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{{Short description|Activities performed according to a set sequence}}
{{other uses|Ritual (disambiguation)|Rite (disambiguation)}}
[[Image:Gandrung banyuwangi.jpg|thumb|A [[Javanese culture|Javanese]] ritual dance dedicated to the goddess of rice and fertility, [[Dewi Sri]]]]
{{Anthropology of religion|Basic}}

A '''ritual''' is a repeated, structured sequence of actions or behaviors that alters the internal or external state of an individual, group, or environment, regardless of conscious understanding, emotional context, or symbolic meaning.{{sfn|Bell|1997}}{{pn|date=June 2025}} Traditionally associated with gestures, words, or revered objects, rituals also occur in non-human species, such as elephant mourning or corvid object-leaving.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Eilam |first1=David |title=Rituals, stereotypy and compulsive behavior in animals and humans |journal=Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews |volume=30 |issue=3 |pages=456–471 |year=2006 |doi=10.1016/j.neubiorev.2005.08.003}}</ref> They may be prescribed by tradition, including religious practices, and are often characterized by formalism, traditionalism, rule-governance, and performance.<ref>{{cite book |last=Rappaport |first=Roy |title=Ritual and Religion in the Making of Humanity |year=1999 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0521296908}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Turner |first1=Victor Witter |title=Symbols in African Ritual |journal=Science |volume=179 |issue=4078 |pages=1100–1105 |year=1973 |doi=10.1126/science.179.4078.1100}}</ref>

Rituals are a feature of all known human societies.<ref>{{cite book|last=Brown|first=Donald|title=[[Human Universals]]|year=1991|publisher=McGraw Hill|location=United States|pages=139}}</ref> They include not only the [[worship]] rites and [[sacrament]]s of organized religions and [[cult]]s, but also [[rites of passage]], atonement and [[ritual purification|purification rites]], [[oaths of allegiance]], dedication ceremonies, [[coronation]]s and presidential [[inauguration]]s, marriages, funerals and more. Even common actions like [[handshake|hand-shaking]] and saying "[[hello]]" may be termed as ''rituals''.

The field of ritual studies has seen a number of conflicting definitions of the term. One given by Kyriakidis is that a ritual is an outsider's or "[[Emic and etic|etic]]" category for a set activity (or set of actions) that, to the outsider, seems irrational, non-contiguous, or illogical. The term can be used also by the insider or "[[Emic and etic|emic]]" performer as an acknowledgement that this activity can be seen as such by the uninitiated onlooker.<ref>{{cite book|editor-last=Kyriakidis|editor-first=E.|title=The archaeology of ritual.|year=2007|publisher=Cotsen Institute of Archaeology UCLA publications}}</ref>

{{anchor|Psychology}}
In [[psychology]], the term ''ritual'' is sometimes used in a technical sense for a repetitive behavior systematically used by a person to neutralize or prevent anxiety; it can be a symptom of [[obsessive–compulsive disorder]] but obsessive-compulsive ritualistic behaviors are generally isolated activities.

==Etymology==
The English word ''ritual'' derives from the [[Latin]] ''ritualis,'' "that which pertains to [[wikt:rite|rite]] ''([[Glossary of ancient Roman religion#ritus|ritus]]'')". In Roman [[Roman law|juridical]] and [[Religion in ancient Rome|religious]] usage, ''ritus'' was the proven way ''([[mos maiorum|mos]])'' of doing something,<ref>[[Sextus Pompeius Festus|Festus]], entry on ''ritus'', p. 364 (edition of Lindsay).</ref> or "correct performance, custom".<ref>Barbara Boudewijnse, "British Roots of the Concept of Ritual," in ''Religion in the Making: The Emergence of the Sciences of Religion'' (Brill, 1998), p. 278.</ref> The original concept of ''ritus'' may be related to the [[Sanskrit]] ''[[Rta|ṛtá]]'' ("visible order)" in [[Historical Vedic religion|Vedic religion]], "the lawful and regular order of the normal, and therefore proper, natural and true structure of cosmic, worldly, human and ritual events".<ref>Boudewijnse, "British Roots of the Concept of Ritual," p. 278.</ref> The word "ritual" is first recorded in English in 1570, and came into use in the 1600s to mean "the prescribed order of performing religious services" or more particularly a book of these prescriptions.<ref>Boudewijnse, "British Roots of the Concept of Ritual," p. 278, citing the ''[[Oxford English Dictionary]]''.</ref>

== Characteristics ==
{{anchor|actions}}
There are hardly any limits to the kind of actions that may be incorporated into a ritual. The rites of past and present societies have typically involved special gestures and words, recitation of fixed texts, performance of special [[music]], [[singing|songs]] or [[dance]]s, processions, manipulation of certain objects, use of special dresses, consumption of special [[food]], [[drink]], or [[entheogen|drugs]], and much more.{{sfnp|Tolbert|1990a}}{{sfnp|Tolbert|1990b}}{{sfnp|Wilce|2006}}

[[Catherine Bell (religious studies scholar)|Catherine Bell]] argues that rituals can be characterized by formalism, traditionalism, invariance, rule-governance, sacral symbolism and performance.{{sfnp|Bell|1997|pp=[https://archive.org/details/ritualperspectiv00bell/page/n154 138]-169}}

=== Formalism ===
[[File:IteMissaEst.jpg|thumb|The use of Latin in a [[Tridentine Mass|Tridentine Catholic Mass]] is an example of a "restricted code".|alt=Priests performing a mass.]]

Ritual uses a limited and rigidly organized set of expressions which [[anthropologist]]s call a "restricted code" (in opposition to a more open "elaborated code"). Maurice Bloch argues that ritual obliges participants to use this formal oratorical style, which is limited in intonation, syntax, vocabulary, loudness, and fixity of order. In adopting this style, ritual leaders' speech becomes more style than content. Because this formal speech limits what can be said, it induces "acceptance, compliance, or at least forbearance with regard to any overt challenge". Bloch argues that this form of ritual communication makes rebellion impossible and revolution the only feasible alternative. Ritual tends to support traditional forms of social hierarchy and authority, and maintains the assumptions on which the authority is based from challenge.{{sfnp|Bell|1997|pp=[https://archive.org/details/ritualperspectiv00bell/page/n155 139]–140}}

===Traditionalism===
[[File:The First Thanksgiving cph.3g04961.jpg|thumb|''The First Thanksgiving 1621'', oil on canvas by [[Jean Leon Gerome Ferris]] (1863–1930). The painting shows common misconceptions about the event that persist to modern times: Pilgrims did not wear such outfits, and the Wampanoag are dressed in the style of [[Plains Indians]].<ref>{{cite news | title=LET'S TALK TURKEY: 5 myths about the Thanksgiving holiday | newspaper=[[The Patriot Ledger]] | date=November 26, 2009 | url=http://www.wickedlocal.com/capecod/visitor_guide/fun/x1945267987/LETS-TALK-TURKEY-5-myths-about-the-Thanksgiving-holiday?img=2 | access-date=2010-08-01 | url-status=dead | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131114044805/http://www.wickedlocal.com/capecod/visitor_guide/fun/x1945267987/LETS-TALK-TURKEY-5-myths-about-the-Thanksgiving-holiday?img=2 | archive-date=November 14, 2013 }}</ref>]]

Rituals appeal to tradition and are generally continued to repeat historical precedent, religious rite, [[mores]], or [[ceremony]] accurately. Traditionalism varies from formalism in that the ritual may not be formal yet still makes an appeal to the historical trend. An example is the American Thanksgiving dinner, which may not be formal, yet is ostensibly based on an event from the early Puritan settlement of America. Historians [[Eric Hobsbawm]] and [[Terrence Ranger]] have argued that many of these are ''[[invented traditions]]'', such as the rituals of the British monarchy, which invoke "thousand year-old tradition" but whose actual form originate in the late nineteenth century, to some extent reviving earlier forms, in this case medieval, that had been discontinued in the meantime. Thus, the appeal to history is important rather than accurate historical transmission.{{sfnp|Bell|1997|pp=[https://archive.org/details/ritualperspectiv00bell/page/n161 145]–150}}

