Rituals: The gears of society (Earthlings 101, Episode 11)
Channel: Zogg from Betelgeuse
Date: 2013-04-29

Eleventh episode of Earthlings 101, the crash course for alien visitors.

My T-shirt shop: http://betelgeuse.spreadshirt.com/

What is a ritual?
Why are rituals part of everyday's life?
What have sports events, funerals and political gatherings in common?
What is the purpose of rituals?
Why would society as we know it be impossible without rituals?
What are symbols?
And why do earthlings put symbols onto their t-shirt?
 

References:
Randall Collins, "Interaction Ritual Chains"

Disclaimer
Please note that most things in these videos are either conclusions based on personal observation of earthlings, or ideas found in earthling literature. Although they seem pretty obvious to me, most of them are still to be scientifically proven. In terms of earthling science, those are hypotheses, not theories or facts.

Links
- Concept, artwork and text by Martin Kuppe
- Title music by OcularNebula (http://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/407324)
- Tango music by  Sadlersongs (http://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/222489)
- Speech synthesis by Ivona (http://www.ivona.com/en/)

Full episode text:
 (coming soon)