Ritual

1. Chapter 5 Ritual

2. change of seasons (solstices, equinoxes , new year, planting, harvest) Historical event remembered 2 broad categories of sacred ritual Life Cycle Calendar • birth • puberty • adulthood • marriage • religious initiation • death

3. Atonement for defilement, transgression, sin Escaping violence or maintaining peace by transferring aggression outside of the community Offering Sacrifices Scapegoat Syria, Greece, Israel

4. dromenon (greek): a thing done to achieve a specific end  rite (latin) Just as a symbol is a meaningful sign, ritual is a meaningful action (movements, sounds) Ritual Confucius taught that rituals from the Cho dynasty needed to be revived in order to create virtuous people and rulers. Without ritual he believed one could not have a just, ordered society or raise responsible adults

5. Arnold van Gennep (anthropologist) wrote The Rites of Passage (1909) {see p. 77, bottom} 3 stages: separation, transition, reincorporation Victor Turner (anthropologist) called the transitional stage liminal (limes= border, threshold) . He called reincorporation into the community communitas. Rites of passage serve both the individual and the community

6. The pledge of allegiance Exchange of wedding rings & vows Graduation ceremonies Blowing out birthday candles Fireworks on 4th of July Raising of the flag – flying at half-mast Funerals - Burial Secular examples of ritual actions