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Chinese Ritual and Politics
Contributor(s): Ahern, Emily Martin (Author), Emily Martin, Ahern (Author)

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 ISBN: 0521040906     ISBN-13: 9780521040907
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
OUR PRICE: $39.89  

Binding Type: Paperback - See All Available Formats & Editions
Published: September 2007
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Annotation: As a result of the strength and dominance of the centralized state, ritual action in China often takes its logic from political action. In this book Emily Ahern explores the implications of this. She argues that forms of control attempted ritually on non-human persons (gods and other spirits) in China parallel those forms of control which people regard as effective in ordinary life, namely political control, and draws important conclusions from this. She shows that in China it is possible to discard terms such as ???magic???, which imply that acts directed to spirits operate on a different basis from acts in ordinary life. She also challenges claims in anthropology that, since they seem arbitrary and the actions of participants in them highly predictable, rituals support established authority. Her book will be of interest not only to specialists in Chinese studies, but to social anthropologists and others interested in the link between ritual and political processes.

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Additional Information
BISAC Categories:
- Social Science | Anthropology - Cultural & Social
Dewey: 306.209
Series: Cambridge Studies in Social and Cultural Anthropology
Physical Information: 0.37" H x 6" W x 9" L (0.54 lbs) 160 pages
Features: Bibliography
 
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc.
Publisher Description:
As a result of the strength and dominance of the centralized state, ritual action in China often takes its logic from political action. In this book Emily Ahern explores the implications of this. She argues that forms of control attempted ritually on non-human persons (gods and other spirits) in China parallel those forms of control which people regard as effective in ordinary life, namely political control, and draws important conclusions from this. She shows that in China it is possible to discard terms such as 'magic', which imply that acts directed to spirits operate on a different basis from acts in ordinary life. She also challenges claims in anthropology that, since they seem arbitrary and the actions of participants in them highly predictable, rituals support established authority. Her book will be of interest not only to specialists in Chinese studies, but to social anthropologists and others interested in the link between ritual and political processes.
 
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