Performance and Communication Arts 330 - R itual Studies

Institution:

St Lawrence University

Subject:

Description:

Ritual controls and liberates, creates and destroys, shapes and re-shapes. Arguably, ritual is the basis of drama, religion, even civilization as we understand it. Animals do it; so do humans. Is ritual merely a cultural construction, reflecting the ways humans construe the world, or are there biogenetic impulses at work that generate in all living beings a search for cosmic orientations that result in patterned behaviors called ritual? What counts as ritual? High Mass, brushing your teeth, beauty pageants? Where do rituals come from? How do they change? What roles do they fulfill with regard to human need and desire? Are contemporary North Americans suffering from a lack of ritualization? How does ritual influence warfare, courtship, marriage, burial, birthing? This course addresses questions such as these and many more regarding the ways humans (and some animals) use (and misuse) ritual behaviors.

Credits:

4.00

Credit Hours:

Prerequisites:

Corequisites:

Exclusions:

Level:

Instructional Type:

Lecture

Notes:

Additional Information:

Historical Version(s):

Institution Website:

www.stlawu.edu

Phone Number:

(315) 229-5011

Regional Accreditation:

Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools

Calendar System:

Semester

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