Drawing upon James Carey’s ritual model of communication as a framework, we argue that rituals, especially religious rituals, are important resources for technology design. We suggest that a ritual view of ICT interaction represents an alternative and significant model for ICT development and evaluation, and that the observance of religious rituals affords researchers the opportunity to see cul...

In this paper, a new automatic system for classifying ritual locations in diverse Hajj and Umrah video scenes is investigated. This challenging subject has mostly been ignored in the past due to several problems one of which is the lack of realistic annotated video datasets. HUER Dataset is defined to model six different Hajj and Umrah ritual locations [26]. The proposed Hajj and Umrah ritual l...

We automatically represent others’ actions in terms of their goal—for actions with concrete external goals (e.g. reaching for an object; Woodward, 1998). Is this true for actions without concrete external goals? We hypothesized that movement itself could be considered a goal, and that this inference forms part of concepts like dance, exercise and ritual. In a between-subject experiment, partici...

This paper draws on contemporary ritual theory from two different disciplines and research traditions to show how rituals can affect IT projects. These theories suggest that commonplace project activities, such as signoffs and scope changes, have symbolic and emotional effects that not only persist, but also accumulate from one occurrence to the next. The analysis extends our understanding of r...

Hilazon Tachtit, a small Natufian cave site in northern Israel, served first and foremost as a ritual location for the burial of the dead. Burials were found in all loci of the 30 m2 occupation. At least twenty-eight individuals were buried at the site—two of them in structures that were too small for human habitation. The ritual nature of the site is supported by some aspects of material cultu...

From public speaking to first dates, people frequently experience performance anxiety. And when experienced immediately before or during performance, anxiety harms performance. Across a series of experiments, we explore the efficacy of a common strategy that people employ to cope with performance-induced anxiety: rituals. We define a ritual as a predefined sequence of symbolic actions often cha...

In this qualitative study I explore how Pagan women conceptualize aging, more specifically social aging, through the ritual process of being a Pagan and becoming a Crone. The central question of this research revolves around how older women who identify as Pagan experience, understand, and conceptualize their social aging and their role as aging women in American society. Semi-structured interv...

New (14)C dates from Oaxaca, Mexico, document changes in religious ritual that accompanied the evolution of society from hunting and gathering to the archaic state. Before 4000 B.P. in conventional radiocarbon years, a nomadic egalitarian lifeway selected for unscheduled (ad hoc) ritual from which no one was excluded. With the establishment of permanent villages (4000-3000 B.P.), certain ritual...

Subincision of the penis is a traditional ritual mutilation unique to the Aborigines, the indigenous people of Australia. The mutilation is a urethrotomy in which the undersurface of the penis is incised and the urethra slit open lengthwise. Subincision is one element in the initiation of Aboriginal youths. In later ceremonies, repeated throughout adult life, the subincised penis is used as a s...

It has long been recognized that one of the main topics of the Gospel of Philip is ritual, including “the bridal chamber,” and numerous studies have discussed what practices and attitudes toward sexuality and marriage are implied by this imagery. This article will build on these studies to argue that the Gospel of Philip portrays the incarnate Jesus as actually married (to Mary Magdalene) and i...