In this essay I analyze the performative aspects relating to Marina Abramović's The Artist Is Present, which took place in spring 2010 at MoMA in New York, from the context of the artist and work, institution and documentation. In this performance work, for the duration of the exhibition, Abramović sits completely still opposite another chair where anyone from the audience may sit. The art arises through this participation. The audience are not only viewers, but also the observed, thus becoming part of the work and the negotiation of this exchange of living gazes. The performative pervades this work on multiple levels. The Artist Is Present reached a surprisingly large public, of over 500,000 visitors and continues to circulate in the form of blogs, documentary film and photography long after the exhibition duration. In order to conduct a performative analysis of The Artist Is Present I apply the theories of Peggy Phelan, regarding the relationships between the political and representative visibility in contemporary culture. Phelan's explanation of the unmarked field reveals the importance of the 'other' to see oneself. This is especially relevant in Abramović's performance which challenges and revolves around self reflection in the other. Phelan's theories are also pertinent in analyzing what Abramović as the performer and her work create for re-negotiations around positions and the gaze. The assertions of Carol Duncan in considering the Art Museum as a place of ritual are applied to the ritualistic context of The Artist Is Present, which may well build up a form of liminality. Duncan's claims of the museum as ritual in combination with Phelan's theories provide interesting grounds to further investigate the effect and eventual mythology of the performance work and artist. How do these contexts of institution, documentation, artist and art, which I propose contribute to a kind of myth creation, operate in a ritualized performance art work? This essay analyses these contexts together in order to find a connection between the performative aspects and the effect that they have on the viewer and receiver, which have contributed to the public success of this exhibition. Despite that we now live in an era of reproduction, perhaps the wishes of our era still revolve around a cult value? That even in this post industrial age of reproduction, new needs are recreated for mythology and cult? Or can it be that the reverse is true, that the rites and symbols speak to us before the mythology has fully arisen?

The aim of this Master thesis was to examine news journalism covering expressions of mourning related to violent or unexpected deaths. What rituals for mourning are brought out in media and do media present guidance to how mourners should behave?   The questions examined were: What characterised news events that leaded to texts on expressions of mourning? How was grief framed? Which narrative patterns were there in the texts? How was the deceased represented? How were the mourners represented?   165 texts, from Swedish daily newspapers, covering 93 different news events were analysed. The methods were mainly discourse analysis with focus on identities and relations, but also semiotic analysis with focus on staging and symbols and narrative analysis with focus on patterns for storytelling.   The result showed that a news story about ordinary people expressing their feelings of grief has elements of melodrama. The news story is based on the myth of the victim, and formed as a typical story where equilibrium is disturbed when the inconceivable happens and the mourners can by their actions restore equilibrium. The paradigms behind are the opposites life – death and good – evil.    The deceased is represented as a victim in a mythic sense. The most important qualities of a victim are youth, innocence and goodness. The victim is framed as a person we could sympathise and identify with. The mourners in the texts praise the victim and sanctify the place where the victim died with candles, roses and notes. The mourners are essential to the story; they create identification and an identity that include us as readers in a community and a discourse of mourning and mourners. The ordinary people who appear as mourners in the texts are relatives and close friends of the victim, but also mourning tourists, media chosen friends and anonymous women who are represented, in a stereotypical way, as the professional female mourner who weep over the deceased. In some texts celebrities appear as mourners of ordinary people, and they personalize how the distinction between public and private is erased in popular journalism. They also might give a kind of legitimacy to the way media frame the story about ordinary people mourning the innocent victim.   Some texts had a partly diverging story. If the victim, in some aspect, could not be framed as innocent the paradigm good – evil became problematic. When victims or mourners had foreign origin the contrast us – them was added.  In some texts the ethical code for Swedish journalists was disregarded, mainly by publishing information on ethnicity or by interviewing children and people in shock

