Greece

The World of Rituals

The coronation of a king in the Middle Ages, a virtual church service on Second Life, Valentine’s Day in New Delhi – what have all these occasions in common? They are all informed by rituals, by actions that extend beyond everyday life and in that way transcend and elevate it. Rituals can legitimise power, create identity and offer therapeutic help in crises. Rituals can also help people to structure time and space and give meaning to their lives. The researchers at the Heidelberg Collaborative Research Centre "Ritual Dynamics want to find out what meaning the rituals have in a particular culture: can in fact differing rituals from far-removed cultures even be compared with one another, and should they even be rendered comparable?