Ritual Decalogue

gardens, and make her way to a ruined temple to mate with an Elephant-keeper, a man from a low-class and caste at the middle of the night, and then confront her husband in the face, and refuse to profess guilt and to atone for it through a propitiatory ritual. She describes her love-making to her husband as natural, spontaneous and beautiful: “I wanted to come back to you. I feel fuller. Richer. Warmer. But not ashamed. Because I didn’t plan it. It happened. And it was…

dot that Mrs. Hutchinson opens is associated superstitiously with bad luck. They are a premonition of bad issues to come. Furthermore, most people will conduct rituals because other people do conduct rituals and not because they have objectively examined a religion. In “The Lottery”, the people living in the village keep performing the ritual even if killing is bad. It shows that people are less likely to understand and differentiate between…

country where certain rituals…

The serpent ritual uses dance, using virgins as a form to reach the gods. Dance is not only included but by using art, and food as well helps this particular culture keep next to God. They use dance to purify body and spirit and set a tall table for the Gods also offering…

the Nazca geoglyphs. Unlike most art of the time, these were on a monumental scale as some were 400+ feet long and straight lines were continuous for 1,000+ feet, stopping at a pile of stones. This pile of stones is important because it links to a ritual of Peruvians still in use today – ceremonial walking. Just as modern ceremonial walkers, the people who created these geoglyphs, “earth writings,” may have later followed the paths they created in the sand, driving the sand further to…

their economy is based on the fruits of their natural habitat and partly because their nation “originated [from] a cultural hero, Notgnihsaw” (Nacirema Ritual, pg. 503). Another aspect of their language shows the importance of the medicine men in the culture. An “ancient and secret language” is used by the medicine men and herbalists (Nacriema Ritual, pg. 504). They use this power and elitism to exploit those who believe and count on the medicine men’s ability and…

scarification or marks were common in the ancient world too. In some regions every ethnic or tribal group have their unique marks. Sometimes the marks can tell you who a person is or where they come from or belong. Some marks are accompanied with religious rituals that may involve animal sacrifice. In some communities their leaders, chiefs and kings are inaugurated in high level religious…

problematic it is to examine the traditions of a society as an outsider. At the beginning of her analysis Heidenreich prefaces this portion of the chapter with a narrative of a religious ceremony that the reader assumes is some sort of aboriginal ritual. Following this description Heidenreich reveals that the ceremony is actually a Protestant service she witnessed as a child, a service considered “traditional” in Western society. Throughout the rest of the chapter Heidenreich goes on to describe…

Medicine Bag” story, “Apache Girl’s Rite of Passage” video, and the “Cherokee Night Ritual Into Manhood” story are all rites of passages. “The Medicine Bag” is about a boy named Martin receiving his family's tradition from his grandfather and how he feels about it. “Apache Girl’s Rite of Passage” video is about Dachina becoming a woman in her tribe and what she has to go through to become one. “Cherokee Night Ritual Into Manhood” story is about how the Cherokee boys turn into men by staying in…

To begin with, rites of terror are rituals that cause intense negative emotions for the people who are about to go through it. The rites of terror are performed in many cultures around the world and there are many reasons why these rituals occur. The main one I would say is to officially integrate the performer into society. The actual terror is what leaves a long lasting memory for the performer so they can remember what they have gone through. In the chapter “Terror” by Harvey Whitehouse he…