The Crutch of Ritual: Social Control in the Modern American Capital Punishment System Page: 7
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myths justify social activities, but he is explicit in stating that ritual is more important because it
is what functionally affects the emotions the populace holds toward those activities (Radcliffe-
Brown, 1952). Ultimately, he believes that myth and ritual serve similar functions, but ritual is
the crucially affective piece of the puzzle (Segal, 1980).
Durkheim holds an even stronger view. As explained by Segal (1980), "for [Durkheim] the
heart of religion is not the belief in god but the experience of god, and that experience occurs
whenever the members of society amass to perform a ritual" (p. 177). Myth, which corresponds
to 'belief' as ritual corresponds to 'experience', is not altogether irrelevant for Durkheim, as he
views it similarly to Robertson Smith. However, Durkheim's heavy emphasis on and robust
treatment of the centrality and power of ritual places him firmly in the ritual-centric camp (Segal,
1980).
Durkheim discusses the meaning and function of ritual at length in his Elementary Forms
of the Religious Life. In this work we find a conceptualization of ritual as social control, a model
referred to as the 'social solidarity thesis'. The social solidarity thesis forms a part of Durkheim's
larger body of work within the structural functionalist framework, in which he explores the means
by which some societies remain stable enough to persist over time while others fall apart. For
Durkheim (1915), the key to a group's survival is maintaining solidarity, either through
worldviews and values held in common or through functional interdependence. Applying this
idea to ritual, the social solidarity thesis maintains that ritual is a powerful force utilized by group
leaders to promote societal consensus on important beliefs and representations of reality, a
consensus which then unites the group and allows it to survive (Bell, 1992).7
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Pellegrino, Alexandra Clarke. The Crutch of Ritual: Social Control in the Modern American Capital Punishment System, thesis, August 2019; Denton, Texas. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc1538795/m1/11/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; .