Ritual takes a prominent place in both Confucian and Christian traditions, whetherarising from practical considerations or religious motives;it forms a means whereby individuals identify themselves as members of a community and is often open for observation in public.If the characteristic practices that ritual enjoins on one community are not understood among others,they may give rise to friction, sow distrustor excite antagonism.As a result relations between different cultures have at times been marked and marred by misunderstanding,as has been seen in Europe,Africa and Asia,where a Christian disdain for Confucian tradition may have been paralleled by a Chinese ignorance of Christian ethics.