The Development of Ritualization

Erik H. Erikson discusses in his essay The Development of Ritualization, the various stages at which human beings develop in the ways or ritual.  When I first started this article, I found nothing overtly religious about what he was talking about.  However, the use of the phrase “hallowed presence” caught my eye.

 I am getting ahead of myself.  He approches the subject of ritualization chronologically, that is to say that he begins by talking about the experiences of an infant, early childhood, adolescence, adutlhood, etc.  The section that I would like to focus on is the infancy, where the numinous is mentioned. 

He first mentions that from the moment of the infants birth, it is exposed to rituals, and therefore develops tendancies towards those rituals.  He describes the way a mother and infant interact: the mother wakes (or is waked by) the child and then procedes to run through a prescribed list of activities to alter the mood of the baby (i.e. feeding, changing, holding, etc.).  He states while this may be stereotypical, it is also individual, meaning unique to each mother and child.  The differences lying in methodology, techniques, or even practices. 

Erikson then rationalizes that these early acts of rituals influence the child to have a predisopsition towards ritual.  It is here that he mentions the hallowed presence. 

My analysis of his argument is that because when we are infants, we are dependant on the support of someone much larger, more powerful and seemingly magical.  From our parent(s) (especially our mother) we recieve care, food, and a number of other amenities that we would not be able to attain for ourselves.  As we grow, this feeling of dependancy on a higher power, and a comprehension of ritual manifests itself in this hallowed presence.

~ by nebuchadnezzar85 on March 24, 2008.