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Ronald L. Grimes, Ute Hiisken, Udo Simon, and Eric VenbruxRitual, Media, and Conflict. New York: Oxford University Press, 2011.352 pp. ISBN

9780199735549 (pbk.)

The edited volume Ritual, Media, and Conflict consists of nine contributions.Two of them — the introduction and conclusion — theoretically frame thethemes and topics at issue. The remaining contributions are comprised ofmulti-authored case studies addressing different aspects of the theoreticalconfiguration outlined in the title of this volume. The main question beingpresented is: "When ritual and media interact (either by the mediatization ofritual or the ritualization of media), how do patterns of conflict change?" (backcover content). A substantial part of the introduction deals with this question,to which the case studies in the main body of the book contribute.

In the introduction, Ronald Grimes provides the respective context andconceptual toolkit for some of the theoretical orientations and implicationsinvolved. He elaborates on tbe genesis of this volume, indicating the collabo-ration of scholars from two different institutions and their respective fieldsof interest. Aside from giving his account of the genealogy of the researchgroup and its main questions. Grimes criticizes well-establisbed definitionalterms central to this volume like ritual and media. Objecting to giving clear-cut definitions of the terms in use, he argues that any definition of "ritual" or"media" would lead to too static notions, making it impossible to account forthe complexity and dynamics of the respective phenomena. Subsequently,Grimes presents some paradigmatic examples to correlate some theoreticalrelationships between the concepts at issue. In particular, he elaborates on theconceptual relationship between ritual and media as well as between ritualand conflict. Stating that all aspects involved in ritual and media can only beviewed in different scales of complexity. Grimes introduces the notions of ritu-alization and mediatization, arguing that these are ever-present phenomenaco-existing to various degrees in all forms of social interaction and could serveas alternative terms. Furthermore, he presupposes that conflict is a given andan ever-present condition of human life.

The first study, "From Ritual Ground to Stage," deals with how conflictemerges when rituals are transformed by being transposed into a differentcontext. Three case studies from India discussed in this contribution elaborateupon the connection of conflict and ritual transformation and the emotionaleffects of ritual transfer on the participants and their involvement and feelings.The first case deals witb a video performance that blends non-indigenous artstyles with indigenous ritual knowledge. The second case study discusses thefilming and broadcasting of an Indian folk dance performed at the Republic

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Day Parade. The third case addresses the transfer of the ritual tradition ofNorth India affer becoming part of a theatre performance. In these case stud-ies, mediatization plays a key role in how the ritual is performed by the actorsand perceived by the respective audiences.

The second study, "Insurgents and Icons," addresses the impact of violenceon ritual practice and deals with the ritual response to forms of insurgence onicons of religious identity in conjunction with the outburst of violence whenthe use of sacred images for political purposes is concerned. The case stud-ies include first, the study of an event when protesters in Rome colored thewater of a fountain with a statue of Mary red and secondly, a conflict among asmall group of islands east of Papua New Guinea where the Marian pilgrimageand the use of the rosary played a significant role in the struggle for politicalindependence. This contribution elaborates on how media representations ofconflicts can render rituals effective in forms of political protest. It addressesthe utilization of religious imageries and rituals for political purposes that canpossibly lead to acts of violence, resistance, or reconciliation.

The third study, "Ritual as a Source of Conflict," deals with the question ofhow rituals trigger conflict when ritual practices are disseminated through dif-ferent media. Employing generalized notions of media, four case studies arepresented in which one of the parties in a conflict is aiming at the dissemina-tion of ritual practices while using mediatization as a strategic tool to redefinetheir religious identity. The case studies include the puhlication of the Masonicoath in which the ritual practice becomes a "medium" for claiming sovereignty,the Muslim cafl for prayer in European countries within the public sphere ofa non-Muslim majority, the shifting houndaries of Alevl identity due to thepuhlic accessibility of their ritual practice, and the revelation of educationalpractices of evangelical Christians in summer camps. The general claim is thatmoments of conflict emerge within any aspect of ritual when the suhordina-tion of other groups is intended and attitudes, opinions, or aspirations becomemutually exclusive.

The fourth study, "Place, Action, and Community in Internet Rituals," arguesthat the Internet is a repository containing information about ritual traditionsand recordings of ritual performances. The examples include how peopleutilize Internet rituals for social and cultural purposes. Besides the study ofexpressions of feelings about rituals, the Internet is presented as a mediumthat informs and shapes the contemporary view of ritual. The case studiesspan from a performance of an Australian Aboriginal smoking ceremony onthe Internet, a ritual website of the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes, thenfinally to ritual instructions on Dutch weblogs on death and mourning. Thecontribution concludes with some general reflections on the function of

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Internet rituals. Although this contribution clearly stresses the relationshipsbetween ritual and the Internet as a platform for social media, the potentialconflict arising from the representation of rituals in the electronic medium ofthe Internet is not addressed.

The fifth study, "Contested Rituals in Virtual Worlds," brings, by contrast,back into focus the notion of conflict. In a variety of examples from online ritu-als, the authors discuss examples from religious worship on the Internet, wed-dings in Second Life, or World of Warcraft. Although the origin and resolutionof conflict in online games as indicated in one of the examples remains virtualand confined to an online community defined by their use of social media, thetheme of conflict Is at least addressed in conjunction with some form of elec-tronic media. Besides the questionable relevance of this study of online gamesfor conflicts in the social realm, the ritual aspect of online games as addressedin this contribution remains purely virtual and confined to the study of themedium of the Internet. Instead of addressing conflicts that emerge in thesocial sphere through virtual rituals or how they impact forms of social action,it is argued that ritual conflicts exist in online games, stating that virtual worldsinvolve emerging kinds of networking and community building with their ownforms of rituals and conflict.

