Ritualizing the Routine: Collective Identity Affirmation

Groups use rituals to create and preserve collective identities. Separation of sacred practices from customary activities has long been considered a key property of ritual. However, customary activities form the basis of some ritual celebrations. We explain how a different process of identity creation results: identity affirmation. We find that groups affirm their customary practices on ritual occasions when they intend to celebrate practices already associated with the sacred, and we explain the structure of such rituals using a case study of a university centennial celebration. We argue that attention to variation in ritual casts light on the values and collective identity of groups.     

Mediatized Ritual – Expanding the Field in the Study of Media and Ritual

The purpose of the article Mediatized ritual – Expanding the field in the study of media and ritual is to identify the key debates in present‐day scholarship on media and ritual and bring them into dialogue with current theorizing on the mediatization of society and culture. The article consists of three parts. The first presents a short outline of the study of media and ritual in modern life. The second discusses the idea of mediatized ritual as an evolving concept in the field. The third provides an empirical illustration of the mediatization of ritual by applying the concept to the analysis of the death of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher (1925–2013). In conclusion, it is argued that to study mediatized rituals in today's society is to face the theoretical and empirical challenge of engaging the two social realms of ritual and media in a close interplay. This intellectual venture changes our understanding not only of rituals and media (what they are and what they do) but also of society. This said, to study mediatized rituals is, in fact, to study society in action.     

STRATEGIC RITUALIZATION AND ETHNICITY: ATYPOLOGY AND ANALYSIS OF RITUAL ENACTMENTS IN AN ITALIAN AMERICAN COMMUNITY

This investigation utilizes a theoretical framework that focuses on ritual enactments to examine the ways members of an Italian American community in southeastern Oklahoma use social rituals to achieve different outcomes. Several methodological strategies (especially interviews and historical analysis) are utilized to document how individuals within this ethnic community have, for over the last century, employed numerous rituals to, among other things, express their ethnicity, create community ties, enhance personal gain, and survive. Building upon the theory of structural ritualization, the concept of strategic ritualization is employed and expanded upon to examine this issue. A typology of three types of strategic ritualization is presented and defined: ritual legitimators, ritual entrepreneurs, and ritual sponsors. This conceptualization represents the first elaboration of structural ritualization theory addressing this topic. In focusing on this little studied ethnic community, the importance of ritualized practices and their strategicuse throughout society are emphasized. The relation of this research to broader concerns dealing with the social constructionist approach to ethnicity and the intersection of decision-making, culture, and structure are briefly highlighted and directions for future theory development and research are indicated.     

“ZA DUSHA”: AN INTERPRETATION OF FUNERAL PRACTICES IN MACEDONIA*

Anthropologists and sociologists have generally approached an understanding of funeral rituals in terms of their psychological or social consequences. Such functional analyses have typically depended on regarding ritual behaviors as learned reponses that symbolically create or affirm the society's organizational “rules”. An alternative or supplemental approach is the view that ritual behavior, and thus ritual content, results from purposive interactions between individuals determined by their interpretations of the ritual's interactive situation. An elaboration of this view is offered in an examination of funeral practices in the developing city of Skopje in Yugoslav Macedonia where the many commemoratives for the dead typically result in great costs of time, money and effort. Variations and changes in funeral rituals are related to different strategies of adjustment to the city, and, in particular, to the creation and maintenance of relationships within a network of specific others that is essential to urban adaptation. Ritual is also described as providing a means of social boundary maintenance, in addition to the creation of these social networks, thus limiting obligations and claims on resources.     

Die Wirkung organisationaler Rituale – Eine qualitative Interviewstudie

Organizational rituals pose a paradox. They are ubiquitous in business and other organizations; however, they do not fulfill an obvious organizational purpose. Psychological research on ritual suggests that group rituals fulfill important social functions and thereby solve the adaptive problems associated with living in large groups. Prior research on organizational ritual is dominated by case studies that often neglect the ritual participants’ perspective. Thus, in this article we aim at investigating which effects organizational members attribute to organizational rituals and at tapping into the implicit theories concerning the evolution of these effects. Based on qualitative interviews conducted with employees of different organizations from different sectors, holding different positions and employment contracts, the effects of organizational rituals on the individual as well as on the group level will be presented. Results suggest that organizational group rituals are linked above all with positive effects, whereby fostering and establishing group cohesion is the most frequently mentioned effect. The article will conclude with practical implications derived from the study results.     

