Purposes of Traditions or Rituals Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Purposes of Traditions or Rituals - Essay Example The meaning of a tradition as derived from Shah-Kazemi Reza is a belief or an object passed down within a society maintained in the present but originated from the past (41). Some common practical examples of traditions include holidays and clothes with social meaning like lawyer wigs or military officer spurs. A ritual on the other hand is a solemn or religious ceremony comprising of performed series in accordance with prescribed order. Traditions are places of comfort; touchstones as are in good times while during difficulties they are a place of mooring. In a Reith lecture said a tradition has several core elements. To begin with, it has a ceremonial ritual or ritualistic behavior, it involves a group of people; social in nature and it is collective and finally it has traditional guardians such as historians that have access to knowledge or the truth of tradition’s sacred rituals.... Traditions and rituals extent presence and function to the Roman Catholic Church. The church has â€Å"Catholic Mass† a service in a divine and consecrated area by an authorized minister (Jones 60). That central act is a sacrament of the performance of Eucharist. Such is an example of weekly church service whereby the reason for this regular ritual is much the same. In addition, a tradition or a ritual is purposeful in families since it promotes a sense of belonging, sense of purpose, identity, connection, and acts as a role model and develops stability and continuity in a fast-paced and hectic world. While a ritual is like a spiritual instruction book, complete with blueprints, it can have a specific reason for any one, or all people assembled to perform it. They include the rite of healing, passage or a ritual focused on helping crops to grow. Arguably, some critics have gone ahead to analyze the presence of Christmas on the twenty-fifth day of December every year. Some say it is a ritual commemorating the birth of Jesus. Others, although irreligious people, according to Skeptical play entitled purpose of a ritual, do not really get the function of a ritual or tradition (Strathern 14). After he carefully examined Jesus’ life and words, he came up with a startling conclusion and altered his course of life then posed a question, â€Å"could Jesus have been just a great teacher?† Scholarly arguing Christmas celebrations are a ritual to some while others do not even recognize its presence like those who go to church on Saturday. Another old tradition is that of the â€Å"best man† in a wedding. His purpose in old days was to; because people fought for brides, do the fighting while the couple said their vows Ritual actions are hardly limited to

Consumer Behavior and the Demand Curve Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Consumer Behavior and the Demand Curve - Essay Example This essay projects on the consumer behavior towards these electronic vehicles over the coming years and how it shall cause movements along the demand curve as well as shifts on the demand curve. The movement along the demand curve will be caused by changes in prices of the electric vehicles, either increase or decrease in the prices. The shifts will be caused by preferences of the consumer to buy the vehicles irrespective of the increases and decreases in the vehicles prices, consumers believe that the vehicles will help reduce environmental pollution and the prices of other related vehicles whereby if other vehicles prices increase considerably, then consumers will settle for electric vehicles. The demand curve will shift upwards since consumers are optimistic that the electronic vehicles will serve their purpose and hence prefer to buy them. In addition, the vehicles batteries are expected to be improved making them to last longer than they do at the moment and hence attract more consumers causing the demand curve to shift upwards. For now, people who buy electric vehicles, as Levine puts it, always want to be seen to have class and style. They therefore are highly educated people, successful businesspersons, and those who earn highly in their areas of specialization. These people are few as compared to average people who earn too little to think of buying electric vehicles. There are those who would want to buy the electronic vehicles simply on the grounds that they promote green environment only to find that electronic vehicles costs is beyond their means. Many a consumer is always excited about the electronic vehicles when they hear about them for the first time, but when they are told of price, their interest in those vehicles decreases. Majority of consumers are also concerned with the appearance of the vehicle, their performance and how reliable they are. Given these costs, sales for most electronic vehicles have remained low. For instance, Nissan Volt has recorded very dismal sales performances due to prices the company has attached to them. Terlep acknowledges that Electronic vehicles have elicited a lot of excitement among the consumers who think that electronic vehicles will be the norm of the day. However, according to analysts, this may not come into fruition any time sooner as it is only estimated that electronic vehicles will amount to 7.3% of all the vehicles sales by around 2020. Currently, there are only 2.2 percent of electronic vehicles in circulation. Projections indicated that fully electric cars will be about 10 percent of all the vehicles by 2020. Recent estimates show that electric and hybrid vehicles are 5.2 million as compared to 70.9 million sales that had been predicted earlier. Consumer choice It is a microeconomics theory that shows the preferences that make people consume goods and services to certain expenditure and this is what eventually leads to consumer demand curves. Ingram explains that the theory analyses how consumers are likely to attain equilibrium given their preferences and the level of expenditure they are in so that they can maximize utility under the budget constraints they could be in. Preferences are what the consumers desire to have with their level of income and hence make choices depending on the income allocated for goods and services.