Class 4 materials

1. Rituals
Robert Croker
Center for Japanese Studies
Nanzan University

2. Six Types of Rituals
Source: Bell, C. (1997). Ritual: Perspectives and
dimensions. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
 life cycle rituals
 seasonal cycle rituals
 exchange and communion rituals
 affliction rituals
 fasting and feasting rituals
 political rituals

3. Life Cycle Rituals
Definition: rituals which accompany and
dramatize major life events.
Purpose: give cultural meanings to biological
processes + impose gender roles.
Three-stage process:
separation, liminality, reintegration
enclosure, metamorphosis, emergence

4. Seasonal Cycle Rituals
Definition: rituals which are celebrated at
different points through the year.
Two types:
① seasonal rituals – agricultural practices: to
harmonize social activities with seasonal rhythms,
or to try to influence nature.
② commemorative rituals – historical
remembering: to establish a link between past
and present, to release transformative power,
and to reaffirm basic cultural attitudes, behviours,
and identities.

5. Exchange and Communion Rituals
Definition: rituals when people make
offerings to god(s) with the expectation of
receiving something in return i.e. an explicit
exchange by which humans provide
sustenance to divine powers in return for
divine contributions to human well-being.
Two types:
Concrete – a good harvest or long life
Abstract – spiritual redemption

6. Affliction Rituals
Definition: rituals which seek to mitigate the influence of
spirits thought to be afflicting humans with misfortune.
Process:
① a state of affairs becomes or could become disordered
② a ritual expert is consulted
③ a cleansing or healing ritual is undertaken to mitigate the
influence of spirits by purging the body and mind of impurities
that have disturbed the mind-body state
Notes: across cultures, the pollution is often defined
differently and so are the remedies.

7. bad luck years
7

8. Feasting Rituals
Definition: rituals in which people publicly
express their membership, commitment and
adherence to a particular community and
basic set of values.
Common elements: sharing food and drink,
dancing and entertainment, the inversion of
social norms and conventions.
Notes: often occur seasonally.

9. Political Rituals
Definition: rituals are ceremonial practices that specifically
construct, display, and promote the power of political
institutions or the political interests of particular
constituencies.
Defining power:
① political rituals use symbols and symbolic action to
depict a group of people as a coherent and ordered
community based upon shared values and goals.
② they demonstrate the legitimacy of these values and
goals by establishing their iconicity with the perceived
values and order of the greater cosmos. ie those with
power use rituals to demonstrate how their power and
interests are the natural, real order of things.

10. Photographs
Robert Croker
Center for Japanese Studies
Nanzan University

11. Two Types of Photographs
• Factual – very little of yourself in there
• More appropriate for fieldwork – the purpose of
fieldwork is to focus on the participants
• Opinion / Emotional – it’s all about you, the
photographer
• Often used in genres like ‘art photography’

12. Factual Photographs 1

13. Factual Photographs 2

14. Opinion Photographs 1

15. Opinion Photographs 2