Ritual Magic
Rituals and Magic of 'Deep Play' of Past and Present Eras

It is common in our present location and age, perhaps except for those minority religious subcultures or communities who identify themselves as part of iccan or Goddess worship organizations, to view ritual magic as a legitimate practice only of the far past. Though millions read their horoscopes daily, and wear lucky talismans, there is a common intellectual currency amongst both scholars and the public at large to see rather than a system of belief structure that still has echoes in our present modalities of belief and being.

This is one reason why the anthropological works of Catherine Allen regarding the Runa, upon its publication in the 1980's, initially struck its readers with such force. The Runa are a small group of townspeople who adhere to customs of ancient Incan and colonial Spanish civilization. The book's most recent forward demonstrates that…...

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Works Cited

Allen, Catherine. The Hold Life Has: Coca and Cultural Identity in an Andean Community (Smithsonian Series in Ethnographic Inquiry, No 12. Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press: 1988. New Afterward 2002.

Gmelch, George. "Baseball Magic." Retrieved on March 24, 2004 on http://students.faulkner.edu/depts/sbs/readings/an1301/baseball.htm

Geertz, Clifford. "Deep Play: Note on the Balinese Cockfight." Accessed on March 24, 2004 on  http://webhome.idirect.com/~boweevil/BaliCockGeertz.html

Furthermore, under most circumstances, these variations in Muslim belief do not have a negative impact on how Muslims interact; instead, they manage to live peacefully side-by-side in most settings. This may have to do with the idea that all Muslims believe that the Quran (Qur'an, Koran) is the holy text for Muslims. They believe that the Quran reflects the word of God. "For Muslims, the text of the Koran is entirely the work and word of God. It is possible for a Muslim to hold that the Koran uses symbolic language and is describing the essence of things, not their technical form, but it is difficult to hold that the Koran reflects the views of our more distant ancestors" (Sedgewick 2006, p. 40).
Mohammed plays a central role in Islam. He is the most important prophet and many facets of modern day Islam are based, not simply on the Quran,…...

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References

Hassan, R 2008, Exploring Islamic consciousness, Inside Muslim minds, Melbourne University

Press, Carlton, Vic, pp. 24-61.

Jupp, J 2009, Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islanders in the Encyclopedia of religion in Australia, Cambridge University Press, Port Melbourne, pp.69-118.

McBrien, R 1982, the nature and use of power in the church, Proceedings of the annual convention, 37, CTSA Editorial Offices, Yonkers, NY, pp.38-49.

For example in her essay on "Pagans, Converts, and Backsliders" Mary Young argues that a dialogue did occur between white and native culture, not simply in terms of a trade of goods and land, but also of religious worldviews.
According to Young, to view 'the native mindset' as a monolith is an error. Natives took a multifaceted view of their own religion, often creating a synchronistic faith of Christianity and traditional native movements and there is no "single metaphysical outlook" that can be characterized as Indian (Young 79). This sense of cultural dialogue stands in profound contrast to Martin, who refers to what he calls "the scythe of Christianity" cutting out Native American religion entirely from the history books as well as history itself (Martin 218). Additionally, Vine Deloria's essay, also included in the collection, on "Revision and Reversion" cautions against Martin's view of Native American thinking as impenetrable, arguing…...

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Works Cited

Fixico, Donald Lee. The American Indian Mind. New York: Routledge, 2003.

Martin, Calvin, editor. The American Indian and the Problem of History. New York: Oxford

University Press, 1986.

Neither of the above rites of passages, though both are important and definitely bound by rules of magic, are especially ritualistic in a participatory sense. In this regard, the many layers of security that Harry and his friends must get through in order to arrive at the Sorcerer's Stone is the most clear example in the book. Each trial on the way to the room that contains the Stone tests some of the skills and knowledge that Harry, Ron, and Hermione have begun to acquire on their journey through adolescence and to adulthood, making the journey past each obstacle a very literal interpretation of a rite of passage. Each of these obstacles ends up requiring some literal form of the world's magic, usually in the form of a spell, in order to be overcome, tying magic to the rites of passage in a manner that is at once quite explicit…...

Being a Muslim is an overriding cultural feature that cuts across a large number of races and nationalities, but many have the same common traits of gender segregation, emphasis on cleanliness and the same schedule of life.
My Interpretation

During the ritual I observed at the mosque, I was able to notice how the ritual impacts society. The first distinction is that there was a clear line created between those who are members of the in-group and those who are not. While I was welcome to be there, I was clearly in the latter group. I was welcome to observe, but not to participate in, the rituals. The performance of the rituals allows on to become a member of the society.

