Ritual and Embodied Cognition
The Oxford Handbook of Early Christian Ritual November 8, 2018 E. Klocová, A. Geertz 10 citations
Human cognition is embodied, embedded, extended, and enactive—the '4E approach'—meaning thinking is shaped by bodily actions, cultural contexts, and interactions with others. This perspective offers new insights for studying religious rituals, which involve a dynamic network of bodies and minds across time and space. Humans are biocultural creatures, and a systematic, scientific study of brain, body, and behavior in rituals is needed. The chapter reviews available evidence and theories developed to understand how bodily actions, thinking, and cultural embeddedness interact in religious contexts.