Editing Ritual (section)

==Genres==
For simplicity's sake, the range of diverse rituals can be divided into categories with common characteristics, generally falling into one three major categories:
* [[rites of passage]], generally changing an individual's social status;
* communal rites, whether of [[worship]], where a community comes together to worship, such as [[Jew]]ish [[synagogue]] or [[Mass (liturgy)|Mass]], or of another character, such as [[fertility rite]]s and certain non-religious [[festival]]s;
* rites of personal devotion, where an individual worships, including prayer and [[pilgrimage]]s, [[Pledge of Allegiance|pledges of allegiance]], or [[engagement|promises to wed someone]].

However, rituals can fall in more than one category or genre, and may be grouped in a variety of other ways. For example, the anthropologist [[Victor Turner]] writes:

{{blockquote|Rituals may be seasonal, {{Omission|hallowing a culturally defined moment of change in the climatic cycle or the inauguration of an activity such as planting, harvesting, or moving from winter to summer pasture;}} or they may be contingent, held in response to an individual or collective crisis. {{Omission}} Other classes of rituals include divinatory rituals; ceremonies performed by political authorities to ensure the health and fertility of human beings, animals, and crops in their territories; initiation into priesthoods devoted to certain deities, into religious associations, or into secret societies; and those accompanying the daily offering of food and libations to deities or ancestral spirits or both.|{{harvp|Turner|1973}}}}

===Rites of passage===
{{main|Rites of passage}}
A rite of passage is a ritual event that marks a person's transition from one [[social status|status]] to another, including [[adoption]], [[baptism]], [[coming of age]], [[graduation]], [[inauguration]], [[engagement]], and [[marriage]]. Rites of passage may also include [[initiation]] into groups not tied to a formal stage of life such as a [[fraternity]]. [[Arnold van Gennep]] stated that rites of passage are marked by three stages:{{sfnp|Bell|1997|p=[https://archive.org/details/ritualperspectiv00bell/page/n110 94]}}
; 1. Separation: Wherein the initiates are separated from their old identities through physical and symbolic means.
; 2. Transition: Wherein the initiated are "betwixt and between". [[Victor Turner]] argued that this stage is marked by [[liminality]], a condition of ambiguity or disorientation in which initiates have been stripped of their old identities, but have not yet acquired their new one. Turner states that "the attributes of [[liminality]] or of liminal ''[[persona]]e'' ("threshold people") are necessarily ambiguous".{{sfnp|Turner|1969|p=95}} In this stage of liminality or "anti-structure" ([[#Structure and anti-structure|see below]]), the initiates' role ambiguity creates a sense of [[communitas]] or emotional bond of community between them. This stage may be marked by ritual ordeals or ritual training.
; 3. Incorporation: Wherein the initiates are symbolically confirmed in their new identity and community.{{sfnp|Turner|1969|p=97}}

===Rites of affliction===
{{further|Shamanism|Exorcism|Ritual purification}}
Anthropologist Victor Turner defines rites of affliction actions that seek to mitigate spirits or supernatural forces that inflict humans with bad luck, illness, gynecological troubles, physical injuries, and other such misfortunes.{{sfnp|Turner|1973}} These rites may include forms of spirit [[divination]] (consulting [[oracles]]) to establish causes—and rituals that heal, purify, exorcise, and protect. The misfortune experienced may include individual health, but also broader climate-related issues such as drought or plagues of insects. Healing rites performed by [[shamans]] frequently identify social disorder as the cause, and make the restoration of social relationships the cure.{{sfnp|Turner|1967|p=9ff}}

Turner uses the example of the Isoma ritual among the Ndembu of northwestern [[Zambia]] to illustrate. The Isoma rite of affliction is used to cure a childless woman of infertility. Infertility is the result of a "structural tension between [[Matrilineality|matrilineal]] descent and [[Virilocality|virilocal]] marriage" (i.e., the tension a woman feels between her mother's family, to whom she owes allegiance, and her husband's family among whom she must live). "It is because the woman has come too closely in touch with the 'man's side' in her marriage that her dead matrikin have impaired her fertility." To correct the balance of matrilinial descent and marriage, the Isoma ritual dramatically placates the deceased spirits by requiring the woman to reside with her mother's kin.{{sfnp|Turner|1969|pp=20–21}}

Shamanic and other ritual may effect a psychotherapeutic cure, leading anthropologists such as Jane Atkinson to theorize how. Atkinson argues that the effectiveness of a shamanic ritual for an individual may depend upon a wider audiences acknowledging the shaman's power, which may lead to the shaman placing greater emphasis on engaging the audience than in the healing of the patient.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Atkinson|first=Jane|title=The Effectiveness of Shamans in an Indonesian Ritual|journal=American Anthropologist|year=1987|volume=89|issue=2|page=342|doi=10.1525/aa.1987.89.2.02a00040}}</ref>

