Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/287907
JOBS for TEAMS | 14 www.jobsfor teams.com Manliness The Art of By Brett & Kate McKay, courtesy of www.artofmanliess.com I n advance of a series of articles we'll be doing this year on some of the rites that have been central to manhood, we have recently been discussing the nature of ritual and its several benefits. In the last article, we explored ritual's power to carve out pockets of the sacred in an otherwise profane world. Ritual has the ability to sacralize not only time and space, but the bonds between people as well. In fact, ritual is primarily group- oriented in nature (private rituals generally derive from once public varieties) and has been called "the social act." As the authors of Ritual and Its Consequences, Adam B. Seligman, Robert P. Weller, and Michael J. Puett (who I'll simply refer to hereafter as SWP), argue, ritual "involves the endless work of building, refining, and rebuild- ing webs of relationships in an otherwise fragmented world." It is uniquely effective at meditating social interactions and build- ing community, and performs this work in several ways: Rituals foster a group's culture and identity. Rituals have the ability to both unify and divide. They are one of the key things that create a group's culture and distinguish one community from another. A belief in the superiority of your tribe's rituals is part of the pride and esprit de corps so essen- tial to true honor groups. Rituals are one of the defining features of "closed" groups as they not only sepa- rate one tribe from another, but also create intra-group boundaries that define who is in and who is out. Not so great for the guy who doesn't make the cut, but it allows the successful initiate to become fully inte- grated in the group, rather than feeling like an awkward hanger-on. Full integration gives the initiate security in his identity, a clear set of expectations of how to act if he wishes to maintain his membership, and the motivation to strive that comes from knowing one's purpose. If the group's rites were especially strenu- ous – for example those undergone in basic training and combat — group members are bonded by a mutual respect born of the knowledge that they have done and seen things others will never understand. A challenging initiation also separates the wheat from the chaff, ensuring that those members who do make it through really want to be in and are up to snuff. Rituals create an atmosphere of trust. Rituals build bonds of trust between group members, as they frequently require a public declaration of an inner commit- ment. Group members know they are all on the same page and don't need to start from scratch in ascertaining each other's values and mentality – even if they meet as strangers. Rituals prevent and mediate interpersonal conflicts. Rituals of communication and etiquette The Power of Ritual: Building Shared Worlds and Bonds That Transcend the Everyday JobsForTeams0414_manliness.indd 1 3/6/14 8:26 AM