=== Invariance ===
[[Catherine Bell (religious studies scholar)|Catherine Bell]] states that ritual is also invariant, implying careful choreography. This is less an appeal to traditionalism than a striving for timeless repetition. The key to invariance is bodily discipline, as in monastic prayer and meditation meant to mold dispositions and moods. This bodily discipline is frequently performed in unison, by groups.{{sfnp|Bell|1997|pp=[https://archive.org/details/ritualperspectiv00bell/page/n168 152]–153}}

===Rule-governance===
Rituals tend to be governed by rules, a feature somewhat like formalism. Rules impose norms on the chaos of behavior, either defining the outer limits of what is acceptable or choreographing each move. Individuals are held to communally approved customs that evoke a legitimate communal authority that can constrain the possible outcomes. Historically, war in most societies has been bound by highly ritualized constraints that limit the legitimate means by which war was waged.{{sfnp|Bell|1997|p=[https://archive.org/details/ritualperspectiv00bell/page/n171 155]}}

===Sacral symbolism===
[[File:Ritual Practitioner on Inwangsan Mountain (Detail).jpg|thumb|Ritual practitioner on Inwangsan Mountain, Seoul South Korea]]

Activities appealing to supernatural beings are easily considered rituals, although the appeal may be quite indirect, expressing only a generalized belief in the existence of the sacred demanding a human response. National flags, for example, may be considered more than signs representing a country. The flag stands for larger symbols such as freedom, democracy, free enterprise or national superiority.{{sfnp|Bell|1997|p=[https://archive.org/details/ritualperspectiv00bell/page/n172 156]}} Anthropologist Sherry Ortner writes that the flag:
{{blockquote|does not encourage reflection on the logical relations among these ideas, nor on the logical consequences of them as they are played out in social actuality, over time and history. On the contrary, the flag encourages a sort of all-or-nothing allegiance to the whole package, best summed [by] 'Our flag, love it or leave.'<ref>{{cite journal|last=Ortner|first=Sherry|title=On Key Symbols|journal=American Anthropologist|year=1973|volume=75|issue=5|page=1340|doi=10.1525/aa.1973.75.5.02a00100|doi-access=free}}</ref>}}

Particular objects become sacral symbols through a process of [[consecration]] which effectively creates the [[Sacred-profane dichotomy|sacred]] by setting it apart from the [[Sacred-profane dichotomy|profane]]. Boy Scouts and the armed forces in any country teach the official ways of folding, saluting and raising the flag, thus emphasizing that the flag should never be treated as just a piece of cloth.{{sfnp|Bell|1997|pp=[https://archive.org/details/ritualperspectiv00bell/page/n172 156]–57}}

===Performance===
The performance of ritual creates a [[theatrical]]-like frame around the activities, symbols and events that shape participant's experience and cognitive ordering of the world, simplifying the chaos of life and imposing a more or less coherent system of categories of meaning onto it.{{sfnp|Bell|1997|pp=[https://archive.org/details/ritualperspectiv00bell/page/n172 156]–157}} As Barbara Myerhoff put it, "not only is seeing believing, doing is believing."<ref>{{cite book |last=Myerhoff |first=Barbara |title=Secular Ritual |year=1997 |publisher=Van Gorcum |location=Amsterdam |page=223}}</ref>{{ISBN missing|date=November 2024}}

The theatricality of ritual may overlap with [[performance art]].<ref>
{{cite journal
| last1                 = Fischer-Lichte
| first1                = Erika
| title                 = Performance Art and Ritual: Bodies in performance 
| journal               = Theatre Research Internationa
| publication-date      = 1997
| volume                = 22
| issue                 = 1
| pages                 = 22–37
}}
in:
{{cite book
 |last1                = Fischer-Lichte
 |first1               = Erika
 |editor-last1         = Auslander
 |editor-first1        = Philip
 |year                 = 2005
 |orig-date            = 2003
 |chapter              = Performance Art and Ritual: Bodies in performance
 |title                = Performance: pt. 1. Identity and the self
 |url                  = https://books.google.com/books?id=7XNNL6Qc3Z4C
 |series               = Performance: Critical Concepts in Literary and Cultural Studies, Philip Auslander, ISBN 0415255112, 9780415255110, Volume 4
 |edition              = reprint
 |publication-place    = London
 |publisher            = Taylor & Francis
 |pages                = 228–250
 |isbn                 = 9780415255158
 |access-date          = 24 November 2024
}} 
</ref>

==Genres==
For simplicity's sake, the range of diverse rituals can be divided into categories with common characteristics, generally falling into one three major categories:
* [[rites of passage]], generally changing an individual's social status;
* communal rites, whether of [[worship]], where a community comes together to worship, such as [[Jew]]ish [[synagogue]] or [[Mass (liturgy)|Mass]], or of another character, such as [[fertility rite]]s and certain non-religious [[festival]]s;
* rites of personal devotion, where an individual worships, including prayer and [[pilgrimage]]s, [[Pledge of Allegiance|pledges of allegiance]], or [[engagement|promises to wed someone]].

However, rituals can fall in more than one category or genre, and may be grouped in a variety of other ways. For example, the anthropologist [[Victor Turner]] writes:

{{blockquote|Rituals may be seasonal, {{Omission|hallowing a culturally defined moment of change in the climatic cycle or the inauguration of an activity such as planting, harvesting, or moving from winter to summer pasture;}} or they may be contingent, held in response to an individual or collective crisis. {{Omission}} Other classes of rituals include divinatory rituals; ceremonies performed by political authorities to ensure the health and fertility of human beings, animals, and crops in their territories; initiation into priesthoods devoted to certain deities, into religious associations, or into secret societies; and those accompanying the daily offering of food and libations to deities or ancestral spirits or both.|{{harvp|Turner|1973}}}}

===Rites of passage===
{{main|Rites of passage}}
A rite of passage is a ritual event that marks a person's transition from one [[social status|status]] to another, including [[adoption]], [[baptism]], [[coming of age]], [[graduation]], [[inauguration]], [[engagement]], and [[marriage]]. Rites of passage may also include [[initiation]] into groups not tied to a formal stage of life such as a [[fraternity]]. [[Arnold van Gennep]] stated that rites of passage are marked by three stages:{{sfnp|Bell|1997|p=[https://archive.org/details/ritualperspectiv00bell/page/n110 94]}}
; 1. Separation: Wherein the initiates are separated from their old identities through physical and symbolic means.
; 2. Transition: Wherein the initiated are "betwixt and between". [[Victor Turner]] argued that this stage is marked by [[liminality]], a condition of ambiguity or disorientation in which initiates have been stripped of their old identities, but have not yet acquired their new one. Turner states that "the attributes of [[liminality]] or of liminal ''[[persona]]e'' ("threshold people") are necessarily ambiguous".{{sfnp|Turner|1969|p=95}} In this stage of liminality or "anti-structure" ([[#Structure and anti-structure|see below]]), the initiates' role ambiguity creates a sense of [[communitas]] or emotional bond of community between them. This stage may be marked by ritual ordeals or ritual training.
; 3. Incorporation: Wherein the initiates are symbolically confirmed in their new identity and community.{{sfnp|Turner|1969|p=97}}

===Rites of affliction===
{{further|Shamanism|Exorcism|Ritual purification}}
Anthropologist Victor Turner defines rites of affliction actions that seek to mitigate spirits or supernatural forces that inflict humans with bad luck, illness, gynecological troubles, physical injuries, and other such misfortunes.{{sfnp|Turner|1973}} These rites may include forms of spirit [[divination]] (consulting [[oracles]]) to establish causes—and rituals that heal, purify, exorcise, and protect. The misfortune experienced may include individual health, but also broader climate-related issues such as drought or plagues of insects. Healing rites performed by [[shamans]] frequently identify social disorder as the cause, and make the restoration of social relationships the cure.{{sfnp|Turner|1967|p=9ff}}

Turner uses the example of the Isoma ritual among the Ndembu of northwestern [[Zambia]] to illustrate. The Isoma rite of affliction is used to cure a childless woman of infertility. Infertility is the result of a "structural tension between [[Matrilineality|matrilineal]] descent and [[Virilocality|virilocal]] marriage" (i.e., the tension a woman feels between her mother's family, to whom she owes allegiance, and her husband's family among whom she must live). "It is because the woman has come too closely in touch with the 'man's side' in her marriage that her dead matrikin have impaired her fertility." To correct the balance of matrilinial descent and marriage, the Isoma ritual dramatically placates the deceased spirits by requiring the woman to reside with her mother's kin.{{sfnp|Turner|1969|pp=20–21}}

