What is A Ritual ? Explained

Introduction
The Nature of Rituals
The Definitions of Rituals

Introduction

We have all likely engaged in ritual activity at some point in our lives. But we never really considered how to interpret this ritual. What significance do these rituals have for both society and the individual?

The systematic study of the ritual phenomenon in human society is a relatively new area of research.

Numerous academics in the fields of sociology, anthropology, and psychology are interested in rituals. To our understanding of ritual, they have contributed a variety of theories and explanations. There is no particular area of sociology dedicated to the study of ritual. Usually, it is a component of much larger religious studies.

Let's take a quick look at what exactly is meant by the term "ritual" before moving on to the various definitions of the term. Today, any repetitive, patterned, and possibly monotonous human activity is frequently referred to as a ritual. Thus, it is common to discuss "the ritual of exams," "the ritual of Republic Day parades," or "the ritualistic nature of work.". All of these and many other instances use the word ritual as an adjective to describe how repetitive or similar the activity being described is. It is not incorrect to use the term ritual in this way because, as we shall see, it contains some significant and fundamental aspects of the term.

The Nature of Rituals

The term "ritual" is used to refer to two different sets of activities in the ethnographic descriptions of rituals in various cultures provided by scholars like Edward Tylor, James Frazer, Bronislaw Malinowski, Emile Durkheim, and many others.

In the ethnographic description of rituals in diverse cultures given by scholars like Edward Tylor, James Frazer, Bronislaw Malinowski, Emile Durkheim and many others, the term ritual is used to denote two separate sets of activities.

Additionally, members of a faith perform ritualistic religious acts in their own homes. As a result, these believers perform rituals in their homes on specific occasions, such as the Hindu family performing "pooja," the Muslim family performing "namaz," or the Christian family reciting "the rosary" at the time of prayer.
A second set of human activities that are identified as rituals are those associated with individual life cycle as they move from one social setting to the next.

The Definitions' of Rituals

The definition of the word ritual is a topic on which academics disagree. There are many reasons for this, including the fact that the theoretical orientation the scholar is working within would prompt one type of definition as opposed to another from a different theoretical orientation. Second, a definition of ritual would be created to fit such a purpose depending on what the scholar wants to know about ritual. Thus, for instance, there are those who ask, "What does a ritual do for those who participate in it?" and others who would ask, "What does ritual say for those participating in it?" Both questions have a very different emphasis, and as a result, they would result in very different definitions of the term "ritual.".

Another issue is that most academics who study rituals actually focus more on the larger topic of ritual interpretation than the actual ritual phenomenon. Thus, these scholars' understanding of religion had a significant impact on how ritual was defined.

Despite these obstacles, it is still possible to present some significant arguments against rituals made by some of these academics researching religion and its impact on society.

1) The Evolutionalist understanding of ritual

Religion was viewed by early evolutionary scholars like Tylor, Frazer, Morgan, and others as fitting into an evolutionary pattern, much like the majority of other institutions of society. Frazer and Tylor were inclined to describe religion as a developing set of beliefs. It is believed that rituals represent the beginning of this evolution. As the pre-religious stage or the animistic stage, Tylor referred to this initial stage as "magic" or "the original stage.". As a result of early humans' need to understand dreams, hallucinations, sleep, and death, they began to believe in a soul or an residing personality who eventually became the focus of ritual worship. This is how he observed rituals emerging from the cult of the dead. In the animistic stage, this innate personality is expanded to encompass all living things, including plants, animals, and even inanimate objects. Rituals are actions carried out in this animistic stage that are highly emotive, expressive to the point of being dramatic, irrational, and based on magical beliefs, according to Tylor's definition in his book Primitive Culture (1958).

In two critical eects, the evolutionist definition of ritual was found to be inadequate. First, it was an intellectual understanding of rituals as understood within the larger context of religion itself evolving. Tylor asserts that this evolution involved a change from nihilism and animism to religion and then to science. Second, Tylor limited his observations of ritualistic behavior to the earliest forms of human society. From a scientific perspective, such conceptions were not only speculative and conjectural but also fell short of explaining rituals as they were practiced in the world's organized religions.

2) Functionalist understanding of ritual

Emile Durkheim's functionalist approach sought to establish a connection between society and religion by starting out from a different orientation to religion and ritual by asking, "What does religion do to those who participate in its beliefs and practices?". All human societies are split into the opposing domains of "sacred" and "profane," according to Durkheirn, who made this observation in The Elementary Forms of Religious Life (1912–1954). These two areas were distinct and segregated from one another. Things that were forbidden and set aside made up the damain of the sacred. Things that weren't given much respect and belonged on the ordinary level made up the profane domain.

Durkheim defined ritual as human behavior that takes place in the sacred realm. Durkheim created the framework for an empirical investigation of religion and the interactions between its practices and beliefs and the larger human society by identifying the specific setting in which religious activities take place.

An increase in anthropological field studies of the sacred has been seen as a result of the empirical emphasis placed on the study of religion. To further explore the interrelationship between society and religion, researchers like Maliniowski, Radcliffe-Brown, Evans-Pritchard, and others looked at the religious practices and beliefs of yarious tribal societies. Talcott Parsons, reviewing the work done in the Sociology of Religion, notes that rituals are human practices within the realm of the sacred that are characterized by their essential non-rational or transcendental nature, improving on the definition of rituals offered by Durkheim and orienting the meaning of rituals within the theory of the Social System. Parsons is saying that ritual behavior exists outside of means-end relationships, in contrast to human rational behavior, which takes place within a relationship between means and ends. They stand alone as a goal in themselves.

3) Psychoanalytic understanding of ritual

In his book Totem and Taboo (1918), Sigmund Freud defined rituals as those distinctively non-rational or formalized symbolic beliefs of any kind that are different from pragmatic, belief that is rationally linked to empirical goals. Freud used nearly the same ideas of the means-end relationship to understand human activity.

Furthermore, Freud attempted to highlight the crucial neurotic component of ritual behavior within religious practices by distancing ritual behavior from both the academic and common sense. Understanding how the conscious mind interacts with the world of the sacred is the primary focus of this Freudian interpretation of ritual. Such behavior, in Frued's opinion, is "neurotic" because it defies all empirical and pragmatic explanations. In his essay, he even attempted to characterize religion as an example of "obsessive collective neurosis.". Ritual behavior is the practice that most clearly manifests this neurosis in the sacred realm in both individual and group behavior.

4) The symbolic component of ritual

Social and Cultural Anthropology has made an effort to offer a new interpretation of religious practices by treating rituals as symbolic elements of a culture. Rituals are behavioral patterns that are culturally oriented and aim to make a symbolic declaration about how humans relate to a Supreme Being, according to cultural anthropologist Edrnund Leach. Scholars of culture have long emphasized the rituals' symbolic significance. The significance of Leach's definition lies in the emphasis it places on the symbolic nature of these cultural patterns. In other words, Leach is also attempting to understand what rituals say in addition to what they do. Leach emphasizes the fact that the social and cultural life of the group was the source of these symbolic assertions in order to highlight their significance. Leach is attempting to highlight the close relationship between society and religion in the area of religious practices, much like Durkheim did before him.