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本帖最后由 jessicamarine 于 2009-11-20 22:19 编辑
As the globalization goes, people pay less time for traditional rituals and ceremonies. Some people then worry that this would lead to a diminished sense of who we are. However, I personally believe that the worry is unnecessary, for even if the rituals and ceremonies help define a culture, they does not contribute to our true self-knowing
Fist of all,we must accept the fact that rituals, as the production of a certain culture, would unavoidly reflect the culture ,thus helping us define it.Actually nearly every culture has its own special types of rituals and ceremonies, through the details of which we can define the background culture to some extent. For example, we can get a clear definition of the filiality culture and the human interest culture in China from the Chinese wedding ceremonies where processes of "thanking parents" are necessary and nearly all the relatives and friends would prepare wedding cash gift for the new couples. Similarly, the details in rituals and ceremonies can give us a lively definition of the culture.
To explore whether the absence of rituals and ceremonies would contribute to a diminished sense of who we are, we need firstly get a clear defination of the self-knowledge, the combination of inside-self cognition and outside-self cognition. Admitedly several types of ceremonies could help with our self-knowing through instruction or evaluation such as some religious rituals and evaluation ceremonies. However, not all the ceremonies and rituals help. Actually, most of them have an negative effect on our self-knowing. As the product of the background culture controlled by the mainstream thought, rituals and ceremonies unaviodbly serve to strengthen the mainstream, weakening the other. In the feudal China, it is just those tedious, strict rituals prescribed by the governor that shackled people's mind, making the unfair feudal hierachy seemed acceptalbe. Generally speaking, rituals and ceremonies are actually leading us to accept the mainstream's defination of who we are, but not helping us explore the true self.
Rather than the rituals and ceremonies, there are many ways to strengthen the sense of who we are. For example,reading and socializing provide us a good chance to communicate freely with people from different history period,people with different background culture and various thoughts. Communication and comparison help us find ourselves. More importantly, staying alone to relax and reflect can at last help us get a thorough understanding of who we are. In conclusion,even without rituals and ceremonies, the sense of who we are will still be OK or even better.
To sum up, springing from the background culture, rituals and ceremonies can help us define a culture. However, a true sense of who we are is independent from the culture making the worry mentioned before both problematic and unnecessary. |
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