December 13, 2002

Flirting and Flag-Waving: the Revealing Study of Holidays and Rituals

By AMITAI ETZIONI

My colleagues in the social sciences may wish to bring along their laptops, or at least their notebooks, as they join family and friends during the winter holiday season. The ways in which holidays and rituals like weddings and funerals, confirmations and birthdays, are celebrated reveal volumes about cultures and how they change.

The merit of using holidays and rituals as a research tool was driven home to me recently when I traveled to Iran as a guest of a group of reformers. I had

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