The Future of Ritual

Abstract

In an attempt to define what "ritual" is, Schechner denotes in ritual actions, both human and animal, a similarity with those that emerge in the artistic performance field. The American scholar identifies elements such as violence and sexuality in rituals and characterizes the ritual itself as the dynamic capable of dealing with social crises that overturn culturally recognized systems and hierarchies. Furthermore, following Turner – and reviewing ethological and neurological points of view – Schechner recognizes ritual as having a creative property, which not only contains traditional cultural behaviors but is capable of generating new images, ideas and practices. This article has been published in several versions, undergoing several transformations: it appeared firstly as the inaugural essay of the Journal of Ritual Studies 1 (1), 1987, pp. 5-34; other fragments of it appear in Victor Turner's Last Adventure, an essay published both in Anthropologica 27 (1-2), 1985, pp. 190-206 and as introduction for Turner's book The Anthropology of Performance (1986). Another full version of this writing is published in the Schechner's volume which takes up the title of the article itself: The Future of Ritual: Writings on Culture and Performance (Routledge, London and New York 1993, pp. 228-265).