Ritual
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A Ritual is a human activity that involves a series of actions or behaviors performed according to a prescribed order, often with symbolic meaning or to achieve a specific result.
- Context:
- It can (typically) involve gestures, words, actions, or the use of specific objects that hold symbolic significance.
- It can (often) be prescribed by the traditions of a community, including religious, cultural, or social groups.
- It can be characterized by formalism, traditionalism, invariance, rule-governance, sacral symbolism, and performance, making it a distinct and recognizable form of expression within human societies.
- It can serve various purposes, including religious worship, rites of passage, social bonding, or the marking of important life events and transitions.
- It can also appear in everyday life as common greetings, such as handshakes or saying "hello," which carry ritualistic elements.
- It can help to neutralize or prevent anxiety.
- ...
- Example(s):
- Religious ceremonies, such as mass in Christianity, prayer rituals in Islam, or the Seder in Judaism.
- Cultural rites of passage, such as coming-of-age ceremonies, weddings, and funerals.
- National ceremonies, such as presidential inaugurations, coronations, and military parades.
- Personal rituals, which may include daily routines, habits, or practices that hold personal significance or help in managing anxiety.
- ...
- Counter-Example(s):
- Spontaneous, Non-Repetitive Actions that do not follow a prescribed order or carry symbolic meaning.
- Unstructured Social Interactions that do not adhere to formalized or symbolic patterns of behavior.
- See: Obsessive–Compulsive Disorder, Gesture, Tradition, Community, Worship, Sacrament, Cult, Rites of Passage, Ritual Purification, Oaths of Allegiance, Coronation, Inauguration, Ritual Studies.
References
2024
- (Wikipedia, 2024) ⇒ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ritual Retrieved:2024-3-9.
- A ritual is a sequence of activities involving gestures, words, actions, or revered objects. Rituals may be prescribed by the traditions of a community, including a religious community. Rituals are characterized, but not defined, by formalism, traditionalism, invariance, rule-governance, sacral symbolism, and performance. Rituals are a feature of all known human societies. They include not only the worship rites and sacraments of organized religions and cults, but also rites of passage, atonement and purification rites, oaths of allegiance, dedication ceremonies, coronations and presidential inaugurations, marriages, funerals and more. Even common actions like hand-shaking and saying "hello" may be termed as rituals. The field of ritual studies has seen a number of conflicting definitions of the term. One given by Kyriakidis is that a ritual is an outsider's or "etic" category for a set activity (or set of actions) that, to the outsider, seems irrational, non-contiguous, or illogical. The term can be used also by the insider or "emic" performer as an acknowledgement that this activity can be seen as such by the uninitiated onlooker.
In psychology, the term ritual is sometimes used in a technical sense for a repetitive behavior systematically used by a person to neutralize or prevent anxiety; it can be a symptom of obsessive–compulsive disorder but obsessive-compulsive ritualistic behaviors are generally isolated activities.
- A ritual is a sequence of activities involving gestures, words, actions, or revered objects. Rituals may be prescribed by the traditions of a community, including a religious community. Rituals are characterized, but not defined, by formalism, traditionalism, invariance, rule-governance, sacral symbolism, and performance. Rituals are a feature of all known human societies. They include not only the worship rites and sacraments of organized religions and cults, but also rites of passage, atonement and purification rites, oaths of allegiance, dedication ceremonies, coronations and presidential inaugurations, marriages, funerals and more. Even common actions like hand-shaking and saying "hello" may be termed as rituals. The field of ritual studies has seen a number of conflicting definitions of the term. One given by Kyriakidis is that a ritual is an outsider's or "etic" category for a set activity (or set of actions) that, to the outsider, seems irrational, non-contiguous, or illogical. The term can be used also by the insider or "emic" performer as an acknowledgement that this activity can be seen as such by the uninitiated onlooker.