OHB ARCHAEOL RITUAL & RELIGION OHBK P

The Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology of Ritual and Religion provides a comprehensive overview by period and region of the relevant archaeological material in relation to theory methodology definition and practice. Although as the title indicates the focus is upon archaeological investigations of ritual and religion by necessity ideas and evidence from other disciplines are also included among them anthropology ethnography religious studies and history. The Handbook covers a global span-Africa Asia Australasia Europe and the Americas-and reaches from the earliest prehistory (the Lower and Middle Palaeolithic) to modern times. In addition chapters focus upon relevant themes ranging from landscape to death from taboo to water from gender to rites of passage from ritual to fasting and feasting. Written by over sixty specialists renowned in their respective fields the Handbook presents the very best in current scholarship and will serve both as a comprehensive introduction to its subject and as a stimulus to further research.