11-30-2010

"ritualization is a matter of various culturally specific strategies for setting some activities off from others, for creating and privileging a qualitative distinction between the 'sacred' and the 'profane,' and for ascribing such distinctions to realities thought to transcend the powers of human actors."

Nye, Malory. Religion: The Basics. New York: Routledge. 2008.

Nye quotes Catherine bell, who argues that the main function of ritual is to set apart the mundane profane from the exceptional sacred, which truly recalls the Eliadic notions of sacred and profane, but also Durkheims methods of creating ritual. She definitely echoes Eliade's belief that the "sacred" cannot be the day-to-day, and thus a sacred ritual would also transcend this.