Rituals of Royalty: Power and Ceremonial in Traditional Societies

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David Cannadine, Simon Price
Cambridge University Press, Apr 23, 1992 - Biography & Autobiography - 351 pages
Heads of state today mark their rites of passage with splendid ceremonial, from Reagan's inaugural to Andropov's funeral. Such spectacles continue to be a prominent part of modern political systems, of varied ideological hue, but their precise meaning and importance often remain unclear. The essays in this book - all specially written for it - address the central problem in the understanding of royal rituals, namely the relation between power and anthropologists, and the traditional societies examined range from ancient Babylon to nineteenth-century Madagascar, from medieval Europe to contemporary Ghana.

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Contents

Usurpation conquest and ceremonial from Babylon to Persia
20
From noble funerals to divine cult the consecration of Roman Emperors
56
The construction of court ritual the Byzantine Book of Ceremonies
106
The Lords anointed and the peoples choice Carolingian royal ritual
137
Bureaucrats and cosmology the ritual code of Tang China
181
Gifts to the gods power property and ceremonial in Nepal
237
The ritual of the royal bath in Madagascar the dissolution of death birth and fertility into authority
271
The person of the king ritual and power in a Ghanaian state
298
Index
331
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