Issue 207"Rituals and ceremonies help define a culture. Without them, societies or groups of people have a diminished sense of who they are."
The author asserts that a culture’s or a group’s identity is dependent upon its rituals and ceremonies. I strongly agree that rituals and ceremonies play a relatively crucial role in distinguishing a culture from other ones. However, do rituals and ceremonies do nothing more than defining a culture? The answer is doubtless: it is not the sole function. Furthermore, rituals and ceremonies is not the exclusive way of protecting cultural identity.
It is true that one purpose of rituals and ceremonies in today’s world is to preserve cultural identity. Just as the early anthologist Durkheim and the functionalism social anthologist Radcliffe-Brown said (and I paraphrase):” rituals and ceremonies help to increase the collective emotion and serves as a tool that integrates the society.” That is to say: through the rituals and ceremonies peoples in one group are integrated and the culture of the group get solidified so that other cultures cannot assimilate it easily. Consider the service that many religious such as Christianism and Islam require their believers to attend every week, this is a ceremony that keep the believers know who they are, what faith do they believe in and how can they behave in daily life. According to this the believers' faiths become solid, the culture of the religious group also become firm and will withstands the assimilation of other culture. Moreover, an outward display of rituals and ceremonies tells the world that every group has its distinct heritage and unique tradition. Otherwise, this group risks the assimilation of other cultures and globalization.
This point is underscored by the lack of rituals and ceremonies in Australia, whose culture involves in not only the so called mainstream culture but also the bush-culture or aborigines-culture. It has become a patchwork quilt of many sub-cultures, such as Native Australians, Chinese, Achaeans and Lebanese. People from all over the world make a multiculture in this country.
However, there must be some further purpose of rituals and ceremonies than that of preserving cultural identity. In fact, the initial function of rituals and ceremonies is superstition and spiritual belief rather than culture identity. For example, the service of Christianism and Islam is to pray or confess to their divinity. And the rituals and ceremonies of many original tribes is to frighten the evils, celebrate the harvest or bless for victory in battle. Consequently, cultural identity is not the most crucial role of rituals and ceremonies.
Ways other than rituals and ceremonies exist for preserving cultural identity. For instance, the Muslims distinguish themselves by their dress and actions:all female Muslims are required to wear handkerchiefs to mask their face and peoples,no matter male or female and young or old,are not permitted to eat foods cooked by other religious groups. Admittedly, this kind of sub-cultures has their own rituals and ceremonies such as adulthood ceremony or wedding ceremony. However, these are not for maintaining their culture identity.
In sum, in order to avoid the result that all sub-cultures fall into assimilation in our modern time, a sub-culture must maintain its unique and proud heritage characteristic by rituals and ceremonies. Whereas rituals and ceremonies also serves as a spiritual pursuit for people. This function has nothing to do with cultural identity. In addition, other ways other than rituals and ceremonies can preserve the cultural identity to a large extent.
The author asserts that a culture’s(culture一般不可数吧) or(这个词用这里也不对,题目明明都提及了,怎么是或者呢) a group’s identity is dependent upon its rituals and ceremonies. I strongly agree that rituals and ceremonies play a relatively crucial(既然crucial就不要用relatively了) role in distinguishing a culture from other ones. However, do rituals and ceremonies do nothing more than defining a culture? The answer is doubtless: it is not the sole function.(这个有点偏题了) Furthermore, rituals and ceremonies is not the exclusive way of protecting cultural identity.
It is true that one purpose of rituals and ceremonies in today’s world is to preserve cultural identity. Just as the early anthologist Durkheim and the functionalism social anthologist Radcliffe-Brown said (and I paraphrase):” rituals and ceremonies help to increase the collective emotion and serves as a tool that integrates the society.”(很不错,赞一下) That is to say: through(by) the rituals and ceremonies peoples (share) in one group are integrated and the culture of the group get solidified so that other cultures cannot assimilate it easily. Consider the service that many religious such as Christianism and Islam require their believers to attend every week, this is a ceremony that keep the believers know who they are, what faith do they believe in and how can they behave in daily life. According to this the believers' faiths become solid, the culture of the religious group also become firm and will withstands the assimilation of other culture. Moreover, an outward display of rituals and ceremonies tells the world that every group has its distinct heritage and unique tradition. Otherwise, this group risks the assimilation of other cultures and globalization.