Gottbegrüßungsprozession (迎神赛会, oder Gottempfangsprozession) ist die eines der wichtigsten volksreligiösen Rituale, die zu den bedeutendsten Zeremonien des Religionslebens des chinesischen Volks zählen dürften. Der Ausgangspunkt meiner Forschung ist die 1995 veröffentlichte Studie Demon Hordes and Burning Boats: The Cult of Marshall Wen in Late Imperial Chekiang von Paul Katz, in der „Zivilgesellschaft und Volksreligion“ zum ersten Mal in der Forschung über die chinesische Kultur thematisiert. Um Katz’ Schwächen in der Studie zum Marschall Wen - sowohl an Quellen als auch in Theorie - auszugleichen, folgen ich in meiner Arbeit vertiefend zwei Grundlinien und damit sie grob in zwei Teile teilen, nämlich einen theoretischen und einen empirischen Teil. Im theoretischen Teil müssen zwei Fragen beantwortet: Was ist Zivilgesellschaft? Wie könnte die Zivilgesellschaftstheorie für diese religionswissenschaftliche Forschung nützlich sein? Um eine präzise Arbeitsdefinition geben und eine operationalisierbare Fragestellung aufstellen zu können, verfolge ich zunächst im ersten Teil die Begriffsgeschichte von „Zivilgesellschaft“ und „Öffentlichkeit“ im abendländischen Kontext zurück. Ein dreieckiges Problemfeld zwischen Staat, Privatsphäre und Ökonomie, zwei Ansätze der Zivilgesellschaftstheorie (der analytisch-deskriptive und der Idealistisch-präskriptive) werden zusammengefasst. Sieben Merkmale (öffentliche Assoziationen, Autonomie, Pluralität, Legalität, zivilisiertes Verhalten und utopisches Potenzial) und sechs Modelle (Das Trennungs-, Oppositions-, Öffentlichkeits-, Unterstützungs-, Partnerschaftsmodell und die globale Zivilgesellschaft) werden in der Forschung angeführt. Anschließend setze ich mich mit der Zivilgesellschaftsdiskussion im chinesischen Kontext auseinander. Aus der „Modern China Debate“ in den U. S. A. und der daran angeschlossenen chinesischen Diskussion wird eine Bilanz gezogen. Die „teleologische Annahme“ und der „China-Hat(te)-Auch-Komplex“ werden herausgefunden, die in einer historischen Forschung nicht legitimierbar sind. Danach wird die bisherige Erörterung über die Beziehung zwischen Zivilgesellschaft und Religion kurz zusammengefasst. Zum Ende des theoretischen Teils beschließe ich auf den idealistisch-präskriptiven Ansatzes zu verzichten. Die Zivilgesellschaftstheorie als Idealtypus im Weberschen Sinn benutzt, um die Kulturbedeutung der volksreligiösen Feste in China zu erkennen. Besonders die Organisation und die politische Auseinandersetzung der Prozession sollen in Betrachtung der Zivilgesellschaftstheorie gezogen werden, um die chinesische Gesellschaft besser zu verstehen. Im empirischen Teil der Arbeit werden Regionalbeschreibungen, Archivakten und Zeitungsartikel als Hauptquelle benutzt. Weil bisher keine systematische Forschung im Bereich der Religionswissenschaft zur Gottbegrüßungsprozession vorliegt, wird zuerst eine ausführliche Einführung in die Prozessionen in China gegeben, um ein zuverlässiges Bild von den Prozessionen innerhalb der chinesischen Religionslandschaft entwerfen zu können. Die Etymologie, die Arbeitsdefinition und die kosmologische Ordnung hinter der Prozession werden anschließend vorgestellt. Ich schlage vor, die Prozession als das Kennzeichen der kommunalen Religion Chinas anzusehen. Durch einige Sammelbände zur Folklore in China wird dann deutlich belegt, dass zahlreiche Gottbegrüßungsprozessionen ab Anfang der Qing-Zeit bis in die Republikzeit hinein kontinuierlich in fast allen Provinzen Chinas stattfanden. Danach werden die gesetzlichen Verbote in der Kaiserzeit dargestellt. Die Forschungsgeschichte zur Prozession und deren Problematik werden daraufhin zusammengefasst. Nachdem die Grundform bzw. die alternativen Formen, der Aufbau des Umzugs, Gottheiten, Dauer und Häufigkeit der Prozessionen in einem weiter begrenzten geographischen Raum, nämlich dem heutigen Shanghai, und zeitlich Raum, nämlich der Republikzeit (1912-49), dargestellt werden, werden die Haltung der Regierung und die mediale Präsentation solcher Prozessionen während der Republikzeit rekonstruiert, um die potenzielle Spannung zwischen dem Staat und den religiösen Gemeinschaften als eine der wichtigsten kollektiven Einstellungen zur Prozession zu zeigen. Die Zwischenfälle in der Nachbarregion werden wiedergegeben. Sodann werden drei detailreiche historische Fallbeispiele stichprobenartig angeführt und analysiert, um die weitere Behandlung der Fragestellung empirisch zu untermauern. Das erste historische Fallbeispiel ist der Stadtgott-Inspektionsrundgang. In diesem Fallbeispiel werden besonders die Finanzierung, die Aktivisten und Organisationen berücksichtigt, um ein Licht auf die Durchführung und Verwaltung der Prozessionen zu werfen. Darüber hinaus werden die Streite, Auseinandersetzungen und Konflikte zwischen den lokalen Behörden und dem Aufsichtsrat des Stadtgotttempels beleuchtet, um deren Verläufe, Hintergründe und Ursachen zu erforschen. Das zweite Fallbeispiel handelt sich um die Prozessionen und die Konflikte in Pudong von 1919 bis 1935. Die Verbote, die Gegenmaßnahmen der Regierung und die Verstöße gegen das Prozessionsverbot werden ausführlich geschildert, um die tatsächliche Ursachen der Konflikte zu finden. Zum Schluss des Kapitels wird die Polizei als Beispiel der damaligen Staatsmacht analysiert. Das dritte Fallbeispiel ist die Prozession im Dorf Jiangwan. Im Jahr 1935 wurde die dortige Prozession von der lokalen Feuerwehr schikaniert. Die Nachwirkung und die direkte Einmischung der Parteidirektion werden auch detailreich dargelegt. In der Schlussfolgerung der Arbeit werden die Beteiligten der Prozession in drei Gruppen, nämlich den Schaulustigen, den Aktivisten, den Unterstützer und die Förderer, eingeteilt. Ihre unterschiedlichen Funktionen und Motivationen getrennt zusammengefasst. Die andere Partei, die Kontrolleure der Prozession, wird anschließend behandelt. Alle historischen Beschreibungen werden im Spiegel der Zivilgesellschaftstheorie, v. a. der sieben Merkmale und sechs Modelle, evaluiert. Außerdem bringe ich zwei Einwände gegen die Dichotomie von C. K. Yang vor.