===Death, mourning, and funerary rites===
{{further|Funeral}}
{{expand section|date=March 2022|small=yes}}
Many cultures have rites associated with death and mourning, such as the [[last rites]] and [[Wake (ceremony)|wake]] in Christianity, ''[[shemira]]'' in Judaism, the ''[[antyesti]]'' in Hinduism, and the ''[[antam sanskar]]'' in Sikhism. These rituals often reflect deep spiritual beliefs and provide a structured way for communities to grieve and honor the deceased. In Tibetan Buddhism, for example, the rituals described in the Bardo Thodol guide the soul through the stages of death, aiming for spiritual liberation or enlightenment.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Fremantle|first1=Francesca|last2=Trungpa|first2=Chogyam|date=1975 |title=The Tibetan book of the dead, the great liberation through the hearing in the Bardo |location=Boston|publisher= Shambala south asia editions |page= forward|isbn=1-56957-126-0}}</ref>  In Islam, the [[Islamic funeral|Janazah]] prayer is an essential communal act that underscores the unity of the Muslim community in life and death. Indigenous cultures may have unique practices, such as the Australian Aboriginal smoking ceremony, intended to cleanse the spirit of the departed and ensure a safe journey to the [[afterlife]].

In many traditions can be found the belief that when man was first made the creator bestowed soul upon him, while the earth provided the body. In Genesis is offered the following description of the creation of man: "And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul".<ref>{{bibleverse|Genesis|2:7|niv}}</ref> As a result at the moment of death each of the two elements needs to be returned to its source, the body returns to earth, while the soul to the heavenly creator, by means of the funerary ritual.<ref>{{cite book |last=Eliade |first=Mircea |date=1976 |title=Occultism, witchcraft and cultural fashions, Essays in comparative religions |location=chicago |publisher= The university of Chicago press |page= 35-36|isbn=0-226-20391-3}}</ref> 

[[File:Codex Magliabechiano (141 cropped).jpg|thumb|[[Human sacrifice in Aztec culture|Aztec ritual human sacrifices]], [[Codex Mendoza]]]]

===Calendrical and commemorative rites===
{{see also|Liturgical calendar|Wheel of the Year}}
Calendrical and commemorative rites are ritual events marking particular times of year, or a fixed period since an important event. Calendrical rituals give social meaning to the passage of time, creating repetitive weekly, monthly or yearly cycles. Some rites are oriented towards a culturally defined moment of change in the climatic cycle, such as [[solar term]]s or the changing of seasons, or they may mark the inauguration of an activity such as planting, harvesting, or moving from winter to summer pasture during the [[agricultural cycle]].{{sfnp|Turner|1973}} They may be fixed by the [[Solar calendar|solar]] or [[lunar calendar]]; those fixed by the solar calendar fall on the same day (of the Gregorian, Solar calendar) each year (such as [[New Year's Day]] on the first of January) while those calculated by the lunar calendar fall on different dates (of the Gregorian, Solar calendar) each year (such as [[Chinese New Year|Chinese lunar New Year]]). Calendrical rites impose a cultural order on nature.{{sfnp|Bell|1997|pp=[https://archive.org/details/ritualperspectiv00bell/page/n118 102]–103}} Mircea Eliade states that the calendrical rituals of many religious traditions recall and commemorate the basic beliefs of a community, and their yearly celebration establishes a link between past and present, as if the original events are happening over again: "Thus the gods did; thus men do."<ref>{{cite book|last=Eliade|first=Mircea|title=The Myth of Eternal Return or, Cosmos and History|year=1954|publisher=Princeton University Press|location=Princeton|page=21}}</ref>

===Rites of sacrifice, exchange, and communion===
[[File:Kalyandi durga mondir9.JPG|thumb|Deva yajna performed during [[Durga Puja]] in Bangladesh]]

This genre of ritual encompasses forms of [[sacrifice]] and offering meant to praise, please or placate divine powers. According to early anthropologist Edward Tylor, such sacrifices are [[Gift economy|gifts]] given in hope of a return. [[Catherine Bell (religious studies scholar)|Catherine Bell]], however, points out that sacrifice covers a range of practices from those that are manipulative and "magical" to those of pure devotion. Hindu [[Puja (Hinduism)|puja]], for example, appear to have no other purpose than to please the deity.{{sfnp|Bell|1997|p=[https://archive.org/details/ritualperspectiv00bell/page/n125 109]}}

According to [[Marcel Mauss]], sacrifice is distinguished from other forms of offering by being consecrated, and hence sanctified. As a consequence, the offering is usually destroyed in the ritual to transfer it to the deities.