Shamanic and other ritual may effect a psychotherapeutic cure, leading anthropologists such as Jane Atkinson to theorize how. Atkinson argues that the effectiveness of a shamanic ritual for an individual may depend upon a wider audiences acknowledging the shaman's power, which may lead to the shaman placing greater emphasis on engaging the audience than in the healing of the patient.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Atkinson|first=Jane|title=The Effectiveness of Shamans in an Indonesian Ritual|journal=American Anthropologist|year=1987|volume=89|issue=2|page=342|doi=10.1525/aa.1987.89.2.02a00040}}</ref>

===Death, mourning, and funerary rites===
{{further|Funeral}}
Many cultures have rites associated with death and mourning, such as the [[last rites]] and [[Wake (ceremony)|wake]] in Christianity, ''[[shemira]]'' in Judaism, the ''[[antyesti]]'' in Hinduism, and the ''[[antam sanskar]]'' in Sikhism. These rituals often provide a structured way for communities to grieve and honor the deceased. In Tibetan Buddhism, for example, the rituals described in the Bardo Thodol guide the soul through the stages of death, aiming for spiritual liberation or enlightenment.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Fremantle|first1=Francesca|last2=Trungpa|first2=Chogyam|date=1975 |title=The Tibetan book of the dead, the great liberation through the hearing in the Bardo |location=Boston|publisher= Shambala south asia editions |page= forward|isbn=1-56957-126-0}}</ref> In Islam, the [[Islamic funeral|Janazah]] prayer is an communal act of grief. Indigenous practices, such as the Australian Aboriginal smoking ceremony, intended to cleanse the spirit of the departed and ensure a safe journey to the [[afterlife]].{{cn|date=October 2025}}

In many traditions can be found the belief that when man was first made the creator bestowed soul upon him, while the earth provided the body. In Genesis is offered the following description of the creation of man: "And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul".<ref>{{bibleverse|Genesis|2:7|niv}}</ref> As a result at the moment of death each of the two elements needs to be returned to its source, the body returns to earth, while the soul to the heavenly creator, by means of the funerary ritual.<ref>{{cite book |last=Eliade |first=Mircea |date=1976 |title=Occultism, witchcraft and cultural fashions, Essays in comparative religions |location=chicago |publisher= The university of Chicago press |page= 35-36|isbn=0-226-20391-3}}</ref> 

[[File:Codex Magliabechiano (141 cropped).jpg|thumb|[[Human sacrifice in Aztec culture|Aztec ritual human sacrifices]], [[Codex Mendoza]]]]

===Calendrical and commemorative rites===
{{see also|Liturgical calendar|Wheel of the Year}}
Calendrical and commemorative rites are ritual events marking particular times of year, or a fixed period since an important event. Calendrical rituals give social meaning to the passage of time, creating repetitive weekly, monthly or yearly cycles. Some rites are oriented towards a culturally defined moment of change in the climatic cycle, such as [[solar term]]s or the changing of seasons, or they may mark the inauguration of an activity such as planting, harvesting, or moving from winter to summer pasture during the [[agricultural cycle]].{{sfnp|Turner|1973}} They may be fixed by the [[Solar calendar|solar]] or [[lunar calendar]]; those fixed by the solar calendar fall on the same day (of the Gregorian, Solar calendar) each year (such as [[New Year's Day]] on the first of January) while those calculated by the lunar calendar fall on different dates (of the Gregorian, Solar calendar) each year (such as [[Chinese New Year|Chinese lunar New Year]]). Calendrical rites impose a cultural order on nature.{{sfnp|Bell|1997|pp=[https://archive.org/details/ritualperspectiv00bell/page/n118 102]–103}} Mircea Eliade states that the calendrical rituals of many religious traditions recall and commemorate the basic beliefs of a community, and their yearly celebration establishes a link between past and present, as if the original events are happening over again: "Thus the gods did; thus men do."<ref>{{cite book|last=Eliade|first=Mircea|title=The Myth of Eternal Return or, Cosmos and History|year=1954|publisher=Princeton University Press|location=Princeton|page=21}}</ref>

===Rites of sacrifice, exchange, and communion===
[[File:Kalyandi durga mondir9.JPG|thumb|Deva yajna performed during [[Durga Puja]] in Bangladesh]]

This genre of ritual encompasses forms of [[sacrifice]] and offering meant to praise, please or placate divine powers. According to early anthropologist Edward Tylor, such sacrifices are [[Gift economy|gifts]] given in hope of a return. [[Catherine Bell (religious studies scholar)|Catherine Bell]], however, points out that sacrifice covers a range of practices from those that are manipulative and "magical" to those of pure devotion. Hindu [[Puja (Hinduism)|puja]], for example, appear to have no other purpose than to please the deity.{{sfnp|Bell|1997|p=[https://archive.org/details/ritualperspectiv00bell/page/n125 109]}}

According to [[Marcel Mauss]], sacrifice is distinguished from other forms of offering by being consecrated, and hence sanctified. As a consequence, the offering is usually destroyed in the ritual to transfer it to the deities.

===Rites of feasting, fasting, and festivals===
[[File:Carnaval Venecia 14feb2009.jpg|thumb|Masquerade at the [[Carnival of Venice]]]]

Rites of feasting and fasting are those through which a community publicly expresses an adherence to basic, shared religious values, rather than to the overt presence of deities as is found in rites of affliction where feasting or fasting may also take place. It encompasses a range of performances such as communal fasting during [[Ramadan]] by Muslims; the [[Moka exchange|slaughter of pigs]] in New Guinea; [[Carnival]] festivities; or penitential processions in Catholicism.{{sfnp|Bell|1997|p=[https://archive.org/details/ritualperspectiv00bell/page/n137 121]}} Victor Turner described this "cultural performance" of basic values a "social drama". Such dramas allow the social stresses that are inherent in a particular culture to be expressed and worked out symbolically in a ritual catharsis; as the social tensions continue to persist outside the ritual, pressure mounts for the ritual's cyclical performance.<ref>{{cite book|last=Turner|first=Victor|title=Dramas, Fields, and Metaphors: Symbolic Action in Human Society|url=https://archive.org/details/dramasfieldsmeta00turn|url-access=registration|year=1974|publisher=Cornell University Press|location=Ithaca, NY|pages=[https://archive.org/details/dramasfieldsmeta00turn/page/23 23–35]}}</ref> In Carnival, for example, the practice of masking allows people to be what they are not, and acts as a general social leveller, erasing otherwise tense social hierarchies in a festival that emphasizes play outside the bounds of normal social limits. Yet outside carnival, social tensions of race, class and gender persist, hence requiring the repeated periodic release found in the festival.<ref>{{cite book|last=Kinser|first=Samuel|title=Carnival, American Style; Mardi Gras at New Orleans and Mobile|year=1990|publisher=University of Chicago Press|location=Chicago|page=282}}</ref>

===Water rites===
{{Further|Water and religion|Holy water|Water Communion}}
A water rite is a rite or [[ceremony|ceremonial]] custom that uses [[water]] as its central feature. Typically, a person is immersed or bathed as a symbol of [[religious indoctrination]] or [[ritual purification]]. Examples include the [[Mikveh]] in [[Judaism]], a custom of purification; [[misogi]] in [[Shinto]], a custom of spiritual and bodily purification involving bathing in a sacred waterfall, river, or lake; the [[Islam|Muslim]] ritual ablution or [[Wudu]] before prayer; [[baptism]] in [[Christianity]], a custom and [[sacrament]] that represents both purification and initiation into the religious community (the [[Christian Church]]); and [[Amrit Sanskar]] in [[Sikhism]], a rite of passage ([[Sanskar#Sankars in Sikhism|sanskar]]) that similarly represents purification and initiation into the religious community (the [[khalsa]]). Rites that use water are not considered water rites if it is not their central feature. For example, having water to drink during or after ritual is common, but does not make that ritual a water ritual unless the drinking of water is a central activity such as in the [[Church of All Worlds]] waterkin rite.

===Fertility rites===
{{excerpt|Fertility rite}}

===Sexual rituals===
{{excerpt|Sexual ritual}}

===Political rituals===
[[File:Parade through Macao, Latin City 2019 16.jpg|thumb|Parade through Macao, Latin City (2019). The Parade is held annually on December 20th to mark the anniversary of Macao's Handover to China.]]

