Some characteristic features of what we call ritual behavior are repetition, constant form over time, and exact specification of what participants should do or say. One or more of these features is usually present when animal ethologists, psychologists, anthropologists, or ordinary people use the term: for example, ethologists call attention to the stereotyping and fixity of form of ‘ritualized’ animal signals (Cullen 1972: 116); psychologists describe the ‘ritualistic’ repetitive behavior of neurotics (Mather 1970: 316); anthropologists analyze traditional and often unchanging ‘rituals’ accompanying birth, marriage and death; and any of us might speak of invariant ‘ritual’ routines, such as for getting out of bed in the morning or for saluting the flag. I shall use this broad definition in this book, focusing, in anthropological fashion, on those rituals that are patterned according to social custom and that involve more than one person in a social group at the same or different times.

My argument is based on Chinese material: in time I emphasize present-day Taiwan, and the latter part of the last imperial dynasty, the Ch'ing; in space I emphasize northern Taiwan and Fukien Province on the southeast coast of China, the original province (200 years ago) of the Chinese who settled most of northern Taiwan. The first-hand field data I include come from Ch'inan, a village in northern Taiwan, and nearby market towns, especially San-hsia.

As Wolf (1974a) and Feuchtwang (1974b) have shown, the three major categories of spirits in Taiwan, as in late Ch'ing China – gods (sin), ancestors (kong-ma), and ghosts (kui) – mirror the three social categories of government officials, kinsmen, and strangers.