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Ritual

Ritual. Chapter 3- Week 5 Miner- Body Ritual Among the Nacirema Gordon- Female Circumcision in Egypt …. Ritual. Rituals involve: Predictability Some times change Turner’s definition

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Ritual

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  1. Ritual Chapter 3- Week 5 Miner- Body Ritual Among the Nacirema Gordon- Female Circumcision in Egypt …

  2. Ritual • Rituals involve: • Predictability • Some times change • Turner’s definition • “Ritual is a stereotyped sequence of activities involving gestures, words & objects, performed in a sequestered place & designed to influence magical forces on behalf of actor’s goals & interests.” • Durkheim’s definition • “True nature of religion is ritual participation.” • Wallace’s definition • “Ritual is the primary phenomenon of religion, religion in action; the cutting edge of the tool.”

  3. Types of Rituals • Rites of passage: passage from one state of life to a new state of life • Involves recognition of change • 3 stages involving separating, luminal space, outside normal, aggregation to normal. • Separation • Liminal • Aggregation • Rites of intensification • continuously reoccur • Recognition of the continuality of life

  4. Wallace’s five ritual categories • Technological ritual- control nature • Therapy & anti-therapy rituals- control health • Ideological rituals- try to control behavior • Rites of passage • Rites of intensification • Taboos • Rites of rebellion • Salvation rituals- control one’s fate/destiny, control one’s identity • Revitalization rituals- control community’s fate, identity.

  5. Rituals as Performance • Ritual as a theater • Acting but not “just pretending” • Games, sports, theater and rituals share basic qualities Efficacy Entertainment Performance

  6. Rites of Passage • Mark the transition from one stage of life, season, or event to another. • “Life cycle” or “Life Crisis” rituals • i.e. birth, initiation, marriage & death. • Threefold structure Separation transition incorporation Preliminal liminal postliminal

  7. Body Ritual Among the Nacirema Chapter 3 Lehman & Myer By Horace Miner

  8. Body Rituals Among the Nacirema • Nacirema Culture -poorly understood -background -ritual activity -focus on the physical body

  9. Body Ritual Among the Nacirema • Body Ritual • -underlying approach to the body • -daily ceremonies and rites • -shrines • -charms and magical potions • -specialized practitioners • -rites of ablution

  10. Body Ritual Among the Nacirema “Holy-Mouth-Men” • -Nacirema oral fixation • -social impact • -mouth-rites • -specialist ceremonial treatment • -masochistic tendencies?

  11. Body Ritual Among the Nacirema Latipso • -temples of the medicine men • -ritual purification • -gifts and payment • -exposing the body • -temple ceremonies • -faith

  12. Body Ritual Among the Nacirema The “Listener” • -witch doctor • -susceptibility of children • -curses and “counter-magic” Conclusions • -practices based on an aversion to the body • -functions ritualized and distorted • -magic-ridden culture • -self-imposed burdens • -position of insight?

  13. Female Circumcision in Egypt and Sudan: A Controversial Rite of Passage Article by Daniel Gordon Chapter 3- Ritual

  14. Outline • Female Circumcision in the Arab World • -limited literature • -growing awareness/activism of “female genital mutilation” • -concerns about passivity

  15. Female Genitalia Operations • Literal circumcision, sunna, “duty” in Arabic • Excision or clitoridectomy & “intermediate circumcision” • Pharaonic circumcision, tahara forowniyya, “infibulation” • Rural and urban approaches to operation • Geographic prevalence info • Egypt • less survey info • lower prevalence/more moderate procedures • except Nubian south

  16. El Dareer’s Survey • -extensive statistical survey (1977-81) • -Northern Sudan • -type prevalence • -education level as a factor • -dayas

  17. Recognized Women’s Health Concern • Egyptian and Sudanese statutes against radical forms • El Dareer’s work to educate • difficult to assess extent of health problems • culture specific issues • complications described (not quantified) • immediate and chronic concerns • childbirth, sex • medical and psychological sequelae

  18. Endurance of the Practice • -public resistance to enforcement • -religion and tradition-based rationales • -evidence of religious validation? • -interplay between doctrine and cultural sense of propriety • -rite of passage?

  19. Cultural Issues • Arabic Code of Modesty • separation and seclusion for women • culturally conceived idea of female sexuality • genital operations as substitutes for total seclusion • issues of patrilineal purity and changing conditions • Women Advocates • role of the daya • focus on fertility and de-emphasizing sexuality • “enclosedness” • assertive and symbolic act controlled by women

  20. Other Issues • Issues for Opponents • culturally embedded solutions • peripheral incorporation into health care system • WHO “passive stance” • Changing Conditions • mothers as a barometer for change • effects of Westernization/urbanization

  21. Cross-Cultural Ethics • -integrating concerns and methods • -position of advocacy • -anthropological perpetuation of a “cover-up” • -female genital operations as a test case • -a new integrative model? • -advocating a positioned approach

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