ritualizationn.
/ˌrɪtʃʊəlʌɪˈzeɪʃn/, /ˌrɪtʃᵿlʌɪˈzeɪʃn/, /ˌrɪtʃl̩ʌɪˈzeɪʃn/, /ˌrɪtjʊəlʌɪˈzeɪʃn/, /ˌrɪtjᵿlʌɪˈzeɪʃn/, U.S. /ˌrɪtʃ(əw)ələˈzeɪʃ(ə)n/, /ˌrɪtʃ(əw)əˌlaɪˈzeɪʃ(ə)n/ 1. The action or process of making something into a ritual; the state or condition of being ritualized.
ΚΠ
1900 A. F. Chamberlain Child iii. 46 Dramatic instinct is revealed in all parts of the world in the ritualisation of myths among primitive peoples.
1952 H. H. Gerth & D. A. Martindale tr. M. Weber Anc. Judaism xiii. 353 This ritualization of dietary habits made commensalism very difficult.
1978 J. D. Crichton in C. Jones et al. Study of Liturgy i. 5 One of the most constant features of human history is the ritualization of the great events of human life, birth, marriage, and death.
2001 C. Coker Humane Warfare v. 99 Ritualisation is a state in which social interaction has taken a purely standardised form.
2. Psychology. The action of forming or modifying behaviour in order to express a particular emotion or state of mind.
ΘΚΠ
the world > action or operation > behaviour > customary or habitual mode of behaviour > [noun] > practising habitually > formalization of actions to express emotion
ritualization1932
1932 M. Gabain tr. J. Piaget Moral Judgm. Child i. 42 This phenomenon..is the counterpart of that sort of ritualization of behaviour which can be observed in any baby before it can speak or have experienced any specifically moral adult pressure.
1951 J. Holloway Lang. & Intell. x. 189 The systematization of language is exactly parallel to the ritualization of behaviour.
1978 E. Erikson Toys & Reasons ii. 69 I will chart only one use of playfulness throughout life which has received little attention, namely what I call ritualization in everyday life.
2007 D. F. Armstrong & S. E. Wilcox Gestural Origin Lang. iv. 64 Ritualization is implicated in the emergence of communicative signaling and in the transformation of nonlinguistic signals into linguistic signs.
3. Animal Behaviour. The evolutionary process by which an action or behaviour pattern in an animal loses its original and ostensible function but is retained as a releaser (releaser n. 3) in social interaction.
ΘΚΠ
the world > animals > by habits or actions > habits and actions > [noun] > ritualization of
ritualization1938
1914 J. S. Huxley in Proc. Zool. Soc. 1 506 A very different question..is also well brought out in the pairing-habits of the Great Crested Grebe: I mean the gradual change of a useful action into a symbol and then into a ritual.
1923 J. S. Huxley in Jrnl. Linn. Soc.: Zool. 35 278 The ‘ritual’ use of non-sexual actions during courtship.]
1938 Amer. Naturalist 72 423 Many authors have commented on the strange fact of what has been termed the ritualization of actions concerned with the display of rivalry, notably in birds.
1952 N. Tinbergen in Q. Rev. Biol. 27 23/2 This new function [of releasing responses in other individuals] must have started a new evolutionary development during which the displacement activities became increasingly better adapted to it. This evolutionary displacement I have called ‘ritualization’, following Huxley (1923).
1965 New Scientist 17 June 768/2 The chief survival value of ritualization is obviously in the recanalization or the discharging of aggression.
2002 Crustaceana 75 983 The first test revealed a well-defined display, and ritualization correlated to a series of reactions of expressive movements, which can be interpreted as signals.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2010; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1900