The Bartman ball and sacrifice: ambiguity in an American ritual
Although the power of rituals to provide societal meaning and structure has been on the decline for sometime in the U.S., on February 26, 2004 at a popular Chicago restaurant, an infamous baseball was ceremoniously destroyed in the fashion of a classic sacrifice ritual. Lacking the kind of surroundi...
| Published in: | The journal of religion & society |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Creighton University
2005
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| In: |
The journal of religion & society
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| Further subjects: | B
Baseball
B Chicago (Ill) B 1920-1983 B Turner B Victor W B Ritual B Chicago Cubs (Baseball team) B Popular Culture B Sacrifice |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (kostenfrei) Volltext (kostenfrei) |
| Summary: | Although the power of rituals to provide societal meaning and structure has been on the decline for sometime in the U.S., on February 26, 2004 at a popular Chicago restaurant, an infamous baseball was ceremoniously destroyed in the fashion of a classic sacrifice ritual. Lacking the kind of surrounding society that traditionally produces such rituals, this event seems anomalous. Yet, I will argue, with the aid of certain ritual sacrifice theories, that this event performed a classic sacrificial function - that of reestablishing the proper relationship between the Cubs' fans and its players - and thus is continuous with certain sacrifice rituals of pre-modern societies. At the same time, an underlying intention of those staging the ritual, to receive publicity for their restaurant, served to circumscribe the power of the ritual thus impressing a "modern" stamp on it thereby distinguishing this sacrifice from its predecessors. |
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| ISSN: | 1522-5658 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: The journal of religion & society
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| Persistent identifiers: | HDL: 10504/64415 |