ABSTRACT
Ritual is as important to anthropology as to theology, and its historical matrix in theology was a major catalyst in the emergence of the anthropology of religion, as was shown in the preceding chapter for Robertson Smith’s influence on Durkheim. But the word ‘ritual’ often carries strong religious values within different traditions. One key aspect of ritual observable in much contemporary Christian liturgy lies in its communicative simplicity, with the content of the information passed within the ritual event remaining virtually constant in each performance. While each liturgy reflects a condensation of many historical and doctrinal themes, these appear in the ritual as fixed forms, rehearsed rather than intellectually explored. Christian history is distinctive in possessing one, determinative, ritual at its heart, the eucharistic rite of bread and wine or, in shorthand, the bread-rite. One medium that fosters ‘knowing and acting’ is music, a regular presence in much ritual whose ‘meaning’ is not always immediately apparent.
