Bruce Lincoln is Caroline E. Haskell Distinguished Service Professor of the History of Religions at the Divinity School of the University of Chicago.

Discourse and the Construction of Society is a game changer-simple as that- and so a book that I've passed along to countless people over the years. Each chapter is an example of how the academic study of religion ought to be done if it is to be something other than well-meaning cheerleading or idle voyeurism (to name two roles Lincoln himself has time and again critiqued convincingly). Having a new edition, with new material, invites yet another generation to take seriously issues of power, identity, rank, contest, the past, the future, and the always crafty ways that we try to signify this world of ours.

• Preface to the Second Edition ; Introduction ; Part I: Myth ; 1. Myth, Sentiment, and the Construction of Social Forms ; 2. The Politics of Myth ; 3. Competing Uses of the Future in the Present ; Part II: Ritual ; 4. Ritual, Rebellion, Resistance: Rethinking the Swazi Ncwala ; 5. Banquets and Brawls: Aspects of Ceremonial Meals ; 6. Festivals and Massacres: Reflections on St. Bartholomew's Day ; 7. Revolutionary Exhumations in Spain ; Part III: Classification ; 8. The Tyranny of Taxonomy ; 9. The Dialectics of Symbolic Inversion ; 10. The Uses of Anomaly ; Part IV: Affinity, Estrangement, Alterity [new] ; 11. The Mythic Sisterhood of Europe and Asia [new] ; 12. "We are all related": The Limits of Inclusion at a Lakota Sun Dance ; 13. Food, Filth, and Religious Community ; Notes ; Bibliography ; Acknowledgments ; Index

Bruce Lincoln is Caroline E. Haskell Distinguished Service Professor of the History of Religions at the Divinity School of the University of Chicago.

Discourse and the Construction of Society is a game changer-simple as that- and so a book that I've passed along to countless people over the years. Each chapter is an example of how the academic study of religion ought to be done if it is to be something other than well-meaning cheerleading or idle voyeurism (to name two roles Lincoln himself has time and again critiqued convincingly). Having a new edition, with new material, invites yet another generation to take seriously issues of power, identity, rank, contest, the past, the future, and the always crafty ways that we try to signify this world of ours.

• Preface to the Second Edition ; Introduction ; Part I: Myth ; 1. Myth, Sentiment, and the Construction of Social Forms ; 2. The Politics of Myth ; 3. Competing Uses of the Future in the Present ; Part II: Ritual ; 4. Ritual, Rebellion, Resistance: Rethinking the Swazi Ncwala ; 5. Banquets and Brawls: Aspects of Ceremonial Meals ; 6. Festivals and Massacres: Reflections on St. Bartholomew's Day ; 7. Revolutionary Exhumations in Spain ; Part III: Classification ; 8. The Tyranny of Taxonomy ; 9. The Dialectics of Symbolic Inversion ; 10. The Uses of Anomaly ; Part IV: Affinity, Estrangement, Alterity [new] ; 11. The Mythic Sisterhood of Europe and Asia [new] ; 12. "We are all related": The Limits of Inclusion at a Lakota Sun Dance ; 13. Food, Filth, and Religious Community ; Notes ; Bibliography ; Acknowledgments ; Index

Bruce Lincoln is Caroline E. Haskell Distinguished Service Professor of the History of Religions at the Divinity School of the University of Chicago.

Discourse and the Construction of Society is a game changer-simple as that- and so a book that I've passed along to countless people over the years. Each chapter is an example of how the academic study of religion ought to be done if it is to be something other than well-meaning cheerleading or idle voyeurism (to name two roles Lincoln himself has time and again critiqued convincingly). Having a new edition, with new material, invites yet another generation to take seriously issues of power, identity, rank, contest, the past, the future, and the always crafty ways that we try to signify this world of ours.

• Preface to the Second Edition ; Introduction ; Part I: Myth ; 1. Myth, Sentiment, and the Construction of Social Forms ; 2. The Politics of Myth ; 3. Competing Uses of the Future in the Present ; Part II: Ritual ; 4. Ritual, Rebellion, Resistance: Rethinking the Swazi Ncwala ; 5. Banquets and Brawls: Aspects of Ceremonial Meals ; 6. Festivals and Massacres: Reflections on St. Bartholomew's Day ; 7. Revolutionary Exhumations in Spain ; Part III: Classification ; 8. The Tyranny of Taxonomy ; 9. The Dialectics of Symbolic Inversion ; 10. The Uses of Anomaly ; Part IV: Affinity, Estrangement, Alterity [new] ; 11. The Mythic Sisterhood of Europe and Asia [new] ; 12. "We are all related": The Limits of Inclusion at a Lakota Sun Dance ; 13. Food, Filth, and Religious Community ; Notes ; Bibliography ; Acknowledgments ; Index