Anthropological Approaches to the Ritual Process

FAIN: FB-12152-74

Mary L. Collins
Catholic University of America (Washington, DC 20064-0001)

Through a program of reading, reasearch, and consultation, to study current anthropological perspectives on the ritual process and to develop a design for investigating two typical contemporary American passage rites for young women. The aim of such a study will be to comprehend both the dominant structuralist point of view on the ritual process and the divergent view concerning the meaning of the ritual process, and to learn the impact these viewpoints are having on current research. Up to the recent past, there has been little cross-disciplinary inquiry among anthropologist studying primitve rites and liturgical scholars studying Christian ritual action. This project is an attempt to span that void.