RITUAL THEORY RITES OF PASSAGE 9 22 16

RITUAL THEORY & RITES OF PASSAGE 9. 22. 16

CREATION UNIT REVIEW • RELIGIOUS TEXTS (PRIMARY SOURCES) • Genesis 1 -3 • Enuma Elish • Gospel of Mary; Gospel of Thomas • Qur’an Sura 7

CREATION UNIT REVIEW • THEORISTS (SECONDARY SOURCES) • Eliade • • Lincoln • • Minimalist vs maximalists, polythetic definition of religion Ruether • • Hierophany, sacred space vs profane space, axis mundi, religious man vs modern man religious texts reveal values of society Pagels • censored texts reveal values of society

FUNCTIONS OF RITUAL • Orients participants to space and time • Connects participants to the divine • Connects participants to a larger community • Includes the body as an instrument for religion O Brother Where Ar’t Thou Delmar’s Baptism What about Grimes’ “Afro-Caribbean-Polish ‘baptism’”?

KINDS OF RITUALS • Calendar Rituals • Life Cycle Rituals • Daily • Birth • Weekly • Coming of age • Monthly • Marriage • Yearly • Death • Special Occasion Rituals • Ordination • Exorcism Eucharist

ARNOLD VAN GENNEP (1873 -1957) • Rites of passage • • “rites which accompany every change of place, state, social position and age” Three stages of initiation rites (rites of passage) • Separation - the initiate is removed from the rest of the community • Transition (or limen / “threshold”) - the initiate leaves the community until the rites are complete • Re-Aggregation - the initiate rejoins the community

VICTOR TURNER (1920 - 1983) • Expands upon van Gennep’s theory, specifically focusing on liminality • • Focused on the “potential” available in liminal state; especially in relation to deconstructing social systems • • also related to Eliade and phenomenology where cultural and ritual creativity are incubated Genuine ritual is transformative; ceremony confirms the status quo

LIMINALITY AND COMMUNITAS • Liminality • Betwixt and Between • No clear social status • unclear status makes liminality dangerous to community and social system Hazing of fraternity pledges as depicted on Law & Order SVU • Why?

LIMINALITY AND COMMUNITAS • Communitas • group of people who are in the same liminal state • “common generic bond” • (Majority) Anti-structure • Social distinctions fall away Selma to Montgomery March, 1965

SIGNIFICANCE OF RITES OF PASSAGE • “Social life is a dialectical process that involved successive experience of high and low” • All cultures have successive moments of highs/lows marked by ritual • Rituals help in process that humans go through anyway

HOPI KACHINA CULT • Hopi — Native American Pueblo Tribe • Kachina • Supernatural Beings - represent aspects of natural world, not gods • Kachina Dancers • Kachina Dolls given to children • Kiva - subterranean ritual / ceremony space • Central theme of Kachina cult: “The presence of life in all objects that fill the universe. Everything has an essence or a life force, and humans must interact with these or fail to survive”

HOPI INITIATION RITUAL • What: Initiation into Kachina cult • Purpose: Reveal to children nature of the kachinas • Who: 8 -10 year olds • What happens: • Children are removed from community • Whipped by Kachinas - “payment” to receive special knowledge; device to ensure secrecy • Kachinas unmasked - members community, possibly relatives • Profound disappointment, disenchantment, discord

DISENCHANTMENT • Dual traumatic effects: • • disenchantment • altered concepts of Kachinas • profound disappointment and resentment towards elders modified behavior • excessive indulgence by their elders end • irreversible loss of naive realism

WHAT’S NEXT? • • Active members of the Kachina cult • attentive to Kachina stories • participating in religious preparation and activities Birth of religious perspective • Religious life begins as serious and reflective (adult qualities) • Motivation for seeking religious awareness

CHARACTERISTICS OF DISENCHANTMENT (PG 236) • Encouraging identification of the spiritual with some physical / sensual aspect of the world • Initiatory process • • • reinforces sense that the fullness of religious reality is invested in these figures and objects Concluding moments / / Threshold • Illusion dissolved • “Rites demonstrate irreversibly that things are not simply what they appear to be, that onedimensional literalism is a childish faith that one has to grow beyond” Choice: • See the world as meaningless • Quest for fuller understanding of the world

EXAMPLES OF DISENCHANTMENT • Similarities to first members of Christian community? • Disenchantment in secular modernity?