One of the most important understandings I came to in my study of religions, is that theory and practice can vary considerably, and in ways nobody explicitly points out. You cannot learn much about, say, the religions of Native Americans (really, Early Americans would be more apt), without knowing how their myths were incorporated into rituals, and daily life. Everybody wants to read the myths, but that isn’t where the action is, figuratively or literally.
Could one, as an example, deduce Catholic liturgy from the New Testament? Of course not. I doubt seriously all five of the so-called Pillars of Islam are found in the Koran. Much of it is likely in the Hadith.
What I think one must grasp about academics is that, regardless of their inability to create and propagate useful ideas, their SOCIAL setting is one that is congenial to them, and one which is characterized by a common culture–leftist assumptions about the world–that binds them.
Everywhere, if you look, there are rituals. I would submit that conference calls are a ritual, one that quite usually defeats the purpose of productivity.