Abstract:

[EXCERPT]

‘Living Uncertainty’ as the focus of discussion and interpretation in 2023 was a significant mark of the global predicaments and disruptions of the early 21st century. These new challenges – the COVID19 pandemic, extraordinary waves of migration, unexpected wars – give a strong feeling of uncertainty and risk. Other conditions, such as the climate crisis, gender questions, mental health issues, AI ethics all heightened the sense of precarity and unpredictability. The 16th SIEF Congress in Brno, Czech Republic in June 2023 opened the inquiry on uncertainty “both in terms of the uncertainty of everyday life and of epistemological uncertainty”.

[…]

Comparing older archival notes with contemporary fieldwork studies may enable a better understanding of the improvisation and the constancy in the ritual year itself. This volume extends, but is not limited to, some of the reflections that were initiated in Brno as part of the panels organized by the RYWG. It aims to take stock of the uncertainties affecting rituals in a world where traditional regularities are fading, due to the widespread mobility of people and the vagaries of current events. It invites a general reflection on the life and death of rituals and offers a series of case studies.