This volume brings together the most significant approaches to ritual studies and makes the key contributions from the field of "Ritual Studies" accessible for the first time in German and in a single volume. Over twenty articles are divided into two categories: "General Ritual Theories" and "Concrete Studies on Ritual in Culture and Society." In the general section, alongside classics of ritual research such as Clifford Geertz, Victor Turner, Mary Douglas, and Erving Goffman, there are also more recent authors like the American sociologist Albert Bergesen with his theory of "Ritual Order" (an original contribution to this volume), Catherine Bell with the epistemological theory of "Ritual Construction," Caroline Humphrey and James Laidlaw with the theory of "Ritual Attitude," as well as Jan Platvoet's comprehensive analysis of ritual. The second part includes.