Innovation, adaptation, and maintaining the balance: Roy Rappaport's ritual theory as a framework for interpreting religious environmental rituals
The environmental crisis has challenged faith traditions to take a stand and act both globally and locally. Statements and action build on reinterpretations of tradition, which also produce a variety of ritual applications. Environmental rituals, for example, deal with the grief and anxiety caused b...
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2022
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fttsvojs:oai:journal.fi:article/112793 2023-05-15T17:12:57+02:00 Innovation, adaptation, and maintaining the balance: Roy Rappaport's ritual theory as a framework for interpreting religious environmental rituals Pesonen, Heikki 2022-11-07 application/pdf https://journal.fi/ar/article/view/112793 https://doi.org/10.30664/ar.112793 eng eng The Donner Institute https://journal.fi/ar/article/view/112793/73098 https://journal.fi/ar/article/view/112793 doi:10.30664/ar.112793 Copyright (c) 2022 Heikki Pesonen http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 CC-BY Approaching Religion; Vol. 12 No. 3 (2022): Rituals and Ritualization 16-31 Approaching Religion; Vol 12 Nro 3 (2022): Rituals and Ritualization 1799-3121 rituals ritualization ritual theory Roy Rappaport environment info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion Articles 2022 fttsvojs https://doi.org/10.30664/ar.112793 2022-11-09T23:57:00Z The environmental crisis has challenged faith traditions to take a stand and act both globally and locally. Statements and action build on reinterpretations of tradition, which also produce a variety of ritual applications. Environmental rituals, for example, deal with the grief and anxiety caused by environmental crisis or seek to have a concrete impact on local environmental problems. The anthropologist Roy Rappaport (1926–97) examined religious environmental rituals, firstly as a way of regulating ecological balance. Secondly, he saw religiously motivated environmental rituals as a way of changing human thinking and behaviour in an era of environmental crisis. These perspectives can be applied in at least three ways: firstly, by looking at how rituals are used in religious communities that are directly dependent on the natural environment; secondly, by examining how religious communities use rituals in various situations related to environmental issues; and thirdly, by focusing on how Rappaport’s ideas could be used to engage in environmental action. In this article, I focus on religiously motivated environmental rituals and the perspectives that Rappaportian ritual approach provides for examining them. As examples, I use the struggle of the Canadian Mi’kmaq indigenous community over the fate of their sacred mountain and the ordination ritual of Thai monks, who ordain trees under threat of felling in a Buddhist monastic community. Article in Journal/Newspaper Mi’kmaq Federation of Finnish Learned Societies: Scientific Journals Online Approaching Religion 12 3 16 31 |
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Federation of Finnish Learned Societies: Scientific Journals Online |
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English |
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rituals ritualization ritual theory Roy Rappaport environment |
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rituals ritualization ritual theory Roy Rappaport environment Pesonen, Heikki Innovation, adaptation, and maintaining the balance: Roy Rappaport's ritual theory as a framework for interpreting religious environmental rituals |
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rituals ritualization ritual theory Roy Rappaport environment |
description |
The environmental crisis has challenged faith traditions to take a stand and act both globally and locally. Statements and action build on reinterpretations of tradition, which also produce a variety of ritual applications. Environmental rituals, for example, deal with the grief and anxiety caused by environmental crisis or seek to have a concrete impact on local environmental problems. The anthropologist Roy Rappaport (1926–97) examined religious environmental rituals, firstly as a way of regulating ecological balance. Secondly, he saw religiously motivated environmental rituals as a way of changing human thinking and behaviour in an era of environmental crisis. These perspectives can be applied in at least three ways: firstly, by looking at how rituals are used in religious communities that are directly dependent on the natural environment; secondly, by examining how religious communities use rituals in various situations related to environmental issues; and thirdly, by focusing on how Rappaport’s ideas could be used to engage in environmental action. In this article, I focus on religiously motivated environmental rituals and the perspectives that Rappaportian ritual approach provides for examining them. As examples, I use the struggle of the Canadian Mi’kmaq indigenous community over the fate of their sacred mountain and the ordination ritual of Thai monks, who ordain trees under threat of felling in a Buddhist monastic community. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Pesonen, Heikki |
author_facet |
Pesonen, Heikki |
author_sort |
Pesonen, Heikki |
title |
Innovation, adaptation, and maintaining the balance: Roy Rappaport's ritual theory as a framework for interpreting religious environmental rituals |
title_short |
Innovation, adaptation, and maintaining the balance: Roy Rappaport's ritual theory as a framework for interpreting religious environmental rituals |
title_full |
Innovation, adaptation, and maintaining the balance: Roy Rappaport's ritual theory as a framework for interpreting religious environmental rituals |
title_fullStr |
Innovation, adaptation, and maintaining the balance: Roy Rappaport's ritual theory as a framework for interpreting religious environmental rituals |
title_full_unstemmed |
Innovation, adaptation, and maintaining the balance: Roy Rappaport's ritual theory as a framework for interpreting religious environmental rituals |
title_sort |
innovation, adaptation, and maintaining the balance: roy rappaport's ritual theory as a framework for interpreting religious environmental rituals |
publisher |
The Donner Institute |
publishDate |
2022 |
url |
https://journal.fi/ar/article/view/112793 https://doi.org/10.30664/ar.112793 |
genre |
Mi’kmaq |
genre_facet |
Mi’kmaq |
op_source |
Approaching Religion; Vol. 12 No. 3 (2022): Rituals and Ritualization 16-31 Approaching Religion; Vol 12 Nro 3 (2022): Rituals and Ritualization 1799-3121 |
op_relation |
https://journal.fi/ar/article/view/112793/73098 https://journal.fi/ar/article/view/112793 doi:10.30664/ar.112793 |
op_rights |
Copyright (c) 2022 Heikki Pesonen http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.30664/ar.112793 |
container_title |
Approaching Religion |
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12 |
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3 |
container_start_page |
16 |
op_container_end_page |
31 |
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1766069836981469184 |