Why do people behave the way they do?" Up to now, ritual has been seriously underutilized for studying human behavior, i.e., ritual. The structural ritualization theory, attempts to narrow this gap in our understanding of the social causes and consequences of our actions by focusing on the ritualized behaviors that define much of our daily lives. Taking a broad approach to science in sociology this perspective is grounded in a commitment to three goals: the development of theory, substantiating these concepts through empirical evidence, and the application of this knowledge to social problems, dehumanizing conditions in contemporary society, and enriching our personal lives. This book is the first to comprehensively describe the structural ritualistic theory, which since its inception a decade ago, has developed in several directions involving different lines of cumulative research. This book shows how structural reproduction has occurred throughout the world, how rituals can be...