It was interesting to see that elements of modern life have crept into the rituals, however. One example is that I observed younger members of the mosque texting outside of the…...

itual to ecord is not the first attempt of Allen Guttmann at sports analysis and writing. He has written three books and many articles on a variety of topics but mostly connected with history and literature. His passion for history probably propelled him in the direction of sports writing in this book where he studies the growth of sports in various cultures and focuses on the concept of modern sports. The author has done a great job at studying the phenomenon called modern sports in the broader context of cultural change and modern America culture. The thesis of the book revolves around modern sports and what makes it distinct and unique. The author argues that since sports have existed since time immemorial, the one thing that sets modern sports apart from ancient and pre-modern games is the "is the scientific world-view." Guttmann maintains that while sports existed in every…...

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REFERENCE

1) Guttmann, Allen. From Ritual to Record: The Nature of Modern Sports.

New York: Columbia University Press, 1978.

This ritual takes place on the eighth day after birth and the ceremony itself involves both religious and surgical elements and may be performed by a surgeon of a specially-trained Mohel who has both surgical and religious knowledge. After the circumcision is performed, a festive meal almost always follows as a symbol of thanks to God and to the prophet Abraham.
One of the most complicated religious rituals of Judaism is the ar Mitzvah for boys and less frequently, the at Mitzvah for girls. These words mean "the son or the daughter of the commandment and mark the coming of age of a male or female child" (Harvey, 325) who is then seen as an adult and is responsible for observing the commandments set down by Moses and to fill adult roles in the congregation of the synagogue. This ritual traditionally occurs on the Sabbath following the child's thirteenth birthday…...

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Bibliography

Grissom, Harold J. "Ritual Practice in American Religious Sects." The Journal of Religion. (April 2006): 239-48.

Hall, Manley P. The Psychology of Religious Ritual. Los Angeles: Philosophical

Research Society, 2003.

Harvey, Graham. Ritual and Religious Belief. UK: Equinox Publishing, Ltd., 2005.

Take trail mix... It is an energetic, "idealized" snack food. This comes primarily from the target populations the manufacturer focuses it is marketing. Other channels for influence include consumers looking for "quick" fixes, such as families looking for fast and fun food. It would be interesting to explore the link marketing of "fast" snack products such as this have on families with young children, and compare this with the influence the product had on the political and behavioral habits and beliefs of the college students consuming it.
Lastly, symbolic systems help us better understand how products are systematically introduced and marketed to consumers. This helps shapes attitudes and beliefs. Also important to note however, as learned in class, is whether societies tend to accept or reject certain items even if marketed well. For example, oark (2007) noted that in many cultures certain foods or animals are taboo. Consider for a…...

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References

Chex Mix Peanut Lovers" Taquitos.Net (2007), Reviewed 7, June, 2007:

 http://www.taquitos.net/snacks.php?snack_code=1759 .

Coen Flynn, Karen. Food, Culture, and Survival in an African City, New York,

NY: Palgrave MacMillan, 2005.

relationship myth ritual Using myth Demeter Persephone the relationship a myth a ritual important understand. The myth Demeter Persephone relationship. Myths read context actual ritual. Myths created explain orgination specific activities ancient culture.
There is a strong relationship between myths and rituals, as some of history's oldest cultures have devised myths with the purpose of describing events that are part of rituals. In order to have a complex understanding of a myth, one needs to focus on looking at the respective legend in an association with the ritual that it is meant to refer to. The Homeric hymn describing the life of Demeter and her daughter, Persephone, is intended to provide a mythical account concerning seasons and about why vegetation experiences a state of decay for several months each year.

The myth of Demeter and her daughter, Persephone, involves the latter being kidnapped by Hades, the god of the Underworld, as…...

Communion with nature can come in the form of visual art and craft; in the form of storytelling; or in the form of dance. Each of these modes of creative expression invokes the unknown, powerful forces that underlie creation. Even though science can measure, explain, and manipulate nature it cannot answer the ultimate questions of why and how nature -- or human beings -- exist in the first place. Religious rituals offer human beings a way to seek answers to life's biggest questions through direct experience.
Different cultures have approached nature differently but traditional cultures share in common a reverence for the natural world that is all but absent in modern, industrialized societies. The religions that have sprouted up in modern nations parallel the worldview that human beings should triumph over nature rather than work with nature. In Baraka, devastating footage of death and destruction show what human beings are…...

Saving the Cows, Starving the Children" by Sonia Faleirojune and the article entitled "Food Price Inflation in India: Causes and Cures" by Pradeep Agrawal and Durairaj Kumaraswamy in the Indian Economic Review available from JSTOR both address food issues in India. These articles appealed to me because I find India to be a fascinating country where there is so much potential for greatness yet so much inherent contradictory actions and agendas that frustrate the country's advances. Faleirojune focuses on the contradiction at the heart of India's policy towards banning beef: cows are literally everywhere in India and could be used to help feed the nation's poor and malnourished, but the government won't allow the sale of beef in many states -- neither will it permit state schools to offer eggs to school children as part of a meal plan. Even though eggs would be a good solution to the problem…...