This point is underscored by the lack of rituals and ceremonies in Australia, whose culture involves in not only the so called mainstream culture but also the bush-culture or aborigines-culture. It has become a patchwork quilt of many sub-cultures, such as Native Australians, Chinese, Achaeans and Lebanese. People from all over the world make a multiculture in this country.这一段不知道你放在这里想说明什么,没有过渡,没有铺垫,很突然啊
However, there must be some further purpose of rituals and ceremonies than that of preserving cultural identity. In fact, the initial function of rituals and ceremonies is superstition and spiritual belief rather than culture identity. For example, the service of Christianism and Islam is to pray or confess to their divinity. And the rituals and ceremonies of many original tribes is to frighten the evils, celebrate the harvest or bless for victory in battle. Consequently, cultural identity is not the most crucial role of rituals and ceremonies.(这一段对于主题没有什么帮助,可以直接删掉。对于题目的前半句,核心在于有助于定义,你写仪式等的其他作用,与文化无关,偏题了)
Ways other than rituals and ceremonies exist for preserving cultural identity. For instance, the Muslims distinguish themselves by their dress and actions: all female Muslims are required to wear handkerchiefs to mask their face and peoples, no matter male or female and young or old, are not permitted to eat foods cooked by other religious groups. Admittedly, this kind of sub-cultures has their own rituals and ceremonies such as adulthood ceremony or wedding ceremony. However, these are not for maintaining their culture identity.(这一段论证除了仪式等还有别的东西有助于定义文化,就不要后面那个转折了)
In sum, in order to avoid the result that all sub-cultures fall into assimilation in our modern time, a sub-culture must maintain its unique and proud heritage characteristic by rituals and ceremonies. Whereas rituals and ceremonies also serves as a spiritual pursuit for people. This function has nothing to do with cultural identity. In addition, other ways other than rituals and ceremonies can preserve the cultural identity to a large extent.
The author asserts that a culture’s or a group’s identity is dependent upon its rituals and ceremonies(开头这样复述的不好,作者显然不是这个意思). I strongly agree that rituals and ceremonies play a relatively crucial role in distinguishing a culture from other ones. However, do rituals and ceremonies do nothing more than defining a culture? The answer is doubtless: it is not the sole function. Furthermore, rituals and ceremonies is not the exclusive way of protecting cultural identity.(开头的观点有点问题,题目的重点似乎不在这里?大家可以讨论一下)
It is true that one purpose of rituals and ceremonies in today’s world is to preserve cultural identity.(题目说的是定义,不是保存) Just as the early anthologist Durkheim and the functionalism social anthologist Radcliffe-Brown said (and I paraphrase):” rituals and ceremonies help to increase the collective emotion and serves as a tool that integrates the society.” That is to say: through the rituals and ceremonies peoples in one group are integrated and the culture of the group get solidified so that other cultures cannot assimilate it easily. Consider the service that many religious such as Christianism and Islam require their believers to attend every week, this is a ceremony that keep the believers know who they are, what faith do they believe in and how can they behave in daily life. According to this the believers' faiths become solid, the culture of the religious group also become firm and will withstands the assimilation of other culture. Moreover, an outward display of rituals and ceremonies tells the world that every group has its distinct heritage and unique tradition. Otherwise, this group risks the assimilation of other cultures and globalization.
This point is underscored by the lack of rituals and ceremonies in Australia, whose culture involves in not only the so called mainstream culture but also the bush-culture or aborigines-culture. It has become a patchwork quilt of many sub-cultures, such as Native Australians, Chinese, Achaeans and Lebanese. People from all over the world make a multiculture in this country.(这一段是不是说澳洲没有自己的文化?题目没说文化的问题啊,而说的是仪式和典礼的问题,亚文化也有仪式和典礼啊?例子用的不好。或者换个角度用这个例子:就算在澳洲这样一个文化多元的国家里,人们也能从不同的仪式和典礼中定义文化。)
However, there must be some further purpose of rituals and ceremonies than that of preserving cultural identity. In fact, the initial function of rituals and ceremonies is superstition and spiritual belief rather than culture identity. For example, the service of Christianism and Islam is to pray or confess to their divinity. And the rituals and ceremonies of many original tribes is to frighten the evils, celebrate the harvest or bless for victory in battle. Consequently, cultural identity is not the most crucial role of rituals and ceremonies.
Ways other than rituals and ceremonies exist for preserving cultural identity. For instance, the Muslims distinguish themselves by their dress and actions:all female Muslims are required to wear handkerchiefs to mask their face and peoples,no matter male or female and young or old,are not permitted to eat foods cooked by other religious groups. Admittedly, this kind of sub-cultures has their own rituals and ceremonies such as adulthood ceremony or wedding ceremony. However, these are not for maintaining their culture identity.
In sum, in order to avoid the result that all sub-cultures fall into assimilation in our modern time, a sub-culture must maintain its unique and proud heritage characteristic by rituals and ceremonies. Whereas rituals and ceremonies also serves as a spiritual pursuit for people. This function has nothing to do with cultural identity. In addition, other ways other than rituals and ceremonies can preserve the cultural identity to a large extent.
后面几段提“反”的部分有些偏题,应该说没有典礼和仪式,人们也能从其他渠道来sense自身。个人认为澳洲亚文化的例子可以用于提反部分。