"Ritual" has meanings other than the primary dictionary definition, which insists upon the prescribed order of a religious ceremony -- that body of ceremonies or rites used in a place of worship. Ritual also has its secular associations.
Anthropologist Satsuki Kawano in her study of various ritual practices in the city of Kamakura wishes to see religious rites as being both culturally constructed and socially generated. She must therefore make very clear distinctions.
Rituals are more than prescribed and repetitive behavior. Otherwise putting out the garbage (a local, troubled, secular ceremony that has caused many a neighborhood rift) could be seen as ritual since it happens regularly at fixed times and places, and involves rigid rules about how to put it together, how to pile it up.
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