Human beings always have some problems in life. In urban industrial society these problems are solved by knowledgeable people.
For instance, if there is illness, the physician is approached; if the problem is related to house construction, the architect is consulted; if there is problem with studies, the respective subject teacher is consulted; and so on and so forth.
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What does the primitive man do? If he has problems in hunting, domestication of animals or agriculture, he has experienced men around him.
But, if there is an illness or some unknown disease, he has to approach people who are specialists and who have access to supernatural powers. When problems of birth or death are not solved local traditional experts are consulted. True, these experts are not always successful in giving prescriptions but there is some articulation towards the solution of the problem.
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Thus, there is a definite place for rituals in primitive society. In fact, there is no escape from the performance of rituals. Eriksen underlines the importance of rituals in primitive society in the following words:
This is, in other words, a very complex field, and it is important because the ritual can be seen as a synthesis of several important levels of social reality; the symbolic and the social, the individual and the collective; and it usually brings out, and tries to resolve at a symbolic level contradictions in society.
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Ritual has been theoretically discussed by Talcott Parsons at great length. Emile Durkheim and Max Weber have also discussed rituals elaborately. They have made their abstract generalization on the basis of empirical facts. Parsons does not differentiate between ritual and rite both terms are synonymous for him. He defines ritual or rite as below:
Religious beliefs, then, are beliefs concerning sacred things-their origin, behaviour and significance for man. Rites are actions performed in relation to sacred things.
As a matter of fact, Parsons has drawn his analysis of rituals from Durkheim. He says:
Religion is an integrated system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things.
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For Durkheim and in this respect for Parsons also, ritual is a part of religion. It is an ingredient of religion. Therefore, rituals are termed as practices or religious actions. Parsons further adds that rituals are normally irrational.
These are actions which appear from the subjective point of view in terms of the relation of means to an end. To the performer these are quite strictly ways of doing things. In other words, the objectives of religion should be fulfilled by means which are recognized by society. Ill-gotten money does not help achieve the religious goals.
Eriksen, on the other hand, stresses the notion of beliefs in the performance of rituals. He writes:
Ritual has been defined as the social aspect of religion. If we may define religion as systems of notion about the supernatural and the sacred, about life after death and so on, then rituals are the social processes which give a concrete expression to these notions.
Very generally speaking, we may suggest that rituals are rule-bound public events which in some way or other thematize the relationship between the earthly and spiritual realms.