A ritual is a sequence of activities involving gestures, words, actions, or revered objects. Rituals may be prescribed by the traditions of a community, including a religious community. Rituals are characterized, but not defined, by formalism, traditionalism, invariance, rule-governance, sacral symbolism, and performance.
A Śrauta yajna or fire ritual in Kerala, India.
The use of Latin in a Tridentine Catholic Mass is an example of a "restricted code".
The First Thanksgiving 1621, oil on canvas by Jean Leon Gerome Ferris (1863–1930). The painting shows common misconceptions about the event that persist to modern times: Pilgrims did not wear such outfits, and the Wampanoag are dressed in the style of Plains Indians.
Ritual practitioner on Inwangsan Mountain, Seoul South Korea
A cult is a group which is typically led by a charismatic and self-appointed leader, who tightly controls its members, requiring unwavering devotion to a set of beliefs and practices which are considered deviant. It is in most contexts a pejorative term, also used for a new religious movement or other social group which is defined by its unusual religious, spiritual, or philosophical beliefs and rituals, or its common interest in a particular person, object, or goal. This sense of the term is weakly defined – having divergent definitions both in popular culture and academia – and has also been an ongoing source of contention among scholars across several fields of study.
Max Weber (1864–1920), an important theorist in the study of cults
Jim Jones, the leader of the Peoples Temple
LaRouche Movement members in Stockholm protesting against the Treaty of Lisbon
Cross burning by Ku Klux Klan members in 1921
