TABLE OF CONTENTS
Acknowledgments | ix | |
Introduction | ||
I. | Declarations and debts | 1 |
II. | Loans and pursuits of an interdisciplinary sort | 8 |
1. Interpretation and explanation: problems and promise in the study of religion |
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I. | Introduction | 12 |
II. | Explanation and Interpretation: three accounts | 14 |
Exclusivism | 15 | |
Inclusivism | 18 | |
Interactionism | 22 | |
2. Three theories of religion | ||
I. | Introduction | 32 |
II. | Intellectualism | 33 |
III. | Symbolism | 37 |
IV. | Structuralism | 41 |
V. | Conclusion | 43 |
3. Ritual as language | ||
I. | Introduction | 45 |
II. | Ritual as performative utterance | 51 |
III. | Ritual as the communication of information | 54 |
IV. | Ritual as formal system | 56 |
4. A cognitive approach to symbolic-cultural systems
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I. | Introduction | 60 |
II. | On the status of linguistic theory | 61 |
III. | A cognitive approach to cultural materials | 68 |
IV. | In defense of a cognitive approach to religious ritual acts | 77 |
5. Outline of a theory of religious ritual systems | ||
I. | Introduction | 84 |
II. | Action elements and formation rules | 87 |
III. | Applications and illustrations | 95 |
Two complications | 96 | |
The object agency filter | 98 | |
Ritual alterations of objects | 102 | |
Ritual implication of the superhuman | 110 | |
A further illustration | 113 | |
IV. | Universal principles of religious ritual structure | 121 |
Substantive and formal universals | 122 | |
Functional universals | 123 | |
6. Semantics and ritual systems | ||
I. | Introduction | 137 |
II. | Semiotic ghosts and reflexive holism in semantics | 138 |
III. | Holism with multiple models | 148 |
IV. | Comments on the semantics of religious ritual systems | 157 |
V. | Staal and ritualization | 166 |
7. Connecting the cognitive and the cultural | ||
I. | Introduction | 170 |
II. | The theory of religious ritual systems and explanation | 172 |
III. | Structural explanation | 177 |
IV. | An integrated approach to cognitive and cultural systems | 180 |
References | 185 | |
Index | 191 |