation en ce qui concerne les notions de personne et de vie personnelle sont dues a une approche ethnocentriste, et notamment a la distinction faite entre « esprit » ou « âme » et corps physique. A partir d'une etude chez les Bantu de l'Est, l'A. propose une approche differente de la personnalite, issue d'une perception metonymique ou « tropique » des passages dans le corps comme autant de representations symboliques de la v…

  • Magic, Science, Religion, and the Scope of Rationality

    Malcolm Ruel, Stanley Jeyaraja TambiahBOOKJournal of Religion in Africa1992

    This article explores the complex relationship between magic, science, religion, and rationality. Ruel and Tambiah argue against simplistic dichotomies that often separate these domains. They examine how different cultures conceptualize causality and efficacy, demonstrating that what might be considered "magical" thinking in one context can be understood as rational within its specific cultural framework. The authors draw on ethnographic examples…

  • Kuria seers

    Open AccessMalcolm RuelARTICLEAfrica1991Cited by: 3References: 3

    In pre-colonial times 'seers', abarooti, played an important role in the political and especially in the military organisation of Kuria, harassed as they were by neigh-bouring Maasai and other Kuria. Seers foretold and in effect planned cattle raids undertaken by warriors, but they also acted more generally to warn of impending events and thus to influence the course of political action. They were distinguished by their more public role from divi…

  • Persuasions and Performances: The Play of Tropes in Culture

    Malcolm Ruel, James W FernandezARTICLEJournal of Religion in Africa1990

  • Non-Sacrificial Ritual Killing

    Malcolm RuelARTICLEMan1990Cited by: 6

    In common with other eastern Bantu peoples Kuna kill animals ritually without that killing being seen as an offering to a deity. A discussion of what such a killing entails reflects on theories of sacrifice but serves also to establish a non-sacnficial form of ritual kilhng. In the latter it is not the life of the animal that is at issue but rather the lhfe in the animal. The ritual use of the stomach contents or chyme is diacntical, for this is …

  • Humbuggery and Manipulation: The Art of Leadership

    Malcolm RuelREVIEWMan1990

  • Icons, Indexical Symbols and Metaphorical Action: An Analysis of Two East African Rites

    Malcolm RuelARTICLEJournal of Religion in Africa1987Cited by: 2

  • Symbol as Sense: New Approaches to the Analysis of Meaning

    Malcolm Ruel, Mary Lecron Foster et al.ARTICLEMan1983

  • Process Without Structure: Some Anthropological Observations on the Large Group

    Open AccessMalcolm RuelARTICLEGroup Analysis1980

  • Fields of Change Among the Iteso of Kenya

    Malcolm Ruel, Ivan KarpARTICLEMan1978

  • A General Theory of Magic

    Malcolm Ruel, Marcel Mau et al.ARTICLEMan1975

  • Bangwa Kinship and Marriage

    Malcolm Ruel, Robert BrainARTICLEMan1973Cited by: 1

  • The Occupations of Migrants in Ghana

    Malcolm Ruel, Polly HillARTICLEMan1972

  • Leopards and Leaders: Constitutional Politics Among a Cross River People

    Phyllis M Kaberry, Malcolm RuelARTICLEMan1970Cited by: 17

  • Sudanese Ethics

    Malcolm Ruel, Tore NordenstamARTICLEMan1970

  • Muslims and Chiefs in West Africa: A Study of Islam in the Middle Volta Basin in the Pre-Colonial Period

    Malcolm Ruel, Nehemia LevtzionARTICLEMan1969Cited by: 8