LibGuides: SOR: Significance and purpose of rituals

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Ethnographic Study

How do religious traditions develop unique responses to common stages of life?

Your task is to produce an ethnographic study that investigates and compares religious rituals. Your focus is rites of passage. You will present the findings of your investigation as part of a formal written report.

You need to investigate the way Catholicism ritualises one of the rights of passage below and then research another comparable ritual of one other world religion

Catholic Ritual	Other World Religion
Initiation Marriage Death & burial	Indigenous Spirituality Judaism Islam Hinduism Buddhism

The Importance of Quality Research Questions

Developing Research Questions A PPT on how to develop good research questions.
Developing Research Questions PDF A PDF from The George Mason University outlining what to consider when developing research questions.

Religions

BBC Religions From: http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/ An overview of many world religions.
Religion Facts The goal of ReligionFacts is to provide objective and reliable information—“just the facts”—on the many answers that have been given to these questions. This very broad goal means that we cover a wide variety of religions, belief systems, and world views—the grounds for a group's inclusion are only that it offers an explanation of ultimate reality or the purpose of life and has (or had) a significant number of followers.
The beliefs of world religions Has credible links to a variety of other useful resources.
Harvard Divinity School - Religion Profiles Includes Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism & Humanism

Catholic Australia The Sacraments and Liturgy

BBC Religions - Christianity Great overview of Christianity. Hint: Look for the 'Rites and Rituals' link

Peer Recommendations

Catechism of the Catholic Church - e-book edition of the Recommended by: Harrison B (11H) The link below redirects to an e-book edition of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. It contains a large amount of religious principles and instructions that surround a number of Catholic rituals (such as marriage, death and baptism). Additionally, to support claims and statements made throughout, multiple Biblical verses are used.

Mourning an Aboriginal Death A page on death rituals in Indigenous communities.
Death and Dying in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Culture Sorry Business A NSW Health document which details the eevents and rituals surrounding the death of an Indigenous person, in order for non-indigenous people to be respectful and aware of these customs when caring for Indigenous people.
Birth Rituals A QLD Gov resource on birthing rituals in Indigenous culture.
Indigenous Birthing rituals and practices A research paper presented on Indigenous birthing rituals and practices.
Marriage in Traditional Aboriginal Societies An Australian Government site detailing the rituals of marriage in Indigenous societies.

BBC Religions - Judaism Great overview of Christianity. Hint: Look for the 'Rites' link
Jewish Rituals for Weddings An explanation of Jewish wedding rituals.
Jewish Practices In Judaism, rituals and religious observances are grounded in Jewish law (halakhah, lit. "the path one walks." An elaborate framework of divine mitzvot, or commandments, combined with rabbinic laws and traditions, this law is central to Judaism.

BBC Religions - Islam Great overview of Islam. Hint: Look for the 'Rites and Rituals' link

Death

Islamic Funeral Rites - Care for the dying, funeral prayers, burial, and mourning Muslims believe that death is a departure from the life of this world, but not the end of a person's existence.
BBC Bitesize - Islam: death rites When a Muslim is dying, they try to say the last words (pbuh - Peace be upon him) of the prophet of Allah, Muhammad: "Allah, help me through the hardship and agony of death." Other people will say: "To Allah we belong and to Allah we return."
Islam.org - Burial rites Al-Islam.org is created and maintained by the Ahlul Bayt Digital Islamic Library Project (DILP), a registered Non Profit Organisation that operates through the collaborative effort of volunteers based in many countries around the world. Our objectives are to digitize and present on the Internet quality Islamic resources, related to the history, law, practice, and society of the Islamic religion and the Muslim peoples, with particular emphasis on Twelver Shia Islamic school of thought.
Mission Islam - Funeral Rites and Regulations in Islam

BBC Religions - Hinduism Great overview of Hinduism. Hint: Look for the 'Rites and Rituals' link
Patheos Library - Hinduism Recommended by Freddie C-S (11H) - This gives a great overview of Hinduism. However is also applicable to all religions, in the religious library part of the site. Founded in 2008, Patheos.com is the premier online destination to engage in the global dialogue about religion and spirituality and to explore and experience the world's beliefs. Patheos is the website of choice for the millions of people looking for credible and balanced information about religion.
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Director of Content - Deborah Arca joined the Patheos team in the spring of 2009, after a decade of managing the Program in Christian Spirituality at the San Francisco Theological Seminary.

Death Rituals

Rites of Transition: Hindu Death Rituals An outline of rites performed for Hindus. Recommended by Freddie C-S (11H) - This second website is informative of the death ritual specifically. However it does have broader content and could be useful to all of the religions.

Adolescence

AWAKENING AND COMING OF AGE Recommended by: Harrison T (11H) The following is a link to a website known as "Kauai's Hindu Monastery". It refers to many of the teachings and lessons within the Vedas and the Upanishads. It contains passages obtained directly from sacred scripture (very similar to Biblical verses).

BBC Religions - Buddhism Buddhism is a tradition that focuses on personal spiritual development. Buddhists strive for a deep insight into the true nature of life and do not worship gods or deities.

Baptism

Initiation

Buddhists - Sacraments of Initiation Looks at the differents rituals of initiation for young boys and girls over the age of 8.
Rites of Passage This link explains initiations, marriages & funerals

Marriage

Buddhist Views on Marriage In Buddhism, marriage is regarded as entirely a personal, individual concern and not as a religious duty. This article further explains divorce, birth control and suicide.

Death and Dying

A Buddhist Guide to Death, Dying and Suffering The Five Powers to Develop for a Happy Successful Death
Death and Dying from the book "True Freedom", published by: Buddhadhamma Foundation; 87/126 Tesabahl Songkroh Rd, Lad Yao, Chatuchak, BANGKOK 10900, THAILAND. All Rights Reserved, for free distribution 2004
Dharmanet International - Death & Dying DharmaNet International's Internet clearinghouse for Buddhist study and practice resources has been online since 1991. Dharmanet hosts its own in-house databases and collections, as well as providing links to worldwide online Buddhist resources, large and small.
Hayagriva Buddhist Centre - The Death Process Four slightly different presentations of the death process are given, each by a distinguished Buddhist lama or monk.
DEATH AND DYING IN THE TIBETAN BUDDHIST TRADITION Compiled by: Ven. Pende Hawter Suggested by Alex F - 11D
Buddhist View on Death and Rebirth Written by Ven. Thich Nguyen Tang Suggested by Alex F (11D)
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As a Vietnamese Buddhist monk, working as a Buddhist chaplain at several of Melbourne's hospitals and as well as Melbourne assessment prison, I have witnessed many personal tragedies faced by the living and of course the very process of dying and that of death and many of these poor people faced their death with fear, with misery and pain before departing this world. With the images of all these in my mind, on this occasion, I wish to share my view from the perspective of a Buddhist and we hope that people would feel far more relaxed in facing this inevitable end since it is really not the end of life, according to our belief.

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SOR: Significance and purpose of rituals

World Religions