ABSTRACT
In Ritual Theory, Ritual Practice, Catherine Bell (1992) offers a thorough overview of the literature that has been generated on ritual as performance, and she concludes the following: “[R]itual comes to be seen as performance in the sense of symbolic acts specifically meant to have an impact on an audience and entreat their interpretative appropriation” (p. 42). Similarly, Sally F. Moore and Barbara G. Myerhoff (1977), in their introduction to Secular Ritual, allude to the theatrical character of collective rituals, which they define as a dramatic occasion that consists of symbolic behavior with some specific goal (p. 5). Moore and Myerhoff postulate that performance is one of the inherent qualities of ritual, which is “self-consciously ‘acted’ like a part in a play” (1977, p. 7). In short, the theatricality of ritual derives from the intentional use of the body at some predetermined time and place, and the fact that it is often performed with the purpose of being observed.
