Götter auf Erden : Hethitische Rituale aus Sicht historischer Religionsanthropologie

This thesis deals with the recent discourse about Hittite ritual and religion and assumes an alternative approach. It analyses how the most important researchers in the fields of Hittitology and History of Religions, who have been working with Hittite rituals and religion, describe and explain the rituals. Their implicit or explicit theories underlying the discourse are explored. The restraining effects of these theories on the treatment of the text material are discussed. The study examines the hypothesis that the evolutionistic approach to ritual and religion is still alive and that a different theoretical strategy showing the necessity to make theory explicit is needed. An historical anthropological view is applied based on Pierre Bourdieu’s Theory of Practice. This theory is used both to analyse the recent discourse and the Hittite text material. Three so-called “magic” rituals are presented and interpreted with the focus on the relationships between humans and gods. The Thesis elaborates on how the space is ritualised and relationships between all ritual figures, i.e. humans, animals, deities, and things, are shaped and hierarchized. By using the strategy of Historical Anthropology of Religions and by focusing on the interactions of human beings instead of the heavenly realm of gods, this thesis offers a perspective for clarifying the ritual dynamics