The Dangers of Ritual
Subtitle: Between Early Medieval Texts and Social Scientific Theory.
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Published: October 1, 2001
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 286
ISBN-13: 9780691016047
Subjects: European history: c 500 to c 1500; Social history; World history: c 500 to C 1500; Ritual; History: World; Sociology; Europe; Customs & Traditions; Medieval; Sociology of Religion; European History; History / Medieval; History; Religious life and customs
First sentence: RELATIVE TO its competitors and neighbors, the Ottonian dynasty (919-1024) enjoyed remarkable success.
Description: "Medieval historians will find this book an indispensable resource for its insights into methodological issues crucial to their discipline. As Buc demonstrates, only rigorous attention to the contexts within which authors worked can allow us to reconstruct from medieval documents how "rituals" might have functioned.

Ultimately, he argues, too swift an application of contemporary models to highly complex textual artifacts blinds us to the specificities of early medieval European political culture."--BOOK JACKET.