According to anthropologist [[Clifford Geertz]], political rituals actually construct power; that is, in his analysis of the [[Negara: The Theatre State in Nineteenth-Century Bali|Balinese state]], he argued that rituals are not an ornament of political power, but that the power of political actors depends upon their ability to create rituals and the cosmic framework within which the social hierarchy headed by the king is perceived as natural and sacred.{{sfnp|Geertz|1980|pp=[https://archive.org/details/negaratheatresta00geer_1/page/13 13]–17, 21}} As a "dramaturgy of power" comprehensive ritual systems may create a cosmological order that [[Sacred king|sets a ruler apart as a divine being]], as in "the divine right" of European kings, or the divine Japanese Emperor.{{sfnp|Bell|1997|p=[https://archive.org/details/ritualperspectiv00bell/page/n146 130]}} Political rituals also emerge in the form of uncodified or codified conventions practiced by political officials that cement respect for the arrangements of an institution or role against the individual temporarily assuming it, as can be seen in the many rituals still observed within the procedure of [[parliament]]ary bodies.

Ritual can be used as a form of resistance, as for example, in the various [[Cargo cults|Cargo Cults]] that developed against colonial powers in the South Pacific. In such religio-political movements, Islanders would use ritual imitations of western practices (such as the building of landing strips) as a means of summoning cargo (manufactured goods) from the ancestors. Leaders of these groups characterized the present state (often imposed by colonial capitalist regimes) as a dismantling of the old social order, which they sought to restore.<ref>{{cite book|last=Worsley|first=Peter|title=The Trumpet Shall Sound: A Study of 'Cargo Cults' in Melanesia|year=1957|publisher=Schocken books|location=New York}}</ref> Rituals may also attain political significance after conflict, as is the case with the [[Bosnia and Herzegovina|Bosnian]] syncretic holidays and festivals that transgress religious boundaries.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=HadžiMuhamedović |first=Safet |url=https://www.berghahnbooks.com/title/HadziMuhamedovicWaiting |title=Waiting for Elijah: Time and Encounter in a Bosnian Landscape |publisher=Berghahn |year=2021 |isbn=978-1-80073-219-3 |edition=Paperback |location=Oxford |language=en}}</ref>

==Anthropological theories==
{{See also|Ritology}}

===Functionalism===
[[File:B._Bober.jpg|thumb|300x300px|A priest elevates the host during a [[Mass (Catholic Church)|Catholic Mass]], one of the most widely performed rituals in the world.<ref>{{cite book|last=Harkins|first=Franklin T.|title=Thomas Aquinas: the basics|year=2021|publisher=Routledge|location=London and New York |isbn=978-0-367-34986-8 |page=166 |quote=It is estimated that in our times more than 350,000 Masses are celebrated each day on planet earth!}}</ref>]]
{{main|Structural functionalism}}

Nineteenth century "[[History of anthropology|armchair anthropologists]]" were concerned with the basic question of how religion originated in human history. In the twentieth century their conjectural histories were replaced with new concerns around the question of what these beliefs and practices did for societies, regardless of their origin. In this view, religion was a universal, and while its content might vary enormously, it served certain basic functions such as the provision of prescribed solutions to basic human psychological and social problems, as well as expressing the central values of a society. [[Bronislaw Malinowski]] used the concept of function to address questions of individual psychological needs; [[A.R. Radcliffe-Brown]], in contrast, looked for the function (purpose) of the institution or custom in preserving or maintaining society as a whole. They thus disagreed about the relationship of anxiety to ritual.{{sfnp|Lessa|Vogt|1979|pp=[https://archive.org/details/readerincomparat00less/page/36 36]–38}}

[[File:Three people 'kowtowing' to an altar, one woman crying, othe Wellcome V0015171.jpg|thumb|Kowtowing in a court, China, before 1889]]

Malinowski argued that ritual was a non-technical means of addressing anxiety about activities where dangerous elements were beyond technical control: "magic is to be expected and generally to be found whenever man comes to an unbridgeable gap, a hiatus in his knowledge or in his powers of practical control, and yet has to continue in his pursuit."{{sfnp|Lessa|Vogt|1979|p=[https://archive.org/details/readerincomparat00less/page/38 38]}} Radcliffe-Brown in contrast, saw ritual as an expression of common interest symbolically representing a community, and that anxiety was felt only if the ritual was not performed.{{sfnp|Lessa|Vogt|1979|pp=[https://archive.org/details/readerincomparat00less/page/36 36]–38}} [[George C. Homans]] sought to resolve these opposing theories by differentiating between "primary anxieties" felt by people who lack the techniques to secure results, and "secondary (or displaced) anxiety" felt by those who have not performed the rites meant to allay primary anxiety correctly. Homans argued that purification rituals may then be conducted to dispel secondary anxiety.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Homans|first=George C.|title=Anxiety and Ritual: The Theories of Malinowski and Radcliffe-Brown|journal=American Anthropologist|year=1941|volume=43|issue=2|pages=164–72|doi=10.1525/aa.1941.43.2.02a00020|doi-access=free}}</ref>

A.R. Radcliffe-Brown argued that ritual should be distinguished from technical action, viewing it as a structured event: "ritual acts differ from technical acts in having in all instances some expressive or symbolic element in them."<ref>{{cite book|last=Radcliffe-Brown|first=A.R.|title=Structure and Function in Primitive Society|year=1939|publisher=Cohen and West|location=London|page=143}}</ref> [[Edmund Leach]], in contrast, saw ritual and technical action less as separate structural types of activity and more as a spectrum: "Actions fall into place on a continuous scale. At one extreme we have actions which are entirely profane, entirely functional, technique pure and simple; at the other we have actions which are entirely sacred, strictly aesthetic, technically non-functional. Between these two extremes we have the great majority of social actions which partake partly of the one sphere and partly of the other. From this point of view technique and ritual, profane and sacred, do not denote ''types'' of action but ''aspects'' of almost any kind of action."<ref>{{cite book|last=Leach|first=Edmund|title=Political Systems of Highland Burma|year=1954|publisher=Bell|location=London|pages=12–13}}</ref>

====As social control====
[[File:Bali panorama.jpg|thumb|Balinese rice terraces regulated through ritual]]
{{see also|social control}}

The [[Structural functionalism|functionalist]] model viewed ritual as a [[homeostatic]] mechanism to regulate and stabilize social institutions by adjusting [[social interaction]]s, maintaining a [[social group|group]] [[ethos]], and restoring harmony after disputes.

Although the functionalist model was soon superseded, later "neofunctional" theorists adopted its approach by examining the ways that ritual regulated larger ecological systems. [[Roy Rappaport]], for example, examined the way [[Moka exchange|gift exchanges of pigs]] between tribal groups in [[Papua New Guinea]] maintained environmental balance between humans, available food (with pigs sharing the same foodstuffs as humans) and resource base. Rappaport concluded that ritual, "...helps to maintain an undegraded environment, limits fighting to frequencies which do not endanger the existence of regional population, adjusts man-land ratios, facilitates trade, distributes local surpluses of pig throughout the regional population in the form of pork, and assures people of high quality protein when they are most in need of it".<ref>{{cite book|last=Rappaport|first=Roy|title=Ecology, Meaning and Religion|url=https://archive.org/details/ecologymeaningre00roya|url-access=registration|year=1979|publisher=North Atlantic Books|location=Richmond, CA|page=[https://archive.org/details/ecologymeaningre00roya/page/41 41]}}</ref> Similarly, [[J. Stephen Lansing]] traced how the [[Pawukon|intricate calendar]] of [[Balinese Hinduism|Hindu Balinese]] rituals served to regulate the vast [[irrigation system]]s of Bali, ensuring the optimum distribution of water over the system while limiting disputes.<ref>{{cite book|last=Lansing|first=Stephen|title=Priests and Programmers: technologies of power in the engineered landscape of Bali|url=https://archive.org/details/priestsprogramme0000lans|url-access=registration|year=1991|publisher=Princeton University Press|location=Princeton, NJ}}</ref>

