BOOK LAUNCH
A VIRTUAL SEMINAR BY THE ROYAL ANTHROPOLOGICAL INSTITUTE
Tuesday 1 March 2022, 4.00pm-6.00pm (GMT)
This webinar will be held on Zoom, to register go here: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZEqdO2vqz4rGtJL4ohDCd-PfVydU-b80pFO
The RAI is proud to present this book launch event, which discusses a new theory of how ritual has shaped human societies over the millennia:
The Ritual Animal:
Imitation and cohesion in the Evolution of Social Complexity
Harvey Whitehouse
(Chair of Social Anthropology, University of Oxford and Director of the Centre for the Study of Social Cohesion (CSSC))
with discussants
Scott Atran
(Research Director Emeritus in Anthropology, Center for Scientific Research (CNRS), Institut Jean Nicod − Ecole Normale Supérieure, Paris)
Robert N. McCauley
(William Rand Kenan Jr. University Professor Emeritus and Founding Director of the Center for Mind, Brain, and Culture, Emory University)
and David Shankland (Royal Anthropological Institute) as chair
Rituals are a way of defining the boundaries of social groups and binding their members together. This book seeks to unravel the psychology behind these processes, to explain how ritual behaviour evolved and how different kinds of ritual performance have shaped global history over many millennia. Although grounded in core ideas from anthropology, testing the theories developed in this book has required extensive collaborative studies across many disciplines, from controlled experiments with children in psychology labs and in Pacific island communities, to surveys with armed insurgents in the Middle East and Muslim fundamentalists in Indonesia, from measuring physiological measures of stress among football fans in Brazil, to statistical analysis of data on ten thousand years of world history. The results of all this research point to new ways of addressing cooperation problems: from preventing violent extremism to motivating action on the climate crisis.
The book is published by Oxford University Press and can be purchased here: https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-ritual-animal-9780199646364?cc=gb&lang=en
———————————————————————-
Your support makes all the difference to the RAI
The RAI needs your support. We are an independent charity dedicated to anthropology. Please can you help us with our essential work by making a donation today. With your support we can continue to deliver our inspiring online events programme and run our flagship events (London Anthropology Day, the RAI Film Festival and our international conferences). We can continue our essential support of anthropological research, to care for our archive, manuscript and photo collections and develop our education programmes to create globally informed citizens. Thank you for your interest in this event, we appreciate you supporting the RAI.
To make a donation
Donate with PayPal
Or send a Text Message to add a donation to your monthly mobile phone bill or pay as you credit :
• Text RAISE 3 to 70085 for a one-off donation of £3
• Text RAISE 5 to 70085 for a one-off donation of £5
• Text RAISE 10 to 70085 for a one-off donation of £10
• Text RAISE to 70460 to set up a regular gift of £3 each month, helping fund our vital work long term.
For more information and terms & conditions please go to: https://www.therai.org.uk/support-us/donate
Have you considered becoming an RAI Fellow? https://www.therai.org.uk/joining
Many people from all over the world are affiliated to the RAI. We welcome anyone with an interest in the subject, whether working in an academic institution or not. Our affiliates include academic specialists, students, those working in fields where anthropology has practical applications, and those whose interest is captured by the subject matter of anthropology.
Want to hear more about the RAI’s upcoming events? You can sign up to our mailing list here:
https://us7.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=94e3bf4c82be9b8d19299eb8a&id=f6438860ac
