Women play an important role in
ritual and in community healing. In fact last evening one of my
professors told me about a village in the north of Kenya in which the
women didn't want the men in their village to travel to the next village
and fight. In order to encourage them not to fight, the wives told
their husbands that if they came home and had been fighting, they
wouldn't have sex with them. The men stopped fighting and the
communities began to get aong better!
This past week I have been researching and thinking a lot about ritual and the significance ritual plays in healing community. I am using the word ritual to refer to a ceremony, rite, or custom that has a performed set of actions in an ordered way. All cultures have traditional rituals that link community, limit violence and solve conflict. Some rituals are based in religion others are secular in nature; some have a long historic tradition while others are more spontaneous and improvised. While there may be formal or informal elements ritual is generally used to transform a community and are social in nature. Rituals are symbolic actions that are used to communicate and usually have a space associated with them.
Most recently I’ve been reading the book Critical Aspects of Gender in Conflict Resolution, Peacebuilding, and Social Movements edited by Anna Snyder and Stephanie Stobbe. She takes a look at many rituals within the global south. For instances Maasai women sing for peace. In conflict situations these women will walk into battles to separate warring people. In Judaism, the women kindles the Sabbath candles and says a prayer over them. Lao women perform the soukhaoun - a ritual that brings together members of the community. The soukhaoun is apparently akin to the Lebanese suhla during which a pardon ritual is performed in the home of an injured person to reconcile and re-establish friendship.
Of course men play a role in rituals and in community healing, but it seems that there is more reliance on women to do so at a community level. When I was working with orphans and women in Sri Lanka I witnessed many acts of healing led by Tamil women post-tsunami. These women also performed rituals, driven by the community, to make reparations to villagers divided during the civil conflict. Some of the rituals involved food - as so many rituals do - and some offered the community hope or closure to those left living through washing and burying bodies of the victims.
Much of the ritual that promote community healing that women are involved relies heavily shared experience and stories.
Here's something to think about:
This past week I have been researching and thinking a lot about ritual and the significance ritual plays in healing community. I am using the word ritual to refer to a ceremony, rite, or custom that has a performed set of actions in an ordered way. All cultures have traditional rituals that link community, limit violence and solve conflict. Some rituals are based in religion others are secular in nature; some have a long historic tradition while others are more spontaneous and improvised. While there may be formal or informal elements ritual is generally used to transform a community and are social in nature. Rituals are symbolic actions that are used to communicate and usually have a space associated with them.
Most recently I’ve been reading the book Critical Aspects of Gender in Conflict Resolution, Peacebuilding, and Social Movements edited by Anna Snyder and Stephanie Stobbe. She takes a look at many rituals within the global south. For instances Maasai women sing for peace. In conflict situations these women will walk into battles to separate warring people. In Judaism, the women kindles the Sabbath candles and says a prayer over them. Lao women perform the soukhaoun - a ritual that brings together members of the community. The soukhaoun is apparently akin to the Lebanese suhla during which a pardon ritual is performed in the home of an injured person to reconcile and re-establish friendship.
Of course men play a role in rituals and in community healing, but it seems that there is more reliance on women to do so at a community level. When I was working with orphans and women in Sri Lanka I witnessed many acts of healing led by Tamil women post-tsunami. These women also performed rituals, driven by the community, to make reparations to villagers divided during the civil conflict. Some of the rituals involved food - as so many rituals do - and some offered the community hope or closure to those left living through washing and burying bodies of the victims.
Much of the ritual that promote community healing that women are involved relies heavily shared experience and stories.
Here's something to think about:
- Ritual is a unique space set apart from everyday patterns of life
- Ritual is a symbolic way of communicating that puts emphasis on emotion, symbols and sense rather than on a more patriarchal verbal communication
- Ritual affects relationships
