The Purpose of Ritual

Bibliographic Data

ID8932703
AuthorsA M Hocart (corresponding author)
Year1935
Volume46
Issue4
Pages343-349
Publication date1935-12-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueFolklore (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0015-587X • E-ISSN: 1469-8315
PublisherRoutledge (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/0015587x.1935.9718614
OpenAlexW1994137120
LanguageEN
Citations received13

THE one man who is never consulted as to the theory of ritual is the one who performs that ritual. Is he not likely to know better what he intends than the man who has never carried it out, and who probably scorns it in his heart ? That is all very well, I may be told, but if you ask a savage why he baptizes or is baptized, marries or is married, buries or is buried, he will either be completely nonplussed or else give you some rationalization which is quite I leave aside the question whether any rationalization is worthless. I think most psychologists would be very careful to note rationalizations as clues to the motive which is rationalized. But let that be. What I object to is the suggestion that the savage (if there is such a thing) stands quite apart in his inability to answer a difficult question fired at him without warning, or in his tendency to invent an explanation when he has not got one on the tip of his tongue. Put the same sort of question to any intelligent European, ask him why he goes to church, why he had his children christened, and he will either have no answer, or else invent some reason which we can show is not the right

Sociology · Anthropology · History · Media, Religion, Digital Communication · Religion and Society Interactions · Religious Studies and Spiritual Practices

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