Rites, Rituals & Religions - 9781789761955

Rites, Rituals & ReligionsAmerindian, Spanish, Latin American & Latino Worlds\nAuthor(s): Debra D Andrist\nFormat: Paperback\nPublisher: Liverpool University Press, United Kingdom\nImprint: Liverpool University Press\nISBN-13: 9781789761955, 978-1789761955\nSynopsis\nPhilosophers have contemplated the meaning of life, the who & the why, since nascent self-consciousness of the evolving hominid species. Yet practical efforts, [url] control of life, have always transcended the philosophical: how to dominate what happens to the physical body itself, how to control the environment, and the interaction therefrom. Thus are born rites, rituals & religions. A rite can be a prescribed religious or other solemn ceremony or act it can be a social custom or practice, or even a mundane conventional act. A ritual can be the established form for a ceremony, the order of words used for example; a ritual observance can be either a system of ceremonial acts or actions, or an act or seris