Introduction: Religious Rituals' Reflection of Current Social Conditions in the Middle East. Issue 1 (1st June 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Flaskerud, Ingvild
• Is Part Of: Anthropology of the Middle East. Volume 17:Issue 1(2022)
• Page Start: 1
• Page End: 7
• Publication Date: 2022-06-01
• Subjects: Arba'yin -- Ashura -- COVID-19 -- funeral prayers -- Islam -- Middle East -- Nowruz -- pilgrimage -- ritual; Ethnology -- Middle East -- Periodicals; Middle East -- Social life and customs -- Periodicals; 306.0956
• DOI: 10.3167/ame.2022.170101
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1746-0727

Abstract

Abstract: Peoples' practising of religious ritual is never isolated from the social and political setting in which it takes place. It is therefore inevitable that ritual practice somehow contends with the current social context. Examining Muslim ritual practices across the Middle East, the authors of the articles in this special issue discuss religious ritual as a tool for accomplishing something in the real world. They provide examples of which social concerns are addressed in ritual practice, who is involved and how the ritual practice is affected. The studies show that current ritual practices are embedded in multi-actor social spaces, and they also reflect on the ritual as a multi-actor space where the power to define ritual form, meaning and importance shifts between different categories of actors.