Univ., Diss./2000--München, 1999. / Literaturverz. S. [205] - 219.

<p>The aim of this Master thesis was to examine news journalism covering expressions of mourning related to violent or unexpected deaths. What rituals for mourning are brought out in media and do media present guidance to how mourners should behave?</p><p> </p><p>The questions examined were: What characterised news events that leaded to texts on expressions of mourning? How was grief framed? Which narrative patterns were there in the texts? How was the deceased represented? How were the mourners represented?</p><p> </p><p>165 texts, from Swedish daily newspapers, covering 93 different news events were analysed. The methods were mainly discourse analysis with focus on identities and relations, but also semiotic analysis with focus on staging and symbols and narrative analysis with focus on patterns for storytelling.</p><p> </p><p>The result showed that a news story about ordinary people expressing their feelings of grief has elements of melodrama. The news story is based on the myth of the victim, and formed as a typical story where equilibrium is disturbed when the inconceivable happens and the mourners can by their actions restore equilibrium. The paradigms behind are the opposites</p><p>life – death and good – evil. </p><p> </p><p>The deceased is represented as a victim in a mythic sense. The most important qualities of a victim are youth, innocence and goodness. The victim is framed as a person we could sympathise and identify with. The mourners in the texts praise the victim and sanctify the place where the victim died with candles, roses and notes. The mourners are essential to the story; they create identification and an identity that include us as readers in a community and a discourse of mourning and mourners. The ordinary people who appear as mourners in the texts are relatives and close friends of the victim, but also mourning tourists, media chosen friends and anonymous women who are represented, in a stereotypical way, as the professional female mourner who weep over the deceased. In some texts celebrities appear as mourners of ordinary people, and they personalize how the distinction between public and private is erased in popular journalism. They also might give a kind of legitimacy to the way media frame the story about ordinary people mourning the innocent victim.</p><p> </p><p>Some texts had a partly diverging story. If the victim, in some aspect, could not be framed as innocent the paradigm good – evil became problematic. When victims or mourners had foreign origin the contrast us – them was added.  In some texts the ethical code for Swedish journalists was disregarded, mainly by publishing information on ethnicity or by interviewing children and people in shock</p>

Ma thèse porte sur les logiques relationnelles qui émergent de l’analyse de trois danses pratiquées sur l’Île de Luanda, un cordon littoral situé face à la ville du même nom, autrefois habité uniquement par des pêcheurs, aujourd’hui largement urbanisé. Dans le contexte local, le mot « danse » (« dança » en portugais ou « kizomba » en kimbundu) ne désigne pas une pratique propre au corps singulier, mais plutôt une configuration sociale. « Danse » signifie « groupe ». Cet usage local m’a conduite à appréhender la danse sur deux plans : celui de la représentation et celui de la participation. Deux des trois danses analysées sont des danses récréatives : la danse carnavalesque et la danse en cercle – rebita – à partir duquel des couples se forment. La troisième est une danse rituelle pratiquée lors des offrandes à la sirène, laquelle exprime son mécontentement par de violentes marées qui, au fil du temps, ont drastiquement réduit la surface émergée de l’île. L’analyse de ces trois danses révèle la prééminence axiologique du domaine de l’affinité, de la conjugalité et du couple. Ce domaine relationnel associé à la territorialité s’oppose à la généalogie – champ dont la transmission de maladies spirituelles vient traduire son caractère problématique.Le fait que ces trois groupes se chevauchent (les gens, et notamment les femmes, circulent entre l’un et l’autre) m’a amenée à aborder la contribution des pratiques dansées à la saturation relationnelle de l’île. Cette densité relationnelle implémentée, entre autres, par les pratiques dansées apporte alors une nouvelle perspective à la vexata quaestio de l’identité de la population de l’île et de sa spécificité dans le contexte luandais. / My thesis focuses on the relational fabric that emerges from three dances practiced on the Island of Luanda –a now urbanised coastal strip off the city shore, formerly inhabited by fishermen. In the local Portuguese dialect, the term “dance” (“dança”) not only refers to an action undertaken by individuals, but also designates a