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Ritual : how seemingly senseless acts make life worth living / Dimitris Xygalatas
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Ritual : how seemingly senseless acts make life worth living / Dimitris Xygalatas

by Dimitris Xygalatas

This study investigates the evolutionary and social significance of ritual across diverse cultures. It employs scientific research to analyse the psychological mechanisms behind ceremonial practices and their role in fostering community cohesion.

Accession 21998 ISBN 9781788161022 Publisher Profile Books
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Ritual : how seemingly senseless acts make life worth living / Dimitris Xygalatas spine
Ritual : how seemingly senseless acts make life worth living / Dimitris Xygalatas cover
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TAGS
Curated Derived
Death Death and Burial Honesty Memory Religion The Past
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Details

Physical

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dimensions
196.00 (H) × 128.00 (W) × 20.00 (T) mm
spine_text
none captured
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Identity

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Ritual : how seemingly senseless acts make life worth living / Dimitris Xygalatas
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21998
vernon_slug
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Descriptive

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object_type
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brief_description
Ritual is the oldest, and certainly the most enigmatic, thread in the history of human culture. And it presents a profound paradox: people ascribe the utmost importance to their rituals, but few can explain why they are so important. Apparently pointless ceremonies pervade every documented society, from handshakes to hexes, hazings to parades. Before we ever learned to farm, we were gathering in giant stone temples to perform elaborate rites and ceremonies. And yet, though rituals exist in every culture and can persist nearly unchanged for centuries, their logic has remained a mystery - until now. In Ritual, pioneering scientist Dimitris Xygalatas leads us on an enlightening tour through this shadowy realm of human behaviour. Armed with cutting-edge technology and drawing on discoveries from a huge range of disciplines, he presents a powerful new perspective on our place in the world. In coronations, in silent prayer, in fire-walks and terrifying rites of passage, in all the bewildering variety of human life, Ritual reveals the deep and subtle mechanisms that bind us together.

Subjects & people

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Dimitris Xygalatas
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Religion, Ritual, Worship, Sacrifice
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