| Sumario: | The article investigates on the hypothesis that religious ritual performs different functions for different classes within an urban American Negro population, while at the same time performing a function common to the entire class and one that is also common to all members of the particular denomination or sect with which the individual church is identified. In attempting to determine the relation of ritual and general church behavior in urban Negro churches to the part of the society in which these churches function, primarily exploration has been conducted for the church's function in the social adjustment of groups of persons. Sermons, prayers, songs and behavior have been used in studying ceremonials and beliefs of types of communicants representing class and economic differences in urban Negro life. Forty churches in Chicago which had the densest Negro population were selected for the study; the selection being made so as to give the necessary distribution as to location, size, denomination, type of ritual, and social class of communicant.
|
|---|