Rituals of Royalty: Power and Ceremonial in Traditional Societies

Description

Heads of state today mark their rites of passage with splendid ceremonial, from Reagan's inaugural to Andropov's funeral. Such spectacles continue to be a prominent part of modern political systems, of varied ideological hue, but their precise meaning and importance often remain unclear. These specially commissioned essays address the central problem in the understanding of royal rituals, the relation between power and ceremonial. These contributions, from historians and anthropologists, examine a wide range of societies.

'This book well represents some of the richness of recent work on ritual, ceremonial, pomp, or whatever other term one chooses to use ... How power works is one of the oldest philosophical issues ... one of its most essential aspects, its self-presentation, is greatly illuminated by the essays in this book.' History 'This is ... a collection of fascinating studies, ranging from Babylon to twentieth-century Ghana, from China to Madagascar ... Professional historians of the modern period, as well as others, would do well to take ritual seriously.' London Review of Books