Paper short abstract:

In this paper, I focus on religiously motivated environmental rituals and the perspectives that Rappaportian ritual approach provide for examining them. I am particularly interested in the innovative nature and strategic functions of these rituals.

Paper long abstract:

The environmental crisis has challenged faith traditions to take a stand and act both globally and locally. Statements and action build on reinterpretations of tradition, which also produce a variety of ritual applications. Environmental rituals, for example, deal with the grief and anxiety caused by environmental crisis or seek to have a concrete impact on local environmental problems.

Anthropologist Roy Rappaport examined religious environmental rituals, firstly, as a way of regulating ecological balance. Secondly, he saw religiously motivated environmental rituals as a way of changing human thinking and behavior in an era of environmental crisis. These perspectives can be applied in at least three ways: first, by looking at how rituals are used in religious communities that are directly dependent on the natural environment; second, by examining how religious communities use rituals in various situations related to environmental issues; and third, by focusing on how Rappaport's ideas could be used to engage in environmental action. In this paper, I focus on religiously motivated environmental rituals and the perspectives that Rappaportian ritual approach provide for examining them. I am particularly interested in the innovative nature and strategic functions of these rituals.

As examples, I use the struggle of the Canadian Mi'kmaq indigenous community over the fate of their sacred mountain, the environmental applications of Hindu Ganga Aarti rituals, and the ordination ritual of Thai monks, who ordinate trees under threat of felling into a Buddhist monastic community