Research and Publications
Core Concepts
The MARIAL Center will be focusing attention on the important roles
of ritual and myth in the lives of working families.
Ritual
- Our lives are given shape, continuity and meaning through a
vast network of rituals.
- Rituals are repeatable, scripted behaviors whose forms are usually
deeply meaningful for us.
- Rituals come in all shapes and sizes, from tiny, almost invisible
personal rituals to everyday social rituals to formal social ceremonies
to civic rituals to sacred rites.
- Ritual is the foundation of all social life.
- Rituals are shared action-frames. Through rituals, groups of
people coordinate activities and meanings.
- Family culture is made and maintained through ritual action
and talk.
- The hectic conditions of modern life are having profound effects
on our rituals.
- We need to understand if and how the traditional work of ritual
is being carried out in modern family life.
For more details, see the discussion of ritual in the 1999
Proposal to the Sloan Foundation
Myth
- Whether we know it or not, our lives are full of all kinds of
myths.
- Myths are stories which are in some ways fictional and in some
important ways true.
- We tell stories to make sense of our lives.
- Story-telling is a key human resource for making sense of things.
- Some myths are shared only with family or friends. Others are
the property of communities.
- Family cultures are often created by stories we tell our kids.
- Other myths about the family are created by the media, and become
part of our understanding of ourselves.
- Just because myths are fictional doesn't mean that they are
not true for us.
- Modern media and advertising agencies are powerful and influential
myth-makers.
- The traditional role of myth has been transformed by modern
life, media and technology in many ways.
For more details, see the discussion of myth in the
1999 Proposal to the Sloan Foundation
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