The Editors: Jens Kreinath is member of a research project on Zoroastrian rituals at Heidelberg University. He is co-editing a forthcoming volume on theorizing rituals.Constance Hartung received her Ph.D. in theology from Jena University in Germany.Annette Deschner received her Ph.D. from Heidelberg University. She co-edited a collection of essays on the myths of creativity, Mythen der Kreativität (2003).

«This ambitious set of essays expands our theoretical grasp of that slippery phenomenon, ritual. The editors orchestrate an impressive set of cross-disciplinary voices to suggest an analytical schema that can focus more directly on ritual as a dynamic social and communicative activity, as capable of generating social change as reflecting it – or opposing it. Articulating the possible forms that the inherent dynamism of ritual can take, this collection explores the complexities of distinguishing performance, context, and tradition, with special attention to ritual ‘framing’ by participants and by researchers. Using exemplary ritual situations drawn from historical and anthropological research – including carnival chaos, rebellions, scripted and unscripted historical performances, innovations, and traditions tightly held – this collection constitutes an inventory of many of the distortions imposed by our theorizing. It is a very useful contribution to the effort to develop tools for addressing a more dynamic understanding of ritual.» (Catherine Bell, Bernard J. Hanley Professor and Chair, Department of Religious Studies, Santa Clara University, Santa Clara, CA)«‘The Dynamics of Changing Rituals’ is immense in scope; its contributions of the highest scholarly merit. They range from witchcraft exorcisms in Mesopotamia to the rituals of and in the contemporary media; from Balinese dance to ritual treated as war; from liturgical changes in the Catholic Church to the ritual failure of Mishima’s suicide. Though the contributions vary theoretically and methodologically in terms of their respective disciplines, they are all united in their concern for ritual change and the conditions that lead to that change. They challenge the traditional picture of ritual as conservative, steadfast, and timeless. As such, they are radical.» (Vincent Crapanzano, Distinguished Professor of Anthropology and Comparative Literature, Graduate Center of the City University of New York)

• Contents: Jens Kreinath/Constance Hartung/Annette Deschner: Introduction – Don Handelman: Re-Framing Ritual – James W. Fernandez: Contemporary Carnival (carnaval) in Asturias: Visual Figuration as a ‘Ritual’ of Parodic Release and Democratic Revitalization – Susanne Schröter: Rituals of Rebellion - Rebellion as Ritual: A Theory Reconsidered – Achsah Guibbory: Communion, National Community, and the Challenge of Radical Religion in Seventeenth-Century England – Dietrich Harth: Artaud’s Holy Theater: A Case for Questioning the Relations between Ritual and Stage Performance – Anette Rein: Balinese Temple Dances and Ritual Transformations in the Process of Modernization – Klaus-Peter Köpping: Failure of Performance or Pressage to the Acting Self? Mishima’s Suicide between Ritual and Theater – Günter Thomas: Changing Media - Changing Rituals: Media Rituals and the Transformation of Physical Presence – Patricia B. Ebrey: The Incorporation of Portraits into Chinese Ancestral Rites – Martin Gaenszle: Transgenerational Change: The Social Process of Transmitting Oral Ritual Texts among the Rai in East Nepal – Alexander Henn: Politics of Acculturation: The Dynamics of Hindu-Christian Ritual in Goa, India – Peter Weber: Shifts in Place and Meaning: The History of Two Cult Centers in Pre-Colonial Tanzania – William D. Furley: Athens and Delos in the Fifth Century B.C.E.: Ritual in a World of Shifting Allegiances – Tzvi Abusch: Considerations when Killing a Witch: Developments in Exorcistic Attitudes to Witchcraft in Mesopotamia – Andreas Odenthal: Ritual between Tradition and Change: The Paradigm Shift of the Second Vatican Council’s Liturgical Reform – Matthias Jung: Expressive Appropriateness and Pluralism: The Example of Catholic Liturgy after Vatican II – Michael Stausberg: Patterns of Ritual Change among Parsi-Zoroastrians in Recent Times – Jan G. Platvoet: Ritual as War: On the Need to De-Westernize the Concept – Jens Kreinath: Theoretical Afterthoughts.