A ritual is a religious service or other ceremony which involves a series of actions performed in a fixed order.
A ritual is a way of behaving or a series of actions that people regularly carry out in a particular situation, because it is their custom to do so.
The Characteristics
Formalism - Ritual utilizes a limited and rigidly organized set of expression
Traditionalism - repeating historical precedence
Invariance implying careful choreography. This is less an appeal to traditionalism than a striving for timeless repetition. The key to invariance is bodily discipline, as in monastic prayer and meditation meant to mold dispositions and moods.
Rule Governance - Rules impose norms on the chaos of behavior, either defining the outer limits of what is acceptable or choreographing each move. Individuals are held to communally approved customs that evoke a legitimate communal authority that can constrain the possible outcomes
Sacral Symbolism - either expressed through totem, reliefs, idols
Performance- The performance of ritual creates a theatrical-like frame around the activities, symbols and events that shape participant's experience and cognitive ordering of the world,
Types
Right of Passage
Calendar of commemorative rites
Rites of Exchange and communion- forms of sacrifice and offering meant to praise, please or placate divine powers.
Rites of Affliction - exorcism seeking to purge illness or bad spirits
Rites of feasting, fasting and festival.
why
Spiritual practice, and growth
Sense of unity Social Solidarity
Social control
Rebellion
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