Abstract This paper seeks to unsettle instrumental interpretations of ritual action, which also frame the current special issue. The instrumental interpretation of ritual action has political actors take deliberate recourse to ritual practices in order to accomplish various political ambitions. In spite of its obvious interpretive merit, the instrumental interpretation of ritual action loses its self-evidence when read in light of the contested history of ritual theory. Longstanding arguments about auto-telicity, universal participation, and ritual instinct suggest the plausibility of a non-instrumental interpretation of ritual action. Through the concepts of agency and protagonism, this paper seeks to explicate both alternatives and assesses their merit in a political context through a case study of Willy Brandt’s iconic genuflection in Warsaw.
Jorg Kustermans (Thu,) studied this question.