Nov. 1: Concerning Rituals

In today's reading Mr. White talks about how authors can use rituals in their writing. Rituals help keep alive cultural practices and traditions. Some of our rituals today are connected to long standing religious practices, while other rituals are considered barbaric. Mr. White, however, believes that the barbaric rituals make for compelling fiction particularly in the occult/horror genre. As usual he gives some examples. Todays examples are The Omen and The Exorcist.
In "For Further Reflection" the author talks about how rituals can deepen one's experience of a religion or cultural tradition. He also gives a couple of sources for learning about ancient and primitive religious rituals: The Golden Bough and Coming of Age in Samoa. Me personally I have learned a great deal by watching things like The History Channel International, The Travel Channel, and The Discovery Channel. All regularly feature cultural anthropoligists views of cultures current and ancient. Even the Travel and Science channel can sometime expand one's knowledge of these area. One series that appeared on the Animal Planet recently was Wild Pacific which include segments on Polyonesian culture.
Today's "Try This" assignment:
1. Outline a horror story that includes one or more rituals. Research the practice of these rituals so that you can convey them realistically.
2. Study the religious or coming-og-age rituals practiced by a non-Western culture, such as Samoa or Tibet; then, outline a story that is set in this culture.
Again I do not do horro but this first assignment reminds me of a recent special on Discovery Channel about Indiana Jones and whether these movies bore any truth about archeologists and archeology. In particular one of the rituals in "Temple of Doom" I think where Indy and his two companions were trapped by a cult and made to participate in a ritual. According to the archeologists who were being interviewed these scenes were based in reality and some ancient cults.
For assignment number two I don't have time at this time but have through reading and watching the above mentioned shows already have done part of the research. Not only of non-Western culture but also native american culture which had some unusual coming of age rituals.