Rituals of the Past in Contexts of Global Social Change - Literature review Example

Kinship, Ritual, Gender ARE RITUALS A THING OF THE PAST, SLOWLY BUT SURELY GIVING WAY TO RATIONAL CHOICE AND ACTION IN CONTEXTS OF GLOBAL SOCIAL CHANGE? Abstract This paper reviews a particular class of rituals related to substantial biological and social changes in all individuals’ lives, otherwise known as ‘rites of passage’ according to Arnold van Gennep, who was the first to name and analyze them in his famous anthropological study, Les rites de passage, published in 1908. These rituals are viewed with concern of their complex entanglement within the puzzle of interrelations between gender, kinship, religion, politics, and power, in different communities, societies, and cultural patterns; in order to be seen the extent of shrinking (if any) of the specific, and why not crucial, role that they have played in forming and supporting the stability of those communities, and societies in question, in the context of the global social change. The paper argues that due to the more and more accelerating process of global culture change, driven by the steadily increasing contact between cultures and societies worldwide (whose first timid steps could be sought at some point in the distant Middle Ages), more or less, all existing societies have been heavily influenced in the sense of altering social dynamics and promoting new cultural models. This paper argues as well, that the phenomenon of cultural diffusion, first conceptualized by the influential American anthropologist Alfred L. Kroeber and fueled by the patterns of change for the world in the last several decades, is drifting the contemporary civilization toward creation of a global multicultural society with its own universal cultural form and content, including a new set of appropriate rituals, but also containing the traditional cultural patterns of its constituent communities. Given the aforesaid, the paper advocates the idea that the traditional tribal or religion-born rituals, in particular those with initiation meaning and function, though inevitably affected by the social shifts, will keep on playing an important role not just as an indicator of affiliation to a particular community, but also as a structurally bracing part of any community’s organism. Introduction Since the very dawn of the simplest human societies, even before the earliest civilizations to emerge, the rituals had taken up an immense room within the core and foundation of each of those societies. This is especially true for a particular class of rituals, which pervasively attend throughout the whole life cycle of an individual - male or female; named, analyzed and characterized for the first time by Arnold van Gennep as ‘rites of passage’- in his famous anthropological study, Les rites de passage, published in 1908. Van Gennep considered the rites of passage essentially necessary for the social stability and therefore the normal and healthy functioning of any society. According to his concept these rituals involve three distinct phases – the preliminary phase or rites of separation, when the individual is displaced from his previous way of life or state; the liminal phase or rites of transition, during which the individual is temporarily suspended betwixt and between his or her previous and new state, and experiences either the sacred or a utopian vision of an alternative or inverted ‘reality’; and the postliminal phase or the rites of aggregation, which is an introduction to the new state and incorporate the neophyte into the new community. Many authors have attached a lot of importance to the transitional or liminal phase due to the creation of a special state ‘…whereby the participant, ceremoniously and often physically separated from others, sees the rest of society from the outside, as if society itself were sacred and thus prohibited.’ (Muir 2005, p.21) One of them is the British anthropologist Victor Turner, who have analyzed the features of the liminal phase in various rituals (especially among Ndembu of Zambia) and showed the importance of the liminal experiences not only for the sustaining but also for reforming of the social life in what he called ‘small-scale, relatively stable and cyclical societies, where change is bound up with biological and meteorological rhythms and recurrences rather than technological innovations’ (Turner 1967, p.93). Turner (1967, pp.102-103) has laid, as well, special emphasis on the role of the symbols as a part of the ‘exhibitions‘ component of the threefold classification used for communication of the sacra’, within the liminal phase of an initiation situation. The beginning, or the gender - kinship issue related to the rites of passage Turner (1967, p.98) concludes that ‘In societies dominantly structured by kinship institutions, sex distinctions have great structural importance.’ He finds it consistent with the aforesaid that, in such societies, in situations of liminality, to the novices are either symbolically assigned characteristics of both genders, irrespective of their biological one, or they are considered neither male nor female, and thus are regarded as undifferentiated human material – with reference to Plato’s notion for the first humans as androgynes. That concept could apply to rites of passage peculiar to miscellaneous cultural patterns throughout the contemporary world – for example, the reenacting of the mythical wedding of Lord Krishna, who had assumed a woman’s form, and Lord Aravan, within the culture of hijra, or aravanis, as they are also called. In the case of hijra it’s interesting that the liminality could be reckon to last the whole year and within one day and night, the participants go through two transitions – being joined in symbolic marriage with Lord Aravan, marks the transition from what is called third gender (neither male nor female, with very marginal social status, if any) to a female bride of a deity, and subsequently later on that night – another transition to widowhood, marked by ritualistic dances and breaking their bangles. Thus, hijras experience most of the main woman’s lifetime rites of passage during a single twenty-four hours, but more importantly, along with other more or less geographically or socially isolated communities, like Fa’afafine in Samoa, Bissu within the Bugis culture, Ndembu of Zambia, the Albanian sworn virgins, etc., they contribute to the conclusion that among those communities or societies, the gender of an individual is acknowledged as a result of proper rites of passage and not (only) due to biological features. These communities are also considered living proof that the more isolated is a culture the harder and slower its traditional features fade away. In the case of the sworn virgins of Northern Albania, however, the point is entirely about unusual behavior motivated by the traditional restrictions of a highly conservative society, and therefore it’s a matter of rational choice (Shaw, A & Ardener, S 2005, p.78). Which to great extent, due to the changes that took place within the Albanian society in the recent decades, is considered the reason for that custom to be rapidly fading away – according to Becatoros (2008) fewer than forty sworn virgins had left in Albania. The transfer - rituals and symbols within the religious doctrines and practices Turner (1967, pp.98-99) points that, the neophytes in transitional state have nothing of the possessions, which usually demarcate one member of a society from another - property, rank, kinship position, insignia or clothing, etc., which condition, the author characterizes as ‘the very prototype of sacred poverty’ (p.99). This condition as a part of the so-called ‘structural invisibility’, along with the ambiguity and neutrality of the liminal phase are considered by Turner (1967, pp.98-99) to be the negative aspects of liminality, contrasted with certain positive ones – such as processes of growth, transformation and remolding of the old elements in new patterns – but both negative and positive aspects united by the principle of the economy of symbolic reference. Thus, logically antithetical processes like death and growth are represented by the same symbols – ‘…for example, by huts and tunnels that are at once tombs and wombs, by lunar symbolism (for the same moon waxes and wanes), …by nakedness (which is at once the mark of a newborn infant and a corpse prepared for burial)…’ (Turner 1967, p.99) At that point could be drawn intriguing analogies with some postulates of two of the most influential religious doctrines – Judaism, and Christianity. According to the Bible, When God revealed his name to Moses, he appeared in the shape of burning bush, which could be a symbol of destruction and rebirth all in one – the trees and bushes perish in the fire, but new forest grows from the ashes. Further in the book, the chosen people, or the people of God – the Jews, are described in a situation fairly reminding such of initiation one – in a wider meaning of the term of course – having roamed around the desert for forty years, possessing no land and therefore, lacking the whole system of rights, obligations, interrelations, and benefits, which stems from it, they finally entered the promised land and thus accomplished a transition from a state of homeless nomads to the state of inhabitants. For anyone unbiased, when looks at the Christianity’s holy texts, regarding the Son of God – Jesus, will become obvious a few important coincidences. Firstly, Jesus had no possessions like property, flocks, or herds, rank or insignia, etc., which concept being considered in the meaning of voluntary denial and not of lack, takes the attention toward some kind of liminality – the condition of sacred poverty, according to Turner (1967, p.99). Secondly, the Son of God is neither human nor God – surprisingly or not, that situation and the ‘structural invisibility’ of the liminal phase might as well coincide in some degree. And, last but not least, in this train of thoughts, Jesus had gone through the most fearsome type of transition – from the living to dead, in order to be transformed once again – from the dead to the status of deity. Later on, the Christian Church adopted the instrument of his tortures, humiliation and death throes, as the most sacred symbol of the whole religion embodying in one the opposites – death and hope for new life thereafter. The doctrinal idea of the Doomsday and the Resurrection also implies strong reminders of liminality and consequent transition from one state to another. Other religions