Ceremony functions as a deliberate mnemonic device for sustaining the gift ethic

Evidence

Our elders say that ceremony is the way we can remember to remember. In the dance of the giveaway, remember that the earth is a gift that we must pass on, just as it came to us. When we forget, the dances we’ll need will be for mourning. For the passing of polar bears, the silence of cranes, for the death of rivers and the memory of snow. — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass, 1424

Categorization

• DEFINE: ‘Ceremony is the way we can remember to remember’ is a compact definition of ceremony’s function as collective memory technology — central to the book’s reciprocity argument.
• XREF: Builds directly on ch. 43’s canon of cautionary stories and ch. 8’s claim that giving thanks is what history could not take away. — connects to: Ceremony reawakens knowledge and the land recognizes even a lost person — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom,…, 129; Ceremony is a vehicle for belonging to family, people, and land — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom,…, 133; Ritual is active wishful thinking — acting out desired outcomes — Sheldon Solomon, Jeff Greenberg, Tom Pyszczynski, The Worm at the Core: On the Role of…, 301 (+2 more)
• CANDY: ‘The way we can remember to remember’ is a tight, tweetable encapsulation of ritual’s purpose.

Broader Connections

• Ritual is active wishful thinking — acting out desired outcomes #expands (0.72) — Sheldon Solomon, Jeff Greenberg, Tom Pyszczynski, The Worm at the Core, 301
• Deep gratitude rests on the awareness that a gift cannot be repaid #expands (0.72) — Georg Simmel, The Sociology of Georg Simmel, 9360
• Planning imagined futures through symbols is uniquely human #expands (0.70) — Sheldon Solomon, Jeff Greenberg, Tom Pyszczynski, The Worm at the Core, 288