Ritual Textuality
Pattern and Motion in Performance
Seiten
2014
Oxford University Press Inc (Verlag)
978-0-19-934114-6 (ISBN)
Oxford University Press Inc (Verlag)
978-0-19-934114-6 (ISBN)
How do rituals achieve their effects? Matt Tomlinson approaches this classic question from a new angle, arguing that participants condition their own expectations of ritual success by interactively creating distinct textual patterns. He presents vivid examples from Fiji, ranging from a Pentecostal "crusade" to missionary reports of "happy deaths."
A classic question in studies of ritual is how ritual performances achieve-or fail to achieve-their effects. In this pathbreaking book, Matt Tomlinson argues that participants condition their own expectations of ritual success by interactively creating distinct textual patterns of sequence, conjunction, contrast, and substitution. Drawing on long-term research in Fiji, the book presents in-depth studies of each of these patterns, taken from a wide range of settings: a fiery, soul-saving Pentecostal crusade; relaxed gatherings at which people drink the narcotic beverage kava; deathbeds at which missionaries eagerly await the signs of good Christians' "happy deaths"; and the monologic pronouncements of a military-led government determined to make the nation speak in a single voice. In each of these cases, Tomlinson also examines the broad ideologies of motion which frame participants' ritual actions, such as Pentecostals' beliefs that effective worship requires ecstatic movement like jumping, dancing, and clapping, and nineteenth-century missionaries' insistence that the journeys of the soul in the afterlife should follow a new path. By approaching ritual as an act of "entextualization"-in which the flow of discourse is turned into object-like texts-while analyzing the ways people expect words, things, and selves to move in performance, this book presents a new and compelling way to understand the efficacy of ritual action.
A classic question in studies of ritual is how ritual performances achieve-or fail to achieve-their effects. In this pathbreaking book, Matt Tomlinson argues that participants condition their own expectations of ritual success by interactively creating distinct textual patterns of sequence, conjunction, contrast, and substitution. Drawing on long-term research in Fiji, the book presents in-depth studies of each of these patterns, taken from a wide range of settings: a fiery, soul-saving Pentecostal crusade; relaxed gatherings at which people drink the narcotic beverage kava; deathbeds at which missionaries eagerly await the signs of good Christians' "happy deaths"; and the monologic pronouncements of a military-led government determined to make the nation speak in a single voice. In each of these cases, Tomlinson also examines the broad ideologies of motion which frame participants' ritual actions, such as Pentecostals' beliefs that effective worship requires ecstatic movement like jumping, dancing, and clapping, and nineteenth-century missionaries' insistence that the journeys of the soul in the afterlife should follow a new path. By approaching ritual as an act of "entextualization"-in which the flow of discourse is turned into object-like texts-while analyzing the ways people expect words, things, and selves to move in performance, this book presents a new and compelling way to understand the efficacy of ritual action.
Matt Tomlinson has conducted anthropological research in Fiji since 1996, focusing on the intersections of culture, language, ritual, and politics. After receiving his Ph.D. in 2002, he taught for three years at Bowdoin College, and then became a lecturer at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. He is currently an Australian Research Council Future Fellow in Anthropology at The Australian National University in Canberra.
Table of Contents ; List of Figures ; Preface and Acknowledgments ; 1. Into Motion ; 2. The Holy Ghost Is About to Fall ; 3. Crossed Signs ; 4. Happy Deaths Are Public Deaths ; 5. A Chorus of Assent Will Lift Us All ; 6. Full Stop ; Notes ; Bibliography
| Erscheint lt. Verlag | 17.4.2014 |
|---|---|
| Reihe/Serie | Oxford Ritual Studies |
| Zusatzinfo | 15 illus. |
| Verlagsort | New York |
| Sprache | englisch |
| Maße | 231 x 155 mm |
| Gewicht | 272 g |
| Themenwelt | Religion / Theologie ► Christentum ► Liturgik / Homiletik |
| Geisteswissenschaften ► Religion / Theologie ► Weitere Religionen | |
| Sozialwissenschaften ► Ethnologie | |
| Sozialwissenschaften ► Soziologie | |
| ISBN-10 | 0-19-934114-1 / 0199341141 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-0-19-934114-6 / 9780199341146 |
| Zustand | Neuware |
| Haben Sie eine Frage zum Produkt? |
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