TOPIC: ISSUE207 - "Rituals and ceremonies help define a culture. Without them, societies or groups of people have a diminished sense of who they are."
WORDS: 652 TIME: 00:45:05 DATE: 2009/8/3 10:11:29
Is it true that rituals and ceremonies help define a culture and without them societies or groups of people have a diminished sense of who they are? The statement claims so. However, it oversimplifies the issue. I agree insofar as that rituals and ceremonies help define a culture. Yet, the second part of the statement seems irrational. Let me interpret it as follows:
To begin with, it is true that rituals and ceremonies interpret a culture to some extent. A ritual is a set of actions usually thought to have some meanings, the performance of which is prescribed by religion or by the traditions of a group by religious or political laws. Thus a ritual always represents some characteristics of the groups it belongs to. Rituals have formed a part of human culture for tens of thousands of years and they have a basic function of fixing, expressing and reinforcing the identity of specific groups. For example, the traditinal Chinese New Year, which is the most highly regarded traditional festivals in Chinese lunar calendar, is an occasion for celebrating the coming of new year as well as for union of families. During the festival, families always get together to have delicate feasts and talk with each other about what happened in the past one year. This festival is not limited to the boundary of China that Chinese all over the world do celebrate this festival by all kinds of traditional manners such as parading in Chinese traditional clothing, playing dragons and giving bonus to the child, which enhancing the identity of Chinese on those Chinese people abroad. In this sense, a ritual identifies a culture and giving people a sense of who they are. Besides eating habits and dressing manners, writing system can also define a culture. Consider the characters of Chinese, Egyptian, Maya and so forth. These finely preserved characters provide a deep insight into these cultures and distinguish them from any other cultures.
Nontheless, rituals and ceremonies are not the only way to identify a group of people. Eating habits, style of clothing and even writing system can also perform the same function. Eating habits as well as style of clothing provide a direct reflection of the daily habits of a certain group of people. Consider, for instance, Hui people in China. Hui people is an ethic group of China and distinguish themselves by the Islamic way of life. They abide by the dietary habit in Islam and reject the consumption of pork, which is the most common meat in China. They also dentigy themselves by their dressing that a man always wear a hat and a woman has a headscarf on her head which is a common case in Islamic countries.
However, as the development of human society and the trend of globalization, many rituals and ceremonies are at stake of assimilation by other culture rituals and finally becoming extinct.
Globalization breaks isolations between countries and cultures, thus contributing to the convergence of different cultrues. Notwithstanding, many cultures of minority groups may lose their characteristics when faced with some major culture, which can be regarded as Chauvinism in cutural area. As rituals and ceremonies compromise a influentian part of the culture of a group, the protection of them is practical and crucial. It is the government that should take such responsibilities that the authorties should advocate the spread of rituals and even make laws to prevent them from being extinct. If a ritual dies out, it is definitely a great damage to the group

which it belongs to.
To sum up, rituals and ceremonies do play an important role in defining a culture. Yet, other customs such as dietary habits and style of clothes and writing system also distinguish a group or culture from others. However, some rituals and ceremonies are in danger of extinction in the trend of globalization. The government should take actions to prevent their extinction.