Significant life passages are marked by ritual in virtually every culture. Weddings and funerals are just two of the most institutionalized yet troubled ones in our own society. A wide variety of rites, both traditional and invented, also mark birth, coming of age, and other major transitions. In Marrying & Burying Ronald Grimes, a founder of the new interdisciplinary field of ritual studies, tells an intensely personal story about the role of ritual in his own rich and sometimes difficult life. His critique of ritual impoverishment in North America reveals the extraordinary potential that...