The Holy Kiss: A Ritual Analysis

The ritual I observed was the Holy Kiss. The large group of Mennonites here invited me to attend their church for a Sunday service. I do not know how it was arranged except through my Amish friends. The Amish allow no outsiders or those who do not speak German to attend their services. I expressed an interest in the religious services and received an invitation to attend the Mennonite service. As an anthropology major this was of particular interest to me even though I am not Christian.

I arrived when members were driving up and talking to each other. I was greeted by all the ladies and nodded at by all the men. I felt this symbolism was to make me feel less of an outsider and the men are restricted as to who they can address if the person is the opposite sex, so the nodding was to make me feel welcome without directly addressing me. Somehow, they knew who was going to be attending and when the last car arrived everyone filed into the church, without windows, led by the elders. I sat on the left side with the women and the men sat on the right side. The service was

The ladies were kissing each other on the cheek and even the lips. You could tell who liked who and the ones who were not very friendly to each other. The men were still inside the church, but soon they came outside. The kiss was explained in emic words as a way to show friendship to other members and to recognize their contribution to the community in Christ. Without a background in Christianity and in my etic observation, I saw it as Turner described in the Symbolic and Interpretive Anthropology section, as a way to construct a society where forces are seeking to destroy it (Erikson 2016). The Holy Kiss was comprehensible as the congregation where it was done regardless of how you felt about the other person. The interpretive angle, from Geertz, is the kiss is symbolic of the culture and done to show solidarity within the culture