A) Besides the carmen saeculare we know of several other carmina in Rome which were performed on occasion of religious festivals, e. g. the carmen arvale and the carmen saliare Similar parallels between ceremony and song can be found among the Ugaritian rites, the Psalms in the Jewish Bible, the rituals of the Ndembu or the Indian Rigveda, to list but a few. If there are comparable components of ritual transformation of songs and literature in different cultural settings, what kind of criteria for comparison can be established ? Are there significant parallels?
B) There seem to be three slightly different ways to approach the problem :
- Religious science : the examination of the relation of song and ritual in its ceremonial context.
- Literary science : the examination of the performance of literature in institutional-like situations.
- Linguistics : the examination of speech-act and its pragmatic aspects.
Literature
Henzen, Wilhelm, ed.: Acta Fratrum Arvalium, Berlin 1874
Kraus, Hans-Joachim: Psalmen, Neukirchen 1961
Norden, Eduard: Agnostos Theos, Leipzig 1913
Turner, Victor: The Ritual Process, London 1969
Xella, Paolo: I Testi Rituali di Ugarit, Rome 1981
Scheid, John: Le collège des Frères Arvales, Rome 1990
(OR)
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