====Rebellion====
While most Functionalists sought to link ritual to the maintenance of social order, South African [[Functionalism (sociology)|functionalist]] anthropologist [[Max Gluckman]] coined the phrase "rituals of rebellion" to describe a type of ritual in which the accepted social order was symbolically turned on its head. Gluckman argued that the ritual was an expression of underlying social tensions (an idea taken up by [[Victor W. Turner|Victor Turner]]), and that it functioned as an institutional pressure valve, relieving those tensions through these cyclical performances. The rites ultimately functioned to reinforce social order, insofar as they allowed those tensions to be expressed without leading to actual rebellion. [[Carnival of Venice|Carnival]] is viewed in the same light. He observed, for example, how the first-fruits festival (''[[incwala]]'') of the South African [[Bantu peoples|Bantu]] kingdom of [[Swaziland]] symbolically inverted the normal social order, so that the king was publicly insulted, women asserted their domination over men, and the established authority of elders over the young was turned upside down.<ref>{{cite book|last=Gluckman|first=Max|title=Order and Rebellion in South East Africa: Collected Essays|year=1963|publisher=Routledge & Kegan Paul|location=London}}</ref>

===Structuralism===
{{main|Structuralism}}

[[Claude Lévi-Strauss]], the French anthropologist, regarded all social and cultural organization as symbolic systems of communication shaped by the inherent structure of the human brain. He therefore argued that the symbol systems are not reflections of social structure as the Functionalists believed, but are imposed on social relations to organize them. Lévi-Strauss thus viewed myth and ritual as complementary symbol systems, one verbal, one non-verbal. Lévi-Strauss was not concerned to develop a theory of ritual (although he did produce a four-volume analysis of myth) but was influential to later scholars of ritual such as [[Mary Douglas]] and [[Edmund Leach]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Bell|first=Catherine|title=Ritual Theory, Ritual Practice|year=1992|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=Oxford|pages=42–43}}</ref>

===Structure and anti-structure===
[[Victor Turner]] combined [[Arnold van Gennep]]'s model of the structure of initiation rites, and Gluckman's functionalist emphasis on the ritualization of social conflict to maintain social equilibrium, with a more structural model of symbols in ritual. Running counter to this emphasis on structured symbolic oppositions within a ritual was his exploration of the liminal phase of rites of passage, a phase in which "anti-structure" appears. In this phase, opposed states such as birth and death may be encompassed by a single act, object or phrase. The dynamic nature of symbols experienced in ritual provides a compelling personal experience; ritual is a "mechanism that periodically converts the obligatory into the desirable".{{sfnp|Turner|1967|p=[https://archive.org/details/forestofsymbolsa00turn_1/page/30 30]}}

[[Mary Douglas]], a British Functionalist, extended Turner's theory of ritual structure and anti-structure with her own contrasting set of terms "grid" and "group" in the book ''Natural Symbols''. Drawing on Levi-Strauss' Structuralist approach, she saw ritual as symbolic communication that constrained social behaviour. Grid is a scale referring to the degree to which a symbolic system is a shared frame of reference. Group refers to the degree people are tied into a tightly knit community. When graphed on two intersecting axes, four quadrants are possible: strong group/strong grid, strong group/weak grid, weak group/weak grid, weak group/strong grid. Douglas argued that societies with strong group or strong grid were marked by more ritual activity than those weak in either group or grid.<ref>{{cite book|last=Douglas|first=Mary|title=Natural Symbols: Explorations in Cosmology|year=1973|publisher=Vintage Books|location=New York}}</ref> (see also, [[#Ritual as a methodological measure of religiosity|section below]])

====Anti-structure and communitas====
{{main|Communitas}}
In his analysis of [[Rite of passage|rites of passage]], Victor Turner argued that the liminal phase – that period 'betwixt and between' – was marked by "two models of human interrelatedness, juxtaposed and alternating": structure and anti-structure (or ''communitas'').{{sfnp|Turner|1969|p=96}} While the ritual clearly articulated the cultural ideals of a society through ritual symbolism, the unrestrained festivities of the liminal period served to break down social barriers and to join the group into an undifferentiated unity with "no status, property, insignia, secular clothing, rank, kinship position, nothing to demarcate themselves from their fellows".{{sfnp|Turner|1967|pp=[https://archive.org/details/forestofsymbolsa00turn_1/page/96 96]–97}} These periods of symbolic inversion have been studied in a diverse range of rituals such as [[pilgrimage]]s and [[Yom Kippur]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Bell|first=Catherine|title=Ritual Theory, Ritual Practice|year=1992|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=Oxford|page=128}}</ref>

====Social dramas====
Beginning with Max Gluckman's concept of "rituals of rebellion", Victor Turner argued that many types of ritual also served as "social dramas" through which structural social tensions could be expressed, and temporarily resolved. Drawing on Van Gennep's model of initiation rites, Turner viewed these social dramas as a dynamic process through which the community renewed itself through the ritual creation of communitas during the "liminal phase". Turner analyzed the ritual events in 4 stages: breach in relations, crisis, redressive actions, and acts of reintegration. Like Gluckman, he argued these rituals maintain social order while facilitating disordered inversions, thereby moving people to a new status, just as in an initiation rite.<ref>{{cite book|last=Kuper|first=Adam|title=Anthropology and Anthropologists: The Modern British School|url=https://archive.org/details/anthropologyanth0000kupe|url-access=registration|year=1983|publisher=Routledge & Kegan Paul|location=London|pages=[https://archive.org/details/anthropologyanth0000kupe/page/156 156–57]|isbn=9780710094094 }}</ref>

===Symbolic approaches to ritual===
{{rquote|right|Arguments, melodies, formulas, maps and pictures are not idealities to be stared at but texts to be read; so are rituals, palaces, technologies, and social formations.|{{harvp|Geertz|1980|p=[https://archive.org/details/negaratheatresta00geer_1/page/135 135]}}}}

[[Clifford Geertz]] also expanded on the symbolic approach to ritual that began with Victor Turner. Geertz argued that religious symbol systems provided both a "model of" reality (showing how to interpret the world as is) as well as a "model for" reality (clarifying its ideal state). The role of ritual, according to Geertz, is to bring these two aspects – the "model of" and the "model for" – together: "it is in ritual – that is consecrated behaviour – that this conviction that religious conceptions are veridical and that religious directives are sound is somehow generated."<ref>{{cite book|last=Geertz|first=Clifford|title=The Interpretation of Cultures|url=https://archive.org/details/interpretationof00geer_1|url-access=registration|year=1973|publisher=Basic Books|location=New York|page=[https://archive.org/details/interpretationof00geer_1/page/112 112]|isbn=9780465097197}}</ref>

Symbolic anthropologists like Geertz analyzed rituals as language-like codes to be interpreted independently as cultural systems. Geertz rejected Functionalist arguments that ritual describes social order, arguing instead that ritual actively shapes that social order and imposes meaning on disordered experience. He also differed from Gluckman and Turner's emphasis on ritual action as a means of resolving social passion, arguing instead that it simply displayed them.<ref>{{cite book|last=Bell|first=Catherine|title=Ritual Theory, Ritual Practice|year=1992|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=Oxford|pages=66–67}}</ref>

===As a form of communication===
Whereas Victor Turner saw in ritual the potential to release people from the binding structures of their lives into a liberating anti-structure or communitas, Maurice Bloch argued that ritual produced conformity.<ref>{{cite book|editor-last=Hughes-Freeland|editor-first=Felicia |title=Ritual, Performance, Media|publisher=Routledge|location=London|page=2}}</ref>

[[Maurice Bloch]] argued that ritual communication is unusual in that it uses a special, restricted vocabulary, a small number of permissible illustrations, and a restrictive grammar. As a result, ritual utterances become very predictable, and the speaker is made anonymous in that they have little choice in what to say. The restrictive syntax reduces the ability of the speaker to make propositional arguments, and they are left, instead, with utterances that cannot be contradicted such as "I do thee wed" in a wedding. These kinds of utterances, known as [[performatives]], prevent speakers from making political arguments through logical argument, and are typical of what Weber called [[traditional authority]] instead.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Bloch|first=Maurice|title=Symbols, Song, Dance and Features of Articulation: Is Religion an Extreme Form of Traditional Authority?|journal=Archives Européennes de Sociologie|year=1974|volume=15|issue=1|pages=55–84|doi=10.1017/s0003975600002824|s2cid=145170270 }}</ref>

