E22: Do you think that rituals, customs and ceremonies still have a part to play in modern society?

There are several factors which appear to militate against the continuation of rituals, customs and ceremonies in modern society. The first is the life-style norm in industrialized and westernized countries. An agricultural existence may be hard, but it is steady and unhurried. Modern living is fast living. Men and women work perhaps sixty hours a week in the factory, office or shop. Food imports mean that they are less dependent on the land, so the old customs connected with fertility and the propitiation of hostile spirits, all based in animistic beliefs, have become irrelevant. The climate of outlook has also changed. The religious and political hold of the old time chiefs has largely been replaced by democracy, in some cases one of the enlightened religions, and in others a kind of hybrid of materialism and humanism. So it might seem that the new will inevitably replace the old, inexorably if not quickly.

In some respects, ritual, custom and ceremony may have a reactionary, indeed at times positively malevolent influence. The modern world has set certain standards of human rights, in religion, in sexual and racial parity, in speech, in education, in political freedom, in freedom of travel. The objective is humane behavior within countries, and international peace and co-operation. Yet, in certain countries barbaric customs remain, especially where women are denied equality. Suttee. The harem. Slavery. Female circumcision. The cutting off of hands for theft. Floggings. Automatic torture, isolation and deprivation for prisoners, whether political or criminal. There is no place for these customs in the modern world.
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