The Rituals of Dinner- Creative Strategy Development

AUD SENIOR STUDENTS ART EXHIBITION, 2008
THE RITUALS OF DINNER
CREATIVE STRATEGY DEVELOPMENT AND EXECUTION

Why Rituals: Rituals are often defined as an “established form for a ceremony”, or “an act or series of acts regularly repeated in a set precise manner, specifically; the order prescribed for a religious ceremony” (Merriam-Webster). However, rituals, like the human beings who developed and practiced them, are wide and varied, and cannot be easily described in a single statement. According to Richard Schechner, University Professor/Professor of Performance Studies at the Tisch School of the Arts, New York University, “Ritual has been so variously defined—as concept, praxis, process, ideology, yearning, religious experience, function—that it means very little because it can mean too much” (Werts, An Explanation of Arts and Rituals). Regardless of their indefinable nature, rituals form a basic part of a persons’ life. People participate in rituals, they bear witness to rituals performed by others, and they notice them in the actions of animals and other species around them. “In anthropological studies of rituals, metaphorical relationship between rituals and other established discussions, such as religion, have been extremely important to understanding complicated practices that exists everywhere and ranges widely from one place to the next.” These rituals serve as communication devices that encode and relay meanings about a society’s core beliefs (Werts, An Explanation of Arts and Rituals). Therefore, the appeal of any ritual lies in its “universal communication”. Rituals are often performed as physical actions that hold meaning to the individuals performing them. A ritual is performed with the purpose of aiding an individual achieve what they require to move on to the next step in their daily lives.

Rituals come in various types and form, each with its own history, functions and peculiarities. For example:

·      Certain rituals serve as anchors to experience. These rituals provide guideposts in a day’s activities, and as such becomes second nature to individuals executing these rituals. They serve to liberate rather than restrain individuals as these rituals allow them to perform the activities without too much of conscious thinking, thereby; allowing thought for other non-ritualistic activities.

·      Certain rituals are a way of commemorating experiences. These experiences can range from an individuals birthday to community rituals such as a nation’s Independence Day. These rituals function to celebrate and remember the lessons of past experiences, and help deepen the connection and sense of belonging that arises with the cause.

·      Certain rituals are a way of acknowledging the completion of one cycle and the beginning of another new cycle for example, marriage, house warming ceremonies, or university graduations. These moments not only served as climax to the past, but also acted as a threshold to the future. These “developmental transitions provide opportunities, as well as challenges, to negotiate routines and create meaningful rituals that can enrich life” (Fiese, 2006, p.62). (Sriner, Joyce, The Importance of Rituals)

 

Such passage rituals have been studied and documented in detail, but the renowned Belgian anthropologist Arnold van Gennep in his major work “Les Rites de Passage” conducted the most prominent of these studies during the early 20th century. “Rite of Passage” was termed by Gennep to describe the three stages to passage rituals that all cultures make use rituals to ease an individuals during emotionally charged transition from one phase of life to another:
(1) preliminary or separation (separation from society)
(2) liminaire or transition
(3) post-liminaire or incorporation (return to society in a new status)
Two other anthropologists, Victor Turner and Maurice Bloch, have developed van Gennep's scheme. Turner explored liminality as a period in which human beings found great strength in the mutual support of others in the same situation. An example of such passage ritual would be students’ academic lives in the university from the moment of matriculation to the moment of graduation.

Academic life of a university student is highly ritualized and the university years are marked by numerous ritual events.
Matriculation is the formal process or ritual that validate a student’s eligibility in entering a new phase of life in the university. The students have separated (preliminary) from their previous social status, and have met all the prerequisites needed to start their new life. The rituals undertaken by students during the transition (liminaire) period plays a major role in shaping their identities, and preparing them to enter a new stage in life with a new social status. The transitional period if distinguished by the trial and tribulations of academic life. Even though the attitude and response to emotionally charged events such as the pains for studying for an exam, or the distress of not meeting a deadline, may vary from individual to individual; they still form a part of the ritualistic process. As the students enter their final year at university everything comes to a head, and rituals are followed that facilitates the incorporation of a new status (post-liminaire). The senior students themselves and those around them dramatize facing new responsibilities, opportunities and danger. The participants of the rituals (senior students) readjust their values to these changes, and following these ritualistic passages establishes solidarity and sacredness of common values. All of this would culminate at the graduation ceremony, which marks the end of the relationship of the students to the university as undergraduates and their re-entry into society. The graduation ceremony is not a rite of passage in and of itself, but is part of a broader rite of passage, which is the university experience.
It is, therefore; evident that rituals are important and necessary factor that serves to alleviate the human condition, and to help survive in a society.

Why Rituals of Dinner: According to Robert N. Bellah author of Handbook of the Sociology of Religion, rituals are very much part of the “periodicity of life”.  The periodicity nature of rituals is described in detail in “The Rituals of Dinner”. Human beings are distinguished from the rest of the primates as the only members who regularly share food. Therefore, it comes as no surprise that eating together may well be one of the species oldest rituals. Margaret Visser’s book “The Rituals of Dinner” centers around the premises that eating together is just the sort of occasion that makes rituals necessary. According to her, table manners are “social agreements” that were developed to subdue humans’ aggressive nature. Food is a primal necessity, and as such; the act of eating is often aggressive by nature. The utensils required for the act could quickly become weapons. Therefore, rituals or dinner etiquettes were established as a system of taboos designed to leave violence out of the equation. Eating may be performed by the individual as his or her own interest, however communal dinning causes the individual to let go of personal interest; and focus mainly on group interest. In this way Visser’s discourse demonstrates the necessity of rituals, and their importance in aiding people to come together and co-exist peacefully without falling prey to their primal violent natures (Bellah N, Sociology of Religion).

If rituals were used to execute the process of eating, one of our most primal needs, in a way that ensured our survival, then it comes as no surprise that rituals would play a very significant role in various other aspects in a person’s life, for example- Fine Arts academia. “The significance of ritualistic elements had been recognized and considered on a much broader scale in art and art practices from all over the world.” (Werts, An Exploration of Art and Ritual). Art is viewed as a creative journey or process, rather than as an end product. The process of the formation of art is itself viewed as a rite, ritual, and performance.

The ritualistic aspects of modern and contemporary Western art have often been discussed in terms of “space” rather than in terms of the “objet d’art”. For example, the process of moving through the space created by arranging artwork in a gallery—has become a highly ritualized act. In a museum or art gallery, viewers follow a prescribed set of guidelines for proper behavior (Werts, An Exploration of Art and Ritual), and in the end, the experience of walking amongst artworks elicits various emotion within the viewer.

The ritual passages transfigures into “The Rituals of Dinner”- AUD Senior Student Art Exhibition, 2008: In essence, the title of the exhibition -The Rituals of Dinner- was employed to elicit the ritualistic aspect of the artists’ creative process which is highly essential in not only creating their work, but also to their development. Dinner not only implies the act of eating food (a primitive need) but the act of coming together to share this necessity with others in a civilized manner. Similarly, the creation of art not only serves as the artists’ basic need but also provides a platform where artists can come together to share their creation with others. 

Campaign Development Team

Our team consists of one Campaign Manager, Yasmeen Abuamer, two Creative Advertisers, Peter Karam and Kavitha Kanakar, and two Graphic designers, Talayeh Jenab and Hind Iskander.

By taking on such a campaign we hope to deliver and achieve all goals to bring in the best opportunity and result for our given clients.

Although at the moment there is not much to be shown, we are in the process of creating the campaign plans-book.