Bloch's model of ritual language denies the possibility of creativity. Thomas Csordas, in contrast, analyzes how ritual language can be used to innovate. Csordas looks at groups of rituals that share performative elements ("genres" of ritual with a shared "poetics"). These rituals may fall along the spectrum of formality, with some less, others more formal and restrictive. Csordas argues that innovations may be introduced in less formalized rituals. As these innovations become more accepted and standardized, they are slowly adopted in more formal rituals. In this way, even the most formal of rituals are potential avenues for creative expression.<ref>{{cite book|last=Csordas|first=Thomas J.|title=Language, Charisma, & Creativity: Ritual Life in the Catholic Charismatic Renewal|year=2001 |orig-year=1997|publisher=Palgrave|location=Basingstoke|pages=255–65}}</ref>

===As a disciplinary program===
[[File:Skriptorium Holzschnitt.jpg|thumb|[[Scriptorium]] monk at work. "Monks described this labor of transcribing manuscripts as being 'like prayer and fasting, a means of correcting one's unruly passions.{{'"}}{{sfnp|Asad|1993|p=64}}]]

In his historical analysis of articles on ritual and rite in the ''[[Encyclopædia Britannica]]'', [[Talal Asad]] notes that from 1771 to 1852, the brief articles on ritual define it as a "book directing the order and manner to be observed in performing divine service" (i.e., as a script). There are no articles on the subject thereafter until 1910, when a new, lengthy article appeared that redefines ritual as "...a type of routine behaviour that symbolizes or expresses something".{{sfnp|Asad|1993|pp=56–57}} As a symbolic activity, it is no longer confined to religion, but is distinguished from technical action. The shift in definitions from script to behavior, which is likened to a text, is matched by a semantic distinction between ritual as an ''outward sign'' (i.e., public symbol) and ''inward meaning''.{{sfnp|Asad|1993|pp=58–60}}

The emphasis has changed to establishing the meaning of public symbols and abandoning concerns with inner emotional states since, as [[E. E. Evans-Pritchard|Evans-Pritchard]] wrote "such emotional states, if present at all, must vary not only from individual to individual, but also in the same individual on different occasions and even at different points in the same rite."{{sfnp|Asad|1993|p=73}} Asad, in contrast, emphasizes behavior and inner emotional states; rituals are to be performed, and mastering these performances is a skill requiring disciplined action.

{{blockquote|In other words, apt performance involves not symbols to be interpreted but abilities to be acquired according to rules that are sanctioned by those in authority: it presupposes no obscure meanings, but rather the formation of physical and linguistic skills.|{{harvp|Asad|1993|p=62}}}}

Drawing on the example of Medieval monastic life in Europe, he points out that ritual in this case refers to its original meaning of the "...book directing the order and manner to be observed in performing divine service". This book "prescribed practices, whether they had to do with the proper ways of eating, sleeping, working, and praying or with proper moral dispositions and spiritual aptitudes, aimed at developing virtues that are put 'to the service of God.{{'"}}{{sfnp|Asad|1993|p=63}} Monks, in other words, were disciplined in the [[Discipline and Punish|Foucauldian sense]]. The point of monastic discipline was to learn skills and appropriate emotions. Asad contrasts his approach by concluding:
{{blockquote|Symbols call for interpretation, and even as interpretive criteria are extended so interpretations can be multiplied. Disciplinary practices, on the other hand, cannot be varied so easily, because learning to develop moral capabilities is not the same thing as learning to invent representations.|{{harvp|Asad|1993|p=79}}}}

=== As a form of social solidarity ===
Ethnographic observation shows ritual can create social solidarity. Douglas Foley Went to North Town, Texas, between 1973 and 1974 to study public high school culture. He used interviews, participant observation, and unstructured chatting to study racial tension and capitalist culture in his ethnography ''Learning Capitalist Culture''. Foley refers to football games and Friday Night Lights as a community ritual. This ritual united the school and created a sense of [[solidarity]] and community on a weekly basis involving pep rallies and the game itself. Foley observed judgement and segregation based on class, social status, wealth, and gender. He described Friday Night Lights as a ritual that overcomes those differences: "The other, gentler, more social side of football was, of course, the emphasis on camaraderie, loyalty, friendship between players, and pulling together".<ref>{{Cite book|last=Foley|first=Douglas|title=Learning Capitalist Culture: Deep in the Heart of Tejas.|publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press|year=2010|pages=53}}</ref> In his ethnography ''[https://www.berghahnbooks.com/title/HadziMuhamedovicWaiting Waiting for Elijah: Time and Encounter in a Bosnian Landscape]'', anthropologist [https://www.divinity.cam.ac.uk/directory/dr-safet-hadzimuhamedovic Safet HadžiMuhamedović] suggests that shared festivals like [[Saint George's Day|St George's Day]] and [[Elijah|St Elijah's Day]] structure interfaith relationships and appear as acts of solidarity against ethno-nationalist purifications of territory in [[Bosnia and Herzegovina|Bosnia]].<ref name=":0" />

===Ritualization===
{{Main|Ritualization}}

Asad's work critiqued the notion that there were universal characteristics of ritual to be found in all cases. [[Catherine Bell (religious studies scholar)|Catherine Bell]] has extended this idea by shifting attention from ritual as a category, to the processes of "ritualization" by which ritual is created as a cultural form in a society. Ritualization is "a way of acting that is designed and orchestrated to distinguish and privilege what is being done in comparison to other, usually more quotidian, activities".<ref>{{cite book|last=Bell|first=Catherine|title=Ritual Theory, Ritual Practice|year=1992|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=Oxford|page=74}}</ref>

===Sociobiology and behavioral neuroscience===
Anthropologists have also analyzed ritual via insights from other behavioral sciences. The idea that cultural rituals share behavioral similarities with personal rituals of individuals was discussed early on by Freud.<ref>Freud, S. (1928) Die Zukunft einer Illusion. Internationaler Psychoanalytischer Verlag.</ref> [[Dulaney, Kentucky|Dulaney]] and [[Alan Fiske|Fiske]] compared ethnographic descriptions of both rituals and non-ritual doings, such as work to behavioral descriptions from clinical descriptions of [[obsessive–compulsive disorder]] (OCD).<ref>Dulaney, S.; Fiske, A. P. Cultural Rituals and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: Is There a Common Psychological Mechanism? Ethos 1994, 22 (3), 243–283. https://doi.org/10.1525/eth.1994.22.3.02a00010.</ref> They note that OCD behavior often consists of such behavior as constantly cleaning objects, concern or disgust with bodily waste or secretions, repetitive actions to prevent harm, heavy emphasis on number or order of actions etc. They then show that ethnographic descriptions of cultural rituals contain around 5 times more of such content than ethnographic descriptions of other activities such as "work". Fiske later repeated similar analysis with more descriptions from a larger collection of different cultures, also contrasting descriptions of cultural rituals to descriptions of other behavioral disorders (in addition to OCD), in order to show that only OCD-like behavior (not other illnesses) shares properties with rituals.<ref>Fiske, A. P.; Haslam, N. Is Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder a Pathology of the Human Disposition to Perform Socially Meaningful Rituals? Evidence of Similar Content. J. Nerv. Ment. Dis. 1997, 185 (4), 211–222. https://doi.org/10.1097/00005053-199704000-00001 {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221118160807/https://journals.lww.com/jonmd/Abstract/1997/04000/Is_Obsessive_Compulsive_Disorder_a_Pathology_of.1.aspx |date=2022-11-18 }}.</ref> The authors offer tentative explanations for these findings, for example that these behavioral traits are widely needed for survival, to control risk, and cultural rituals are often performed in the context of perceived collective risk.

