Anonymous Rituals

Religion and ritual have been characterized as costly ways for conditional cooperators to signal their type, and thus identify and interact with one another. But an effective signal may be prohibitively expensive: if the cost of participation is too small, freeriders may send the signal and behave selfishly later. However, if the ritual reveals only the average level of signaling in a group, free-riders can behave selfishly without being detected, and even a low cost signal can separate types. While individuals cannot be screened out, members can learn the group�s profile of types. Under specified conditions, this information gain leads to greater cooperation and hence increases expected welfare. Furthermore, if crowding is unimportant relative to the conditional cooperation term, anonymous rituals will be preferred to ones which reveal individuals� behavior. Examples of anonymous institutions include church collections, voting, music, dance, and military customs.

Religious Rituals

This project was implemented to preserve Tibetan folk culture activities that are rapidly vanishing. We thank individuals and organizations who supported us. We also extend sincere appreciation to the United States Embassy in Beijing for sponsoring the project (the Ambassador's Fund for Cultural Preservation Program). Finally, we hope more people will join in the important task of preserving a record of traditional culture. Introduction. Friend of Rural Community Development is a local NGO registered in China, whose work focuses on improvement of rural education, culture, and environment. All the staff are locals dedicated to achieveing sustainable development for local people. Mr. Lugyal (Li Jia) is a native of Muhong Village, Daowei Tibetan Township, Xunhua Salar Autonomous County, Qinghai Province, China. These cultural materials were collected from Xunhua Tibetan communities from 2008-2010. Disc Number 3: Religious rituals. Including Mani Bumdrub, fasting festival, water offering festival, Ngamchod, and stone tent offering festival are filmed, respectively, in Muhong, Dortse, Muhong, Ningba, and Horonbo villages in Daowei Township. Such rituals in many local communities are held annually to avoid bad luck. Tibetan and Chinese descriptions available in 'Xunhua DVD Set Tibetan - description of the 9 DVDs.pdf'

Understanding the Social Gifts of Drinking Rituals: An Alternative Framework for PSA Developers

Binge drinking behavior has been described as the most significant health hazard on college campuses today. Using definitions of ritual behavior drawn from the literature, the authors conducted focus groups, depth interviews, and participant observations to explore the ritualized nature of alcohol beverage consumption among college students at two large universities. The themes that emerged provide an understanding of the rituals associated with college student drinking. With the drinking-as-ritual interpretation as a theoretical framework, the authors discuss how developers of public service announcements (PSAs) could capture and contextualize drinking rituals and thus make PSAs more relevant to the target audience. They provide examples of PSAs that could be tested

“This stinckyng idoll”: the origins of some English Mayday traditions

This paper considers some of the traditions of the May Day festival, which might have had their roots in the Celtic celebrations of Bealtaine. Many pamphleteers and puritans expressed their displeasure at the performing of the rituals including the gathering of the May, and Queen and maypole veneration, all of which are linked with fertility rituals. There are suggestions that the Mayday rituals are also linked with the Roman fertility celebration of Floralia. These celebrations also developed to include dances of milkmaids and chimney sweeps and were linked with the procession of the Jack-in-the-Green and the Lord and Lady of the Ma

Medical rituals and media rituals

In the present article the author examines the ritual elements of theprofessionalization during medical studies, and its interference with media content of medical significance, comparing the role of medical and media rituals on the way of becoming a doctor. It is to be explored how these medical soap operas, medical dramas, medical thrillers or crime stories do exert influence on medical identity and role expectations. Do medical students and their relatives (withmedical expertise frequently) identify themselves with these roles? Is their way of reception critical or naïve? How media rituals are organizing, modulating the students’ medical perception and expectations. Is there a mediated “shadow initiation” via media or it is excluded and denied? Does it perfuse the common social experience of becoming a doctor via peer communication and peer shapingof model behavior? We search the answers in the context of a theory of media rituals

Qualitative analysis of young adult ENDS users' expectations and experiences.

ObjectivesDespite extensive research into the determinants of electronic nicotine delivery system (ENDS) uptake, few studies have examined the psychosocial benefits ENDS users seek and experience. Using a consumer ritual framework, we explored how ENDS users recreated or replaced smoking practices, and considered implications for smoking cessation.DesignIn-depth interviews; data analysed using thematic analysis.SettingDunedin, New Zealand.Participants16 young adult ENDS users (age M=21.4, SD=1.9; 44% female).ResultsParticipants reported using different ENDS to achieve varying outcomes. Some used 'cigalikes' to recreate a physically and visually similar experience to smoking; they privileged device appearance over nicotine delivery. In contrast, others used personally crafted mods to develop new rituals that differentiated them from smokers and showcased their technical expertise. Irrespective of the device they used, several former smokers and dual users of cigarettes and ENDS experienced strong nostalgia for smoking attributes, particularly the elemental appeal of fire and the finiteness of a cigarette. Non-smoking participants used ENDS to maintain social connections with their peers.ConclusionsParticipants used ENDS to construct rituals that recreated or replaced smoking attributes, and that varied in the emphasis given to device appearance, nicotine delivery, and social performance. Identifying how ENDS users create new rituals and the components they privilege within these could help promote full transition from smoking to ENDS and identify those at greatest risk of dual use or relapse to cigarette smoking