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Ritual : how seemingly senseless acts make life worth living

Xygalatas, Dēmētrēs2022

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Summary

Ritual is perhaps the oldest, and certainly the most enigmatic, thread in human culture. Magical beliefs and obscure ceremonies pervade every documented society, from spells to handshakes, hazings to coronations. Before we ever learned to farm, we gathered in huge groups to carve giant stone pillars for reasons we have only guessed at. And yet, though they exist in every culture and can persist nearly unchanged for centuries, the logic of ritual has remained a mystery. Now, a fearless new generation of anthropologists has ventured into this shadowy realm. Armed with cutting-edge technology, they emerge with a new synthesis, drawing on discoveries from a huge range of disciplines to achieve a powerful new perspective on our place in the world. Join the pathfinding scientist Dimitris Xygalatas on a tour of human life at its strangest. From fire-walks to body piercing, silent prayer to mass parades, he reveals the subtle mechanisms that, in their wonderful variety, bind us together.