Bringing Ritual to Mind: Psychological Foundations of Cultural Forms

ISBN-13: 9780521016292 / Angielski / Miękka / 2002 / 252 str.

Robert N. McCauley; E. Thomas Lawson

Opis

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.

Recenzje

'… a provocative and very stimulating set of ideas …'. Anthropos

Spis treści

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.