The problem with ritual is it can quickly become the totality of the thing, in the way that enlightenment C of E bishops say a deity is an important notion for describing the human condition's relationship with nature and the virgin birth is an expression of man's ideas of purity. I prefer the possibly flawed original, even when it defies reason, to a socio-analytic reading that puts custom and practice before substance.

You might argue that in a rationalist age the folk revival has become the vehicle for a communal expression of the numinous with apostolic figures replaced by collectors spreading the true word. I just don't happen to think that's what folk is all about.