Social Ritualism By Goffman

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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). Let us look more closely at the main types of rituals that Goffman finds in everyday life. There are the salutations, compliments, and stereotyped verbal interchanges that make up the polite or friendly routine of verbal interaction. These are on the surface meaningless. "How are you?" is not a request for information, and it is a violation of its spirit to reply as if the interlocuter wanted to know details about one …show more content…

Social reality itself is being defined. What social institution people believe they are taking part in, the setting, the roles that are being presented--none of these exists in itself, but only as it is made real by being acted out. Goffman is a social constructionist, except that he sees individuals as having little or no leeway in what they must construct; the situation itself makes its demands that they feel impelled to …show more content…

Frames are basic cognitive structures that guide the perception and representation of reality. When people make interpretations of what is going on around their world they do so through the framework or schemata of interpretation (natural and social primary framework – people distinguish between events that are part of nature and those that are due to social agency). For example, - how do you interpret the group of people on the cover of the book? "This report . . . is concerned with the structure of social encounters--the structure of those entities in social life that come into being whenever persons enter one another 's immediate physical presence. The key factor in this structure is the maintenance of a single definition of the situation" (1959,

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