This paper argues that ritual and other cultural forms can be validly compared to one another only at the level of their meaning and that in order to do this one must begin by setting them in the sociocultural context which gives them meaning. A ritual at a hospital for the rehabilitation of drug addicts and alcoholics is described, analyzed, and discussed in terms of cross cultural comparison. It is concluded from this discussion that the first task of the ethnographer is to understand the semantics of action within the system being observed and to systematically report this abstraction from the data. When similar operations have been performed for numerous cultures, genuine cultural comparison and a body of valid scientific knowledge will develop. (TS)