User:YasmeenMA/sandbox

Bell’s presentation maintains the notion that ritual, political power and legitimation of power are three interdependent theories. Historically, ritual was cast as a mere “artifice” used to conceal the ‘brute exercise of real power’. Thus sacred kingships throughout the past centuries used ritual as a tool to install hierarchy and fulfill political agendas. She invites us to question ritual as no longer a self-fulfilling tool but also a power tool for mass governance. Ritual constructs an argument, all whilst maintaining social order. It does not ‘disguise the exercise of power’ - it is in itself the power.