ANTH 222 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Altar Call, Faith Healing, Pentecostalism
Document Summary
Ritual is a performance or formal sequence of events set apart from everyday life that exacts a symbolic transformation. Ritual is how we communicate with the spirit world. All religions have rituals, but not all rituals are religious (some are secular). Ritual is performed as a social act, is symbolic, and is transformative. Other types of habitual behaviors usually lack one or more of these elements (either lack symbolism or transformation) Rituals have a liturgy: a sequence of words and actions invented prior to the current performance of a ritual. We have expectations about what will happen in a ritual and how others will respond. What do rituals do: impress on people commitment to their religious system, express group solidarity and loyalty, allay anxiety during times of crisis, usher people into new social roles. Control nature for the purpose of human exploitation. Divination = predicting and mediating the future.
