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Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews Mar 2019Ritual behavior is ubiquitous, marking animal motor patterns, normal and psychopathological behavior in human individuals as well as every human culture. Moreover,... (Review)
Review
Ritual behavior is ubiquitous, marking animal motor patterns, normal and psychopathological behavior in human individuals as well as every human culture. Moreover, formal features of rituals appear to be highly conserved along phylogeny and characterized by a circular and spatio-temporal structure typical of habitual behavior with internal repetition of non-functional acts and redirection of attention to the "script" of the performance. A continuity, based on highly conserved cortico-striatal loops, can be traced from animal rituals to human individual and collective rituals with psychopathological compulsions at the crossing point. The transition from "routinization" to "ritualization" may have been promoted to deal with environmental unpredictability in non-social contexts and, through motor synchronization, to enhance intra-group cohesion and communication in social contexts. Ultimately, ritual, following its biological constraints exerts a "homeostatic" function on the environment (social and non-social) under conditions of unpredictability.
Topics: Animals; Attention; Behavior, Animal; Ceremonial Behavior; Compulsive Behavior; Humans; Motor Activity; Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder
PubMed: 30610910
DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2018.12.031 -
Indian Journal of Dermatology,... 2019A number of social and cultural practices are prevalent in the Middle-East celebrating various occasions or to treat health conditions. These often result in dermatoses... (Review)
Review
A number of social and cultural practices are prevalent in the Middle-East celebrating various occasions or to treat health conditions. These often result in dermatoses that are unfamiliar and confusing to dermatologists outside this region. This paper reviews skin manifestations emanating from traditional and ritual practices in Arab countries, particularly those from Saudi Arabia.
Topics: Arabs; Cautery; Ceremonial Behavior; Cultural Characteristics; Cupping Therapy; Humans; Naphthoquinones; Saudi Arabia; Skin Diseases
PubMed: 31389374
DOI: 10.4103/ijdvl.IJDVL_123_18 -
Scientific Reports Dec 2022In the Copper Age, slate engraved plaques were produced massively in the southwestern corner of the Iberian Peninsula. Researchers have speculated about the function of...
In the Copper Age, slate engraved plaques were produced massively in the southwestern corner of the Iberian Peninsula. Researchers have speculated about the function of these palm-sized stone objects for more than a century, although most have favored the idea that they represented goddesses, and served ritual purposes. The plaques are engraved with different designs of varying complexity. In some of them, the ones sporting two large frontal eyes, we clearly see owls modelled after two species present in the area: the little owl (Athene noctua), and the long-eared owl (Asio otus). These two species, living in semi-open habitats, were possibly the most abundant owls around the human settlements and surrounding cultivated fields of the Chalcolithic period. People must have been aware of the owl presence and possibly interacted with them. Why owls but no other animals have been the models may relate to the fact they are the most anthropomorphic of all animals, with large frontally-placed eyes in their enormous heads. In the iconography, owls are systematically represented, even today, with their two eyes staring at the observer, as opposed to the lateral view used for any other animal. Additionally, slate is one of the commonest surface rocks in southwestern Iberia, and it provides a blank canvas for engraving lines using pointed tools made of flint, quartz or copper. The way slates exfoliate makes easy to craft owl-looking plaques. To silhouette animals other than owls in a recognizable way would request extra carving abilities and specific tools. Plaque manufacture and design were simple and did not demand high skills nor intensive labor as demonstrated in replication experiments. Owl engravings could have been executed by youngsters, as they resemble owls painted today by elementary school students. This also suggests that schematic drawings are universal and timeless. We propose that the owl-like slate plaques are the remains of a set of objects used in both playful activities and in ritual ceremonies. The actual engraving of the plaques may have been part of the game. Owlish slate plaques were often perforated twice at the top. We interpret this as insertion points for actual bird feathers added to the plaques, right at the place where tufts emerge in live owls. The frontier among play and ritual is diffuse in liminal societies and there is no contradiction in playing with animal-like toys and, at some point, using them as offerings as part of community rituals related, for instance, to the colossal megalithic tombs so characteristic of the Copper Age.
Topics: Animals; Child; Humans; Awareness; Feathers; Strigiformes; Ceremonial Behavior; Engraving and Engravings; History, Ancient
PubMed: 36456596
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-23530-0 -
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal... Aug 2020From Australia to the Arctic, human groups engage in synchronous behaviour during communal rituals. Because ritualistic synchrony is widespread, many argue that it is... (Review)
Review
From Australia to the Arctic, human groups engage in synchronous behaviour during communal rituals. Because ritualistic synchrony is widespread, many argue that it is functional for human groups, encouraging large-scale cooperation and group cohesion. Here, we offer a more nuanced perspective on synchrony's function. We review research on synchrony's prosocial effects, but also discuss synchrony's antisocial effects such as encouraging group conflict, decreasing group creativity and increasing harmful obedience. We further argue that a tightness-looseness (TL) framework helps to explain this trade-off and generates new predictions for how ritualistic synchrony should evolve over time, where it should be most prevalent, and how it should affect group well-being. We close by arguing that synthesizing the literature on TL with the literature on synchrony has promise for understanding synchrony's role in a broader cultural evolutionary framework. This article is part of the theme issue 'Ritual renaissance: new insights into the most human of behaviours'.
