Deeply into the Bone: Re-Inventing Rites of Passage

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University of California Press, 29.06.2000 - 393 Seiten
Over the past two decades, North Americans have become increasingly interested in understanding and reclaiming the rites that mark significant life passages. In the absence of meaningful rites of passage, we speed through the dangerous intersections of life and often come to regret missing an opportunity to contemplate a child's birth, mark the arrival of maturity, or meditate on the loss of a loved one. Providing a highly personal, thoroughly informed, and cross-cultural perspective on rites of passage for general readers, this book illustrates the power of rites to help us navigate life's troublesome transitions.

The work of a major scholar who has spent years writing and teaching about ritual, Deeply into the Bone instigates a conversation in which readers can fruitfully reflect on their own experiences of passage. Covering the significant life events of birth, initiation, marriage, and death, chapters include first-person stories told by individuals who have undergone rites of passage, accounts of practices from around the world, brief histories of selected ritual traditions, and critical reflections probing popular assumptions about ritual. The book also explores innovative rites for other important events such as beginning school, same-sex commitment ceremonies, abortion, serious illness, divorce, and retirement.

Taking us confidently into the abyss separating the spiritual from the social scientific, the personal from the scholarly, and the narrative from the analytical, Grimes synthesizes an impressive amount of information to help us find more insightful ways of comprehending life's great transitions. As we face our increasingly complex society, Deeply into the Bone will help us reclaim the power of rites and understand their effect on our lives.

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Inhalt

Married Already or Not Yet?
186
Old Enough to Be the Father of His Bride
191
Passing the Torch Blessing the Bride
196
From Blessing Marriages to Making Them
198
Alternative Weddings
205
Reinventing Marriage Rites
210
Living with the Dead Exiting Gracefully
217
Good Ways to Die
221

Begreasing and Bespewing Poor Infants
49
Churching and Gossiping
55
Appropriate Craziness Extravagant Praise
57
Cosmic Fetuses and Bundle Babies
59
Kneeling on the Earth
63
A Birth Well Attended
71
Nurturing Ritual Sensibilities
74
The Dove Still Travels with Me
76
Reinventing Birth Rites
83
Coming of Age Joining Up
87
Initiation as a Global Problem
91
The Reality of My Own Body
94
Patterns of Initiation
100
Initiation around the World
107
Initiatory Fantasy
111
The Improved Order of Red Men
117
Betwixt and Between
121
Debt Payments Whippings and Washings
125
Bartering a Traditional Celebration
127
Initiatory Wonder
131
Initiatory Disenchantment
136
He Emerged as One of Them
138
African American Rites of Passage
145
Divining Mates Making Kin
151
Wedding Preparation Wedding Aftermath
156
The Purity of an Angel the Sweat of a Human
159
Reaching through the Veil
163
Like a Horse and Carriage?
169
The Most Splendid Couple in All of Japan
172
The Sacred Fire Was Our Witness
177
Dying Scenarios
227
It Took Two Funerals to Bury My Brother
230
A Coffin Lined with Paper
236
A Cloud of Earth for a Pillow
240
Living with the Dead
243
The Release of a Hungry Ghost
251
Dancing with the Dead
254
The American Way of Death
258
Dead He Presides Over Us
261
Mortal Acts
270
Cyher Ritual and Death on the Web
273
Reinventing Death Rites
275
Passages Troubled and Uncharted
285
The Spilling of Boys Blood
289
Female Genital Mutilation
294
Ritual Criticism and Widow Burning
299
Satanic Ritual Abuse
302
Never Instead of Always in Addition to
307
Ahortion Rites in Japan
310
Until Grief Leaves the Forefront of My Being
315
The RollerCoaster of Joy and Woe
320
Cutting the Cord of Employment
323
Beyond Passage
335
Crying in the Night
337
Boiling Energy
340
Bahettes Feast
344
Notes
347
Sources Cited
359
Index
369
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Seite 27 - The daily body ritual performed by everyone includes a mouth-rite. Despite the fact that these people are so punctilious about care of the mouth, this rite involves a practice which strikes the uninitiated stranger as revolting. It was reported to me that the ritual consists of inserting a small bundle of hog hairs into the mouth, along with certain magical powders, and then moving the bundle in a highly formalized series of gestures. In addition to the private mouth-rite, the people seek out a holy-mouthman...
Seite 223 - Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep ; If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take ; And this I ask for Jesus
Seite 27 - The Nacirema have an almost pathological horror of and fascination with the mouth, the condition of which is believed to have a supernatural influence on all social relationships. Were it not for the rituals of the mouth, they believe that their teeth would fall out, their gums bleed, their jaws shrink, their friends desert them, and their lovers reject them.
Seite 256 - The word death is not pronounced in New York, in Paris, in London, because it burns the lips. The Mexican, in contrast, is familiar with death, jokes about it, caresses it, sleeps with it, celebrates it; it is one of his favorite toys and his most steadfast love.
Seite 26 - The focal point of the shrine is a box or chest which is built into the wall. In this chest are kept the many charms and magical potions without which no native believes he could live. These preparations are secured from a variety of specialized practitioners. The most powerful of these are the medicine men, whose assistance must be rewarded with substantial gifts. However, the medicine men do not provide the curative potions for their clients, but decide what the ingredients should be and then write...
Seite 95 - ... that had just throbbed through the sky. With all his weight Ozzie kneeled on the locked door; any instant he was certain that Rabbi Binder's shoulder would fling it open, splintering the wood into shrapnel and catapulting his body into the sky. But the door did not move and below him he heard only the rumble of feet, first loud then dim, like thunder rolling away. A question shot through his brain. "Can this be me?" For a thirteen-year-old who had just labeled his religious leader a bastard,...
Seite 118 - Then let us proceed, pale face, and unless some Chief interposes, you perish at the stake. Why do you tempt your fate? or is it your wish to become a Red Man?" The candidate was prompted to answer yes. The hunter warned: "Know, then, that Red Men are men without fear, and none but such can be adopted by our Tribe.
Seite 132 - The teacher reads the letters first forwards, then backwards, and finally in symmetrically paired combinations, and he encourages the boy to repeat each sequence aloud. The teacher smears honey over the letters on the tablet and tells the child to lick it off. Cakes on which biblical verses have been written are brought in. They must be baked by virgins from flour, honey, oil, and milk. Next come shelled hard-boiled eggs on which more verses have been inscribed. The teacher reads the words written...
Seite 118 - inner wicket" and motioned for the candidate to follow. They padded silently around the lodge room, avoiding a group of Indians who were "sleeping

Autoren-Profil (2000)

Ronald L. Grimes is Professor of Religion and Culture at Wilfrid Laurier University in Ontario, Canada. He is the author of Marrying and Burying: Rites of Passage in a Man's Life (1995) and editor of Readings in Ritual Studies (1996), among other works.

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