Editing Fertility rite (section)

==Characteristics==

"Fertility rites may occur in calendric cycles, as [[rites of passage]] within the life cycle, or as ad hoc rituals....Commonly fertility rituals are embedded within larger-order religions or other social institutions."<ref>Thomas Barfield, ''The Dictionary of Anthropology'' (1997) p. 184</ref>

As with [[Cave painting|cave pictures]] "[that] show animals at the point of mating...[and] served magic fertility rites", such rites are "...a form of [[sympathetic magic]]"<ref>Jaffé, p. 261</ref> in which the [[force]]s of nature are to be influenced by the example acted out in the ritual. At times, "ceremonies intended to assure the fecundity of the earth or of a group of women...involve some form of [[Sexual ritual|phallic worship]]".<ref>Willard Bohn, ''Apollinaire and the Faceless Man'' (1991) p. 66</ref>