Rituals in Society
Understanding why Rituals Exist in Society
Ritual is an act or ceremony carried out on a regular basis, with a specific intention. Ritual has been a part of life from time immemorial. Humans are creatures of habit. People adopt a habit if it proves to be effective, efficient, or serves as a reminder. However, they tend to continue that practice even after that habit’s usefulness has been lost. These habits have evolved into rituals that govern how people run their lives. Religion for example is full of rituals that one may deem unnecessary or antiquated. For instance, In Shirley Jackson’s short story, “Lottery,” there is a group of townsfolk that practice a barbaric ritual only because their predecessors before them had practiced it. One of the ancient practices that modern man deplores as inhumanly evil is annual sacrifice of a scapegoat or a god-figure for the benefit of the community. Rituals give people a prototype on how to behave in situations that they would not otherwise know how to behave. Some of these rituals may be appropriate but others may have lost their usefulness.
People should consider their reasons for rituals. Why do they believe in rites? The interesting fact is that people believe in rites mostly because of their parent’s influence in their upbringing. A child observes his or her environment, and learns from it. A major component and influence of that is watching his or her parents performing these rites. The Parents force the child to do the rituals and they try to convince him or her to believe them. For instance, in “Lottery,” Shirley mentioned, “ the children assembled first, of course. ” The enthusiasm of the children can either be taken as the children’s willingness to please their parents or excitement at being allowed to participate in this grown up act. The children do not know where the stoning ritual comes from but they want to experience and take part in it to show they are also grown up and have an interest in the community.
As I grew up in semi-conservative Jewish family, my parents were doing the rites and customs that they had learned as children and were passing them down to their own children. They sent me to the Jewish school and I learned Jewish ceremony and rules from schools. I never had chance to ask why...