The Chistmas tadition, be it the length of time of its evolution o the desie by each subsequent cultue to make it an accepted eality, is not so open and obviously evolving, unless one eally looks at it, as Hutton has done.
Lastly, afte looking at Hutton's epesentation of the histoical undepinnings of the vaious aspect of the myth, itual and language of Chistmas one might look at how it continues to evolve in the pesent. The pesent meaning, moden day, with its myth, itual and language suounded by pomp, cicumstance and especially the gift giving (and eceiving) pat suounding what most people and especially Chistians believe Chistmas to eally be in thei histoy. I might add hee, that thee is a moden tend among Chistians to take Chistmas back to its histoical undepinning, o the believed histoical undepinnings of the holiday. What is inteesting about this is that when…...

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references. (Coman, 2009, p. 3)

Then one could say to a large degree because in many ways the present accepted myth, ritual and language are accepted as not only historically accurate but fundamentally immutable the media tends to represent it as it is. Yet, Christmas is evolving, it is continually becoming more and more secularized, in the sense that it is becoming a modern representation of the consumer society in which most modern Christians reside or as a time for those who have more seek to aide those who have less, all modern media adaptations of Christmas as a cultural tradition. Christmas is therefore, like all other cultural artifacts created by each generation anew, through language, myth and ritual that better reflect the society we currently live in.

Resources

Coman, M. (2009). Media and Ritual: A Challenge for the Anthropological Thought. Conference Papers -- International Communication Association, 1-23. Retrieved from Communication & Mass Media Complete database.

Higgins, J., & McAllaster, C. (2004). If You Want Strategic Change, Don't Forget to Change Your Cultural Artifacts. Journal of Change Management, 4(1), 63-73. doi:10.1080/1469701032000154926.

collective ideals, religion is reinforced through ceremonies and rituals," (Calhoun, et al., 2012, p. 199). One of the most important ceremonies that reinforces cultural norms and institutions is the wedding ceremony. I had the opportunity to attend a wedding at a church recently, providing an opportunity to analyze Durkheim's sociological theories and apply them to daily life. I selected this ritual because I do not attend many other rituals that have a religious context like this one, and because I have attended two other weddings and none of the three were from the same religious tradition. Therefore, my observations highlight some of Durkheim's core theories about the ways social bonds are reinforced through ritual, regardless of the technical manifestations of those rituals. My observations also show how even in modern, secular societies, the concept of the "sacred" remains salient for individuals and their communities.
The wedding I attended took place…...

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References

Calhoun, C. et al. (2012). Classical Sociological Theory. 3rd edition. Oxford: Blackwell.

Greenwald, D.E. (1973). Durkheim on society, thought, and ritual. Sociological Analysis 34(3): 157-168.

Lynch, G. (2012). Emile Durkheim: religion, the very idea. The Guardian. Dec 24, 2012. Retrieved online:  http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/dec/24/emile-durkheim-religion-ritual-ancient-modern

I think this baptism also has changed my relationships and the way I look at my sister and brother-in-law. Before, we never really talked about religion, and I did not realize how important it was to them, and how they wanted to raise their children in the Church. It just did not seem to mean that much to me. However, after I saw the baptism, I would not say that I got more spiritual, but I did understand my family better and their goals for their children. I saw it was important to have goals and ideas about how you want to raise your children, and I saw that it made me feel closer to my sister, her husband, and my nephew. Now, I have ideas and goals about my own family, when I have one. I also try to spend as much time as I can with my nephew.…...

Religious Ritual and Cooperation: Testing for a Relationship on Israeli Religious and Secular Kibbutzim," authors Richard Sosis and Bradley J. Ruffle investigate the link between religious ritual and group solidarity among a sample of kibbutzim in Israel. Sosis is a faculty member of the Department of Anthropology at the University of Connecticut at Storrs. Ruffle, on the other hand, is an economist with the Ben-Gurion University in Beer Sheva, Israel. Ruffle's contacts and familiarity with Israeli kibbutzim were invaluable in facilitating this research.
The theoretical basis of this research was Emile Durkheim's pronouncement that religious rituals functioned to promote group solidarity. Durkheim argued that religious rituals help to maintain social cohesion and to promote social stability within their community. Though this idea is widely-accepted in social science circles, few empirical studies have actually been conducted to test this theory. Furthermore, no empirical studies have been conducted to see how religious…...

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Works Cited

Sosis, Richard and Bradley J. Ruffle. 2003. "Religious ritual and cooperation: Testing for a relationship on Israeli religious and secular kibbutzim." Current Anthropology. December. 44(5): 713-722.

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