rite

is a religious or semi-religious ceremony fixed by law, precept or custom, with the essential oil of sincerity carefully squeezed out of it.

RITE, n. A religious or semi-religious ceremony fixed by law, precept or custom, with the essential oil of sincerity carefully squeezed out of it.

is a symbolic act which, like a joke (an anti-rite), draws its meaning from a cluster of standard symbols and connects widely differing concepts.

A standard rite is a symbolic act which draws its meaning from a cluster of standard symbols. When I use the word 'rite' in what follows, I combine the action and the cluster of symbols associated with it. A joke has it in common with a rite that both connect widely differing concepts. But the kind of connection of pattern A with pattern B in a joke is such that B disparages or supplants A, while the connection made in a rite is such that A and B support each other in a unified system. The rite imposes order and harmony, while the joke disorganizes. From the physical to the personal, to the social, to the cosmic, great rituals create unity in experience. They assert hierarchy and order. In doing so, they affirm the value of the symbolic patterning of the universe. Each level of patterining is validated and enriched by association with the rest. But jokes have the opposite effect. They connect widely differeing fields, but the connection destroys hierarchy and order. They do not affirm the dominant values, but denigrate and devalue. Essentially a joke is an 'anti-rite' (Douglas 'implicit menaing' 155)

is a symbolic act with draws its meaning from a cluster of standard symbols.

is like a joke in that it draws together to impose order and harmony and unity but differs from a joke in that it does not draw together differing concepts to disorganize and destroy hierarchy and order.

is a ceremony fixed by law, precept, or custom, with all traces of sincerity carefully squeezed out of it.

rite, n.All

rite