===Rites of feasting, fasting, and festivals===
[[File:Carnaval Venecia 14feb2009.jpg|thumb|Masquerade at the [[Carnival of Venice]]]]

Rites of feasting and fasting are those through which a community publicly expresses an adherence to basic, shared religious values, rather than to the overt presence of deities as is found in rites of affliction where feasting or fasting may also take place. It encompasses a range of performances such as communal fasting during [[Ramadan]] by Muslims; the [[Moka exchange|slaughter of pigs]] in New Guinea; [[Carnival]] festivities; or penitential processions in Catholicism.{{sfnp|Bell|1997|p=[https://archive.org/details/ritualperspectiv00bell/page/n137 121]}} Victor Turner described this "cultural performance" of basic values a "social drama". Such dramas allow the social stresses that are inherent in a particular culture to be expressed and worked out symbolically in a ritual catharsis; as the social tensions continue to persist outside the ritual, pressure mounts for the ritual's cyclical performance.<ref>{{cite book|last=Turner|first=Victor|title=Dramas, Fields, and Metaphors: Symbolic Action in Human Society|url=https://archive.org/details/dramasfieldsmeta00turn|url-access=registration|year=1974|publisher=Cornell University Press|location=Ithaca, NY|pages=[https://archive.org/details/dramasfieldsmeta00turn/page/23 23–35]}}</ref> In Carnival, for example, the practice of masking allows people to be what they are not, and acts as a general social leveller, erasing otherwise tense social hierarchies in a festival that emphasizes play outside the bounds of normal social limits. Yet outside carnival, social tensions of race, class and gender persist, hence requiring the repeated periodic release found in the festival.<ref>{{cite book|last=Kinser|first=Samuel|title=Carnival, American Style; Mardi Gras at New Orleans and Mobile|year=1990|publisher=University of Chicago Press|location=Chicago|page=282}}</ref>

===Water rites===
{{Further|Water and religion|Holy water|Water Communion}}
A water rite is a rite or [[ceremony|ceremonial]] custom that uses [[water]] as its central feature. Typically, a person is immersed or bathed as a symbol of [[religious indoctrination]] or [[ritual purification]]. Examples include the [[Mikveh]] in [[Judaism]], a custom of purification; [[misogi]] in [[Shinto]], a custom of spiritual and bodily purification involving bathing in a sacred waterfall, river, or lake; the [[Islam|Muslim]] ritual ablution or [[Wudu]] before prayer; [[baptism]] in [[Christianity]], a custom and [[sacrament]] that represents both purification and initiation into the religious community (the [[Christian Church]]); and [[Amrit Sanskar]] in [[Sikhism]], a rite of passage ([[Sanskar#Sankars in Sikhism|sanskar]]) that similarly represents purification and initiation into the religious community (the [[khalsa]]). Rites that use water are not considered water rites if it is not their central feature. For example, having water to drink during or after ritual is common, but does not make that ritual a water ritual unless the drinking of water is a central activity such as in the [[Church of All Worlds]] waterkin rite.

===Fertility rites===
{{excerpt|Fertility rite}}

===Sexual rituals===
{{excerpt|Sexual ritual}}

===Political rituals===
[[File:Parade through Macao, Latin City 2019 16.jpg|thumb|Parade through Macao, Latin City (2019). The Parade is held annually on December 20th to mark the anniversary of Macao's Handover to China.]]

According to anthropologist [[Clifford Geertz]], political rituals actually construct power; that is, in his analysis of the [[Negara: The Theatre State in Nineteenth-Century Bali|Balinese state]], he argued that rituals are not an ornament of political power, but that the power of political actors depends upon their ability to create rituals and the cosmic framework within which the social hierarchy headed by the king is perceived as natural and sacred.{{sfnp|Geertz|1980|pp=[https://archive.org/details/negaratheatresta00geer_1/page/13 13]–17, 21}} As a "dramaturgy of power" comprehensive ritual systems may create a cosmological order that [[Sacred king|sets a ruler apart as a divine being]], as in "the divine right" of European kings, or the divine Japanese Emperor.{{sfnp|Bell|1997|p=[https://archive.org/details/ritualperspectiv00bell/page/n146 130]}} Political rituals also emerge in the form of uncodified or codified conventions practiced by political officials that cement respect for the arrangements of an institution or role against the individual temporarily assuming it, as can be seen in the many rituals still observed within the procedure of [[parliament]]ary bodies.

Ritual can be used as a form of resistance, as for example, in the various [[Cargo cults|Cargo Cults]] that developed against colonial powers in the South Pacific. In such religio-political movements, Islanders would use ritual imitations of western practices (such as the building of landing strips) as a means of summoning cargo (manufactured goods) from the ancestors. Leaders of these groups characterized the present state (often imposed by colonial capitalist regimes) as a dismantling of the old social order, which they sought to restore.<ref>{{cite book|last=Worsley|first=Peter|title=The Trumpet Shall Sound: A Study of 'Cargo Cults' in Melanesia|year=1957|publisher=Schocken books|location=New York}}</ref> Rituals may also attain political significance after conflict, as is the case with the [[Bosnia and Herzegovina|Bosnian]] syncretic holidays and festivals that transgress religious boundaries.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=HadžiMuhamedović |first=Safet |url=https://www.berghahnbooks.com/title/HadziMuhamedovicWaiting |title=Waiting for Elijah: Time and Encounter in a Bosnian Landscape |publisher=Berghahn |year=2021 |isbn=978-1-80073-219-3 |edition=Paperback |location=Oxford |language=en}}</ref>