Time-consuming and costly religious rituals pose a puzzle for economists committed to rational choice theories of human behavior. We propose that religious rituals promote in-group trust and cooperation that help to overcome collective-action problems. To test this hypothesis we design field experiments to measure the in-group cooperative behavior of members of religious and secular Israeli kib...

Traditionally, ritual has been studied from broad sociocultural perspectives, with little consideration of the psychological processes at play. Recently, however, psychologists have begun turning their attention to the study of ritual, uncovering the causal mechanisms driving this universal aspect of human behavior. With growing interest in the psychology of ritual, this article provides an org...

The objectives of this historical-social study are: to describe the circumstances that determined the participation of North American nurses in the formation of the Brazilian nurse; and analyse the process of implementing institutional rituals as a strategy of symbolic fight, to confer visibility to the nurse profession and discuss the symbolic effects of institutional rituals for the consecrat...

The user’s experience of his or her interaction with a product is becoming an increasingly important aspect of product design. In the ‘experience economy’, experiential factors have become major discriminants affecting the success of new products. Industry is well aware of this, and likewise design schools are adjusting their curricula to better train their students to take into account factors...

The development of exact, natural and medical sciences that began in the Enlightenment affected many areas everyday life, including attitudes to death funeral rituals. This interest issues related eschata was reflected changing practice which significantly shaped legal regulations. structure metropolitan Jewish necropolises established since late 18th century transformation cemetery architectur...

Death and Social Order in Tokugawa Japan is a very important book providing a detailed explanation of a vital part of early modern Japanese Buddhism that goes a long way to putting in perspective how the religious tradition functions in the contemporary world. To put in context the contributions of the book, it can be noted that visitors to Japan who are curious about the role of Buddhism in re...

This review evaluates the medical literature for religious rituals or ceremonies that have been reported to cause infection. These include an ultra-orthodox Jewish circumcision practice known as metzitzah b'peh, the Christian common communion chalice, Islamic ritual ablution, and the Hindu 'side-roll'. Infections associated with participation in the Islamic Hajj have been extensively reviewed a...

This paper examines the relationship between architecture and civil participation by specifically looking at the formal attributes of Rabin Square in Tel Aviv, its development as a public urban space, its nationally symbolic meaning, and its civic role. A major conclusion of this study is that public assembly and the physical space in which it occurs are indivisible, revealing architecture’s un...

Many cultures around the world observe specific postpartum rituals to avoid ill health in later years. This qualitative systematic review examined the literature describing traditional postpartum practices from 51 studies in over 20 different countries. Commonalities were identified in practices across cultures. Specifically, the themes included organized support for the mother, periods of rest...