On ritual: A postmodernist view*

The description of a Hindu funeral ritual in Trinidad by the West Indian writer V.S. Naipaul is used to draw attention to features of ritual in the modern world‐fragmentation of meaning and diversity of individual experience — that are not covered in classic accounts of ritual suck as those of Turner. It is further argued that these features may not be confined to ritual only in modern contexts. Finally, and drawing on recent advances in ritual theory, an attempt is made to outline a comprehensive approach to the understanding of ritual that would do justice to both Turner and Naipaul.