ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the relationship between fantasy and instrumental activities specifically with reference to women and social change. It concerns on one hand with fantasy sources and fantasy aspects of action directed to the “real” world, where reality testing and the consequences of the reality principle come into play, and on the other hand, with the sources and implications of beliefs and behavior in the world of religion. Some of the ritual behavior is stimulated or modified by, and expressive of, culture change; other aspects of it contribute to change in the society as a whole or to resistance against it. This chapter attempts to answer the question of why it is that certain types of societies have ritualized or have given women the opportunity to ritualize whereas other types of societies have other preoccupations, by considering a variety of studies on women’s relation to culture change.
