Ritual criticism. Een actuele verkenning van kritische reflectie ten aanzien van ritueel, met bijzondere aandacht voor e-ritueel en cyberpilgrimage

Abstract

The focus of this contribution is on exploring the currently prevalent forms of ritual criticism. The general structure is determined by three interwoven perspectives. The first of these is the distinction between the three frameworks mentioned above. This distinction is adhered to particularly in the first part. Then there is the perspective of the determining research contexts. Generally speaking, from the 1960s onwards, the disciplinary settings of old were being replaced more and more by influential multi-disciplinary interactions, a process eventually resulting in all kinds of multi-disciplinary clusters or platforms. It is there that we are to situate the ritual studies that gave rise to the concept of ritual criticism and appropriately it is this cradle of ritual criticism that this contribution opens with. Between then and now a great deal of challenging and innovative research has been done, particularly on thematic multi-disciplinary platforms. In addition to ritual studies, attention is also paid to the flourishing field of cultural memory studies. A third and last perspective explored in this contribution is that of ritual repertoires. Forms of current ritual criticism are thematized through cur-rent types of rituals. This is the central perspective in the second part, in which exten-sive attention will be paid to e-religion and e-ritual and the case of cyberpilgrimage.