Magi og effikacitet - en kognitiv tilgang

Resumé

The aim of this article is to discuss the issue of ritual efficacy in the light of recent research in cognitive science and anthropology. It is claimed that the issue of ritual efficacy is directly related both to the establishment of ritual as en emic and an ethic category of actions, and to the criteria of rationality utilised on the judgement of ritual actions. The basic question is how ritual actions are distinguished from non-ritual actions and how this distinction influences judgements of the efficacy and entailments of actions. Possible answers to this problem are subsequently used to discuss the classic question concerning the relation between myth and ritual.