How we did the "fallen" women of Bologna regain their lost honor as wives or nuns? Why did the church need to control the "quasi-magical" power of female fertility? What did working women do to transform the factory environment-- as well...

This comprehensive study of rituals in early modern Europe draws on extensive historical research to argue that between about 1400 and 1700 a revolution in ritual theory took place that utterly transformed concepts about time, the body,...