Different functions of rituals

picture: slehemann.de

Ruth-Inge Heinze, in The Nature and Function of Rituals (2000), cites Wallace on p7 distinguishing the following types of rituals:

• "Technological rituals: to control nonhuman nature (divination, intensification to increase food supply) (1966:107-112) [eg orchard Wassailing]
• Protective rituals: to avert misfortune (1966: 112-113)
• Therapeutic / antitherapeutic rituals: to cure or to inflict injuries (1966:113-126)
• Ideological rituals: to control social groups and values (rites of passage and territorial movements) (1966:112) [I don't like 'control' here - to influence / nurture?]
• Social intensification rituals: to renew group solidarity (Sunday services, rebellious rites that bring about catharsis) (1966:130-138) [sounds like the Fun Fed :)]
• Salvation rituals: to cope with personal difficulties (possession, shamanic and mystic rites, expiation) (1966:138-157)
• Revitalization rituals: to cure societal difficulties and identity crises (millennia movements) (1966: 157-166 [see also Eliade 1974: 313-322 for secret brotherhoods])"

I'm not sure where the key opportunities for ritual I've so far identified - to mark seasonal transition, and to mark personal transition through different life stages, fit into this. Maybe the first is 'technological ritual' - to connect with, rather than control, non-human nature. I can't see the personal transition rituals in there. They are wellbeing rituals, not therapeutic - not treating a problem, but ensuring good psychological health.

"Grimes used a different classification system", Ruth notes. Where Wallace seems to identify purposes of rituals, Grimes focuses more on the different forms:

• "Ritues of passage: 'couvade', birth, baptism, initiation, puberty, circumcision, marriage and funerary rites (mortuary, mourning, unction (anointing), burial, cremation) are listed separately, although they are rites of passage too
• festivals: celebrations, feasts, carnivals, contests, sports, games
• pilgrimages: quests, processions, parades
• purification rites: fasts, pollution, taboos, sin, confession (I'd add water and heat stuff)
• civil ceremonies: royal rites, enthronement, legal ceremonies, warfare
• Rituals of exchange: hunt, agricultural / ecological food offerings, potlatch
• worship; liturgy, prayer, sacraments
•  magical rites: fertility, divination, sorcery, oracles
• healing rites: shamanic rites, psychedelic rites, exorcism, therapy, dream incubation
• interactive rites: habits, secular rites
• meditative rites: possession, conversion, trance
• rites of inversion: rebellion, clowning, joking, and obscenity; revitalization
• ritual drama: pageantry, experimental and entertainment rites (Grimes 1985:2)