Camouflaged Ritual

1. Godiva Rides
2. Noon-Hour Workout
3. 1492-1992 (Father Knows Best)
4. Toward an Integrated Film Theory
5. Rituals as Useful Functions in Society

Have you ever noticed unusual behaviour practiced by a group that seems to result in acceptance or prestige that is based on criteria other than merit? Well that behaviour could be camouflaged ritual. These rituals are performed to show acceptance of the social hierarchy and belief system. These rituals are hidden, denied and minimized in an attempt to disguise the archaic with pseudo logic.

Ritual originally was a formal way for a collective to get in touch with their spirituality. The need for spirituality is ever present but the acceptance of that need varies with time and circumstance. Therefore, ritual is rejected although the spiritual need is still required. The ritual may go underground, it may become trivialized or it may slip into a less than spiritual purpose. On the other hand, indicators or corresponding events often get dragged into ritual to validate the ritual or the system it supports. So what started as a noble commune of spirituality, becomes the basis for social structure or academic criteria for truth.

How many promotions were achieved on the golf course? How many women absent from the locker room were overlooked for a promotion? When did the wrong tie let the second best win?

In engineering school many rituals were practiced some meaninglessly and others in earnest. The forty beer pin, the jug-a-lug, the Godiva ride and pranks were all ritualistic in nature.

The technocratic world of late twentieth Century North America is invested with Camouflaged Ritual. Camouflaged because it is hidden from the society in general and often the ritualists while being practiced in the open. It is ritual because it serves at least one of the following:

1. It raises the gratification of immediate animal needs into a socially accepted context.
2. It teaches the sanctioned way of performing the mundane tasks of daily living.
3. It develops discrimination between good and evil; or prescribed and shameful; or promotable and mediocre. This is accomplished by experience in the institution hosting or sponsoring the ritual.
4. It provides a vehicle for the emerging visions shared by the community.
5. It strengthens other ritual practices and reinforces social hierarchy by enshrining ritual sense. (Sacramental meaning to wine drinking, foot washing, towelling)
6. It projects feeling of unworthiness onto the non-practitioners who are excluded from knowing the right way.

There are rituals formed in most of our lives. Many of these rituals are institutionalized such as baptism at the church, hazing at the school, showering the bride and covering the newly weds with confetti. The hidden rituals which are elements of systemic discrimination are the practices that need examination, documentation and revelation.

The "Godiva Rides" and the "Noon-Hour Workout" are two of the rituals that deserve pondering. Both are male conceived rituals. The Godiva Ride dropped much of its camouflage and has since started to disappear. The noon-hour workout continues to remain hidden in the open while its practitioners both male and female strengthen their locker room network.

				"THE" Collaborative Process
				(September 96 - April 97)
				Lies	Lies	Saints	Addictions	Handcuffs	Evolution
				Video	Rituals	Humour	Violence	Sanctity
				Page Last Updated July 4, 2000
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