Includes bibliographical references and index.

List of Illustrations -- List of Contributors -- Foreword, Joëlle Rollo-Koster -- Introduction, Catherine Bell -- PART ONE. RITUAL AND GENDER -- Burchard of Worms and Female Magical Ritual, Martha Rampton -- A Princess Comes of Age: Gender, Life-cycle and Royal Ritual in Song Dynasty China, Ann Waltner -- PART TWO. RITUAL AND THE LAW -- Ritual Before the Altar: Legal Satisfaction and Spiritual Reconciliation in Eleventh-Century Anjou, Marguerite Ragnow -- Rituals in Medieval Business, Kathryn Reyerson -- The Judge, the Doctor and the Poisoner: Medical Expertise in Manosquin Judicial Rituals at the End of the Fourteenth Century, Andrée Courtemanche -- PART THREE. RITUAL AND IDENTITY -- Graffiti and Ritualization: San Sebastiano at Arborio, Véronique Plesch -- The Triumph of the Abbey of the Conards: Spectacle and Sophistication in a Rouen Carnival, Dylan Reid -- Chanters at the Gate: Ritual/Performing Arts of Fifteenth-Century Japanese Outcasts, Eric C. Rath -- Jesuits and Ritual in Early Modern Europe, Michael W. Maher, S.J. -- PART FOUR. RELIGIOUS RITUAL AND POLITICAL LEGITIMIZATION -- Ritual Charity and Royal Children in Thirteenth-Century England, Virginia A. Cole -- Castrum Doloris : Rites of Vacant See and the Living Dead Pope in Schismatic Avignon, Joëlle Rollo-Koster -- Rulership and Tibetan Buddhism in Eighteenth-Century China: Qing Emperors, Lamas and Audience Rituals, James L. Hevia -- Index.

The essays in this volume transcend Eastern and Western geographical boundaries during a loosely defined medieval and early modern period, ranging from Carolingian Europe to Qing China, and pull rituals out of their geographical contexts. Cultural history binds these essays together. This volume permits readers to compare ritual in religious and secular contexts, in the East and West, and to focus on the purposes of ritual, without being caught up in localism or historical jingoism. The various essays are organized chronologically and thematically; they focus on ritual and gender, law, identity and political legitimization. They cover topics as varied as the spatial appropriation of surfaces and territories, charity, carnival, women's magic, the Jesuits, graffiti, theater, business, medicine, Qing imperial ceremonies, Chinese princesses coming of age, spiritual reconciliation, and the Great Western Schism. Contributors include: Catherine Bell, Virginia A. Cole, Andrée Courtemanche, James L. Hevia, Michael W. Maher, S.J., Véronique Plesch, Marguerite Ragnow, Martha Rampton, Eric C. Rath, Dylan Reid, Kathryn Reyerson, Joëlle Rollo-Koster, and Ann Waltner.

Description based on print version record.