social grouping. The term “dance” means first and foremost “group”. This linguistic particularity led me to view dance from two perspectives: representation and participation. Two of the three dances analysed are recreational: the carnival dance, and the circle dance (rebita) –typically during which couples are formed. The third dance is a ritual dance practiced during the offering to the mermaid (kyanda), who manifests her dissatisfaction through sea storms. The analysis of these three dances shows the axiological pre-eminence of the relational domain of affinity, conjugality and partnership. This contrasts with the genealogic domain, which is troubled by the transmission of spiritual afflictions (ilundu spirits).It is common for these three groups to overlap; individuals –especially women– tend to flow from group to group. This led me to consider the role of dance practices in the densification of the Island’s relational fabric. Implemented by dances, this relational density brings a new perspective to the difficult task of understanding the cultural specificity of the Island’s population within Luanda’s broader context. / Esta tese foca as logicas relacionais que emergem da analise de três danças praticadas na Ilha de Luanda, uma restinga que, da margem norte do rio Kwanza, vai até em frente ao porto da cidade de Luanda. A Ilha, um tempo maioritariamente habitada por uma população de pescadores, se encontra hoje englobada pela cidade. No contexto local, o termo dança não se refere à prática de um corpo singular, mas antes a um grupo. Este uso linguístico local leva a considerar a dança segundo uma dupla perspetiva: a da representação e a da participação. Duas das três danças tem uma finalidade recreativa: a dança carnavalesca e a dança em roda de combinação de casais chamada rebita. A terceira é uma dança ritual praticada em ocasião das oferendas para a sereia, cuja insatisfação se traduz em marés violentas chamadas kalembas que ao longo do tempo reduziram a superfície da Ilha. Da analise das três danças emerge la preeminência axiológica do campo da afinidade, da conjugalidade e do casal. Este campo relacional associado à territorialidade se contrapõe ao campo genealógico, dominado pela transmissão de doenças espirituais.A sobreposição sociológica dos três grupos de dança (isto é, o fato que um pequeno grupo de mulheres circulam pertencem simultaneamente aos três) levou a considerar o papel das praticas dançadas na densificação do campo relacional da Ilha. Essa densidade implementada, entre outras coisas, pela dança traz uma nova perspetiva para abordar a vexata quaestio da identidade da população da Ilha e da sua especificidade no contexto luandense

Machine learning is increasingly involved in both our production and consumption of video. One symptom of this is the appearance of automated video editing applications. As this technology spreads rapidly to consumers, the need for substantive research about its social impact grows. To this end, this project maintains a focus on video editing as a microcosm of larger shifts in cultural objects co-authored by artificial intelligence. The window in which this research occurred (2010-2015) saw machine learning move increasingly into the public eye, and with it ethical concerns. What follows is, on the most abstract level, a discussion of why these ethical concerns are particularly urgent in the realm of the moving image. Algorithmic editing consists of software instructions to automate the creation of timelines of moving images. The criteria that this software uses to query a database is variable. Algorithmic authorship already exists in other media, but I will argue that the moving image is a separate case insofar as the raw material of text and music software can develop on its own. The performance of a trained actor can still not be generated by software. Thus, my focus is on the relationship between live embodied performance, and the subsequent algorithmic editing of that footage. This is a process that can employ other software like computer vision (to analyze the content of video) and predictive analytics (to guess what kind of automated film to make for a given user). How is performance altered when it has to communicate to human and non-human alike? The ritual of the iterative frame gives literal form to something that throughout human history has been a projection: the omniscient participant observer, more commonly known as the Divine. We experience black boxed software (AI's, specifically neural networks, which are intrinsically opaque) as functionally omniscient and tacitly allow it to edit more and more of life (e.g. filtering articles, playlists and even potential spouses). As long as it remains disembodied, we will continue to project the Divine on to the black box, causing cultural anxiety. In other words, predictive analytics alienate us from the source code of our cultural texts. The iterative frame then is a space in which these forces can be inscribed on the body, and hence narrated. The algorithmic editing of content is already taken for granted. The editing of moving images, in contrast, still requires a human hand. We need to understand the social power of moving image editing before it is delegated to automation. Practice Section: This project is practice-led, meaning that the portfolio of work was produced as it was being