On the cover of the new Encyclopedia of Religious Rites, Rituals and Festivals you'll find pictures of a Catholic Mass, a blessing of the sea in China, Mardi Gras in Brazil and a "Star Trek" convention.

Through the book's 500 pages, there are the more-or-less expected descriptions of black churches, Jewish rituals, Protestantism and even Paganism. Then there are the more, shall we say, unorthodox entries, like puberty rites, snake handling, television and sports watching, and cannibalism.

Cannibalism?

The entry explains: "Cannibalism has been categorized using various schemes based on the function of the practice (ritualistic, nutritional or gustatory) and whether or not the victim is an 'outsider' or an 'insider' (exocannibalism and endocannibalism, respectively)."

When an anthropologist edits an encyclopedia of religious rituals, the meaning of both "religion" and "ritual" can be expected to be cross-cultural and interdisciplinary. We're talking way outside of church. Even the just-completed political season was a religious ritual for many Americans, said Frank Salamone, the anthropologist and sociology department chairman at Iona College who edited the book. "Politics is a civil religion," he said. "Being out there on a cold New Hampshire morning, kissing babies, shaking hands, singing 'God Bless America' — it's all ritual. For the people who follow every step, there is great meaning."

That's what it's all about: The search for meaning. Salamone, 65, a faculty member at Iona for 23 years, believes the search for something greater than ourselves can lead people to religious rituals of all sorts.

He refers to the "rites of passage" framed by Belgian anthropologist Arnold van Gennep, who held that a person can be changed or enter a new phase of life by going through three steps: Removal from society, immersion in a separate society or class (perhaps at a "Star Trek" convention) and a return to society as a different person. "Born again," Salamone said. "Whether you're going to Mecca or on another pilgrimage, everyone on the same road, on the same path, is part of a brotherhood or sisterhood. Rituals take you from one place to another. There's a reality behind what you see. People are changed."

He spent three years putting together the encyclopedia, which is published by Routledge (Taylor & Francis Group) and sells for $150. It is designed to be used primarily by high school and college students.

Salamone, who has studied religion for four decades, decided what subjects would be covered and assigned some 80 contributors from around the globe to write entries on their areas of expertise. He had to edit each piece and make a slew of deadlines while teaching at Iona.

Salamone's patterns of study are broad. He is speaking at an anthropological conference in Atlanta next month about how members of the Hausa ethnic group in Nigeria use magic to cast spells on one another during wrestling matches.

"At root, all rituals are the same," he said. "All of theatre comes out of the sacred. Football takes that place for a lot of people. It's the same magic you get from hearing a Christmas carol you knew as a child." He also is a practicing Catholic with an unorthodox, you might say anthropological, bent.

"There have been open-minded Catholics throughout history who have been willing to learn from other traditions, from Aquinas to St. Thomas Moore, all the way to John XXIII," he said. "That's the kind of Catholicism I embrace, the idea that anything good comes from God."