This page groups rituals by who is qualified to perform them. Wikipedia notes that "healing rites performed by shamans frequently identify social disorder as the cause, and make the restoration of social relationships the cure." Browsing by practitioner lets a visitor find every ritual entrusted to one particular kind of specialist.
Facts
Overview
What Defines This GroupingRites in which something is given up by a prescribed procedure to a recipient the tradition names - an animal, grain, ghee, a substitute. The one English word covers acts with no common mechanism: a Vedic oblation poured into fire, a Norse blot and an Islamic qurbani whose meat is distributed to the poor answer to different accounts of what the giving does. 2 Origins
Whose Classification This IsThe comparative category was built by successive theorists - Tylor's gift theory, Robertson Smith's communion, Hubert and Mauss's essay of 1898, later Girard and Burkert - each generalising from a different tradition. No one theory has been accepted as covering the field, and the category holds only loosely. 2 Status
Standing as a Comparative CategoryUsed, but its validity as a comparative category is disputed 2 Learn More
The sacrificial rituals
This group gathers sacrificial rituals, the rites of offering, in which something of value (food, drink, animal or symbol) is given to the divine, whether in thanksgiving, petition, atonement or communion. Sacrifice is among the most ancient and widespread forms of religious act.
The browser will find sacrificial rituals from across the traditions. The entries describe each rite's form and meaning, noting the tradition that performs it and the purpose the offering serves.
Officiant Led
Filter Results1 entry
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. SacrificeView the Source Divinity Atlas Directory Prose, First Edition Category Descriptions
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