Ritual exegesis among Mauritian Hindus

MAŇO, Peter. Ritual exegesis among Mauritian Hindus. In Assessing the study of religious change in Central-Eastern Europe: New fields in the study of religious change in Central-Eastern Europe. 2023.

Basic information

Original name

Ritual exegesis among Mauritian Hindus

Authors

MAŇO, Peter

Edition

Assessing the study of religious change in Central-Eastern Europe: New fields in the study of religious change in Central-Eastern Europe. 2023

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Other information

Language

Czech

Type of outcome

Prezentace na konferencích

Field of Study

60304 Religious studies

Country of publisher

Slovakia

Confidentiality degree

není předmětem státního či obchodního tajemství

References:

URL

Organization unit

Faculty of Arts

Keywords in English

Mauritius; folk Hinduism; ritual; costs; emic exegesis; cultural domain analysis

Tags

International impact

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Abstract

V originále

Practitioners' reflections on the purpose and meaning of ritual actions are often assumed to be limited, absent, or irrelevant. As a result, many anthropological analyses overlook or brush away native explanations. While it is true that ritual exegesis can often be scarce, our research (Xygalatas, Maňo; 2022) instead focused on some of the conditions that favor its presence and on exploring the diversity in its forms across different types of rituals. Specifically, we used cultural domain analysis to examine cultural models of exegesis for six rituals practiced by Mauritian Hindus. We show that ritual structure affects exegetical reflection such that costlier rituals tend to elicit a greater volume (quantity and breadth) and thematic range thereof. Moreover, different types of rituals are associated with different functions, with costlier rituals linked to more pressing, vital, and personal concerns. Our data are relevant to both the Mauritian context and the broader anthropological theories of ritual.