issue207 还没被人拍过呢，谁拍我，我一定拍回去！

claymanUID: 2102470

Issue207 ：
Rituals and ceremonies help define a culture. Without them, societies or groups of people have a diminished sense of who they are.
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Rituals and ceremonies are significant parts of a culture, but as ways of express ideas and behaviors of a certain culture, they are not the fundamental characters that define a culture but only enhance the definition in an auxiliary way. So I believe that without rituals and ceremonies, societies or groups of people will not lose themselves.

Indeed, rituals and ceremonies play an important role in the past as well as in modern society. As their function is to unite groups of people, enhance common believes or celebrate achievements of the group, they are paid much attention in both ancient and modern society. Whenever our ancestors want to carry out a big operation like marriage or war, they will consult the oracle for clues of the future. And up to now, birth rituals and death rituals is very important to any country or culture. Also ceremony will be held to celebrate the achievement or to memorize the milestone of a nation, such as Independence Day. It is in this way the people of the same culture distinguish them from others and share their common feelings and values.

However, as the development of human society, rituals and ceremonies is no longer as crucial as before to the life or identity of people. First, people become well educated and the mystery of ritual and ceremonies become less attractive to them. Therefore the religious or mysterious parts of such activities are gradually fading, and people are more likely to perform such an operation as a custom of the culture. Second along with globalization, rituals and ceremonies are spreading all over the world and people are willing to try different rituals and ceremonies according to their interests. This phenomenon makes it harder for rituals and ceremonies serve as an identity of culture than ever. Many young Chinese celebrate Christmas although they do not believe in Christ because it is a good chance to relax and have parties for them; meanwhile their own Qinming festival in memory of a poet nearly two thousand years ago is gradually losing its place due to its strict disciplines.

Last but not lest, the identity of culture or group of people is composed by various factors, such as customs, language, ethics and even racial distinctions. Because culture is a vague and huge conception that involves different fields of human life, it is hard to recognize a certain type of culture only by very few characters as rituals and ceremonies though they are important symbols in the identification of a culture. For example the American culture is a mixture of so many kinds of people that no simple identity can be found. Another example is the Japanese culture which firstly influenced by Chinese culture and later by Western culture.

In all, rituals and ceremonies should be important but not unique definition of culture. Whether we should inherit them or just let them disappear in history will due to the trend and judgment of the contemporary culture.

[ Last edited by staralways on 2005-7-20 at 23:53 ]

nksisiUID: 2101023

in both ancient and modern socie，应该是“both 放在前面吧，
important to any country or culture, important in吧？
节日和典礼不是一回事吧，倒数第三段的节日的例子是不是换成什么祭祀仪式的改变或衰退什么更好啊？
^_^，
有时间改改我的烂文吧，呵呵