The Koyukon Bear Party and the "Bare Facts" of Ritual
Abstract Jonathan Smith's recent interpretation of the classic "bear festival" among northern hunters is examined, together with his more general theory of ritual. Smith's interpretation of the bear festival is shown to be unfounded. The paper also investigates the well-documente...
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crbrillap:10.1163/156852791x00105 2023-10-09T21:53:16+02:00 The Koyukon Bear Party and the "Bare Facts" of Ritual Ray, Benjamin C. 1991 http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/156852791x00105 https://brill.com/view/journals/nu/38/2/article-p151_1.xml https://brill.com/downloadpdf/journals/nu/38/2/article-p151_1.xml unknown Brill Numen volume 38, issue 2, page 151-176 ISSN 0029-5973 1568-5276 Religious studies History journal-article 1991 crbrillap https://doi.org/10.1163/156852791x00105 2023-09-14T20:54:20Z Abstract Jonathan Smith's recent interpretation of the classic "bear festival" among northern hunters is examined, together with his more general theory of ritual. Smith's interpretation of the bear festival is shown to be unfounded. The paper also investigates the well-documented bear rituals of the Koyukon of Alaska in light of Smith's general theory of ritual. Viewed in the context of other theories of ritual as symbolic action (those of Geertz, Douglas, Valeri, Turner, Eliade), Smith's theory is found to be unsuited to the task of understanding the meaning and significance of Koyukon bear rituals. The paper argues that the interpretation of ritual requires the investigator to attend to the ritualist's notion of reality and to grasp how his beliefs and actions are fitted to it. The investigator should be concerned with questions of meaning not empirical validity, as the problem of understanding ritual is a semantic and semiotic one, analogous to understanding the cognitive and performative uses of a language. The magical or instrumental aspect of the Koyukon bear rituals is also dealt with as an instance of performative language. Article in Journal/Newspaper koyukon Alaska Brill (via Crossref) Numen 38 2 151 176 |
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Religious studies History |
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Religious studies History Ray, Benjamin C. The Koyukon Bear Party and the "Bare Facts" of Ritual |
topic_facet |
Religious studies History |
description |
Abstract Jonathan Smith's recent interpretation of the classic "bear festival" among northern hunters is examined, together with his more general theory of ritual. Smith's interpretation of the bear festival is shown to be unfounded. The paper also investigates the well-documented bear rituals of the Koyukon of Alaska in light of Smith's general theory of ritual. Viewed in the context of other theories of ritual as symbolic action (those of Geertz, Douglas, Valeri, Turner, Eliade), Smith's theory is found to be unsuited to the task of understanding the meaning and significance of Koyukon bear rituals. The paper argues that the interpretation of ritual requires the investigator to attend to the ritualist's notion of reality and to grasp how his beliefs and actions are fitted to it. The investigator should be concerned with questions of meaning not empirical validity, as the problem of understanding ritual is a semantic and semiotic one, analogous to understanding the cognitive and performative uses of a language. The magical or instrumental aspect of the Koyukon bear rituals is also dealt with as an instance of performative language. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Ray, Benjamin C. |
author_facet |
Ray, Benjamin C. |
author_sort |
Ray, Benjamin C. |
title |
The Koyukon Bear Party and the "Bare Facts" of Ritual |
title_short |
The Koyukon Bear Party and the "Bare Facts" of Ritual |
title_full |
The Koyukon Bear Party and the "Bare Facts" of Ritual |
title_fullStr |
The Koyukon Bear Party and the "Bare Facts" of Ritual |
title_full_unstemmed |
The Koyukon Bear Party and the "Bare Facts" of Ritual |
title_sort |
koyukon bear party and the "bare facts" of ritual |
publisher |
Brill |
publishDate |
1991 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/156852791x00105 https://brill.com/view/journals/nu/38/2/article-p151_1.xml https://brill.com/downloadpdf/journals/nu/38/2/article-p151_1.xml |
genre |
koyukon Alaska |
genre_facet |
koyukon Alaska |
op_source |
Numen volume 38, issue 2, page 151-176 ISSN 0029-5973 1568-5276 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1163/156852791x00105 |
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Numen |
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38 |
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2 |
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151 |
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176 |
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1779316514271264768 |