theorized. To underscore this, the portfolio comes at the end of the document. Video editors use artificial intelligence (AI) in a number of different applications, from deciding the sequencing of timelines to using facial and language detection to find actors in archives. This changes traditional production workflows on a number of levels. How can the single decision cut a between two frames of video speak to the larger epistemological shifts brought on by predictive analytics and Big Data (upon which they rely)? When predictive analytics begin modeling the world of moving images, how will our own understanding of the world change? In the practice-based section of this thesis, I explore how these shifts will change the way in which actors might approach performance. What does a gesture mean to AI and how will the editor decontextualize it? The set of a video shoot that will employ an element of AI in editing represents a move towards ritualization of production, summarized in the term the 'iterative frame'. The portfolio contains eight works that treat the set was taken as a microcosm of larger shifts in the production of culture. There is, I argue, metaphorical significance in the changing understanding of terms like 'continuity' and 'sync' on the AI-watched set. Theory Section In the theoretical section, the approach is broadly comparative. I contextualize the current dynamic by looking at previous shifts in technology that changed the relationship between production and post-production, notably the lightweight recording technology of the 1960s. This section also draws on debates in ethnographic filmmaking about the matching of film and ritual. In this body of literature, there is a focus on how participant observation can be formalized in film. Triangulating between event, participant observer and edit grammar in ethnographic filmmaking provides a useful analogy in understanding how AI as film editor might function in relation to contemporary production. Rituals occur in a frame that is dependent on a spatially/temporally separate observer. This dynamic also exists on sets bound for post-production involving AI, The convergence of film grammar and ritual grammar occurred in the 1960s under the banner of cinéma vérité in which the relationship between participant observer/ethnographer and the subject became most transparent. In Rouch and Morin's Chronicle of a Summer (1961), reflexivity became ritualized in the form of on-screen feedback sessions. The edit became transparent-the black box of cinema disappeared. Today as artificial intelligence enters the film production process this relationship begins to reverse-feedback, while it exists, becomes less transparent. The weight of the feedback ritual gets gradually shifted from presence and production to montage and post-production. Put differently, in cinéma vérité, the participant observer was most present in the frame. As participant observation gradually becomes shared with code it becomes more difficult to give it an embodied representation and thus its presence is felt more in the edit of the film. The relationship between the ritual actor and the participant observer (the algorithm) is completely mediated by the edit, a reassertion of the black box, where once it had been transparent. The crucible for looking at the relationship between algorithmic editing, participant observation and the black box is the subject in trance. In ritual trance the individual is subsumed by collective codes. Long before the advent of automated editing trance was an epistemological problem posed to film editing. In the iterative frame, for the first time, film grammar can echo ritual grammar and indeed become continuous with it. This occurs through removing the act of cutting from the causal world, and projecting this logic of post-production onto performance. Why does this occur? Ritual and specifically ritual trance is the moment when a culture gives embodied form to what it could not otherwise articulate. The trance of predictive analytics-the AI that increasingly choreographs our relationship to information-is the ineffable that finds form in the iterative frame. In the iterative frame a gesture never exists in a single instance, but in a potential state. The performers in this frame begin to understand themselves in terms of how automated indexing processes reconfigure their performance. To the extent that gestures are complicit with this mode of databasing they can be seen as votive toward the algorithmic. The practice section focuses on the poetics of this position. Chapter One focuses on cinéma vérité as a moment in which the relationship between production and post-production shifted as a function of more agile recording technology, allowing the participant observer to enter the frame. This shift becomes a lens to look at changes that AI might bring. Chapter Two treats the work of Pierre Huyghe as a 'liminal phase' in which a new relationship between production and post-production is explored. Finally, Chapter Three looks at a film in which actors perform with awareness that footage will be processed by an algorithmic edit. / The conclusion looks at the implications this way of relating to AI-especially commercial AI-through embodied performance could foster a more critical relationship to the proliferating black-boxed modes of production.

