Community, Ritual and the Power of Memory: Past, Present and Future

Rituals have long been a well-established part of several disciplines such as religious studies, sociology, history, and archaeology, to name but a few. Following Catherine Bell, we define ritual as a form of referential and social activity deeply rooted in cultural frameworks. Rituals are always situated in a specific social context and thus have a specific function for that very social context. The aim of this workshop is to look at the construction of a feeling of (shared) memory within a group, and at the same time how rituals can subsequently change and transform themselves through this practice.

In order to obtain a comprehensive view, various case studies will be presented, not only from different disciplines, but also from completely different historical periods, from antiquity to modernity. In this multidisciplinary framework, various approaches and theories will be put up for discussion that make it possible to look at the phenomenon of 'memory construction' within rituals.

Important questions of this workshop are

• In which rituals is a 'shared memory' created? Which structural elements of such rituals are designed to create a 'shared memory'?
• Do such rituals create social cohesion through evoking a sense of 'shared memory'? How do rituals create social cohesion by generating 'shared memory'?
• Do art and literature use such rituals to evoke certain ' from their recipients?