From Habits to Rituals: Rituals as Social Habits

Abstract The present contribution aims at investigating the relationship between habits and rituals; they are based on the same processes even though they have different functions depending on the context (personal or social). Our discussion will mostly focus on the nature and function of rituals, as necessary practices in human and other animals’ social lives. After a brief introduction of the notion of “habit” by reference to relevant studies that cross philosophy and neurobiology, we propose an interpretation of rituals as collective activity, which is based on the same mechanisms of habits formation, but it is expressed in a “We-form”, from which it is created and institutionalized