Harvard University Michael Puett will discuss “Why Does Ritual Matter? Theories from Classical China” at 3 p.m. Oct. 18 in 120 Clemens Hall, North Campus, as part of the UB Confucius Institute’s Lecture Series.

A reception will follow the talk. It is free of charge and open to the public.

Puett is the Walter C. Klein Professor of Chinese History in the Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations, and chair of the Committee on the Study of Religion at Harvard. He also serves as acting director of the university’s Asia Center.

His interests are focused on the inter-relations between anthropology, history, religion and philosophy.

He is the author of “The Ambivalence of Creation: Debates Concerning Innovation and Artifice in Early China” and “To Become a God: Cosmology, Sacrifice and Self-Divinization in Early China; he is co-author of “Ritual and its Consequences: An Essay on the Limits of Sincerity.”