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Rituals around the world introduction
The nature of obsession
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Introduction I want to write about obsessive-compulsive disorder because it is a very important thing in the life of humans that is present and that sometimes it is not taken care of or the people don't really know a lot about it. And when it is present people don't know what it is happening with the person provoking the ritual and then the question from the observer comes and commentaries are maid without really knowing the truth of what really is happening. In this essay I will include the relation with anthropology and the disorder. The striking similarities between the form and content of normal ritual and the ritualistic behavior of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. How is a normal ritual a basic necessary component of human cultural behavior, and how this normal cultural behavior can change into a disorder. I will include the explanation of OCD, and how it can be cured the history behind this and how it is present in this days. All this answers come from an extensive research of professional people that is treating this and have maid professional pages about this behavior, so I will try to put it in the most understandable words possible. The anthropology of Ritual Most people know a ritual when they see one. This includes a formalized behavior, that is a sequence of actions usually repeated, that often have a religious or solemn content, this actions are made to achieve something needed by the person provoking the rituals. These kinds of actions are useful and informative to the anthropologist, who is trying to characterize a group of people by its social behavior. All this information has become an important source in the work of an ethnographer. In addition to the above ideas, ritual actions most often take great depth on social meaning, and typically are performed in a need, desire or intent to be a part of a group. So in the explanation of what is a ritual it can be defined as a formal behavior for occasions not performed very often for our normal routines, having reference to beliefs in mystical beings or powers. The problems with some rituals are that if it is not on symbolism it is not highly, visible and therefore, very hard to interpret, this can be a secular ritual.
These beliefs help us make analyses about this ritual, interpretations not strictly bound to earthly or worldly things.
the deities and attempt to explain the psychological necessity of these rituals. An examination will be made of the typical forms of rituals, and cite their effects,
The term liturgy has its basis in Greek mythology. It can be defined as a form of worship that is that is done according to particular beliefs and practices that are held by a certain group of people. The beliefs and the rituals are usually practiced by the whole group. It may be understood as a ritual that is usually elaborate. Ritual on the other hand refers to a number of activities that are performed in a sequential manner and which more often are prescribed by specific communities. Liturgy plays different functions depending on their nature. To begin with, the catholic liturgy expresses certain religious beliefs towards a Supreme Being and therefore done in a manner that is an expression of worship to the Supreme Being. The term ritual
The goal of the anthropologist is to come to understand the beliefs and behaviours of the cultures around them, without judgement. When one scrutinizes Western rituals, we often have difficulty seeing the strangeness of our own culture. To understand those around us, we must first be able to understand ourselves. In this paper, I will attempt to critically summarize and analyze Horace Miner’s “Body Ritual among the Nacirema”.
Goffman defines ritual as follows: "I use the term "ritual" because this activity, however informal and secular, represents a way in which the individual must guard and design the symbolic implications of his acts while in the immediate presence of an object that has a special value for him" (Goffman 1956/1967, 57).
Obsessive-compulsive disorder has many common symptoms and experiences that along with it, but it is not completely cut-and-dry for every individual. The authors of these essays have gone through many hard times and want others to be informed about their disorder. Through their personal stories, I hope we have all learned a little more about what life with OCD is all about.
People from all walks of life can get a diagnosis of OCD. It can be found in multiple groups of people in all social and ethnic groups and found in both male and female. Most symptoms are formed in early childhood, the teenage or young adult years. If the appearance of OCD suddenly appears later in life could merit a thorough medical evaluation to ensure that another illness is not the underlining causes of these symptoms. This paper will discuss what OCD is, who actually gets it is, what the actual causes of OCD are, and what the effective treatments for OCD are available out there (Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, OCD, ...
Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) is an anxiety disorder characterized by intrusive thoughts that produce uneasiness, apprehension, fear, or worry. The acts of those who have OCD may appear paranoid and potentially psychotic. However, OCD sufferers generally recognize their obsessions and compulsions as irrational and may become further distressed by this realization. Obsessive–compulsive disorder affects children and adolescents, as well as adults. Roughly one third to one half of adults with OCD reports a childhood onset of the disorder, suggesting the continuum of anxiety disorders across the life span. OCD may be a result of changes in your body's own natural chemistry or brain functions. OCD also may have a genetic component, but specific genes have yet to be identified. OCD may stem from behavior-related habits that you learned over time. Doctors do not know the exact cause of OCD, factors that may play a role include head injury, infections, and abnormal function in certain areas of the brain and family genes seems to play a strong role. Most people who develop OCD it shows the symptoms by age 30. Often the person carries out the behaviors to get rid of the obsessive thoughts, but this only provides temporary relief. Not doing the obsessive rituals can cause great anxiety.