SOCIAL DENSITY AND PUBLIC RITUAL IN NON-INDUSTRIAL COMMUNITIES

An implication of Durkheimian theory—that different types of rites and the elaborateness of public rituals are determined by social density—is empirically tested, using data available for 183 non-industrial communities derived from Murdock's Standard Cross-Cultural Sample. Support for the hypothesis is sustained even when alternative predicting variables are added. Contrary to social evolutionist theory, an increase in the division of labor does not appear to suppress ritual activity. This reaffirms the interest of some contemporary sociologists in ferreting out the forms and functions of ritual in modern societies.     

The Real Book of Mormon Musical: Latter-day Saint Family Home Evening as a Weekly Ritual

Abstract

Scholars of religious ritual have noted that inadequate attention has been paid to religious ritual in the social sciences. Based on what has been done, it is apparent that sacred family rituals (when done well and with relational sensitivity) can enhance structure, meaning, and family unity. The present study examines the family-level ritual practice of weekly Family Home Evening among members of 26 Latter-day Saint (LDS) families (N?=?58 individuals). Qualitative analyses found the following three themes: (a) Family Home Evening as a Conversation; (b) Challenges of Family Home Evening; and (c) The Value of Family Home Evening. Primary data that support and illustrate the three themes are presented, along with implications and applications.     

Retheorising Emile Durkheim on society and religion: embodiment,intoxication and collective life

In this paper we argue that Emile Durkheim's sociology contains within it a theory of society and religion as a form of embodied intoxication that is implicit in his writings on effervescent assemblies but has not yet been explicated or developed fully by subsequent commentators. This holds that for social or religious collectivities to exist, the bodies of individuals must be both marked by insignia, customs and techniques that facilitate the possibility of culturally normative patterns of recognition, interaction and action, while also being excited, enthused or intoxicated sufficiently to be inhabited as collective rather than egoistic beings. Our paper begins by investigating the central features of Durkheim's theory – including his interest in the ritual steering of these processes – as developed most fully in his last major study, The Elementary Forms of Religious Life. We then develop our own analysis of Durkheim's concern that modernity has stimulated a rise in ‘abnormal’ forms of embodied intoxication that fail to attach individuals to the wider societies in which they live, and demonstrate the utility of our analytical framework by employing it to assess the recent resurgence of charismatic Christian revivalism.     

Wanting To Be Remembered: Intrinsically Rewarding Work and Generativity in Early Midlife

Previous research on generativity, the desire to leave a legacy through establishing and guiding the next generation, has focused primarily on family life and civic engagement as pathways to midlife generativity. This paper proposes that intrinsically rewarding work can also be associated with a heightened sense of generativity in midlife. We test this hypothesis with data (n = 369 employed individuals, approximately 43 years old) from the 2010 wave of the Edmonton Transitions Study. Civic engagement was positively associated with midlife generativity, as predicted, but the hypothesized positive relationship between generativity and perceived parenting success was not found. Taking into account civic engagement and perceived parenting success, and controlling on a range of other variables, intrinsically rewarding work was positively associated with midlife feelings of generativity.     

Experiences from Pagan women: A closer look at croning rituals

In this qualitative study I explore how Pagan women conceptualize aging, more specifically social aging, through the ritual process of being a Pagan and becoming a Crone. The central question of this research revolves around how older women who identify as Pagan experience, understand, and conceptualize their social aging and their role as aging women in American society. Semi-structured interviews were used to collect data and explore the meaning of aging for women identifying as Pagan. Major emergent themes within the data demonstrate that the croning ritual, a central aspect of Paganism, affirms these women in their process of aging. These women, through the ritual of croning, are able to understand their aging as celebration, maintain a positive sense of self while aging, and reclaim visibility as aging women. These women were able to embed their experiences of aging within a unique and specific cultural framework, a spiritual and foundational framework cultivating a spiritual connection with nature.     

