A rite in the light of the Actor-Network Theory – the research perspectives (as exemplified by the feast of Corpus Christi in Spycimierz)

Abstract

The author begins with the research on annual rituals in the current of structural semiotics, on the basis of which it is possible to define a ritual as a text of culture. Then, the author proceeds to demonstrate that the Actor-Network Theory (ANT) can be a natural continuation of the structural-functional research on rituals, because these two approaches meet in four methodological areas: anthropology and ethnology, structuralism, semiotics (of a text) and ethnomethodology, and are inspired by them. In the second part, the authors outlines two basic “methodological benefits” which the research on rituals may derive from the application of ANT: a new look on elements of structure of a ritual culture text and the use of translation as an in spe tool of ritual semiotics. In the conclusions, the author opens new research perspectives, in particular by presenting ANT as a natural bridge between the structural-functional-semiotic description of a ritual and constructivism, and as a chance to interpret the way in which texts of post-traditional culture build a community.

Keywords

• semiotics
• text of culture
• constructivism
• structuralism
• ethnomethodology
• postfolk culture