Cultivation of identification, solidarity, and empathy through interaction rituals: insights from a cross-cultural program in India
This is an excert from a presentation I made at Yale University’s Centre for Cultural Sociology in May 2023
The maintenance of harmonious societies relies in part on the degree to which people develop positive connection and understanding with others – such as social solidarity and empathy. Meanwhile, contributing to civil communities that reject othering (Alexander, 2013), a potentially disastrous form of dehumanisation. Yet, connection and understanding remains largely elusive, particularly between people from differing social and cultural orientations (Zaki, 2020). To delve into this issue, an experiential community-based program facilitated cross-cultural interactions between college students from Australia and members of a tribal community in rural Maharashtra, India. In this presentation I will share insights from an empirical study including in-depth interviews with community members (n=8) and auto-ethnographic reflections from student participants (n=7). I will explore the ritual-like dynamics of cultural performances mediated through formalised rituals, as well as everyday aspects of community life such as making and sharing meals and grain harvests. I argue that this form of ritualised performance conveys collective representations and shared meaning to extend across cultural divides (Alexander, 2004). Moreover, active student participation projects authentic intentions form the basis of mutual trust, respect, and social solidarity. Community members feel a ‘new energy’ generated from these interactions over time – an emotional energy of enhanced social cohesion across the community at large (Collins, 2014). Participants – both community and student - report feelings of deep inter-personal connection, even empathy-like understanding, despite seemingly vast differences between cultural groups. Further studies are needed to investigate the nature of sociological constructs such as ritual and social solidarity as a platform for fostering empathy in diverse societies.
References
Alexander, J. C. (2004). Cultural Pragmatics: Social Performance between Ritual and Strategy. Sociological Theory, 22(4), 527-573. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0735-2751.2004.00233.x
Collins, R. (2014). Interaction ritual chains and collective effervescence. Collective emotions, 299-311.
Zaki, J. (2020). The War for Kindness: building empathy in a fractured world. Penguin Random House.