In this paper, I analyze body position and orientation based on material from nine grave fields belonging to the Pitted ware culture (3300-2400 BC) on Gotland, Sweden. The archeological sites consist of Ajvide, Fridtorp, Grausne, Gullrum, Hemmor, Ire, Visby, Västerbjers and Västerbys. The aim of the thesis is to generate information, through the use of Correspondence Analysis, about the individuals and similarities and differences in an attempt to discern possible structures in ritual practice. The subject of the thesis is discussed with a focus on ritual based on Pierre Bourdieu's (1977) theories relating to practice and habitus. The analysis shows that specific body positions were preferred, which expressed minor variations between the archaeological sites. At the same time, it was possible to discern specific practices that were more frequent in certain areas. The dead were most often arranged either in a supine position or on their sides with knees straight or flexed, in a crouched position. The placement of the body in flexed position expressed a distinct differentiation linked to the degree of contraction of the knee- and hip joint, which show that there existed guidelines or standards in the practice of body position. The result also indicated age and gender differentiations expressed through skeletal position and orientation, which were expressed differently within some of the populations. The study has identified both regional and local patterns in ritual practice in relation to body position and orientation. Possible interpretations relating to similarities and differences in the material are further discussed in the thesis in order to identify a ritual context.

Although research flourishes on the ceremonial centers of the Andean Formative period, at the same time remarkably little is understood about the basic functional parameters of these centers. Ultimately, we need to be answering basic questions about why these centers were built, who they functioned for, and what needs they served. This paper argues that although the evidence is clear that they were ritual centers, the application of devotional models derived from modern religious practice is not congruent with observations about the particular site of Chavín de Huántar. Instead, the configuration of this prominent center appears to confirm that the site primarily reflects strategies of leading and secondary elite for increasing hierarchical differentiation within the social and political dimensions of Formative society. / Aunque las investigaciones acerca de los centros ceremoniales del Periodo Formativo son numerosas, al mismo tiempo, curiosamente, poco se ha entendido acerca de sus parámetros funcionales. En el fondo, se necesitan responder preguntas elementales acerca de porqué se construyeron estos centros, para quién funcionaron y a qué propósitos sirvieron. Si bien la evidencia es clara acerca de su carácter ritual, la aplicación de modelos devocionales derivados de prácticas religiosas modernas no es congruente con las observaciones realizadas acerca del singular sitio de Chavín de Huántar. En cambio, la configuración de este prominente centro parece confirmar que refleja, principalmente, estrategias de liderazgo y la presencia de elites secundarias.

This thesis deals with rituals connected with childbirth in Bohemia and Moravia since the 17th century to the present. The first chapter describes the word ritual, especially the transition ritual, which is understood as a necessary assumption enabling the transition from one stage of life to the other. The next chapter presents the family and its development across the centuries from the traditional conception until the modern one. The family also plays an important role in education and in the child's integration into society - this is discussed in the third chapter. The fourth chapter maps the rituals connected with childbirth adhered to in the past. The fifth chapter continues analyzing the situation about current rituals. The last chapter compares the situation about the implementation of rituals in the past with the situation nowadays. It is concluded with the authors own research, which was based on real data collection.