1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910813194903321

Autore

McCauley Robert N

Titolo

Bringing ritual to mind : psychological foundations of cultural forms / / Robert N. McCauley and E. Thomas Lawson

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Cambridge, UK ; ; New York, : Cambridge University Press, 2002

ISBN

1-107-13409-9

1-280-43423-6

0-511-17773-9

0-521-81559-2

0-511-14813-5

0-511-04579-4

0-511-30517-6

0-511-60641-9

Edizione

[1st ed.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (xii, 236 pages) : digital, PDF file(s)

Altri autori (Persone)

LawsonE. Thomas

Disciplina

291.3/8/019

Soggetti

Ritual - Psychology

Psychology, Religious

Cognition and culture

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 05 Oct 2015).

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references (p. 221-227) and index.

Nota di contenuto

Cover; Half-title; Title; Copyright; Dedication; Contents; Figures; Preface; 1 Cognitive constraints on religious ritual form: a theory of participants' competence with religious ritual systems; 2 Ritual and memory: frequency and flashbulbs; 3 Two hypotheses concerning religious ritual and emotional stimulation; 4 Assessing the two hypotheses; 5 General profiles of religious ritual systems: the emerging cognitive science of religion; Notes; References; Index

Sommario/riassunto

Bringing Ritual to Mind explores the cognitive and psychological foundations of religious ritual systems. Participants must recall their rituals well enough to ensure a sense of continuity across performances, and those rituals must motivate them to transmit and re-perform them. Most religious rituals the world over exploit either high performance frequency or extraordinary emotional stimulation



(but not both) to enhance their recollection (the availability of literacy has little impact on this). But why do some rituals exploit the first of these variables while others exploit the second? McCauley and Lawson advance the ritual form hypothesis, arguing that participants' cognitive representations of ritual form explain why. Reviewing evidence from cognitive, developmental and social psychology and from cultural anthropology and the history of religions, they utilize dynamical systems tools to explain the recurrent evolutionary trajectories religions exhibit.