People check things twice, but what if you feel the urge to repeat things ten times. Obsessive Compulsive Disorder is an anxiety disorder that is characterized by obsessions and compulsions. People use obsessions and compulsions to relieve their anxiety. Without treatment obsessions and compulsions can eventually take over a person’s life. These obsessions and compulsions can be treated with medication or therapy making a person’s life more bearable. Dr. Dorothy Grice had said in an interview with Katie Charles, “There’s a wide range of severity, but in the most extreme cases, OCD can be extremely disabling especially when the compulsions become time-consuming and elaborate…”
Firstly, we must establish what a ritual is. A ritual is the performance of traditional ceremonial acts. Rituals can be a formal ceremony that is performed in a series of acts that are continuously performed in the same way. Lovat established a five stage model to analyse the movements of a ritual. The five stage model begins with the leaving of the ordinary – a participant leaves their normal lives to a sacred space; then follows the preparation of the ritual; the climax is the key point of the ritual; next is the celebration or the winding down; lastly is the returning to the ordinary – participants feel that their lives have a new sense of purpose. The purpose of Lovat’s five stage model is to analyse the movements of a ritual.
A ritual is usually a ceremony that includes a series of actions that are performed according to a certain order. Most of the time rituals originate from myths. In Athens, several people participated in a group of events known as The Eleusinian Mysteries, hoping for a fulfilling and great afterlife. The Eleusinian Mysteries, a cult centered on a myth of Persephone's journey to and from the underworld, were celebrated from the eighth century B.C to the Hellenistic period. To the ancient Greeks, myths had a purpose and that was to basically explain the world around them. The myth and the mysteries itself were a symbol of life, death, and rebirth. The mysteries were created from the story and it was their way of demonstrating their honor and belief of the two goddesses. Events that occurred during the Eleusinian Mysteries symbolized a part of the myth of Demeter and Persephone, which is proof that the rituals practiced are associated with the myth.
Society is not consisted of innate behaviors, but instead learned interactions and knowledge through symbolic changes. Through these exchanges, habitus is formed. Habitus is the result of practiced exchanges that have been inadvertently taught through past exchanges of culture, language, and knowledge. One cannot escape the way the world imposes these practices, and the practices are constantly occurring and changing, reflecting society. The actions of society are in a way regular, normal, and regulated without any type of law and rules, and does not need to be explicitly stated. Sometimes, however, Habitus can be a calculated operation, in which a practice learned by another is now teaching another the normality and expectations of the culture.
Ritual changes people for better or worse, either way a change has been made and you aren’t the same after the ritual ends. The Apache girl has something she can tell her grandkids about, she has a vivid incredible memory that will never leave her. The confirmed has a memory too, a family time that brings people together, and we all know we love family time regardless of what occurs within we are happy to see that aunt uncle, and cousin we haven’t seen in so long. Rituals are times that should bring people together and change them for the better, as well as prepare them for the long roads ahead.
Turner (1969) provides his own explanation of ritual and introduces the theory of ‘liminality’ and ‘communitas’. Turner explains how an individual must first be separated from society, and from the social order and structure, to fully accept the ritual and allow for deeper bonding between the participants. Next is the stage of ‘liminality’. This is the transitional period during any ritual, for example a rite of passage, in which the individual lacks any social ranking or status and remains completely unidentifiable from the group. The participants are often referred to as the “threshold people” in this stage as the experience is likened to death or being in the womb. This stage is often described as breaking an individual down to their base uniformity in order to remake them in the next stage. It is due to this that ‘communitas’ among the group is expected. ‘Communitas’ refers to the intense lifelong comradeship among the participants that remains due to this stressful experience, as referred to by Rossano (2012). At this point in the ritual, it is not actually preserving or reiterating social order. If the ritual were to end here it would actually be taking the participants from the structure of society and releasing them into “anti-structure”. However, the final stage of ritual is their reaggregation into society and therefore into social order. Once a ritual is done the participants come away with a strong bond together, which has already been described as a preservation of social order. Moreover the participants keep their sense of uniformity experienced during ‘liminality’, which reiterates social order as it means the members of the society have shared beliefs. This idea of inverting society in order to reiterate it is also touched upon by Gluckman (1952). His theory, however, is based on the idea of “rituals of rebellion”, in which social order is flipped. In
Rituals are a significant aspect of Buddhist life. There is no one type of ritual in Buddhism and their level of importance range with their type. Various types of rituals include: going for refuge; offering homage to the Buddha or other important Buddhist teachers, teachings or areas of life; making offerings; confessing faults, precept ceremonies; calling on spiritual forces for support; blessings; dedications of merit; rites of passage; and initiations or ordinations. (Zheng 21) The importance of any of these rituals in Buddhism is paramount. The rituals in this religion are interwoven with the daily life of the Buddhist. They express many of the dimensions of the human condition: from our relationships with others to our spiritual life.