836 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY
parly society that all important occasions in the life of the indi- vidual are solemnized by the public performance of rites. The great mass of these are probably intended to impress rather than to control. The formalities connected with the transfer of real estate, the contracting and paying of debts, the making of wills, marriage, adoption, disinheritance, succession, the emancipation of slaves, etc, suited as they are to make vivid and lasting impres- sions on the minds of witnesses, are necessary to authenticate transactions in days before document and record were possible. | They call attention to the fact that something important is tak- I ing place, and by their mysterious and unusual character grave ' deeply on the memory of spectators that which now we trust to deed and note and register. 1
But in many cases the ceremony of occasion is something more than means of record. We find that the occasions most scrupulously accentuated by public formalities are just those which mark a change in the relations of the individual which involves fthe acceptance of new responsibilities. The recognition of a new-born child, the attainment of manhood or womanhood, the coming of age, the inheritance of family property, the succes- sion to the headship, marriage, adoption, initiation, confirmation, naturalization, the promise of allegiance, enlistment, installation in office, ordination, compact and treaty these, though they are events of very different importance, have this in common, jthat they bind somebody to do for others, for his family, or for the group at large, what hitherto has not been laid upon him. Sometimes, as at christening or enlistment, the obligation is one- sided; sometimes, as in marriage or adoption, it is mutual upon two parties ; and again, as in baptism, ordination, or coronation, Jit embraces the beholding public.
On the. other hand, when obligation narrows instead of widens, the event, though certainly as important, is not signal-
1 Of the Sumatran bimbangs, or noisy public festivals, we read : " To give authority to their contracts and other deeds, whether of a public or a private nature, they always make one of these feasts. Writing, they say, may be altered or counterfeited, but the memory of what is transacted and concluded in the presence of a thousand witnesses must remain sacred."
