Rituals are formalized behaviour patterns, methods of communication, verbal and nonverbal, necessary for the establishment of relations among members of a group or between groups; for the relations among organisms of any kind are governed to a large extent by the forms of communication, both expected and required. Apart from the many symbols of unity and of function in modern social organisms, ceremonies and ritualistic practices are common (Arnold 1937). There are
rites of passage
, as initiation of apprentices into occupational groups,
rites of intensification
, as conventions, regular meetings and conferences, and
rites of sanctification
, as ‘proper channels’, formalized reporting systems and the like, not just utilitarian but reinforcing common purpose and solidarity. Such rituals have an overtly rational basis in that they are apprehended as, or believed to be necessary or ancillary to the purposes of groups, as in Sir Julian Huxley’s (
a
), (
b
) and (
c
) (seep. 267). However, there are other rituals more akin to those seen in the higher vertebrates in not being rational, the word ‘rational’ implying a process of brain functioning, thought or mind, limited to man. The higher vertebrates show awareness (perception) and consciousness (perception of causality) but not, as distinct from man, mind (conception) which is a process stemming from the development of verbal communication. These nonrational rituals are ‘emotive’, the result of ritualization of behaviour at a ‘subconscious’ level, just as routine, or habit can be a Pavlovian reflex.