Topics: Ceremonial Behavior; Cooperative Behavior; Creativity; Cultural Evolution; Humans; Interpersonal Relations
PubMed: 32594883
DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2019.0432 -
Ugeskrift For Laeger Sep 2019This review discusses female genital mutilation (FGM), which is a culturally founded ritual of unknown origin. The definition is intentional altering or injuring the... (Review)
Review
This review discusses female genital mutilation (FGM), which is a culturally founded ritual of unknown origin. The definition is intentional altering or injuring the female genitals for non-medical reasons. The WHO estimates, that more than 200 million women have sequelae from FGM. Acute compli-ca-tions range from haemorrhage and infection to death, while the most common chronic complications are vulvar pain, problems with micturition and childbirth, recurrent infec-tions, dysmenorrhoea, and dyspareunia. Favourable surgical techniques are available. Hitherto, these techniques are limited to certain types of FGM.
Topics: Ceremonial Behavior; Circumcision, Female; Female; Humans; Plastic Surgery Procedures; Vulvodynia
PubMed: 31543098
DOI: No ID Found -
Tropical Medicine & International... Sep 2016This paper reviews the practice and ritual traditions of infant oral mutilation, drawing on a literature search in PubMed and Google Scholar, historical reports,... (Review)
Review
This paper reviews the practice and ritual traditions of infant oral mutilation, drawing on a literature search in PubMed and Google Scholar, historical reports, relevant textbooks, NGO materials and personal observations of the authors.
Topics: Africa, Eastern; Body Modification, Non-Therapeutic; Ceremonial Behavior; Humans; Infant; Medicine, African Traditional; Tooth; Tooth Extraction
PubMed: 27314558
DOI: 10.1111/tmi.12740 -
Endeavour Dec 2020The material and spatial dimensions documented in the manuscripts of ritual magic that circulated in the medieval and early modern periods have long eluded researchers....
The material and spatial dimensions documented in the manuscripts of ritual magic that circulated in the medieval and early modern periods have long eluded researchers. Studying where those rituals take place is important to understand the history of the practice of ritual magic. Few attempts have been done to interpret the reasons behind the construction of magic circles and the use of domestic locations. The author introduces a new interpretative category of such ritual spaces: imaginal architectural devices (IADs). IADs pick out a specific kind of portable, spatially unfixed ritual space, where "magical" ones are a key example. They are temporary architectural artefacts, attested across a swath of sources of ritual magic, that work as strategic tools for orienting cognition, behavior, and belief. Drawing on spatial theory and cognitive studies, the author constructs IADs as a typological category for comparative analysis. It describes architectural operations that work at the interplay between mental projections and material culture, and that modify the perception of space. In the second part of the article, IADs will be applied to study the circles described in the second section of the Liber Iuratus Honorii, a thirteenth-century handbook containing instructions on how to conjure different ranks of spirits. In the end, the author suggests future directions of research on the transmission of IADs into contemporary ritual magic.
Topics: Ceremonial Behavior; Cognition; Compulsive Behavior; Magic
PubMed: 33551172
DOI: 10.1016/j.endeavour.2021.100748 -
Annals of Tourism Research Mar 2022As COVID-19 prevention efforts have become normalized, conflicts between guests and hotel staff, who must adhere to government protocols, can have a serious impact on...
As COVID-19 prevention efforts have become normalized, conflicts between guests and hotel staff, who must adhere to government protocols, can have a serious impact on host-guest interactions. Drawing on interaction ritual chain theory, this research explores the ritualized mechanism of host-guest interactions during the pandemic from the perspectives of staff and guests. By combining video ethnography and interviews, this study identifies the ritual ingredients, processes, outcomes, and collective symbols of COVID-19 prevention measures. Based on the attitudes and performance paths of staff and guests, the interaction chain may become longer or shorter, and result in guests becoming "insiders" or "outsiders" and leaving the interaction space. An integrated model of host-guest interactions based on interaction ritual theory is proposed.
PubMed: 35194268
DOI: 10.1016/j.annals.2022.103376 -
Contemporary Jewry 2021Traditional Jewish mourning practices include the recitation of Kaddish during the grieving period and on the recurring anniversary of death. Kaddish recital requires...
Traditional Jewish mourning practices include the recitation of Kaddish during the grieving period and on the recurring anniversary of death. Kaddish recital requires the presence of a . During the COVID-19 pandemic, quarantine and lockdown limited possibilities to gather as a quorum. This article offers a prosopographic sketch of the array of solutions to this Corona Kaddish conundrum. Three classes of solutions are discussed: (1) ad hoc , including , , , , and ; (2) , including of Kaddish or practices; and (3) , including , , and Kaddish. Common characteristics emerge from the cluster of solutions, and the collage tells a story about Jewish tradition and ritual. First, no previous pandemic saw such a gamut of Kaddish possibilities. This change can be linked to digital information sharing and to mourners' desire for a means to recite Kaddish. Second, solutions were rooted in sources; no suggestion was entirely novel, indicating that there is a trove of sources hibernating until called upon by the community. Third, Jewish ritual may not be as frozen as many think and experience, since during the pandemic different ways of performing the ritual were entertained. Fourth, offered a plethora of options, practitioners of Judaism anonymously and unconsciously declared that Kaddish must be preserved. Moreover, ad hoc solutions and workarounds have been preferred over shadow images and replacement rituals. This indicates that mourners want to recite Kaddish, and they want to perform the ritual in a communal setting.
PubMed: 34493882
DOI: 10.1007/s12397-021-09395-x