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Davis-Floyd, Robbie, and Charles D. Laughlin. 2022. Ritual What It Is, How It Works, and Why, 

New York: Berghahn Books, 322pp., ISBN 978-1-80073-530-9 

Key Words: Ritual, Belief System, Human Behaviour, Performance, Cognition  

 

Ritual What It Is, How It Works, and Why is designed for both academic and lay audiences. The 

book begins by clearly defining how the term ‘ritual’ will be used and an outline of its key 

characteristics. The authors identify and elaborate on eight core characteristics of ritual. Ritual is 

defined “as a patterned, repetitive, and symbolic enactment of enactment of cultural (or individual) 

beliefs and values. More simply put, ritual enacts cultural (or individual) beliefs and values” (p. 

256). Using multiple examples, the book details how ritual works on the human body and brain to 

produce its often profound effects. These include enhancing courage, effecting healing, and 

generating group cohesion by enacting cultural or individual beliefs and values. It also shows what 

happens when ritual fails. Appendix One and Two provide great support to the book and are 

invaluable for all readers.   

The authors organize the book into twelve sections. Chapter One focuses on symbols and the 

authors describe a process they call “symbolic penetration.” This process they argue is where 

symbols enter individual conscious and generate a strong emotional reaction based on their belief 

systems. Chapters Two and Three expand on these core concepts introduced in chapter One. The 

discussions center around the “cognitive matrix,” a system of meaning and belief that rituals are 

designed to express, enact, and transmit. In Chapter Two the authors draw on commonly known 

stories such as The Three Little Pigs and Adam and Eve to demonstrate how rituals are enacted and 

then spread through myths, paradigms, and belief systems and the individual or group values they 

contain. Chapter Three investigates the nature of belief systems paying particular attention to the 

great degree of variation these systems have across cultures.  

Chapter Four discusses the characteristics of ritual as the authors demonstrate the impacts ritual 

drivers have on the brain. This is achieved through a discussion on states of consciousness and 

altered states of conscious. The authors provide a wide range of ritual examples and their associated 



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intrinsic drivers. Chapter Five analyses ritual techniques and technologies investigating both how 

rituals are technologized in a modern world but also how ancient techniques are deeply embedded 

into ritual that operate in the modern high-tech world. Chapter Six explores how rituals are framed 

and set apart from ordinary reality. The authors also investigate the possibilities when rituals fail. 

This concept is important to discuss as not all rituals (both informal and formal) are successful. As 

the next chapters discuss the successful elements of ritual through performance, cognition, and 

adaptation to question of failure needed to be addressed.  

Chapter Eight discusses ritual and cognition, viewing the four stages of cognition with a connection 

to the anthropological concepts of realism, fundamentalism, fanaticism, ethnocentrism, cultural 

relativism, and global humanism. Chapter Nine investigates the way rituals both conserve and 

transmit the cognitive matrix and belief systems. This chapter is one that I found to be most 

interesting as the cultural significance of ritual is addressed. While this chapter views some 

historical examples such as prohibition there is also an assessment of how COVID has changed 

greeting rituals. Chapter Ten is an interesting and practical entry as it provides examples on 

designing ritual. The authors explore the idea of adaptive ritual strategy explaining how traditional 

rituals can be combined or adapted with new rituals in successful forms.  

Appendix One and Two both provide useful information. Appendix One, using key points from the 

book, outlines how to create and perform an effective stage four ritual. The authors note this will 

only make sense if the book has been read, which I found to be true. Appendix Two provides a list 

of documentary films about ritual with a short outline and where to access the films. The authors 

also state which chapters the films most accurately align. This list is an excellent resource as it 

provides examples beyond those discussed in the book and allow the reader connect with theory and 

examples. Having this checklist for ritual production and list of films are great tools for lay 

audiences interested in ritual, students, and academics. Having this list of films is also highly 

valuable for educators to show in classes to support chapter excerpts that could be assigned as class 

reading or core lecture topics.  

The authors provide a sound canvas of relevant literature that both captures the historical 

significance of ritual along with more recent texts on the phenomenon. The book also engages with 

several pieces of classic anthropology such as Levi-Strauss, Ruth Benedict, and Bronislaw 

Malinowski. The authors do a good job ensuring key theoretical elements of the literature are well 

explained and accessible to non-scholars and academics. The authors draw on their own 

ethnographic fieldwork to complement the literature. The final element which in some ways was the 

most compelling were the use of familiar topics that would provide a good entry point for a more 



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lay audience. Referencing myths, well known stories, and global events such as the COVID 

pandemic.  

This book provides the reader with an opportunity to reframe their understandings of what is meant 

by the term ‘ritual.’ The ethnographic examples, while primarily from other literatures, are 

grounded through the authors’ own experiences with ritual. The book could benefit from a more 

detailed methodological discussion in the introduction, particularly for lay audiences who would be 

unfamiliar with this process and may have questions about data collection. The writing does a good 

job of clearly explaining several complex issues and terms while remaining very lucid and highly 

engaging. The chapters all engage with interesting and well analysed topics that build on one 

another culminating in the design of rituals. The build throughout the book ends on a satisfying 

note. The authors, Robbie Davis-Floyd and Charles D. Laughlin, have provided their own original 

contribution to a broad body of work on the topic of ritual in anthropology.  

This book is ultimately a fantastic resource for those who desire for an enriched, holistic 

understanding of ritual in society (both past and modern). Due to the book’s rich literature review 

and clear definition of ritual it would be ideal for any undergraduate classroom, non-academic 

interested in understanding ritual, and professional scholars.  

 

Jesse Negro is a casual academic at Macquarie University School of Social Sciences, Sydney, 

Australia. His research explores urban environments and the lived experience of residents in these 

environments. They are author of, Fabricating a Steel City: An Ethnography of the Illawarra’s Steel 

Industry (Urbanities May 2019).  

 

 

© 2023 Jesse Negro 


