ABSTRACT
An important aspect of culture, one that often clearly distinguishes one society from another and at the same time has political implications, is religion. Religious behaviour marks off a set of people both by exhibiting to others that they are different and by promoting solidarity within the set. Ritual observances that promote solidarity need not involve the congregation of members, for the repetition of rituals that are distinctly Chinese, even if they occur within the home, can reinforce solidarity by marking off the Chinese in their own minds from the non-chinese; that is, ritual may be common without being joint. The religious behaviour of Chinese families may be divided into three types: that which occurs at crises de passage in the lives of its members, that related to the yearly cycle of festivals, and the occasional ritual provoked by the contingencies of business, by illness, or by other misfortune.
