Description
Book SynopsisThe authors argue that resorting to rules and categories cannot adequately address the pervasive problems of ambiguity, difference, and boundaries - that is, the challenge of pluralism in our world. They show that alternative, more particularistic modes of dealing with ambiguity through ritual and shared experience may attune more closely with contemporary problems of living with difference.
Trade ReviewThis is a work of great substance and commitment, drawing atypically from a broad range of human experience and intellect. It is a living seminar on the possibilities of human understanding and the potential for living together in more peaceful ways despite the seemingly insurmountable differences even among the best-intentioned people. It is a brilliant tour de force, offering conceptualizations and categorizations that defy much of the present-day ways in which the problem of pluralism is understood. * Jonathan Imber, Jean Glasscock Professor of Sociology, Wellesley College *
Table of ContentsAcknowledgements ; Introduction ; Ch. 1: The Importance of Being Ambiguous ; Interlude: Ambiguity, Order and the Deity ; Ch. 2: Notation and its Limits ; Interlude: The Israelite Red Heifer and the Edge of Power in China ; Ch. 3: Ritual and the Rhythms of Ambiguity ; Interlude: Crossing the Boundaries of Empathy ; Ch. 4: Shared Experience ; Interlude: Experience and Multiplicity ; Conclusion ; References Cited