The sixth study, "Media on the Ritual Battlefield," reviews older theoriesthat conceive ritual as having the function to establish social solidarity beforeengaging in a critical review of the role of ritualized forms in war zones. Witha particular focus on the media coverage of rituals in combat zones, the exam-ples discussed include the toppling of statues of Saddam Hussein in the Iraqwar in 2003 during the sensitive time of Ramadan and the rituals of politicalprotest of the Buddhist monks in September 2007 in Myanmar. Although theselection of the two cases under discussion demonstrates the strategic andpolitical use of religious symbols, rituals in the public sphere, and their utili-zation for media coverage, which itself leads to forms of social cohesion, theconclusion could have addressed further theoretical implications at hand. Itwould have been desirable to address, for example, how the interplay of ritu-als and their media representation not only Incites conflict, but also visiblymarks and discriminates the religious identity of the groups involved and howconflicts and the strategic use of rltualization not only creates religious andpolitical differences, but also leads to notions of social cohesion and solidaritywithin the respective groups in conflict.

The seventh study, "What's at Stake in Torture?," deals with the visual depic-tions of terror and war-time torture practices as a strategic means to estab-lish, extend, and maintain political hegemony and military dominance. Inparticular, cases are discussed dealing with ritualized forms of torture and the

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subsequent dissemination of their visual representations taken in Abu Ghraibprison in Iraq. After analyzing some widely known photographs, various the-oretical propositions are discussed in light of the findings of the case study,namely that torture is not a technique of intelligence gathering, but a ritual-ization of the power of the torturer. The authorization and commitment oftorture implies the making of absolute power. Torture is an open secret thatis designed to enhance the power of the state through the construction of theenemy. As argued in the conclusive sections, the possibilities of disseminationthrough mass media augmented the massive use of torture, although the ritualaspect remains rather implicit.

The concluding chapter, "Refracting Ritual: An Upside-Down Perspectiveon Ritual, Media, and Conñict," is written by Michael Houseman and servesas a review of this collection of essays. In commenting upon the respectivecase studies. Houseman develops a theoretical framework by revisiting variousnotions the contributions dealt with, namely, conflict, ritual and ritualization,ritual as a mode of participation, and ritual refraction, as well as media, media-tization, transfers, and interactions. Through this set of theoretical parametersand perspectives. Houseman evaluates the various contributions of this vol-ume and provides some further critical insights into their conceptual design.As he points out, the notion of conñict provides an all-encompassing and per-vasive context for the interaction of ritual and media as it plays out to varyingdegree in the contributions. Overall, Houseman gives a very concise summaryof the chapters and provides a conceptual grid for comparison. In doing so heprovides some conceptual adjustments to, and justifications of, the individualcontributions.

With this publication a new field of study is delineated by introducing athree-cornered conceptual configuration, namely ritual, media, and confiict.Since no clear-cut definitions of the terms of ritual and media are given thatwould demarcate the field of study in more theoretical terms, the notionsof ritualization and mediatization remain vague and random, particularlywhen conceived as universals that differ only in scale through higher andlesser degrees of formalization. The methodological decision that would beimportant to know is when and how do differences in the degrees of ritualiza-tion and mediatization lead to conceptual distinctions within the empiricaland theoretical fields of study, namely between ritual and non-ritual, mediaand non-media. To assume that all forms of social action are ritualized andmediatized is not a sufficient conceptual framework for analytical conceptsto work for theorizing empirical research. To argue that there is no such thingas "ritual" and "media" (as if scholars would assume that there is only one wayof defining a field of research through substantialized definitions) is not very

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conducive if it is, at the same time, assumed that ritualization and mediatiza-tion are universal when this terminological twist does not lead to the forma-tion of parameters for comparison. Unfortunately, neither the introductionnor the contributions provide further analytical differentiation or conceptualclarification to determine and distinguish more clearly specific degrees of ritu-alization and mediatization.

The main theoretical and methodological problem of this volume is that theindividual contributions discard conceptual differences and even implicitlyreify static concepts of ritual and media. Representation of rituals in the massmedia is, for example, something conceptually different from the use of mediain ritual as a means of representation. How do the media used in rituals differfrom the media used to represent rituals? In the end, the terms are not usedconsistently and the literal use of the terms is conflated with the transferred ormetaphorical meaning implying they all refer to the same "thing" as exempli-fied in the use of hoth the terms ritual and media. Of ftirther concern is thedisconnection in the use of terms. In particular cases, ritual practice is used totheorize the implications of mediatization of ritual conflict and understand-ing of what the authors determine as the ritual dynamics of media and con-flict. As a consequence, the case studies fafl to illustrate a theoretically soundargument about the interconnectedness of media, ritual, and conflict witboutfiirther unfolding the theoretical implications of these concepts. On the otherside, the theoretical framework presented in the introduction to this volumeis not strong enough to provide a sufficient grid to compare and contrast thecase studies at issue. This lack of an analytical framework or conceptual matrixmakes a more refined comparison of these cases under scrutiny quite difficult.This difficulty does not allow for a thorough analysis of the cases or prove thetheoretical claims that would go heyond commonsenslcal and reified assump-tions ahout these terms.

Despite considerahle shortcomings, the main value of this volume consistsin the fact that it poses a new question and opens up a new field of studyingthe interfaces of ritual and media with a certain focus on emerging conflicts.As such the endeavor is valuahle and presents a unique and original approachto hring the conflict potential of how ritual and media interact in modern soci-eties to the forefront of academic scrutiny.

Jens KreinathWichita State University

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