Rituals among rockers and bikers

Journal/Book: Soziale Welt. 2000; 51: Annastrabe 7, D-37075 Gottingen, Germany. Verlag Otto Schwartz & Co. 25+.

Abstract: In modern society ritual is looked upon in very different ways. On the one hand rituals are regarded as anachronistic relies and forms without substance, while on the other hand social actors permanently ''invent'' new ritual practices. The latter fact indicates that ritual has an important social function for the constitution of everyday life. Based on Alfred Schutz' a concept of Life-World, the article argues that rituals help actors to create everyday life, which includes both acting in individual situations and generalizing from different situations. Furthermore, the article argues that the effects of rituals may be either preventive or corrective in character. All those functions of ritual are empirically verified in a study of particular subcultural communities: the communities of rockers and bikers. These communities can be characterized by three elements: a cult-like relation to motorcycles, a distinctive lifestyle expressed by clothing and habitus, and a characteristic view of the world and of man (''biker-philosophy''). Rituals among rockers and bikers, for example distinctive forms of greeting or initiation created by procedures of bricolage, are closely related to their lifestyle and thereby ensure the reproduction and handing down of their everyday life.

Note: Article Steuten U, Gerhard Mercator Univ Duisberg, Fachbereich Soziol 1, Lotharstr 65, D-47048 Duisburg, GERMANY

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