Humans speak of rituals in the context of religion, as religious rituals, but their lives are fairly riddled with rituals that occur daily, weekly, or in any case frequently. Start with the morning routine. Someone used to this ritual finds a morning cup of coffee without the news lacking, feels uncomfortable, and may even dress and leave the house in order to buy a paper so the ritual will be complete. Males are expected to open doors for females, a rule established due to the expectation that the woman may be with child, or have an infant in her arms, but this routine is frequently ritualized so that a burdened male will put down his parcels to open the door for a free handed and hale female. Rituals may start as routines, but become rituals when they become absolute rules.
Religious rituals develop to assist the religious elite in maintaining control over their flocks.
There can be no encroachment of the rules, as first a ritual must be broken. To change the ritualized behavior would be stepping outside of the control of the overlords, who would rather lose a ship than lose control.