Muir,Roosevelt, and Yosemite National Park as an Emergent Sacred Symbol: An Interaction Ritual Analysis of a Camping Trip

We argue that interaction ritual (IR) theory provides a temporal and interactional point of origin from which to trace an influential IR chain that became a deciding factor in the unification of Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa Grove under federal control within present‐day Yosemite National Park. The emotions generated by the rituals of Roosevelt's and Muir's camping trip in May, 1903 in the short term, however, failed to result in a lasting consensus on ideology. This is a point that Roosevelt's lack of support for Muir in the subsequent controversy over the damming of the Hetch Hetchy Valley clearly documents. A video abstract is available at http://tinyurl.com/myv74yd     

Social capital as social relations: the contribution of normative structures

This paper presents a framework for social capital that highlights the normative structures through which it is manifested. The primary focus is on the ways that norms structure the relationships in which social capital is embedded. To this end, we introduce four types of normative structures which condition social capital: market, bureaucratic, associative, and communal. A field site in Japan is used to illustrate how different aspects of social capital interact. This case analysis also serves to make an important distinction between the availability and use of social capital. The central arguments are that 1) social capital is organized in different ways by the normative structures in which it is embedded; 2) there are important interactions between these different aspects of social capital that are often overlooked by simpler frameworks; 3) a useful distinction can be made between available social capital and used social capital; 4) access to social capital can be used to analyze power relations; and 5) distinguishing different aspects of social capital makes areas visible that are overlooked by other understandings of social capital. We conclude by identifying the utility of our perspective for informing public policy and guiding future research.     

Ritual Power: Risk,Rumours and Religious Pluralism on Lombok

This article shows how rituals occupy a key role in the negotiation of inter-religious relations on the island of Lombok. Building on the argument set out in Howe’s 2000 article on ‘Risk, Ritual and Performance’ in the Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute that the anthropology of ritual has much to gain by focusing on risk, this article takes the rhetorical evocation of risk as a focus of inquiry, thereby refining understandings of how ritual efficacy are discursively generated. Examining a contested Hindu ritual performed in 2007, the article traces the representations of risk being mobilised by three sets of actors with stakes in the performance, showing how the ritual was a compromise co-produced by the Hindu Balinese organisers, Sasak Muslim groups and government officials. The article also uses this controversy to illustrate that Balinese and Sasak, despite adhering to different religions, share key assumptions about the power of ritual.     

Therapeutic ritual. Helping families grow

1. Family development can be inhibited by lack of social or family rituals to facilitate life cycle transitions. Therapeutic rituals can be used to help families mobilize their resources for healing, growth, and change. 2. A therapeutic ritual can help a family to resolve conflicts and resentments, to negotiate new roles and relational boundaries, and to develop new shared meanings among its members about their ongoing life together. 3. The success of a therapeutic intervention is influenced by the nurse-therapist's understanding of the family's culture, values, and needs, as well as familiarity with the directive nature of strategic therapy concepts on which therapeutic rituals are based.     

Transnational households and ritual: an overview

In this article we introduce five papers, all by social anthropologists, all concerned with transnational households and ritual. Despite wide–ranging research on transnational migration and diasporas, many aspects have been accorded less consideration than they deserve. The transnational practices of migrant families, other than remittances and other economic activity, remain under–investigated. Some thought has been given to the transnational dimension of religious belief systems, notably Islam, but the micro–politics of religion has been largely ignored, and there has been little discussion of transnational religious practices (rituals) at the level of households and families, especially those performed by migrants back in their countries of origin. Household–level analyses of the performances of and meanings attributed to life–crisis rituals and consideration of what Salih has called the ‘transnational division of ritual space’ offer a valuable route to understanding relations between place, culture, ethnicity and gender among migrants in a transnational world, and illuminate contemporary processes of globalization.     

