Wilhelm Mannhardt - A Pioneer in the Study of Rituals

Authors

• Tove Tybjerg

DOI: https://doi.org/10.30674/scripta.67204

Keywords:

Religion -- Study, Mannhardt, Wilhelm, 1831-1880, Mythology, Ritual -- Study, Folklore

Abstract

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.