Science — more properly, scientific method — is a ritual; just like magic and religion, its “central aim,” as Susanne K. Langer writes, “is to symbolize a Presence, to aid in the formulation of a religious universe.” It is, simply and fundamentally, an attempt to express the unknown. The ability of scienceContinue Reading
If a ritual helps to solve a problem — if it is good — it gets repeated and another seemingly irrational tradition is born. But is a ritual merely an attempt to control some crisis? Or, rather, is it an expression of something much more meaningful? When asked by theContinue Reading
Victor Turner, a seminal theorist on the nature of ritual, described what he called the liminality of the performance. During the liminality of the performance, participants in a ritual are momentarily freed from the bonds of their socially constructed world. Liminality dissolves the cognitive structures determined by the traditions of theContinue Reading