Ritual Gone Wrong

What We Learn from Ritual Disruption

Kathryn T. McClymond

Oxford Ritual Studies

The first scholarly work to examine in-depth how errors can affect and inform ritual
An interdisciplinary look at ritual through the lenses of history, religion, and anthropology
Features contemporary case studies, such as the execution of Saddam Hussein and the misfire of the Olympic rings at the Opening Ceremony of the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics (in which five snowflakes were designed to transform into the Olympic rings, but one snowflake failed to perform)

Ritual Gone Wrong

What We Learn from Ritual Disruption

Kathryn T. McClymond

Description

The discipline of religious studies has historically tended to focus on discrete ritual mistakes occurring in the context of individual performances as outlined in ethnographic or sociological studies; scholars have largely overlooked the extensive discussions of ritual mistakes that exist in the religious literature of indigenous traditions. And yet ritual mistakes (ranging from the simple to the complex) happen all the time, and they continue to carry ritual "weight," even when no one seriously doubts their impact on the efficacy of a ritual.

In Ritual Gone Wrong, Kathryn McClymond approaches ritual mistakes as an integral part of ritual life and argues that religious traditions can accommodate mistakes and are often prepared for them. McClymond shows that many traditions even incorporate the regular occurrence of errors into their ritual systems, developing a substantial literature on how rituals can be disrupted, how these disruptions can be addressed, and when disruptions have gone too far. Offering a series of case studies ranging from ancient India to modern day Iraq, and from medieval allegations of child sacrifice to contemporary Olympic ceremonies, McClymond explores the numerous ways in which ritual can go wrong, and demonstrates that the ritual is by nature fluid, supple, and dynamic-simultaneously adapting to socio-cultural conditions and, in some cases, shaping them.

Ritual Gone Wrong

What We Learn from Ritual Disruption

Kathryn T. McClymond

Oxford Ritual Studies

Acknowledgements
Abbreviations

Introduction
Chapter 1 Negotiating Ritual Repair: The prayascitta material in the Baudhayana Srauta Sutra
Chapter 2 Don't Cry Over Spilled Blood: Ritual Correction in the Mishnah
Chapter 3 Blood Libel: Ritual Misrepresentation
Chapter 4 Of Fists and Feathers: The Modern Olympic Games
Chapter 5 When Ritual Systems Collide: The Execution of Saddam Hussein
Conclusion

Appendix
Notes
Bibliography

Ritual Gone Wrong

What We Learn from Ritual Disruption

Kathryn T. McClymond

Oxford Ritual Studies

Author Information

Kathryn T. McClymond is Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Religious Studies at Georgia State University.

Ritual Gone Wrong

What We Learn from Ritual Disruption

Kathryn T. McClymond

Oxford Ritual Studies

Reviews and Awards

"Ritual Gone Wrong is a worthy entry in the Oxford Ritual Studies series and well worth adopting into a graduate course on ritual or methodology and creatively excerpting for undergraduates." -- Brian Collins, Ohio University, Religious Studies Review

"Ritual Gone Wrong: What We Learn from Ritual Disruption provides an analysis of several types of ritual error in an effort to expand our understanding of ritual, its complexity, and the relationship between ritual practice and the mundane ... Perhaps the greatest benefit of McClymond's book is the broad understanding she holds of ritual and ritual disruption." -- Sarah Gane Burton, Reading Religion

"Ranging widely over the history of religion and politics-from ancient India to contemporary Iraq-this book illuminates dimensions of ritual practice that have heretofore received insufficient attention. By exploring what happens when rituals, whether formally 'religious' or not, are disrupted or come into conflict, Kathryn McClymond sheds valuable light on the inevitable political dimension in ritual action." --Jon D. Levenson, Albert A. List Professor of Jewish Studies, Harvard University