Roger Ames elaborates on this insight by noting that the very conception of personhood in
Confucianism
as a specific matrix of roles will not tolerate our assertion of natural equality. There is
another sense of equality, however, that is relevant. Although persons stand in hierarchical
relationships that reflect fundamental differences among them, ritual practice serves the
notion of qualitative parity in several ways. First, the dynamic nature of roles means that
privileges and duties within one's community tend to even up across a lifetime. One's duties
as a child are balanced by one's privileges as a parent. One's field of relationships over time
produce of degree of parity in what is perceived as the most vital source of humanity•one's
human relations (Ames, 208).