Ritual Textuality - Pattern and Motion in Performance

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."

About the author

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.

Summary

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."

Additional text

Overall, this is an intriguing and meticulous study, developed over years of fieldwork, which brings together widely differing social practices in a compelling account of ritual movements. Tomlinson convincingly proposes entextualization as the right intellectual tool to account for the shifting and repeating patterns which we find in ritual performances of various kinds, and performs effective close readings of ritual situations in the process. Jem Bloomfield, quiteirregular

Product details

• Authors: Matt Tomlinson, Matt (Australian Research Council Futur Tomlinson, Tomlinson Matt
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 24.04.2014
• EAN: 9780199341139
• ISBN: 978-0-19-934113-9
• No. of pages: 186
• Series: Oxford Ritual Studies
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Religion/theology > Practical theology; Social sciences, law, business > Sociology > Miscellaneous; SOCIAL SCIENCE / Sociology of Religion, Anthropology, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Anthropology / General, Religion & beliefs, Religion and beliefs, Tribal religions, Indigenous, ethnic and folk religions and spiritual beliefs, RELIGION / Folk & Tribal