Preliminary Material / Jens Kreinath , Jan Snoek and Michael Stausberg -- Defining ‘Rituals’ / Jan A.M. Snoek -- Ritual and Other Forms of Social Action / Dietrich Harth -- Conceptual Alternatives to ‘Ritual’ / Don Handelman -- ‘Ritual’: A Lexicographic Survey of Some Related Terms from an Emic Perspective / Michael Stausberg -- Myth and Ritual / Robert A. Segal -- Ritual and Psyche / Barbara Boudewijnse -- Ritual in Society / Ursula Rao -- Ritual: Religious and Secular / Jan G. Platvoet -- Structure, Process, Form / Terence Turner -- Ritual and Meaning / Axel Michaels -- Action / James Laidlaw and Caroline Humphrey -- Aesthetics / Ron G. Williams and James W. Boyd -- Cognition / E. Thomas Lawson -- Communication / Günter Thomas -- Ethology / Dorothea Baudy -- Gender / Rosalind C. Morris -- Performance / Ronald L. Grimes -- Praxis / Christoph Wulf -- Relationality / Michael Houseman -- Semiotics / Jens Kreinath -- Agency / William S. Sax -- Complexity / Burkhard Gladigow -- Deference / Maurice Bloch -- Dynamics / Bruce Kapferer -- Efficacy / Jørgen Podemann Sørensen -- Embodiment / Catherine Bell -- Emotion / Dorothea Lüddeckens -- Framing / Don Handelman -- Language / Carlo Severi -- Media / Felicia Hughes-Freeland -- Participation / Edward L. Schieffelin -- Reflexivity / Michael Stausberg -- Rhetorics / James W. Fernandez -- Transmission / Harvey Whitehouse -- Virtuality / Bruce Kapferer -- An Invitation to ‘Theorizing’ Theorizing Rituals: Some Suggestions for Using the Indexes / Florian Jeserich -- Index of Names / Florian Jeserich -- Index of Subjects / Florian Jeserich -- References / Jens Kreinath , Jan Snoek and Michael Stausberg.

Volume one of Theorizing Rituals assembles 34 leading scholars from various countries and disciplines working within this field. The authors review main methodological and meta-theoretical problems (part I) followed by some of the classical issues (part II). Further chapters discuss main approaches to theorizing rituals (part III) and explore some key analytical concepts for theorizing rituals (part IV). The volume is provided with extensive indices.