this post was submitted on 06 Dec 2025
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archeology
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I once had an archeologist friend explain, completely unironically, how weekly meal-prep is a modern harvest ritual.
I think the problem is that the meme is presented as making fun of archeologists for calling everything they don't understand "ritual", when it really should be about how the definition of "ritual" has crept so far out of scope as to include everything they do understand, too.
The root of the word ritual is "ritualis", relating to a religious ceremony or rite.
The modern definition might be "things done the same way every time" or "things done in a prescribed order". But, it doesn't make sense to me that you include activities where there's zero religious or spiritual component. I can forgive someone saying that drinking coffee is part of their morning ritual. Coffee is a strong stimulant, it clears the mind. You're using that as part of your ritual preparation for the day ahead.
But, is the drive to work also a ritual if you take the same route every time? Is the way you tie your shoes a ritual just because you do it the same way every time? Or is it just a habit? Maybe it's the only way you know how to tie your shoes and you do it the same way every time because that's the only way that works.
I don't think eating hot dogs at a baseball game is a ritual because your choices are constrained. It's not like you can ask for a bowl of spaghetti instead. For some people it might be a ritual. Maybe for them going to a baseball game feels like a religious experience where they spend time with a community, engage in familiar chants, etc. Maybe they're salivating on the way to the ball park, imagining that hot dog that's a big part of the experience for them. For other people, it might just be that they get hungry after sitting somewhere for a couple of hours, and hot dogs are one of the few choices available to them at a baseball park.
Words change in meaning, but it seems to me that if "ritual" just means doing things in a certain order, you're losing essential meaning. If there's no deeper feeling there, just call it a habit or a routine. Otherwise you end up with a dumb situation where you're claiming that workers in a slaughterhouse are performing ritual sacrifices of all these animals, just because they're killing them in the most efficient way over and over.
Sure, and it's useful to be able to draw a distinction when they are actually following a religious ritual before killing the animal vs. doing it in the most efficient way without considering any religious issues. If you describe both as "a ritual" you lose that distinction.
you gotta hit up the giants' stadium in san francisco. the food is half the reason to go
Yeah, every time this perennial question arises I just get them to start enumeration thier own activities that CERTAINLY aren't ritualistic, and then I argue that they're also ritualistic.
This very conversation? It is itself a ritual. I am summoned by the argument. I ask the ritualistic question. We engage in the ritual back-and-forth of "no it isnt" "actually yes it is". Everyone leaves frustrated and dumber for having participated. Like clockwork.