This page groups rituals by how settled or contested their scholarly description is. Wikipedia notes plainly that "the field of ritual studies has seen a number of conflicting definitions of the term." Browsing this way lets a visitor see which rituals scholars broadly agree on and which remain genuinely disputed.
Facts
Overview
What Defines This GroupingRites performed to obtain knowledge not otherwise available - about a decision, an outcome or a hidden cause - by a procedure the tradition holds to be reliable. Systems differ in whether the answer is taken to come from a deity, from an impersonal order, or from the diviner's trained reading of a sign, and the difference governs how each is practised. 2 Status
Standing as a Comparative CategoryA standard analytic category in the study of religion 2 Learn More
The Divinatory Rituals
This group holds divinatory rituals, the rites by which a question is put to the divine or to hidden knowledge and an answer is read from signs, drawing on the structured procedures of divination in a ceremonial setting.
The browser will find divinatory rituals from various traditions. The entries describe each rite's method and interpretive frame, noting the tradition to which it belongs.
Scholarly Standing
Sources
1. Divinity Atlas Directory Taxonomy, First Edition Category Tree
2. Encyclopedia of Religion
Mircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.), Macmillan Reference, 2005s.v. DivinationView the Source Divinity Atlas Directory Prose, First Edition Category Descriptions
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