like Hindu and Buddhist are like a dense forest of initiation rituals, so for the sake of saving place and time, here is going only to be mentioned the doctrine of the reincarnation, or rebirth. Though differing in some conceptual views – in Buddhism the new being is neither exactly the same as, nor completely different from the being that died, as for the Hinduism, the immortal soul (atman) dons worn-out bodies like worn-out garments are shed by the body (Bhagavad-Gita, 2:22) – both versions treat a sequence of transitions that refers quite a bit to rites of passage. Within the Islam, some Sufi groups suggest that mystics and poets in the Islamic tradition have celebrated this belief -‘I died as mineral and became a plant, I died as plant and rose to animal, I died as animal and I was man. Why should I fear? When was I less by dying?’ (Nicholson 1950, p.103). Even considered less spiritual and much more conservative than Sufism, the other two schools of the Islam – Sunni and Shi’a – invariably deal with the issue of resurrection, even though in that case conceptualized as bodily resurrection. Actually, the whole life of a righteous Muslim, along with the burial rituals could be considered preparation for appearance in front of God. The interesting point here is that appearance itself – the deceased is buried completely naked as he had been born, only wrapped in shroud and without something that could suggest his previous state – rank, possessions, etc., which inevitably implies similarities with the pre-Islamic symbolism (look at above). Given the aforesaid, there is no doubt that many rites of passage, along with the accompanying symbolism, have been borrowed and adopted by the main religious doctrines, thus transferring those rites and symbols throughout the centuries, and more importantly, extremely extending their range of influence around the world. The transfer - rituals and symbols related to the power and politics This division is made for the purpose of a bit more detailed slice of the rituals’ miscellany, though the understanding that there is no clear demarcation between religion and politics, which assertion stands as good today as in the past. Actually, both religion and politics (in more simplified meaning of these terms) could be considered instruments of power, and the exercise of power – endemic among humans since the earliest societies had sprung up. As Muir (2005, pp.2-6) states, the rituals in general and rites of passage in particular, whose purpose and ability to sustain and reform the social life, and stunning power to summon emotional response as well, are recognized by the religious and political authorities, who constantly strive ‘…to create them, manipulate them, embellish them, regulate them, even abolish them…’ (Muir 2005, p.2). In the context of forming, sustaining and reforming the social life, with all ensuing consequences, the rituals could be considered an act of a power submission, respectively power acceptance. Edward Muir examines many European rites of passage, stressing the important role, which those rituals, and their liminal phases in particular, have played in enforcing the usual rules of normal life through displaying possibility of ugly and socially unacceptable alternatives - ‘… loyal subjects stripped their new king of his robes, good Christians looted the dead popes palace, and old lechers kissed the virginal young bride…’ (Muir 2005, p.21). He also makes an interesting point further in his book, giving an example of transitions in status for males in the villages and the cities of France, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Hungary and Romania. In those countries the so-called youth-abbeys, or youth-kingdoms were aggressive gangs consisted of adolescent boys from the artisan classes, tolerated by adult men, and whose activities Muir considers highly ambiguous, stating that, ‘Providing a rite of passage through the “dangerous” years that licensed rowdiness and even legitimated certain forms of violence, the abbeys also enforced community moral standards (especially with regard to sexual behavior) on others…In the mountains of Liguria they managed vendetta street fights, thereby serving as apprenticeships in the factions that dominated local politics.’ (Muir 2005, p.33). In conclusion, as far as this section is concerned, and as Muir (2005, p.21) notes, the rituals are considered to be conservative, focused on preserving the status quo, and therefore serving the social strata, which are most interested in that point – those in authority, but sometimes, especially through liminality, the rituals also could enable changes, even such that could convulse the whole society and start up a dramatic social reform. From Marco Polo’s expeditions to the moon landing – a constantly changing world Ever since the first attempts to be initiated a cultural encounter and exchange between remote cultural patterns by the journeys of late medieval explorers like Giovanni de Plano Carpini, who traveled to Mongolia and back, from 1241 to 1247, as well as the famous Marco Polo, whose description of his own journeys highlighted the mysterious Orient, the world has been subjected to a uneven but never stopping process, first conceptualized by the influential American anthropologist Alfred