Embodied Cognition and Ritual Efficacy of the"xusitho"Rituals in Western Hunan:On the Limita-tions of the Representation Theory of Ritual
In recent years,ritual efficacy has received more and more attention in the academic studies of rituals,and has been promoted at the theoretical level.Among them,Pierre Smith's"piège à pensée"theory is particu-larly worthy of discussion.Although it has provided a cognitive explanation for the study of ritual efficacy,this explanation is not sufficient,and the ideas of"piège"and"monde imaginaire"still implicate the unreality of ritu-als.In the"xusitho"ritual in western Hunan,the ritual chanting by ritual specialist(named Thima)is the core,whereas the body movements and postures of the main participants and the operation of ritual objects show a process of embodied cognition.The worshipped gods would delightedly accept the"money and treasures"pre-sented by the prayer and,in return,help the prayer's family to transform from persons who are"indebted to gods"to persons"blessed by gods",which is the ultimate testimony to the ritual efficacy.In other words,the em-bodied cognitive process in rituals is closely related to the realization of ritual efficacy.Our analysis is an attempt to improve on Smith's"piège à pensée"theory.It also aims to demonstrate how ritual efficacy can question and break through the representation theory in ritual research.
"xusitho"ritualembodied cognitionritual efficacythe representation theory of ritual
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