Maintenance, Perpetuation, and Ideology

Ritual can help maintain the structure of a culture. We can see this in the four rituals that are practiced by the Femme-cats. In the first ritual for the institution of marriage, the ritual is performed in hopes of creating a lasting bond between the couple, but also to grant fertility amongst the couple. This performance helps maintain the structure of marriage and family. Without this continuing practice there would be a loss of the  family structure. In the ritual for the institution of economy, or the catnip ritual, the main goal is to induce growth to the catnip. In order to do this one must consult with Catalonia. This maintains the important aspect of Catalonia. It exemplifies that she is a part of every structure in the community. The ritual also aims to maintain the culture's economy by accumulating more resources, or catnip. By maintaining the resources the community can continue to prosper and provide to it's societal members. In the ritual for the government, we see the main goal is to initiate a member to become a board member. The ritual does maintain the structure of government and its emphasis on equality. By all the board members working together to untangle their body puzzle they exemplify the interconnected structure of their government. This helps ensure that they will remain interconnected or dependent on each other, and a sense of unity and equality. In the ritual of religion the main goal is to gain a closer bond to Catalonia. Creating this bond is very important in this culture because it maintains the continued help of Catalonia in all aspects of life. With this continued help, only then is our culture able to maintain our government, our resources, our family, and many other aspects or structures of our society. Ritual can also help in the perpetuation of a community. Ritual allows for cultural continuity through traditions and celebrations. In our society the ritual ensures the continuity of many different aspects of our culture. It helps to continue the production of our resources in our catnip ritual. It can also help in continuing a family bond that can then become fertile and continue the cycle of the community  through it's children. We see that it can help in continuing the bond between us and Catalonia, which then helps us to continue our life and cultural structures. We also see that it helps continue the interconnected bond between board members. It helps to continue their reliability amongst each other. This continuity of interconnectedness helps continue the basic value of equality in our community. This brings me to my next point on how a ritual can reflect a culture's norms and values. It is said that ritual is the acting out of a belief or value. All four rituals practiced by the Femme-cats exemplify just that. In the ritual of marriage we see the value of equality played out within the ritual. The couple walk down the aisle together creating equality between the couple. In our culture the bride is not given away from the father to the groom because that would put the groom at a superior stance to the bride. By having them walk together they are on the same playing field as to say. In the catnip ritual we see the values and norm of trusting Catalonia to give life. The participant must ask Catalonia to give life to the catnip, this shows the cultures dependence upon Catalonia and their belief of her ability to give life.  In the ritual of Catalonia we see the strong value of maintaining a connection to Catalonia. It exemplifies their belief of how Catalonia is important in every aspect of their life and community. It shows the norm of depending upon Catalonia for the societies' growth and continuity. I would say; however, that the values and norms of the society are most exemplified by the ritual for the government. It is very clear in this ritual that it is to reinforce the values and norms of the society. It is a true ritual of intensification. The ritual where the board member to be and the other board members join together to make a human body puzzle and then must work together to undo the puzzle really exemplifies the value of equality. In fact the puzzle can only be solved if they work together and realize that they are all connected. This reinforces the value and also sets the example for the community on the importance of maintaining equality in their community.