Other anthropologists have taken these insights further, and constructed more elaborate theories based on the brain functions and physiology. Liénard and [[Pascal Boyer|Boyer]] suggest that commonalities between obsessive behavior in individuals and similar behavior in collective contexts possibly share similarities due to underlying mental processes they call hazard precaution. They suggest that individuals of societies seem to pay more attention to information relevant to avoiding hazards, which in turn can explain why collective rituals displaying actions of hazard precaution are so popular and prevail for long periods in cultural transmission.<ref>Liénard, P.; Boyer, P. Whence Collective Rituals? A Cultural Selection Model of Ritualized Behavior. American Anthropologist 2006, 108 (4), 814–827. https://doi.org/10.1525/aa.2006.108.4.814.
</ref>

===Ritual as a methodological measure of religiosity===
{{further|Theories about religions}}
According to the sociologist [[Mervin F. Verbit|Mervin Verbit]], ritual may be understood as one of the key components of religiosity. And ritual itself may be broken down into four dimensions; content, frequency, intensity
and centrality. The content of a ritual may vary from ritual to ritual, as does the frequency of its practice, the intensity of the ritual (how much of an impact it has on the practitioner), and the centrality of the ritual (in that religious tradition).<ref>Verbit, M.F. (1970). The components and dimensions of religious behavior: Toward a reconceptualization of religiosity. American mosaic, 24, 39.</ref><ref>Küçükcan, T. (2010). Multidimensional Approach to Religion: a way of looking at religious phenomena. Journal for the Study of Religions and Ideologies, 4(10), 60–70.</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Küçükcan |first1=Talip |year=2000|title=Can Religiosity be Measured? Dimensions of Religious Commitment: Theories Revisited |url=http://www.eskieserler.com/dosyalar/mpdf%20(1135).pdf |website=Eski Eserler}}</ref>

In this sense, ritual is similar to [[Charles Y. Glock|Charles Glock]]'s "practice" dimension of religiosity.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |last1=Glock |first1=Charles Y. |author-link=Charles Y. Glock |year=1972 |title=On the Study of Religious Commitment |editor1-last=Faulkner |editor-first=J.E. |series=Religion’s Influence in Contemporary Society, Readings in the Sociology of Religion |location=Ohio |publisher=Charles E. Merril |pages=38–56}}</ref>

==Religious perspectives==
{{further|Myth and ritual}}
In [[religion]], a ritual can comprise the prescribed outward forms of performing the ''[[wiktionary:cultus|cultus]]'', or [[cult (religion)|cult]], of a particular observation within a religion or [[religious denomination]]. Although ritual is often used in context with worship performed in a church, the actual relationship between any religion's doctrine and its ritual(s) can vary considerably from organized religion to non-institutionalized spirituality, such as [[ayahuasca]] [[shamanism]] as practiced by the [[Urarina]] of the [[upper Amazon]].<ref>Dean, Bartholomew (2009). [http://www.upf.com/book.asp?id=DEANXS07 ''Urarina Society, Cosmology, and History in Peruvian Amazonia''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110717170729/http://www.upf.com/book.asp?id=DEANXS07 |date=2011-07-17 }}, Gainesville: University Press of Florida {{ISBN|978-0-8130-3378-5}}</ref> Rituals often have a close connection with [[Reverence (emotion)|reverence]], thus a ritual in many cases expresses reverence for a [[deity]] or idealized state of humanity.

===Ancient Mesopotamia===

The Sumerians used the term [[Me (mythology)]] to refer to rituals, a word that was later equated with ''parṣu'' in the Akkadian language by the Babylonians and Assyrians. In Mesopotamia, these rituals were considered to be the property of the gods, and only certain individuals, such as kings and religious experts, had knowledge of them. From an ancient perspective, the gods themselves could also perform rituals, or acquire them from other gods to increase their power. This is a reflection of historical power struggles on a theological and political level.<ref>Zgoll, Annette (2025). [https://univerlag.uni-goettingen.de/handle/3/isbn-978-3-86395-671-4 ''Rituale: Schlüssel zur Welt hinter der Keilschrift''], Göttingen: Universitätsverlag Göttingen {{ISBN|978-3-86395-671-4}}</ref>

===Christianity===
[[File:LutheranClergy.JPG|thumb|upright|This Lutheran pastor administers the rite of confirmation on youth confirmands after instructing them in [[Luther's Small Catechism]].]]
{{Main|Rite (Christianity)}}

In Christianity, a rite is used to refer to a sacred ceremony (such as [[anointing of the sick]]), which may or may not carry the status of a [[sacrament]] depending on the [[Christian denomination]] (in Roman Catholicism, anointing of the sick is a sacrament while in Lutheranism it is not). The word "rite" is also used to denote a [[Christian liturgy|liturgical tradition]] usually emanating from a specific center; examples include the [[Roman Rite]], the [[Byzantine Rite]], and the [[Sarum Rite]]. Such rites may include various sub-rites. For example, the Byzantine Rite (which is used by the [[Eastern Orthodox]], [[Eastern Lutheran]], and [[Eastern Catholic]] churches) has Greek, Russian, and other ethnically based variants.

===Islam===
[[File:Jemaah bersujud tampak belakang.jpg|thumb|In Islam, Sujud (prostrations) occupy a quintessential position in the five obligatory daily [[Salat|formal prayers]].]]
For [[daily prayers in Islam|daily prayers]], practicing Muslims must perform a ritual recitation from the Quran in Arabic while bowing and [[prostrating in Islam|prostrating]]. [[Quranic chapter 2]] prescribes rituals such as the direction to face for prayers ([[qiblah]]); pilgrimage ([[Hajj]]), and [[fasting in Ramadan]].<ref name=LSQ>{{cite book |last1=Lumbard|first1=Joseph|author1-link=Joseph E.B. Lumbard|title=Introduction, [[The Study Quran]]  |date=April 2015|publisher= [[HarperOne]]|location=San Francisco}}</ref> [[Iḥrām]] is a state of ritual purity in preparation for [[pilgrimage in Islam]].<ref name=DSQ2:189>{{cite book |last1=Dagli|first1=Caner|author1-link=Caner Dagli|title=Q2:189 Study notes, The Study Quran  |date=April 2015|publisher= [[HarperOne]]|location=San Francisco}}</ref>

Hajj rituals include circumambulation around the [[Kaʿbah]].<ref name=DSQ>{{cite book |last1=Dagli|first1=Caner|author1-link=Caner Dagli|title=2, The Cow, al-Baqarah, The Study Quran  |date=April 2015|publisher= [[HarperOne]]|location=San Francisco}}</ref>... ''and show us our rites''<ref>[[Quran 2:128]] ([https://www.islamawakened.com/quran/2/128/ Q2:128] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210304041450/https://www.islamawakened.com/quran/2/128/ |date=2021-03-04 }}, 50+ translations, islamawakened.com)</ref> – these rites ([[manāsik]]) are presumed the rituals of ḥajj.<ref name=DSQ/> ''Truly [[Ṣafā and Marwah]] are among the rituals of God''<ref>[[Quran 2:158]] ([https://www.islamawakened.com/quran/2/158/ Q2:158] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210922083804/https://islamawakened.com/quran/2/158/ |date=2021-09-22 }}, 50+ translations, islamawakened.com)</ref> [[Saʿy]] is the ritual travel, partway between walking and running, seven times between the two hills.<ref name=DSQ2:158>{{cite book |last1=Dagli|first1=Caner|author1-link=Caner Dagli|title=Q2:158 Study notes, [[The Study Quran]]  |date=April 2015|publisher= [[HarperOne]]|location=San Francisco}}</ref>

==Freemasonry==
{{Main|Masonic ritual and symbolism|List of Masonic rites}}

In [[Freemasonry]], rituals are scripted words and actions which employ Masonic symbolism to illustrate the principles espoused by [[Freemason]]s. These rituals are progressively taught to entrusted members during initiation into a particular Masonic rite comprising a series of degrees conferred by a [[Masonic bodies|Masonic body]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Snoek |first1=Jan A.M. |date=2014 |chapter=Masonic Rituals of Initiation |editor1-last=Bodgan |editor1-first=Henrik |editor2-last=Snoek |editor2-first=Jan A.M. |title=Handbook of Freemasonry |location=[[Leiden]] |publisher=BRILL |series=Brill Handbooks on Contemporary Religion |volume=8 |pages=319–327 |doi=10.1163/9789004273122_018 |isbn=978-90-04-21833-8 |issn=1874-6691}}</ref> The degrees of Freemasonry derive from the three grades of medieval [[craft guild]]s; those of "Entered Apprentice", "Journeyman" (or "Fellowcraft"), and "Master Mason". In [[North America]], Freemasons who have been raised to the degree of "Master Mason" have the option of joining appendant bodies that offer additional degrees to those, such as those of the [[Scottish Rite]] or the [[York Rite]].

==See also==
{{Library resources box|by=no|onlinebooks=no|about=yes|wikititle=ritual}}
{{Columns-list|colwidth=20em|
* {{anli|Behavioral script}}
* {{anli|Builders' rites}}
* {{anli|Chinese ritual mastery traditions}}
* {{anli|Confucianism#Rite and centring|Confucianism § Rite and centring}}
* {{anli|Gut (ritual)}}
* {{anli|Kagura}}
* {{anli|List of substances used in rituals}}
* {{anli|Nabichum}}
* {{anli|Nuo rituals}}
* {{anli|Process art}}
* {{anli|Processional walkway}}
* {{anli|Religious symbolism}}
* {{anli|Ritualism in the Church of England}}
* {{anli|Symbolic boundaries}}
* {{anli|Dajiao|Taiping Qingjiao}}
* {{anli|The Rite of Spring|''The Rite of Spring''}}
}}

==References==
{{Reflist|23em}}

===Cited literature===
{{refbegin|30em}}
* {{cite book|last=Asad |first=Talal |title=Genealogies of Religion|year=1993|publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press|location=Baltimore|chapter=Toward a genealogy of the concept of ritual}}
* {{cite book|last=Bell|first=Catherine|title=Ritual: Perspectives and Dimensions|url=https://archive.org/details/ritualperspectiv00bell|url-access=limited|year=1997|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=New York}}
* {{cite book|last=Geertz|first=Clifford|author-link=Clifford Geertz|title=Negara: the Theatre State in Nineteenth-Century Bali|url=https://archive.org/details/negaratheatresta00geer_1|url-access=registration|year=1980|publisher=Princeton University Press|location=Princeton}}
* {{cite book |editor1-last=Lessa |editor1-first=William A. |editor2-last=Vogt |editor2-first=Evon Z. |title=Reader in Comparative Religion: An Anthropological Approach|url=https://archive.org/details/readerincomparat00less|url-access=registration|year=1979|publisher=Harper & Row|location=New York|isbn=9780060439910}}
* {{cite journal |last1=Tolbert |first1=Elizabeth |title=Women Cry with Words: Symbolization of Affect in the Karelian Lament |journal=[[Yearbook for Traditional Music]] |date=1990a |volume=22 |pages=80–105 |doi=10.2307/767933 |jstor=767933|s2cid=192949893 }}
* {{cite encyclopedia |last1=Tolbert |first1=Elizabeth |year=1990b |title=Magico-Religious Power and Gender in the Karelian Lament |encyclopedia=Music, Gender, and Culture, vol. 1 |series=Intercultural Music Studies |editor1-last=Herndon |editor1-first=M. |editor2-last=Zigler |editor2-first=S. |pages=41–56 |location=Wilhelmshaven, DE. |publisher=International Council for Traditional Music, Florian Noetzel Verlag}}
* {{cite book |last1=Turner |first1=Victor W. |author1-link=Victor Turner |title=The Forest of Symbols: Aspects of Ndembu Ritual|url=https://archive.org/details/forestofsymbolsa00turn_1|url-access=limited|year=1967|publisher=Cornell University Press|location=Ithaca, NY}}
* {{cite book |last1=Turner |first1=Victor W. |author1-link=Victor Turner |title=The Ritual Process: Structure and Anti-Structure |year=1969 |publisher=Cornell University Press |location=Ithaca, NY}}
* {{cite journal |last1=Wilce |first1=James M. |title=Magical Laments and Anthropological Reflections: The Production and Circulation of Anthropological Text as Ritual Activity |journal=Current Anthropology |year=2006 |volume=47 |issue=6 |pages=891–914 |doi=10.1086/507195|s2cid=11691889 }}
{{refend}}

==Further reading==
* Aractingi,  Jean-Marc and G. Le Pape. (2011) "Rituals and catechisms in Ecumenical Rite" in ''East and West at the Crossroads Masonic'', Editions l'Harmattan- Paris {{ISBN|978-2-296-54445-1}}.
* Bax, Marcel. (2010). 'Rituals'. In: Jucker, Andeas H. & Taavitsainen, Irma, eds. ''Handbook of Pragmatics, Vol. 8: Historical Pragmatics''. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, 483–519.
* Bloch, Maurice. (1992) ''Prey into Hunter: The Politics of Religious Experience''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
* Buc, Philippe. (2001) ''The Dangers of Ritual. Between Early Medieval Texts and Social Scientific Theory''. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
* Buc, Philippe. (2007). 'The monster and the critics. A ritual reply'. ''Early Medieval Europe'' 15: 441–52.
* Carrico, K., ed. (2011). 'Ritual.' ''Cultural Anthropology'' (Journal of the Society for Cultural Anthropology). Virtual Issue: http://www.culanth.org/?q=node/462.
* Dapschauskas, Rimtautas (2023). ''[https://doi.org/10.11588/propylaeum.1202 Der evolutionäre Ursprung von Ritualen. Eine disziplinübergreifende Synthese des aktuellen Forschungsstandes aus archäologischer Perspektive]'' [The evolutionary origin of rituals. An interdisciplinary synthesis of the current state of research from an archaeological perspective]. Heidelberg.
* D'Aquili, Eugene G., Charles D. Laughlin and John McManus. (1979) ''The Spectrum of Ritual: A Biogenetic Structural Analysis''. New York: Columbia University Press.
* Douglas, Mary. (1966) ''[[Purity and danger|Purity and Danger: An Analysis of Concepts of Pollution and Taboo]]''. London: Routledge.
* Durkheim, E. (1965 [1915]). ''The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life''. New York: The Free Press.
* [[Amitai Etzioni|Etzioni, Amitai]]. (2000). "[https://ssrn.com/abstract=1438225 Toward a theory of public ritual.]" ''Sociological Theory'' 18(1): 44–59.
* [[Erik Erikson|Erikson, Erik]]. (1977) ''Toys and Reasons: Stages in the Ritualization of Experience''. New York: Norton.
* Fogelin, L. (2007). The Archaeology of Religious Ritual. ''Annual Review of Anthropology'' 36: 55–71.
* [[Arnold van Gennep|Gennep, Arnold van]]. (1960) ''The Rites of Passage''. Chicago: Chicago University Press.
* Grimes, Ronald L. (2014) ''The Craft of Ritual Studies''. New York: Oxford University Press.
* Grimes, Ronald L. (1982, 2013) ''Beginnings in Ritual Studies''. Third edition. Waterloo, Canada: Ritual Studies International.
* Kyriakidis, E., ed. (2007) ''The archaeology of ritual''. Cotsen Institute of Archaeology UCLA publications
* Lawson, E.T. & McCauley, R.N. (1990) ''Rethinking Religion: Connecting Cognition and Culture''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
* [[Bronisław Malinowski|Malinowski, Bronisław]]. (1948) ''Magic, Science and Religion''. Boston: Beacon Press.
* McCorkle Jr., William W. (2010) ''Ritualizing the Disposal of Dead Bodies: From Corpse to Concept''. New York: Peter Lang Publishing, Inc.
* Perniola Mario. (2000). ''Ritual Thinking. Sexuality, Death, World'', foreword by Hugh J. Silverman, with author's introduction, Amherst (USA), Humanity Books.
* Post, Paul (2015) 'Ritual Studies', in: ''Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Religion'' 1–23. New York/Oxford: Oxford University Press. DOI: 10.1093/acrefore/9780199340378.013.21
* [[Roy Rappaport|Rappaport, Roy A.]] (1999) ''Ritual and Religion in the Making of Humanity''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
* Seijo, F. (2005). "The Politics of Fire: Spanish Forest Policy and Ritual Resistance in Galicia, Spain". ''Environmental Politics'' 14 (3): 380–402
* Silverstein, M. (2003). ''Talking Politics :The Substance of Style from Abe to "W"''. Chicago: Prickly Paradigm Press (distributed by University of Chicago).
* Silverstein, M. (2004). ""Cultural" Concepts and the Language-Culture Nexus". ''Current Anthropology'' 45: 621–52.
* [[Jonathan Z. Smith|Smith, Jonathan Z.]] (1987) ''To Take Place: Toward Theory in Ritual''. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
* [[Frits Staal|Staal, Frits]] (1990) ''Ritual and Mantras: Rules Without Meaning''. New York: Peter Lang Publishing, Inc.
* Stollberg-Rilinger, Barbara (2013). ''Rituale''. Frankfurt am Main: Campus, 2013
* Yatromanolakis, Dimitrios and Panagiotis Roilos, (2003). ''Towards a Ritual Poetics'', Athens, Foundation of the Hellenic World.
* Yatromanolakis, Dimitrios and Panagiotis Roilos (eds.), (2005) ''Greek Ritual Poetics'', Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press.

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[[Category:Ritual| ]]
[[Category:Cultural conventions]]