Topic: Rituals
Source: My pre-game ritual that I perform before I every soccer game I play in.
Relation: In chapter 33 in the book Conformity and Conflict, Horace Miner describes the body rituals among the Nacirema people. Some of the rituals include the mouth-rite and seeking out the holy-mouth-man, and the latipso ceremonies. The people think the mouth-rite rituals will free their mouths from evil demons and they use it as sort of an exorcism.
Description: Before every soccer game that I play whether it is for Humboldt State University or my academy team back home in Washington, I perform the exact same ritual. The ritual starts right when I wake up. The first thing I do is go and get breakfast. I always eat eggs, orange juice, and peanut butter and jelly sandwich. After eating my food I go and take a shower. In the shower I close my eyes and vision myself making great plays happen and having success. After the shower I put on my favorite athletic shorts and a dri fit shirt. I listen to music on my way to the field and it must be played through headphones. When I get to the field I do not step on the field until I am fully changed. I put my right sock on first every time and the same goes with my right shoe as well. I tape my right wrist with athletic tape and I put on my warmup shirt. I do not put on my jersey and shinguards until right before the game starts.
Commentary/Analysis: I perform the same ritual every day before my games because I believe in superstition. I like doing the exact same thing every time because in my own mind it gives me positive vibes and I am really successful. My ritual may be different then other people but I choose to use mine because it works best for me. If I do no get my full ritual in before my game I can feel that something is not right. Something is a little off and it usually bugs me and I do not perform as well. The Nacirema believed that their rituals would relieve the person of evil demons. I believe that my rituals give me good luck and positive energy. The differences between my rituals and the rituals of the Nacirema people differ greatly but they are similar in one way. The rituals work perfect for ourselves and we believe in them.
I liked your connection with your soccer ritual and that of the Nacirema. It's always really interesting to hear the routines of other people. It seems that you've definitely found a way to do things that works best for you, and you see a correlation between having that ritual and excelling in your sport! I'm the same way about my Tae Kwon Do classes. I have to get there fifteen minutes early to change into my uniform and stretch, and after stretching I go over to the punching bags and warm up a bit... and when I can't get there early enough to do all of this, I feel tense and on edge during class which reflects in our sparring.
ReplyDeleteI really liked your analysis of your ritual you preform before you play soccer. I wonder how many of your teammates have rituals that they preform because of superstition. Do you have any other rituals like warm ups that you would consider brings you guys closer together as a team before you play? I played soccer on the varsity team at my high school and when we would drive to away games we had the ritual of playing certain songs to pump us up together as a team, our goalie would even have speakers playing as we took practice shots. Great blog response!!
ReplyDeleteThe rituals you perform before your soccer games are a perfect example for this blog post! I think rituals involving sports are the most common in our culture and athletes are usually always superstitious people. Whatever rituals they have, eating a certain breakfast or wearing the same socks, they always like to attribute winnings to those elements. I think Americans in general don't see themselves as very ritualistic people, but we do have a lot of superstitions built into our culture!
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