Research Paper on:
Fifth, Seventh, and Twelfth Chapters of James C. Livingston's Anatomy of the Sacred

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
rituals refer to their social values. Can you think of social values (including some unconscious one) that some specific rituals may serve in our society? In many ways the society  of the United States is one that has an incredibly amount of ritual, based on the fact that there are many cultures in the society. But, on the other hand,  America is a place where true solid rituals are perhaps difficult to find. For example, while many people may stop and observe certain holidays as paramount, such as Veterans Day,  others may simply ignore the rituals that involve such memory. And, while the country seems to celebrate Christmas, we are finding larger and larger numbers of people celebrating various types  of rituals associated with that time of year. As such, it is perhaps difficult to truly illustrate how America has some powerful rituals that the society involves itself in. Bearing  that in mind, however, we turn to looking at one form of ritual that seems to celebrate life, as well as one that seems solid and fairly widespread. The ritual  of marriage in the United States is one of the few rituals that seems to have remained stable through much of its history. There are, of course, changes which occur,  but for the most part marriage is a ritual that truly touches on the social values of the country. We can look at it from the simplest perspective and note  that a standard marriage involves the bride, the groom, the parents, the maid (or matron) of honor, and the best man. All of these people represent social standards, and are  there as a sort of network, symbolically, for the people being married. The parents of the bride are often the ones who pay for the wedding and this serves as