Open AccessWilhelm Mannhardt - A Pioneer in the Study of Rituals
Author(s) -
Tove Tybjerg
Publication year - 1993
Publication title -
scripta instituti donneriani aboensis
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2343-4937
pISSN - 0582-3226
DOI - 10.30674/scripta.67204
Subject(s) - mythology , folkloristics , reflexive pronoun , german , novelty , history , literature , philosophy , classics , art , aesthetics , art history , folklore , theology , archaeology
In the history of the study of religion the German folklorist Wilhelm Mannhardt (1831-1880) was the first to undertake a systematic study of rituals. This was not because of a specific interest in rituals; Mannhardt's interests lay with mythology, and all his life he regarded himself as a mythologist. In focusing on mythology Mannhardt was in tune with the spirit of his age, but to undertake a systematic study of rituals was something new. At the time the novelty of this approach went practically unnoticed, and Mannhardt himself barely reflected on method. There are complicated relations between a scholar's ideas and the ideas of his time, between what he intends to do and what he actually does and achieves.