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A ritual is a sequence of activities involving gestures, words, actions, or revered objects. [1] [2] 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.
Leaving the sphere of historical religions, the ritual-from-myth approach often sees the relationship between myth and ritual as analogous to the relationship between science and technology. The pioneering anthropologist Edward Burnett Tylor is the classic exponent of this view. [ 6 ]
For artistic endeavors, tradition has been used as a contrast to creativity, with traditional and folk art associated with unoriginal imitation or repetition, in contrast to fine art, which is valued for being original and unique. More recent philosophy of art, however, considers interaction with tradition as integral to the development of new ...
The ritual view of communication is a communications theory proposed by James W. Carey, wherein communication–the construction of a symbolic reality–represents, maintains, adapts, and shares the beliefs of a society in time. In short, the ritual view conceives communication as a process that enables and enacts societal transformation.
The relationship between religion and myth depends on what definition of "myth" one uses. By Robert Graves's definition, a religion's traditional stories are "myths" if and only if one does not belong to the religion in question. By Segal's definition, all religious stories are myths—but simply because nearly all stories are myths.
Yoder's third definition was that often employed within folkloristics, which held that folk religion was "the interaction of belief, ritual, custom, and mythology in traditional societies", representing that which was often pejoratively characterised as superstition. [6]
Rituals allow group members to experience the power of the group over the self. Additionally, ritualization in the form of punishment for deviance serves as a potent method for curbing deviant behavior in traditional societies. By enforcing moral boundaries, ritual punishment helps to preserve social cohesion and unity within the group.
All this apparently formed part of a cosmetics industry dated to between 100,000 and 200,000 years ago. [11] One theory is that this constitutes evidence for a ritual tradition. [12] A bone apparently engraved with six lines from ~120 kya is one of the oldest deliberate abstract manifestations produced hominins. [13]