Issue207 【METTLE小组】第五次作业 by 一米八四

一米八四UID: 2317911

207 Rituals and ceremonies help define a culture. Without them, societies or groups of people have a diminished sense of who they are.


提纲
1 有保留的反对作者，虽然仪式礼仪对文化的定义有帮助，但并不是没了他们就会迷失自我了。
2 礼仪和仪式对文化的确立有积极作用，是一个民族国家文化的外在表现。
3 仪式礼仪只是表面形式，无法准确的揭示文化的内涵。
4 现代社会中，一些以前的礼仪仪式已经有些淡漠了，或者变化成其他形式，但这不代表人们会迷失自我。
5 的确有帮助，但不是唯一的帮助，也不是没它就不行了。

题目：ISSUE207 - "Rituals and ceremonies help define a culture. Without them, societies or groups of people have a diminished sense of who they are."
字数：457          用时：00:59:36          日期：2007-6-28 17:03:21

Although rituals and ceremonies play a vital role in cultural definition, a culture's essence do not just include some specific ritual and ceremony, which are just symbols yet cannot stand for the whole. So i agree with the author’s assertion as one purpose of ritual and ceremony in today's world is to preserve cultural identity, while preserving cultural identity cannot be accomplished by ritual and ceremony.

As we know, rituals and ceremonies are very significant for a culture in that they can help define a culture. In fact, some nation's culture is mainly based on their unique rituals and ceremonies. Take Native American tribes as an example, they preserve their traditional rituals and ceremonies in a dogged way. The reason for maintaining these rituals and ceremonies largely lies in the tribes' 500-year struggle against assimilation, even extinction, with the European invaders. Their fearless actions had remaindered the aggressors that every tribe is a distinct and autonomous people, with their own values and ideas, which cannot be assimilation by other people. Form these Indian’s brave behaviors we can see the importance of rituals and ceremonies in one’s own culture.

However, in many other nations, rituals and ceremonies is just a kind of shape , which is usually seemed as a representation or symbol of a particular culture. What the essence of the culture is mainly contingent on the intrinsic content of that culture, which has no direct relationship to the symbols--rituals and ceremonies. In China, people will hold a lot of ceremonies in spring festival, such as acrobatics, fire cracks, and so forth. What a Chinese think about the sprig festival's ceremony is a express of happiness. No one would unhappy if they do not have these ceremonies. They just want to acquire joy, no matter what the rituals or ceremonies may be of. Therefore, people's idea of a culture is principally determined by the content of the culture, rituals and ceremonies can play a very limited role.

Furthermore, with the development of modern society, rituals and ceremonies witness their ever-increasingly rapid disappearance. As people today gradually loss their conventional faith in morality, conventions and social norms, obviously rituals and ceremonies could no longer maintain a role as important as before, or convert into another way. In the past, the wedding ceremony was the solitary form to determine marriage and only through the wedding ceremony identified as wife and husband. But nowadays, register become the legitimate way to identify marriage, while the marriage ceremony is not as important as before.

To sum up, rituals and ceremonies’ role in defining the culture is positive, but far less important as many people believe, so there is no justification to say that without rituals and ceremonies, societies or people have a diminished sense of who they are.

drlzUID: 2329258

Although rituals and ceremonies play a vital role in cultural definition, a culture's essence do(es) not just include some specific ritual(s) and ceremony(ceremonies), which are just symbols yet (yet做连词的时候是表示转折,是但是的意思,好象此处没有转折的意思啊,还有这句话有语法问题 改为 which are just symbols, therefore they 加上后面的)cannot stand for the whole. So i(I) agree with the author’s assertion as(用that 会不会好点?) one purpose of ritual and ceremony in today's world is to preserve cultural identity, while preserving cultural identity cannot be accomplished by ritual and ceremony.

As we know, rituals and ceremonies are very significant for a culture in that they can help define a culture. In fact, some nation's culture is mainly based on their unique rituals and ceremonies. Take Native American tribes as an example, they preserve their traditional rituals and ceremonies in a dogged way. The reason for maintaining these rituals and ceremonies largely lies in the tribes' 500-year struggle against assimilation, even extinction, (这句话最好还是改一下,不能完全照抄北美范文里面的话,怕雷同.)with(用with是什么意思啊？) the European invaders. Their fearless actions had remaindered the aggressors that every tribe is a distinct and autonomous people, with their own values and ideas, which cannot be assimilation（assimilated） by other people. Form these Indian’s brave behaviors we can see the importance of rituals and ceremonies in one’s own culture.(我觉得用这个例子还是要慎重点,尽量多改改,避免雷同啊)

However, in many other nations, rituals and ceremonies is (are)just a kind of shape , which is usually seemed as a representation or symbol of a particular culture. What (what有点多余)the essence of the culture is mainly contingent on the intrinsic content of that culture, which has no direct relationship to the symbols--rituals and ceremonies. In China, people will hold a lot of ceremonies in spring festival, such as acrobatics, fire cracks, and so forth. What a Chinese think about the sprig festival's ceremony is a express of happiness. No one would（be） unhappy if they do not have these ceremonies. They just want to acquire joy, no matter what the rituals or ceremonies may be of. Therefore, people's idea of a culture is principally determined by the content of the culture, (此处要么就用句号，用逗号的话就要加个连词，因为therefore只是一个副词)rituals and ceremonies can play a very limited role.

Furthermore, with the development of modern society, rituals and ceremonies witness their ever-increasingly rapid disappearance. As people today gradually loss their conventional faith in morality, conventions and social norms, obviously rituals and ceremonies could no longer maintain a role as important as before, or convert into another way. In the past, the wedding ceremony was the solitary form to determine marriage and only through the wedding ceremony identified as wife and husband（这句话有问题，如果要用only through 的话后面要用倒装句，还有这句话意思我虽然还是懂了，但是总觉得的怪怪的，我帮你改下吧，only through wedding ceremony could marital ralationship between husband and wife be identified.）. But nowadays, register become the legitimate way to identify marriage, while the marriage ceremony is not as important as before.

To sum up, rituals and ceremonies’ role in defining the culture is positive, but far less important as（as 好象不能用于比较级吧？） many people believe, so there is no justification to say that without rituals and ceremonies, societies or people have a diminished sense of who they are.