Dylan Lorio-MacNamara - The Ritual Process, Chapter 1, thoughts
I found this particular passage to be quite intriguing, where Turner quotes Monica Wilson's description of ritual studies:
"Rituals reveal values at their deepest level...men express in ritual what moves them most, and since the form of expression is convetionalized and obligatory, it is the values of the group that are revealed. I see in the study of rituals the key to an understanding of the essential constitution of human societies" (p. 6).
Wilson explains that since ritual practices are indicative of an individual's values, and since rituals are performed in group contexts, we can learn to perceive the values of the larger culture in which an individual operates by studying ritual behaviors. I find it interesting when I learn new ways of looking at the world to first try to apply that new method to our own culture. In this case, that would mean examining what kinds of rituals I perform, my friends and family perform, in our everyday lives; ideally, this will reveal some deeper cultural value to which we are appealing, and we can then investigate whether we truly believe in that value or if we have only been passively accepting it. A fun example is the ritual practice of brushing my teeth. I think it's fair to say that American culture places a good amount of emphasis on dental health; most of us are taught from a very young age how and why we should brush our teeth. It is so engrained in me that for the greater part of my life I would essentially forget that I was doing it while I was doing it, kind of shut my mind off for a minute or so every morning and night. It is certainly a ritual I perform twice daily, but why exactly do I do it? Could it point to some cultural attitude about the appearance of one's teeth and perceived wealth/success? There's certainly an argument to be made, anyways.
My broader point here is that I think we should remember that in studying primal religions, its easy to approach another culture from an ethnocentric view, but we should work hard to escape that lens. Our own culture is just as open to be dissected, classified and, potentially, misrepresented by others. Trying to put yourself outside of your own culture and inside another is an intimate, delicate process that requires a lot of cognitive openness and effort.
"Rituals reveal values at their deepest level...men express in ritual what moves them most, and since the form of expression is convetionalized and obligatory, it is the values of the group that are revealed. I see in the study of rituals the key to an understanding of the essential constitution of human societies" (p. 6).
Wilson explains that since ritual practices are indicative of an individual's values, and since rituals are performed in group contexts, we can learn to perceive the values of the larger culture in which an individual operates by studying ritual behaviors. I find it interesting when I learn new ways of looking at the world to first try to apply that new method to our own culture. In this case, that would mean examining what kinds of rituals I perform, my friends and family perform, in our everyday lives; ideally, this will reveal some deeper cultural value to which we are appealing, and we can then investigate whether we truly believe in that value or if we have only been passively accepting it. A fun example is the ritual practice of brushing my teeth. I think it's fair to say that American culture places a good amount of emphasis on dental health; most of us are taught from a very young age how and why we should brush our teeth. It is so engrained in me that for the greater part of my life I would essentially forget that I was doing it while I was doing it, kind of shut my mind off for a minute or so every morning and night. It is certainly a ritual I perform twice daily, but why exactly do I do it? Could it point to some cultural attitude about the appearance of one's teeth and perceived wealth/success? There's certainly an argument to be made, anyways.
My broader point here is that I think we should remember that in studying primal religions, its easy to approach another culture from an ethnocentric view, but we should work hard to escape that lens. Our own culture is just as open to be dissected, classified and, potentially, misrepresented by others. Trying to put yourself outside of your own culture and inside another is an intimate, delicate process that requires a lot of cognitive openness and effort.
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