Ritual and cooperation in a bodily procedure

Abstract

Research directed toward family social issues most often concentrates on the family relationship, the institutional setting (mise en scène) and mind patterns. It mainly depends on verbal expression or the written text to convey its message. There exists yet another way to study family social relationship, consisting of a keen and isolated observation of simple everyday activities. For it is in fact these everyday activities that make up the social fabric of family life. Indeed the image seems to be one of the most effective ways to learn about this elementary sociology. Small fleeting acts reveal the existence of a sort of non‐ceremonial, discreet, occasional ritual, which often escapes the control of the actors themselves involved in the rite and which makes them very often unpredictable. This seems to be the case of game‐playing activities to which parents turn when they devote themselves to caring for the hygiene of their young children. The analysis of films lets us discover another form of relationship which deals with the cooperation between the father and mother as regards a baby's bath.