Chair person

Prof. Axel Michaels

Prof. Axel Michaels

Axel Michaels, born 1949, is both a scholar of Indology and Religious Studies. He worked as a research assistant at the universities of Münster und Kiel. From 1981-83 he was Director of the Nepal Research Centre (Kathmandu), 1986 Spalding Visiting Fellow, Wolfson College Oxford, 1992-96 Professor of Religious Studies (University of Bern), and since 1996 he is Professor of Classical Indology, South Asia Institute, University of Heidelberg. 2001 he was elected as the Spokesman of the Collaborative Research Centre (SFB 619) "The Dynamics of Ritual”. He is Co-Director of the Cluster of Excellence "Asia and Europe".

P 02 - Grammar and Morphology of Ritual

Chair: Prof. Axel Michaels axel.michaels@urz.uni-heidelberg.de

Download preliminary daily schedule here (pdf)
(for better readability kindly print it out)

Common activities:

Reception
On Monday, 29 September, we will officially open the conference with a reception from 19.30 to 22.30

Key Note Lecture
Tuesday, 30 September:
Key Note Speaker Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Jan Assmann
"Magie und Ritual"

Plenary Discussion
Wednesday, 1 October at 18.00 introductory presentation:
Prof. Dr. Christoph Wulf, Freie Universität Berlin
"The Future of the Science of Ritual in a transcultural Context"

Exchange meeting
Thursday, 2 October from 9:00 - 12:00:
Exchange meeting between scientists from the German Archaeological Institute
and the Collaborative Research Center SFB 619


Speakers (synonym for referee, panelist, active participant)


Day 2 – Tuesday, 30 September 2008



9:00-9:45        Axel Michaels

                        Introduction: “Grammars of Rituals”

9:45-10:30      Frits Staal
                        The Science of Ritual


11:00-11:45    Jan E.M. Houben

                        Formal structure and self-referential loops in Vedic ritual


11:45-12:30    Johannes Bronkhorst
                        Ritual and holistic utterances

14:00-14:45    Timothy Lubin
                        Ritual Self-Discipline as a Response to the Human Condition:
                        Toward a Semiotics of Ritual 'Indices'


14:45-15:30    Rich Freeman
                        Pedagogy and Practice:
                        The Metapragmatic Structuring of Tantric Rituals in Kerala

16:00-16:45    Anand Mishra
                        On the Possibilities of a Paninian Paradigm
                        for a Rule-based Description of Rituals
   
16:45-17:30    General Discussion


Day 3 – Wednesday, 1 October 2008


9:00-9:45        Annette Wilke
                        Basic Categories of a syntactical approach to rituals

9:45-10:30      Martin Gaenszle
                        Grammar in Ritual Speech


11:00-11:45    Frederick M. Smith

                        The interrelations between Vedic ritual and temple construction in
                        modern India: a case study from Maharashtra

11:45-12:30    Olga Serbaeva Saraogi
                        (UFSP Asien und Europa, Universität Zürich)
                        When to kill means to liberate:
                        two types of rituals in Vidyāpīṭha texts

14:00-14:45    Anne Keßler
                        Rules of ritual composition: The Marriage Ritual of the Grhyasūtras

14:45-15:30    Jan Heestermann

                        Origin and impact of ancient Indian ritual


16:00-16:45    Christèle Barois
                        Śaivasiddhānta Initiation in the Vāyavīyasamhitā


16:45-17:30    Cezary Galewicz
                        Ritual inscribing of the scripture:
                        On two-year long ritual sequence of Trisandha

17:30-18:15    Francoise Létoublon
                        Supplication of a Ritual in Homer, speech and gesture

Abstract

Although rituals often use languages, they are not a language in any strict sense. Seen in this way, it is meaningless or only a metaphorical possibility to speak of a grammar of rituals. There are, however, two reasons why it might make sense to continue using the term “grammar” with regard to rituals: a) Non-verbal elements of communication have become a well established part of linguistic studies on grammar; b) repeated attempts have been made to define the rules of rituals according to grammatical and linguistic models. The aim of the Panel is to discuss these concepts and to develop basic categories for a “grammar of rituals”. If it makes sense to create a science of rituals or ritology that depends not merely on more or less arbitrary phenomenological observations and comparisons, it is time to determine the formal and functional rules of rituals in such a way that they could be regarded as a kind of universal grammar of rituals. Why universal? Because all cultures and religions have rituals – even if some members of these societies may not practice rituals or are not aware that they are doing so.

German version

Rituale benutzen zwar oft Sprache, sind aber selbst keine Sprache im engeren Sinne. Von daher gesehen ist die Rede von einer Grammatik der Rituale im Grunde sinnlos oder nur metaphorisch möglich. Allerdings gibt es zwei Gründe, dennoch diese Redewendung weiter zu verfolgen. Zum einen ist es in der Sprachwissenschaft üblich, auch nonverbale Elemente der Kommunikation in die Grammatik aufzunehmen, zum anderen hat es immer wieder Versuche gegeben, die Regeln der Rituale nach sprachlichen Vorgaben zu analysieren. Das Ziel des Panels ist, diese Ansätze zu diskutieren und Vorüberlegungen zu einer „Ritualgrammatik“ anzustellen. Sollte sich je eine eigenständige Ritualwissenschaft oder Ritologie etablieren wollen, die nicht nur auf mehr oder weniger arbiträren phänomenologischen Ähnlichkeiten und Assoziationen beruht, so ist es an der Zeit, die Möglichkeit zu formalen und funktionalen Regeln der Rituale so zu bestimmen, dass sie in eine Art Universalgrammatik der Rituale einfließen könnten. Warum „universal“? Weil alle Kulturen und Gesellschaften Rituale haben und zwar auch dann, wenn es einzelne Mitglieder dieser Gruppierungen geben mag, die keine Rituale praktizieren oder sich dessen nicht bewusst sind.