Cultural Codes and Rituals

Chapter 3 introduced the concept of secondary elaboration and ritualization. Status groups tend to elaborate and ritualize their norms in order to make it more difficult for outsiders to conform. This process is especially characteristic of upper status groups that wish to exclude those of lower status, but excluded groups also elaborate and ritualize to create counter norms and values. Elaboration is a means not only of excluding outsiders, but also of social control for group members. If ritualistic conformity to a multitude of petty rules is obtained, more crucial rules and orders are likely to be followed. Perhaps even more importantly, such obedience and the very existence of elaborate sets of cultural categories increase the taken-forgrantedness of the system as a whole. That is, they contribute to the institutionalization of the core norms of the group.

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