Ritual and symbols are understood as symbolic physical actions that require interpretation. The messages that rituals usually convey do not directly discuss the people or events at hand. Instead, they communicate indirectly through symbols, myths, metaphors, and emotions. For example, the handshake does not communicate a direct message, but rather represents or symbolize friendship. Symbolic acts that are repeated within a tradition and culture come to be thought of as rituals. These rituals often take place in unique spaces that are set apart from everyday life and aim to transform people's worldviews and relationships. Their profound impact consists in their ability to penetrate the seemingly impenetrable, overwhelm the defensive, and convey complex messages without saying a word.
Published in Chapter:
Cultural Rituals and Symbol as a Paradigm for Conflict Intervention and Peacebuilding in Africa: Experience From Nigeria
Copyright: © 2020
|Pages: 26
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-7998-2574-6.ch006
Abstract
The complex relationship between art, culture, conflict, and peacebuilding in contemporary time has opened a gap in knowledge too difficult to grasp. This is because culture is implicated in nearly every conflict in the world. This is corollary to the fact that the biggest challenge confronting societies today is not about how conflicts occur, but how conflicts can be completely resolved whenever they occur. Nonetheless, despite the prevalence of such conflicts and the fact that culture has been identified as a driver and a major transformer, scholarly investigation into the intentional use of arts and culture especially within the realms of rituals and symbol for conflict resolution and peace-building has regrettably been modest, disproportionate, and largely unexplored. This study, therefore, is an attempt to respond to this thesis that the deployment of rituals and symbol as an instrument to symbolically communicate commitment toward peace is a viable alternative for peacebuilding.