L. Kroeber in his 1940 paper Stimulus Diffusion, as cultural diffusion. Subsequently this concept has been widely accepted, reformulated as trans-cultural diffusion and used to describe the spread of cultural items, whether between individuals within a single culture or from one culture to another. According to Kroeber (1940, AA 42,1-20) and the other major contributors to the theory of the trans-cultural diffusion, there are different types of cultural diffusion, namely expansion diffusion - describing an idea or innovation which remains strong in its source area, but also spreads outward; relocation diffusion – an idea or innovation, which leaves its source area and spreads into new areas; hierarchical diffusion – when an idea spreads from larger to smaller places; and contagious diffusion – when the idea spreads by person-to-person contact within a certain population. The mechanisms for trans-cultural diffusion to happen are: forced diffusion, which could be considered the main mechanism during the Age of Discovery – when one culture conquers another and forces its own characteristics on the subjugated population, ousting most of the indigenous customs; direct diffusion – when two cultural patterns are close enough to each other, which through the trade, intermarriages, and warfare, allows the spread of cultural items – language, religion, rituals, technologies, etc. The direct diffusion is considered very common in the ancient times, but even today, it couldn’t have been excluded as a working mechanism. And the indirect diffusion – when cultural traits are passed from one culture to another, without those cultures being in direct contact. This mechanism for trans-cultural diffusion is most common nowadays, because of the mass media, the Internet, etc. The process of trans-cultural diffusion has become particularly intensive in the last several decades due to the boom in technologies, especially the rapid computerization of almost any aspect of human life. The rituals in the context of ongoing social change The patterns of change for the world in the last decades, namely the rate of population growth, urbanization, industrial expansion and environmental changes, living conditions rates, consequences of civil wars and other conflicts, etc., have made the contemporary civilization to witness an intriguing trend – the process of merging different cultural patterns into a hybrid culture of the present-day metropolises where the individuals although divided into different communities according to the traditional origin/religion-born beliefs and assumptions, are united in the newborn universal perceptions, symbols and rituals; and the opposite process of hardening those traditional beliefs, assumptions, and rituals, which are inwardly and outwardly defining the community affiliation of an individual. These simultaneously ongoing processes could be observed all over the world, even in such traditional and conservative societies like those in the Arab world and China. Which strongly guarantees that the traditional tribal or religion-born rituals, in particular the ones with initiation meaning and function, though inevitably affected by the social shifts, and along with those – product of the global change, will keep on playing an important role within every community’s organism. References {1} Becatoros, E 2008/10/06, Tradition of sworn virgins dying out in Albania, Die Welt, Retrieved 2009/11/08, {2} Bhagavad-Gita, Verse 2:22 {3} Kroeber, Alfred A 1940, Stimulus Diffusion, American Anthropologist 42, 1-20 {4} Muir, E 2005, Ritual in Early Modern Europe, 2nd edn, Cambridge University Press {5} Nicholson, R.A 1950, Rumi, Poet and Mystic, Allen & Unwin, London {6} Shaw, A & Ardener S 2005, Changing sex and bending gender, Berghahn Books {7} Turner, Victor W, 1967, The Forest of Symbols. In Betwixt and Between: The Liminal Period in Rites de Passage, Cornell University Press, Ithaca, New York Bibliography 1. Albright, William F 1940, From the Stone Age to Christianity, Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore 2. Becatoros, E 2008/10/06, Tradition of sworn virgins dying out in Albania, Die Welt online 3. Bhagavad-Gita, Verse 2:22 4. Crapo, Richley H 2001, Cultural Anthropology: Understanding Ourselves and Others, 5th edn, McGraw-Hill 5. Gellner, E 1992, Postmodernism, Reason and Religion, London and New York, Routledge. 6. Gennep, A.1960, The Rites of Passage. 1909 Reprint, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul 7. Huntington, S 1996, The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order. New York: Simon & Schuster. 8. Kroeber, Alfred A 1940, Stimulus Diffusion, American Anthropologist v 42, pp.1-20 9. Muir, E 2005, Ritual in Early Modern Europe, 2nd edn, Cambridge University Press 10. Nicholson, R.A 1950, Rumi, Poet and Mystic, Allen & Unwin, London 11. Ratzel, F 1896, The History of Mankind, MacMillan and Co Ltd 12. Rogers, E M 1986, Communication technology: The new media in society, Free Press, New York 13. Shaw, A & Ardener S 2005, Changing sex and bending gender, Berghahn Books 14. Turner, Victor W, 1967, The Forest of Symbols. In Betwixt and Between: The Liminal Period in Rites de Passage, Cornell University Press, Ithaca, New York 15. 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