religious ritual

what is a personal ritual?

a small intention action a person performs with regularity

its not a habit, usually has symbolic meaning, has to do with the body, and needs performance

ex: wedding

what is a group ritual?

a larger scale of actions taken by multiple people at once

usually has symbolic meaning, a social organization, and builds solidarity (CE) within a group

ex: focus in theater

what do personal and group rituals do or not do?

they don’t confirm a larger definition or say much about actual ritual structure

they do have overlap

what did roy rappaport understand about ritual?

understood ritual as the social act basic to humanity above all other social acts. ritual is everywhere and builds onto everything

what is rappaport’s definition of religion

religion is the performance or more or less invariant sequences of formal acts and utterances not entirely encoded by the performers

what are the features of rituals?

encoded by other performers, formality, invariance, and performance

what is enconded by other performers?

the participants in the ritual are following orders taken to be established by others

what is formality?

behavior in ritual that tends to be repetitive, conventional and stereotypical elements

what is invariance?

stability or a deliberate practice of counting things as the same

what is performance?

the manner of “saying” and “doing” are essential to what is being said and doneho

how is ritual and religion an action?

it changes social order and affirms a kind of existence, pulls people together in certain roles, not dependent on sincerity, not about the perceived truth but its consequences

what are the five components of religious ritual?

1. creative

2. relational

3. participatory

4. social

5. subjunctive

what theory did victor tuner create?

the rites of passage theory

what are the 3 components of rites of passage?

1. separation

2. margin / linen / threshold

3. reintegration / aggregation

what is seperation?

symbolic behavior signifying the detachment of the individual or group from an earlier point in the social structure

detachment

what is margin / linen / threshold?

the idea of the ritual subject passing through a cultural realm that has few or none of the factors of the past or future state

the in between

what is reintegration / aggregation?

the ritual subject is “made anew” and now has rights and obligations of another defined structural type

what are some examples of rites of passage?

sorority initiations, quinces, baptisms, marriage

what is liminality?

the “neither here nor there” where the ritual subject is in an ambiguous state and their behavior is passive and humble

is usually linked to death and darkness, marked by symbols, and there are no ranks or status

what is communitas?

the result of liminality’s blend of lowliness and sacredness

a social bond that is gone but has not broken into smaller relationships yet

is unstable but powerful (kind of like trauma bonding but not as severe)