Women Performers and World Religions

Abstract

This chapter describes the two approaches to comparison taken in the book. One involves documenting and comparing the practice of lamentation and mockery in prenuptial events in many different cultures across several religions; the other explores the ways in which women actively exploit the ambiguity generated by performance in ritual contexts to express their opinions or do something they would not normally be allowed to do. The chapter draws on the work of Tomoko Masuzawa and Catherine Bell in the examination of the ideas of world religion and ritual. The book’s meta-ethnographic approach is illustrated through the analysis of the Dormition Pilgrimage in Jerusalem while the localizing effect of women’s practices is demonstrated through an analysis of the rise of feminist Christian theology.