WORD: Rite.From the Latin ritus; akin to rim number, Greek arithmos meaning number. "prescribed formal behavior for occasions not given over to technological routine, having reference to beliefs in invisible beings or powers regarded as the first and final causes of all effects. For those who would eliminate the religious component, regard ritual as stereotyped behavior which is potent in itself in terms of the cultural conventions of the actor, though not potent in a rational-technical sense and which serves to communicate information about a culture’s most cherished values" (Victor Turner). By shifting from the habitual to ritual, students identify the limitations of the inter-subjective. The students subsequent interpretations of cultural objects and their history allows for a movement inward - an inversion of the first semesters work.
Project: Edgar Allen Poe Scholar's House at Bartram's Garden
Maya Ward-Karet, Spring 2006
