Introduction

Ritual
-universal
-common elements
-action
-connection with religion
-addressing cultural anxieties

Typologies of Ritual
-secular rituals?
-textbook division
-Anthony Wallace's approach
-overlapping categories
-comparison with theater?

The Dynamism of Ritual
-elusive encompassing meaning or significance
-change over time
-new creations
-issues of appropriation

Approaching Ritual
-two basic functions
-the articles: a range of rituals and interpretations

Article: Betwixt and Between: The Liminal Period in 'Rites of Passage' by Victor W. Turner

The Liminal Period of Rites of Passage
-Arnold van Gennep
-interstructural situation
        --features and themes?

Rites of Passage
-expression in small-scale, cyclical societies
-transition between "states"
-van Gennep's 3 phases (separation, margin, aggregation)

Investigating the Liminal
-structural invisibility
-neophyte

Symbolism of the Liminal Persona
-often modeled on human biological processes
-condition of ambiguity, paradox, neutrality
-Douglas's theory of contradiction/pollution
-human "prima materia"/prototype of "sacred poverty"

Neophyte Social Structure
-simple
-authority of tradition/axiomatic values
-comradeship
-passivity and absorption of "gnosis"

The Communication of Sacra
-the heart of the liminal matter
-3 issues to explore: disproportion, monstrousness, and mystery
        --examples
        --prompts reflection
-3 parallel processes: reduction, recombination (I), and recombination (II)
-abstraction encouraged
-sacerrima
-archetypal paradigm

Conclusion
-communication of the sacra
        --teaches thinking abstractly
        --offers ultimate standards of reference
        --allows transition between states

-conclusions applied
-invitation to further study

Female Circumcision in the Arab World
-limited literature
-growing awareness of and activism around "female genital mutilation"
-concerns about passivity

Female Genital 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

El Dareer's Survey
-extensive statistical survey (1977–81)
-Northern Sudan
-type prevalence
-education level as a factor
-dayas

Egypt -less survey info
-lower prevalence/more moderate procedures
-except Nubian south

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

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?

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

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

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

Article: Return to Wirikuta: Ritual Reversal and Symbolic Continuity on the Peyote Hunt of the Huichol Indians by Barbara G. Myerhoff

Wirikuta
-a geographical location and a spiritual location
-"all is unity, all is one, all is ourselves"
-three major symbols
        --deer, maize, peyote
-transformation into the First People to reenter
        --assume identity of deity and hunt peyote

Mythological and Ritual Aspects of Reversals
-personal reversals in four levels
        --naming
        --interpersonal behavior
        --ritual behavior
        --emotional states

The Functions and Symbolism of the Reversals
-separation of ordinary into sacred
-transformation of mortals into deities
-concentration for ritual action
-polarity reaffirms continuity

Article: Ritual Regulation of Environmental Relations Among a New Guinea People by Roy A. Rappaport

Rituals -effects on physical world
-regulate relationships between nonhuman and human components
-limits fighting
-redistributes surpluses

Tsembaga
-population that is a part of their ecosystem
-horticulturalists

Pig Herd and the Ritual Cycle
-function of pigs in life
        --eliminate garbage in residential areas
        --hasten growth of vegetation
-pigs are rarely killed outside of ritual context
-Ritual cycle
        --rituals performed during war
        --rituals following the end of hostilities
        --kaiko
-Purpose of Rituals Among Tsembaga
        --maintain, limit, adjust, facilitate, distribute, and assure

Tsembaga and the Environment
-local subsystem
-regional subsystem

Article: I Can Only Move My Feet Towards 'Mizuko Kuyõ': Memorial Services for Dead Children in Japan by Elizabeth G. Harrison

Mizuko Kuyõ
-"water child"
-a new tradition
-Buddhist associations
-object of the services
-press coverage

Emergence of Mizuko Kuyõ
-contextual history
-Buddhism in Japan
-gained popularity in the 1970s
-increased controversy
-disjunction between public images
-meaning for lay practitioners?

Promotional and Media Images
-successful promotion of specific sites
-subsequent change in media representation
-"business of terror"/tatari
-positioning of Buddhist clergy

Buddhist Clergy and Mizuko Kuyõ
-opposition rationale
-support rationale
-examples

Invented Traditions
-effacing memory
-using cultural and symbolic space
-giving Buddhist history to the practice
-mutual confirmation of traditions
-changing approach of the clergy
-modern acceptance
-irrelevance of intentionality/appropriation

Lay People's Mizuko Kuyõ
-stereotypical media image of women
-active attempt to deal with personal loss
-complexity of involved emotions (sense of responsibility)
-survey: feelings about the practice
-oversimplification into "guilt"
-reproductive control in Japan
-formal, public, ritualized acknowledgement
-silent resistance and subversion

Mizuko Kuyõ in the Lay Participant's Context
-more complex than media and public images
-reasons given
-formalized public mechanism for:
        --acknowledging the existence of a child, mizuko
        --establishing a continuing relationship with the mizuko
        -- a way to speak on women's unspeakable issues
-Buddhism provides the means

Article: Body Ritual Among the Nacirema by Horace Miner

Nacirema Culture
-poorly understood
-background
-ritual activity
        --focus on the physical body

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

"Holy-Mouth-Men"
-Nacirema oral fixation
-social impact
-mouth-rites
-specialist ceremonial treatment
-masochistic tendencies?

Latipso
-temples of the medicine men
-ritual purification
-gifts and payment
-exposing the body
-temple ceremonies
-faith

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?