Project Details
Projekt
SFB 619: Ritual Dynamics - Sociocultural Processes in Historical and Comparative Perspectives
Subject Area
Humanities
Social and Behavioural Sciences
Social and Behavioural Sciences
Term
from 2002 to 2013
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 5485282
The lead concept of »Ritualdynamik« (Ritual Dynamics) indicates the confluence of two basic questions as guidelines for the research project of collaborative researchcentre 619:
(1) In which form and by which medial channels do ritual activities enrich and structure the symbolic orders throughout European and non-European cultures, and support the collectively accepted cultural values and norms?
(2) Out of which motives are rituals invented, designed, institutionalized and changed over time in their performative praxis?
These questions derive from the observation that ritual activities everywhere follow certain liturgical or dramaturgical rules, and establish their intended communication with supernatural or transcendant secular powers primarily through non-verbal means, e.g. body language, sound and images. Ritual praxis is performative in that it expresses itself by verbal, vocal and other bodily actions such as gestures, mimic, rhythm, dance, and trance. The efficacy of these iconic-indexical signs apparently creates something like a silent social contract among ritual participants, which furthers collective solidarity.
Specific issues and aims of the project are,
-- to reconstruct typical ritual inventions, and analyze their cultural, historical and social ramifications and their continuities or discontinuities in modern life;
-- to design a typology of the ritual domain which transcends cultural specificities of the diversity of domains, forms, structures, medial transmission and effects;
-- to clarify ritual's creative and ordering functions, and to analyze the evaluation of ritual actions across diverse traditional and modern social formations.
(1) In which form and by which medial channels do ritual activities enrich and structure the symbolic orders throughout European and non-European cultures, and support the collectively accepted cultural values and norms?
(2) Out of which motives are rituals invented, designed, institutionalized and changed over time in their performative praxis?
These questions derive from the observation that ritual activities everywhere follow certain liturgical or dramaturgical rules, and establish their intended communication with supernatural or transcendant secular powers primarily through non-verbal means, e.g. body language, sound and images. Ritual praxis is performative in that it expresses itself by verbal, vocal and other bodily actions such as gestures, mimic, rhythm, dance, and trance. The efficacy of these iconic-indexical signs apparently creates something like a silent social contract among ritual participants, which furthers collective solidarity.
Specific issues and aims of the project are,
-- to reconstruct typical ritual inventions, and analyze their cultural, historical and social ramifications and their continuities or discontinuities in modern life;
-- to design a typology of the ritual domain which transcends cultural specificities of the diversity of domains, forms, structures, medial transmission and effects;
-- to clarify ritual's creative and ordering functions, and to analyze the evaluation of ritual actions across diverse traditional and modern social formations.
DFG Programme
Collaborative Research Centres
International Connection
United Kingdom
Completed projects
- A01 - Dynamik und Effektivität ritueller Performanz und die Konstituierung soziokultureller Identität in Japan, Taiwan und Marokko (Project Head Köpping, Klaus-Peter )
- A02 - Lebenszyklische Übergangsrituale in Nepal (Project Head Michaels, Axel )
- A03 - Initiantion, Priesterweihe, Tempelfest - Ritualtraditionen in der südindischen Tempelstadt Kancipuram (Project Heads Hüsken, Ute ; Müller, Srilata )
- A04 - Handlungspotential (agency) und territoriale Rituale in Indien (Project Head Brosius, Christiane )
- A05 - Rituelles Heilen und seine Kritiker (Project Head Sax, William S. )
- A06 - Der Diskurs über nicht-bramahnische Rituale und deren Transformation in der südindischen Religionsgeschichte seit dem 18. Jahrhundert (Project Head Bergunder, Michael )
- A07 - Ritualtransfer zwischen Südasien und dem Westen in historischer und religionswissenschaftlicher Perspektive (Project Head Dharampal-Frick, Gita )
- A08 - Rituale, Grenzen und Reflexivität (Project Heads Harder, Hans ; Sax, William S. )
- A09 - Rituelles Sitzen und Bittrituale - Zusammensetzung und Transformationen Zen-buddhistischer Rituale in Japan und Deutschland (Project Head Prohl, Inken )
- A10 - Ontology modeling for ritual structure research (Project Heads Frank, Anette ; Michaels, Axel )
- B1 - Riten als "Weisen der Welterzeugung": Der Fall Ägypten (Project Head Assmann, Jan )
- B02 - Ritual und Kommunikation in den städtischen Gemeinden Griechenlands (Project Heads Chaniotis, Angelos ; Witschel, Christian )
- B03 - Rituale der politischen Konsensbildung (Project Head Maul, Stefan M. )
- B4 - Herrschertreffen, Ritual, Zeremoniell und Politik bei spätmittelalterlichen repräsentativen Akten (Project Heads Miethke, Jürgen ; Weinfurter, Stefan )
- B05 - Höfische Rituale im Fürstentum Jaipur und deren Neuauflage in der Gegenwart (Project Head Gengnagel, Joerg )
- B06 - Beichtrituale in chinesischen buddhistischen Höhlentempeln des 6. bis 8. Jahrhunderts (Project Head Ledderose, Lothar )
- B07 - Ritual und Inszenierung der musikalischen Aufführungspraxis im Zeitalter des Barock (Project Head Leopold, Silke )
- B08 - Ritualisierung politischer Willensbildung im Mittelalter (Project Heads Schneidmüller, Bernd ; Weinfurter, Stefan )
- B09 - Die Variation der Tradition. Modalitäten der Ritualadaption im Alten Ägypten (Project Head Quack, Joachim Friedrich )
- B10 - Politische Rituale in der Spätantike (4. - 6. Jh.) (Project Heads Trampedach, Kai ; Witschel, Christian )
- B11 - Ritual Purity in Medieval Ashkenaz (Project Head Liss, Hanna )
- C01 - Jenseits des Mainstreams: Ritualtransfer in Geheimgesellschaften und die Dynamik von rites de passage (Project Heads Ahn, Gregor ; Snoek, Joannes )
- C02 - Zwischen Online-Religionen und Religion-Online: Konstellationen für Ritualtransfer im Medium Internet (Project Head Ahn, Gregor )
- C3 - Demokratisierung durch ritualisierten Kulturtransfer: Westdeutschland in der Re-education-Phase (Project Head Gerhardt, Uta )
- C4 - Transformation von Ritualen im Zuge des Holocaustgedenkens in Deutschland (1945-2000) (Project Head Brumlik, Micha )
- C05 - Kanonbildung durch Ritualisierung: Internationale Literaturpreise (Project Heads Dücker, Burckhard ; Harth, Dietrich )
- C07 - Transfer of Rituals within Marginalized Religious Groups in Muslim Societies of the Near East and in the Diaspora (Project Head Ursinus, Michael )
- C08 - Ritualdynamik und Salutogenese beim Gebrauch und Missbrauch psychoaktiver Substanzen (Project Head Verres, Rolf )
- C09 - Religiöse Praxis und Ritualgemeinschaft bei sunnitischen Muslimen in Deutschland (Project Head Enderwitz, Susanne )
- C10 - Rituale ohne Performanz (Project Heads Ahn, Gregor ; Nünning, Vera )
- C11 - Rituals in systems: dynamics of family and organization constellations (Project Head Schweitzer-Rothers, Jochen )
- Z01 - Zentrale Aufgaben des Sonderforschungsbereichs (Project Head Michaels, Axel )
Applicant Institution
Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg
Participating University
Hochschule für Jüdische Studien Heidelberg
Spokesperson
Professor Dr. Axel Michaels
