A reclamation of cultural tradition in the ritual of matrimony for our ceremonially illiterate time
In a time when communal rituals and cultural ceremonies fail, longtime scholar, storyteller, and ceremonialist Stephen Jenkinson asks what it means to lose cultural inheritance. In examining matrimony and its ritual twin, patrimony, To Mother Culture contemplates culture-making, building and preserving cultural memory, and the ache of living in a world bereft of meaning and connection. There is a real and palpable consequence to turning away from public ceremony-and not just for the celebrants.
"Matrimony and patrimony are village rites, a communal affirmation of the village's ways of going on, sometimes not quite knowing how to," shares Jenkinson. "The village needs and deserves a rite of public recognition of the seismic change in its life that matrimony means to make." Privatizing love, turning matrimony into a social institution barren of almost all substance, and flattening rituals into convenient events that fit into the routine of modern living erodes our connections and commitment to community and compromises our use as citizens of a troubled time. The way forward, then, is to learn and reclaim our cultural ceremonies and their meaning.
Through witty stories, insightful history, and meditative questions, To Mother Culture invites us to contemplate the significance of matrimony, ceremony, and cultural articulation-and how to redeem them for future generations. Stephen Jenkinson, MTS, MSW, is a cultural worker, teacher, author, and ceremonialist. He is the creator and principal instructor of the Orphan Wisdom School, founded in 2010. He has master's degrees from Harvard University (theology) and the University of Toronto (social work). He's the author of Come of Age, the award-winning Die Wise, Money and the Soul's Desires, and Reckoning (with Kimberly Ann Johnson). For more, visit orphanwisdom.com.
