Theories of Cultural Change - Ritual

Theories of Cultural Change ANTH 2301 Ritual Ritual is a unique sort of repetitive, structured behaviour that is typically connected with a specific meaning. It combines objects, actions, and meanings. Rituals include routine actions including gestures, music, and movement, as well as symbols and roles. Experts carry out a lot of rituals in social contexts to achieve particular objectives for the community or the individual. Rituals unite worldviews, behaviours, and symbols. Think about this common American custom. Many Americans get together at one other's houses on the first Sunday in February to watch the National Football League (NFL) championship game every year on television. This behaviour is so common that many Christian churches cancel afternoon and evening programmes, and stores are almost completely vacant. The ritual as a whole consists of several roles and interactions in addition to customary meanings and predictable behaviours. The two sides are pitted against one another in a crazy game where a strangely shaped ball is dragged forward in full-frontal assault campaigns over a field that has been marked out with markers. Referees, coaches, camera crews, and cheerleaders surround the players; each group plays a tactical part in the action. Commentators surround the field, providing context and interpretation to the game's activities. Some follow the game intently at home, commenting on the analysts' remarks and expressing happiness or disappointment. While socialising with one another, other folks sporadically watch the game. On Super Bowl Sunday, Americans eat and drink enormous amounts. Pizza, potato chips, dips, and grilled chicken wings are typical fare. The preferred libation on this particular occasion is beer. Super Bowl Sunday is a celebration of rivalry, attendance, and consumerism that serves as a powerful ritual for upholding prevailing beliefs in a corporate capitalism-dominated society. The several tiers of play and consumption are also laced with ideas of gender, ethnicity, and class. Leaders in the Akan communities of central and southern Ghana, West Africa, carry out a ceremony known as Adae that strengthens cultural links to authority figures, ancestors, and shared wealth by utilising significant cultural symbols. In Akan culture, individuals get unique wooden stools to commemorate life milestones like puberty and marriage. It is said that a person's stool holds their personal strength, which represents their soul. A stool house, also known as a nkonuafieso, is a unique hut where the stool of a distinguished person is kept after their death. A community leader leads a procession to the stool house of the community's ancestral elders twice every 42 days, once on a Wednesday and once on a Sunday. To show their humility and reverence for the ancestors, the leader entering the stool house is required to take off their sandals and lower the cloth slung across their shoulders. Next, the leader extends a warm greeting to each of the ancestor leaders individually, presenting food and drink offerings and requesting blessings and prosperity for the neighbourhood. A person transitioning from one social position to another is marked by unique ceremonies known as rites of passage. Common rites of passage include naming rituals, puberty rites, marriages, and funerals. Three stages of rites of passage were recognised by anthropologist Arnold van Gennep in 1960: inclusion, transition, and separation. In the first stage, known as separation, people or groups are removed from their regular social environment and their initial social standing. People live in a state of flux during the second phase, known as transition, when they defy accepted conventions about behaviour and attire. During this stage, individuals are frequently forced to participate in strange activities, wear elaborate costumes, and receive specific training on top-secret information. During the third stage, individuals are reintegrated into society through a formal ceremony and assigned to a new social category. In many communities, initiation rites are a typical rite of passage. Young people in many African communities that follow the initiation ritual are assembled in groups and brought to a designated camp located outside of their town or village. The phase of separation is this. Members of the group are required to adhere to a same set of norms and schedule of activities throughout the next phase, known as transition, and are frequently dressed identically. They might have to pull off odd tasks like consuming unfamiliar meals. Their body might have tattoos or be scarified. They receive unique information from elders that is necessary for them to carry out their future duties as men or women. Girls may be taught clear lessons on conception and delivery, for example. After the change is finished, initiates are presented as men or women when they return to the town or hamlet. After initiation, a young lady is frequently declared legally qualified for romance and marriage.