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Overview:
Ritual has been an integral part of human life in every civilization and every historical era, and the rituals of all cultures have common characteristics.
In this lesson, students will identify characteristics of traditional and modern rituals found in different cultures. Through reading articles and watching videos of several rituals, students will identify some of their characteristics. Finally, students will apply their understanding to modern rituals in their own lives.
Connections to the Curriculum:
Geography, history (world and/or American), social studies, art
Connections to the National Geography Standards:
Standard 10: "The characteristics, distribution, and complexity of Earth’s cultural mosaics"
Time:
Three to five hours
Materials Required:
- Computer with Internet access
Objectives:
Students will
- list characteristics of rituals;
- identify examples of these characteristics in the rituals of various cultures and traditions; and
- identify examples of rituals in modern life.
Geographic Skills:
Acquiring Geographic Information
Organizing Geographic Information
Analyzing Geographic Information
S u g g e s t e d P r o c e d u r e
Opening:
Some consider rituals to be archaic or quaint traditional cultural events which are no longer meaningfully present in modern experience. On the contrary, rituals remain an important and enduring aspect of our daily life. Modern society has both retained traditional rituals and accepted new ones. In this lesson, students will explore some traditional rituals and their modern counterparts.
Development:
Ask students what they think of when they hear the word "ritual." Accept all responses. Ask if anyone has attended a ritual. Again, accept all responses. Then, explain that they will be examining rituals from traditional cultures, and both modern and traditional rituals from their own.
Show the students the Descent into the Maya Underworld video. Tell students to try to identify characteristics of the ritual as they watch the video.
After the video, have students share their ideas of characteristics of the rituals. Write their responses on the board. Then, explain that there are many characteristics that rituals share, and that they will be exploring several of those today. Tell students that while not every ritual will contain all of these characteristics, many rituals will contain some of these characteristics. List the following characteristics on the board and circle any that were previously identified by students.
Many rituals contain or concern:
- Ceremony (or pageantry)
- Religious devotion (prayer, expressions of faith, etc.)
- Sacrifice (of food, animals, or goods)
- Arts (music, visual arts, dance)
- Life cycle (birth, death, coming of age, etc.)
- Relationships (between people, animals, the natural world, the divine, etc.)
- Petition (asking for intervention or assistance)
Divide the students into groups of three. Have students watch the video again, this time reflecting on the seven characteristics of ritual described above. Have the students find examples of each of those characteristics in the Mayan Cave ritual. Reconvene as a group and ask students to share their findings.
Then, explain to students that they will research several traditional rituals from around the world. (You may need to divide this activity into two classes.) During the first class, tell students to select three of the following articles, read them, and find in them five examples of the characteristics of ritual discussed above. Remind students that not all seven of the characteristics will be found in each of the three rituals, but many of them will.
National Geographic News: Weeping Camel—A Real Mongolian Tear-Jerker
National Geographic News: South Pacific Ritual Bungee Jumping
National Geographic News: "Possessed" Himalayan Oracles Said to Suck Disease from Patients
National Geographic News: Painted Past—Borneo's Traditional Tattoos
National Geographic News: Unique Dogon Culture Survives in West Africa
National Geographic News: Mecca—Behind Geographic TV's Rare Look Inside
In the second class, students will be using an online tool to identify examples of the characteristics. Tell students that, as they read the articles, they will be recording their findings on the Ritual Mapper (students will need at least one uninterrupted hour to complete this activity). When they are done, have them print their map. Then, on the webbing tool, have them click "outline view" and print their outline.
Reconvene as a whole class, review the list of ritual characteristics and have students share examples of those characteristics in each of the rituals.
Closing:
Ask students if rituals remain an important part of modern life. Then, have students list all the rituals they can think of in which they participate. If necessary, prompt students by asking if they have ever experienced:
- a wedding,
- a funeral,
- a graduation,
- a Thanksgiving dinner, or
- a recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance.
Then, have students reflect on each of these modern rituals (and any others they suggest) and identify any of the characteristics of ritual in the event.
Have students write a National Geographic News article about one modern ritual with which they are very familiar. Tell students to try to replicate the style of National Geographic News articles when writing their piece.
Suggested Student Assessment:
Have students use their printed outlines of the characteristics of rituals to develop a research paper. This outline will serve as the outline of the paper.
Extending the Lesson:
Have students watch The Story of the Weeping Camel to find at least four instances of ritual in the film. For example:
- The grandmother's early morning ritual of sprinkling milk in the four directions
- The adorning and anointing of the first-born calf
- The sacrifice of food during the whole-village ritual
- The ritual of the weeping camel
Note that the film is rated PG and should be previewed by the teacher prior to showing in the classroom. You may wish to show only portions of the film as it contains some mature content (characters smoking, a camel giving birth, a child being bathed, etc.).
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