Ritual, Sanctity, and Cybernetics1
Abstract
The role of the sacred in human communication and in the regulation of social and ecological systems is approached through ritual. After a brief review of salient features of Maring ethnography, formal characteristics of rituals making them suitable for communication and regulation functions are examined. From this discussion a concept of sanctity relating it to a problem inherent in symbolic communication is derived. The non‐discussiue basis of sanctity is then considered and the role of the sacred in the cybernetics of social and ecological systems is then discussed. Next it is suggested that the relationship between sanctity and authority changes with technological development. Finally, some tentative suggestions concerning the origins of the sacred are advanced.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Fluctuating psychosocial states are detected and compared against an ideal reference state; if a discrepancy exists, ritual is triggered, closing the loop and resolving the discrepancy.
“Fluctuating psychosocial states are first detected and then compared against an ideal (future) reference state.If a discrepancy is found to exist, the ritual is triggered, closing off the loop and resolving the discrepancy (Rappaport, 1971).”
From The Psychology of Rituals: An Integrative Review and Process-Based Framework (2018) · cites this paper as Rappaport, 1971
No citation lists for this paper
No citation lists for this paper yet — checked again daily.
References 18 · Cited by 264
- Authors
- RAPPAPORT, R. A.
- Venue
- American Anthropologist
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 1971-02
- Volume
- 73
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 59-76
- ISSN
- 0002-7294 (ISSN-L)
- 1548-1433
- OpenAlex
- W2028334906
- Cited by
- 264
- References
- 18
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 7 · 2020: 7 · 2019: 5 · 2018: 27 · 2017: 8 · 2016: 4 · 2015: 4 · 2014: 3 · 2013: 5 · 2012: 7
- FWCI
- 50.39
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- American Anthropologist (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Philosophy › Study and Philosophy of Religion
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › History and Philosophy of Science › Cybernetics and Technology in Society
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Emile Durkheim and Sociology
- Keywords
- ritual, holiness, sacred, Maring, symbolic communication, cybernetics, social regulation, ecological regulation, authority, technological progress
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
