Social Ontology and the Rituals of Birth

Anna Hennessey

doi:10.3390/proceedings47010066

Abstract

This paper investigates how new social ontologies emerge when individuals and social groups from around the world utilize technology to promote the use of religious, secular, and re-sacralized imagery in preparation for birth as a rite of passage. In particular, the paper looks at how these participants share religious and nonreligious imagery related to birth through websites, social media, multimedia exhibitions, and other formats, examining how the imagery is used to construct meaning around the topics of birth and ritual. This social ontology of birth shows how humans utilize technology to create new meaning related to the birthing body.

Highlights

Investigating how individuals and social groups from different locations around the globe are actively using technology to share and transmit religious, secular, and re-sacralized imagery to each other in relation to birth as a contemporary rite of passage, this paper utilizes a philosophical theory of social ontology to describe three stages of ontological transformation that the imagery undergoes during the rite, as well as a separate fourth ontological category that encompasses images of birth in contemporary art
A branch of metaphysics, refers to the philosophical study of “being.” This paper is primarily concerned with the social ontology of the imagery, especially imagery in the forms of artwork and other material objects, that is used within a trans-religious and transnational community of people who are connected through technology and are interested in preparing for birth as a rite of passage [1,2,3,4,5]
Social ontology in this case pertains to how people collectively understand this imagery as having a particular meaning, especially in relation to meanings of religiousness, sacredness, and secularity

Summary

Introduction

Investigating how individuals and social groups from different locations around the globe are actively using technology to share and transmit religious, secular, and re-sacralized imagery to each other in relation to birth as a contemporary rite of passage, this paper utilizes a philosophical theory of social ontology to describe three stages of ontological transformation that the imagery undergoes during the rite, as well as a separate fourth ontological category that encompasses images of birth in contemporary art

Social Ontology and the Transformation of Meaning through Technology

Community Studied and Methods Used to Cull Data