In six pages this paper presents the observations of a Third World girl who has come to the United States in order to argue that culture dictates the meaning of religious rituals. There are no sources cited.
Name of Research Paper File: AM2_PPsocRit.rtf
Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
Religion and the ritual which surrounds it can be quite impressive to the outside observer.
For those that have been immersed in the religion ritual can seem just an every-day component of their lives. The student should recognize, however, that what is commonplace
for those that are familiar with a religion can be a spectacle of much awe and misunderstanding for those lacking that familiarity. The contention can be made, in fact, that
religious rituals have meaning only in the context of the culture in which they evolved. The purpose of this paper, in fact, is to illustrate one situation in which
just this relationship is in play. That situation involves a young child from a third world country (a country which in order to preserve the childs anonymity will not
be named) who travels outside her country to visit one of the most progressive countries in the world. This child has been adopted by a prominent family in this
country and therefore has a number of societal complications awaiting her. One of these complications is getting a grasp on the varied types of ritual which characterize her new
home and the interrelationships between the various members of her new family. While the child is old enough to be familiar and at ease with the ritual practiced in
her birth country among the people she originated from, the ritual in this new country is overwhelming, even verging on science fiction from the perspective of this third world
traveler. One of the first observations our fictional child might make is in regard to the social hierarchy which exist within the home.