Competing for orthodoxy: territorial kings and the creation of lineages among the Tujia

This paper explores cultural unity and diversity in terms of the origins of orthodoxy. First, it examines the long-standing tradition of territorial kings (tuwang) in the local context – this tradition persisted even under the native chieftain (tusi) system imposed by imperial states. Secondly, it argues that the dual identities of native chieftains reflect competing claims to orthodoxy. Native chieftains derive their legitimacy not only from the state but also from their territory. To root their legitimacy in the territory itself, native chieftains emphasized their ancestors’ heroic events and their own ability as territorial kings to protect the region from invasions by other chieftains as well as the imperial state, while also stressing their ability to provide continued spiritual protection after their deaths. This paper furthermore shows that, in the process of constructing a system of ritual orthopraxy through incorporating state-promoted rituals like ancestor worship, native chieftains gained legitimacy by integrating Tujia society, on the one hand, while expanding their territories along the Western Hunan Miao frontier, on the other hand.     

Ritual,Change and Psychotherapy

Symptomatic behavior often appears or is initially perceived during transitional stages in the life cycle when changes in behavior and relationships are culturally appropriate. Symptomatic behavior legitimates lack of change in the relationships of the symptomatic individual and those in his or her social context. By this it provides a pseudo-solution to the universal problem of dependency and autonomy (Sluzki & Vernon, 1971), which must be solved by individuals in every society. Many non-Western societies have rites of passage (van Gennep, 1960) to ritualistically mark significant transition. The performance of these rituals helps individuals change their position in the social context while at the same time validating the context. Rites of passage are characterized by paradoxical communications. The paradoxical structure of these rituals will be described and implications for the use of ritual in family therapy will be suggested using a case example as illustration.     

Unmasking Racism: Halloween Costuming and Engagement of the Racial Other

We explore Halloween as a uniquely constructive space for engaging racial concepts and identities, particularly through ritual costuming. Data were collected using 663 participant observation journals from college students across the U.S. During Halloween, many individuals actively engage the racial other in costuming across racial/ethnic lines. Although some recognize the significance of racial stereotyping in costuming, it is often dismissed as being part of the holiday's social context. We explore the costumes worn, as well as responses to cross-racial costuming, analyzing how “playing” with racialized concepts and making light of them in the “safe” context of Halloween allows students to trivialize and reproduce racial stereotypes while supporting the racial hierarchy. We argue that unlike traditional “rituals of rebellion,” wherein subjugated groups temporarily assume powerful roles, whites contemporarily engage Halloween as a sort of “ritual of rebellion” in response to the seemingly restrictive social context of the post-Civil Rights era, and in a way that ultimately reinforces white dominance.

Social work research as a practice of transparency

Social work research is inherently normative and as such the assumptions about social problems in social work research should be open to scrutiny and contestation. But although researchers often face tussles and huge contradictions, they rarely articulate them. In this article, we report on a small research project in which a collective of social work researchers in Flanders (the Dutch speaking part of Belgium) tried to think critically through some of the questions and complexities they were confronted with in social work research, more specifically in research on poverty. Our research aim implied that we tried to discuss the choices that were made during a diversity of research projects, including making explicit the grounds on which this happened. We learned that the choices made, although they seem to be very obvious ones, often remained implicit during the different research processes. We conclude that social work research requires that researchers attempt to realize a practice of transparency. The pursuit of such a practice of transparency refers to the importance of the creation of reflexive space in research communities to collectively embrace and discuss the complexities of social work research.     

Interaction Ritual Chains and Religious Participation1

This article explores congregational‐level influences on religious participation by adding a distinctively sociological approach to the debate through the application of Collins’s interaction ritual chain theory—a reinterpretation and integration of Durkheim and Goffman—at a congregational level of analysis. Arguing that the congregational worship service can be understood as an interaction ritual, this article offers an initial exploration of the role of effective ritual in increasing religious participation rates. Using the National Congregation Study (1998) data set, the findings from the multiple regression analysis offer support for both interaction ritual chains and religious economies predictors on a congregational attendance ratio.