Editing Ritual (section)

===Sacral symbolism===
[[File:Ritual Practitioner on Inwangsan Mountain (Detail).jpg|thumb|Ritual practitioner on Inwangsan Mountain, Seoul South Korea]]

Activities appealing to supernatural beings are easily considered rituals, although the appeal may be quite indirect, expressing only a generalized belief in the existence of the sacred demanding a human response. National flags, for example, may be considered more than signs representing a country. The flag stands for larger symbols such as freedom, democracy, free enterprise or national superiority.{{sfnp|Bell|1997|p=[https://archive.org/details/ritualperspectiv00bell/page/n172 156]}} Anthropologist Sherry Ortner writes that the flag:
{{blockquote|does not encourage reflection on the logical relations among these ideas, nor on the logical consequences of them as they are played out in social actuality, over time and history. On the contrary, the flag encourages a sort of all-or-nothing allegiance to the whole package, best summed [by] 'Our flag, love it or leave.'<ref>{{cite journal|last=Ortner|first=Sherry|title=On Key Symbols|journal=American Anthropologist|year=1973|volume=75|issue=5|page=1340|doi=10.1525/aa.1973.75.5.02a00100|doi-access=free}}</ref>}}

Particular objects become sacral symbols through a process of [[consecration]] which effectively creates the [[Sacred-profane dichotomy|sacred]] by setting it apart from the [[Sacred-profane dichotomy|profane]]. Boy Scouts and the armed forces in any country teach the official ways of folding, saluting and raising the flag, thus emphasizing that the flag should never be treated as just a piece of cloth.{{sfnp|Bell|1997|pp=[https://archive.org/details/ritualperspectiv00bell/page/n172 156]–57}}