Conditions of Successful Degradation Ceremonies--Annotations!

Garfinkel, Harold. 1956. "Conditions of Successful Degradation Ceremonies." The American Journal of Sociology 5: 420-424

This essay names and analyzes a ritual event--the degradation ceremony. Not only does the reader learn what a degradation ceremony is, but Garfinkel instructs us how to best conduct one. This is a ritual which can be found in all moralized societies--in other words, pretty much every society!

The social control "suburb" degradation ceremonies are part of is that of moral indignation. Moral indignation is instigated by public denunciations, which serve to reinforce group identity and solidarity, unity. Garfinkel compares it to a secular kind of communion--everyone partakes in it, the body of the subject of degradation is consumed to reinstate the wholeness of the group identity.

Essentially, the successful degradation ceremony results in a transformation of the total identity of a former group member. The event or offense and the subject of the degradation are made to be one and the same, totally negating the degradation subject as capable of being a member of the group.

One of the most important aspects of the successful degradation ceremony is that the denouncer must not use authority as an individual, but must speak as a member of the group--thus appealing to the collective values. That the group values (not just individual) have been violation by the degradation subject places him/her securely outside of the group.

The outcomes of the degradation ceremony will vary depending on prestige dynamics and participants, but the article lays out some pretty fool-proof guidelines. These guidelines (Garfinkel tells us in what is a little bit of a surprise ending) can also be used to dismantle and do away with the degradation ceremony.