Rituals & mantras: ritual, mantras and the human sciences / Frits Staal

Methods, Meanings and Rules
Introductory Note
Meanings and Rules in the Human Sciences
The Empiricist Caricature of Science
The Positivist Critique of Meaning
Ludwig Wittgenstein
Martin Heidegger and Hans-Georg Gadamer
Linguistic Background
The Origins of Linguistics in India
Contemporary Linguistics and Rules
Noam Chomsky
Chomsky versus Wittgenstein
Ritual
Introductory Note
Vedic Ritual.
The Agnicayana Ritual.
Basic Rites
The Isti
Soma Sequences
The Structure of Ritual
Embedding and Transformation .
The Kindling Verses ...
From Agnistoma to Agnicayana
The Final Sastra for the Asvin Twins
Conclusions
Ritual and Grammar
Interpretations of Ritual..
Indian Interpretations .
Western Interpretations
The Meaninglessness of Ritual.
Anthropology without Asia
Raymond Firth
Victor Turner.
Syntax, Semantics and Performatives.
Music and Ritual
Seven Musical Structures
Seven Ritual Structures..
Conclusions
Part III. Mantras
Introductory Note
Six Vedic Mantras
Ritual Context ...
The Syntax of Stobhas
Vedic and Tantric Man
Performatives, Pragmatics and Performance.
Performatives Again.
Pragmatics
Performance and Competence
Mantras and Language..
Mantras and Bird Songs
Mantras by Chance.
Anthropology without Mantras
Object Semantics: Stanley Tambiah
Psycho-Semantics: Gananath Obeyesekere
Thick Semantics: Cliflford Geertz
The Human Sciences
The Science of Ritual
Oral Traditions
Religions
Seeking Religion in Asia
Seeking out the Buddha.
Mythology
Philosophy of Religion
The Myth of the Two Cultures
Conclusions
The Origin of Language.
Michel Foucault
Concluding Generalities.
"Writing in the Sky"Hermeneutics and
A Neoplatonic Parallel
Bibliography.
Index of Names.
FIGURES
The Ritual Enclosure
TABLES
The Samidhenl Verses
Sequence of Rites on the Third and Fourth Days.