Ritual Symbols on Campus Activity
Look around your campus and its many activities. Identify one of the rituals peculiar to your campus. Consider how this ritual fits or does not fit the definition of a ritual as described in the text. Is it a rite of passage? Is it a ritual that reinforces key values about your campus? What symbols are used to give meaning to the ritual?
A Thought Activity: Magic in American Culture
We tend to think that magic occurs only in “primitive” non-Western societies, but many people in the United States actually do lots of things that anthropologists would identify as magic. What do people in your dorm do that might help them get a desired outcome that is not directly related to that end?