Word: ritualization
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1970-1979
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...artificial snow on just 2½ of its 50 runs. And in Colorado, where losses have mounted to $30 million, Senator Floyd Haskell has asked President Ford to declare a natural-disaster area. While awaiting official action, Vail Developer Peter Seibert hired local Ute Indians to perform a ritual snow dance. The results were negligible. Says Seibert: "We're getting a little snow, but it's just enough to cover up the cigarette butts...
...unsolved sexual problems. Without a suitable script-in a situation such as a gynecological exam or a staid nudist camp&$151;there may be touching or nudity but no arousal. With a script, sexual conduct, almost always involving hostility, becomes a way of turning frustration and defeat into ritual triumph...
While accepting preassigned roles, the characters must remain a bit unpredictable because some risk and mystery are essential to sexual excitement and the ritual victory that goes along with it. Says Stoller: "If unvaryingly predictable, [the characters] bore one; on the other side, if they do not stick close enough to their assigned role, anxiety results and they are traded in." He believes that the loss of risk and mystery explains why so many lovers are rapidly abandoned and why many married people describe their mates as no longer sexually exciting. The hostility of sex, he says, also explains...
...only reason I could figure out why he used his thumbnail," said Margulis, "was that it did away with handling a screwdriver, which might have germs on it. Handling inanimate objects had developed into a complicated ritual. When you were going to bring him a spoon, for example, the spoon handle had to be wrapped in Kleenex and Scotch-taped. Then you would take another piece of Kleenex to hold the Kleenex wrapping, so the wrapping wouldn't get contaminated. He would lift the wrapped spoon off the piece of Kleenex you were holding it with...
...Alan Lapiner. 460 pages. Abrams. $50. The pottery, statuary, textiles and metalwork of the ancient Americas are no longer considered mere artifacts of forgotten peoples but art forms that reflect the sophistication of complex civilization. The late Alan Lapiner chose to illustrate his book with outstanding examples of ritual tomb furnishings and gold and silver mummy ornaments from Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Argentina, Chile, Bolivia and Brazil. The result is a trove for collectors and browsers alike...