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Rituals may express a part of a larger social doctrine, or simply of a personal one. In religion, a ritual can comprise the prescribed outward forms of performing worship, the cultus or cult of a particular observation within a religion or religious denomination.
Although ritual is often used in context with worship performed in a church, the actual relationship between any religion's doctrine and its ritual(s) can vary considerably from religion to religion. Ritual often has a close connection with reverence, thus a ritual in many cases expresses reverence for a deity.
Religious rituals have also included human sacrifice and other forms of ritual murder.
Outside worship and reverence, rituals can have a more basic sociological function in expressing, inculcating and reinforcing the shared values and beliefs of a society. Rituals range from the grand and ceremonial (such as royal coronations) to the trite and everyday (such as hand-shakingFor the usage in telecommunications, see handshaking . A handshake is a short ritual, where both right or left hands briefly grasp each other, usually done when two people meet or depart, or complete an agreement. Its purpose is to demonstrate good will, when people meet).
Among other rituals that are not religious in nature are graduation ceremonies, presidential inauguration ceremonies, and oaths of allegianceAn oath of allegiance is an oath whereby a subject or citizen acknowledges his duty of allegiance and swears loyalty to his Sovereign or country. In many modern oaths of allegiance, allegiance is sworn to the Constitution. In particular, in the USA, judge.
Rituals have formed a part of human cultureThe word culture comes from the Latin root colere (to inhabit, to cultivate, or to honor). In general it refers to human activity; different definitions of culture reflect different theories for understanding, or criteria for valuing, human activity. for tens of thousands of years. The earliest known evidence of burialBurial also called interment and (when applied to human burial) inhumation is the act of placing a person or object into the ground. Usually, this is accomplished by digging a pit or trench, placing the person or object in it, and refilling it with the so rituals dates from around 20,000 years ago. (Older skeletons show no signs of deliberate 'burial', and as such lack ritual.)
In psychology, the term ritual sometimes refers to a specific action or series of actions that a person performs in a given context which otherwise has no apparent reason or purpose. The term may refer especially to compulsive behaviors of people afflicted with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD).