Alley Parish 
Rituals 
Practices, Ethnic and Cultural Aspects and Role in Emotional Healing

Rituals of various kinds are a feature of almost all known human societies, past or present. They include not only the various worship rites and sacraments of organized religions and cults, but also the rites of passage of certain societies, atonement and purification rites, oaths of allegiance, dedication ceremonies, coronations and presidential inaugurations, marriages and funerals, and others. In this book, the authors discuss the practices, ethnic and cultural aspects and role in emotional healing relating to rituals. Topics include communitarianism and the Obasinjom mask performance as ritual healing among the Bayang and Ejagham of Southwest Cameroon; plant-based rituals for the prevention and cure of the evil eye in a rural community of Western Spain; Shamanic healing and psychotherapy; pro-social functions of ritual involvement in early adolescents; the religious rituals of the Anastenarides in Greece; ritual of healing people in the Shamanic practice of the Nanai people inhabiting the lower Amur Region; and medico-religious plants and cultural rituals used by the Mauritian population against diabetes and related complications.