Ritual textuality : pattern and motion in performance

193 Pages·2014·1.52 MB·English

by  Matt Tomlinson

Ritual Textuality
Series Editors
Ronald Grimes
Ute Hüsken, University of Oslo
Eric Venbrux, Radboud University Nijmegen
THE PROBLEM OF RITUAL EFFICACY
Edited by William S. Sax, Johannes Quack, and Jan Weinhold
PERFORMING THE REFORMATION
Public Ritual in the City of Luther
Barry Stephenson
RITUAL, MEDIA, AND CONFLICT
Edited by Ronald L. Grimes, Ute Hüsken, Udo Simon, and Eric Venbrux
KNOWING BODY, MOVING MIND
Ritualizing and Learning at Two Buddhist Centers
Patricia Q. Campbell
SUBVERSIVE SPIRITUALITIES
How Rituals Enact the World
Frédérique Apffel-Marglin
NEGOTIATING RITES
Edited by Ute Hüsken and Frank Neubert
THE DANCING DEAD
Ritual and Religion among the Kapsiki/Higi of North Cameroon and Northeastern
Nigeria
Walter E.A. van Beek
LOOKING FOR MARY MAGDALENE
Alternative Pilgrimage and Ritual Creativity at Catholic Shrines in France
Anna Fedele
THE DYSFUNCTION OF RITUAL IN EARLY CONFUCIANISM
Michael David Kaulana Ing
A DIFFERENT MEDICINE
Postcolonial Healing in the Native American Church
Joseph D. Calabrese
NARRATIVES OF SORROW AND DIGNITY
Japanese Women, Pregnancy Loss, and Modern Rituals of Grieving
Bardwell L. Smith
MAKING THINGS BETTER
A Workbook on Ritual, Cultural Values, and Environmental Behavior
A.David Napier
RITUAL TEXTUALITY
Pattern and Motion in Performance
Matt Tomlinson
Ritual
textuality
Pattern and Motion in Performance
z
Matt toMlinson
1
3
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ISBN: 978–0–19–934113–9 (hbk)
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Contents
List of Figures vii
Preface ix
Acknowledgments xi
1. Into Motion 1
2. The Holy Ghost Is About to Fall 22
3. Crossed Signs 48
4. Happy Deaths Are Public Deaths 72
5. A Chorus of Assent Will Lift Us All 92
6. Full Stop 118
Notes 127
Bibliography 145
Index 163

List of Figures
1.1 Map of Fiji. 11
1.2 Tavuki village, Kadavu, 2006. 12
1.3 Suva, 2009. 12
1.4 Methodist church, Tavuki, 2010. 16
1.5 Centenary Church (Methodist), Suva, 2009. 17
1.6 Sacred Heart Cathedral (Catholic), Suva, 2009. 18
1.7 World Harvest Centre (Christian Mission Fellowship),
Suva, 2010. 19
2.1 Pentecostal crusade in Albert Park, 2008. 23
2.2 People being called for baptism during the Albert
Park crusade. 33
3.1 Shop advertising Kadavu kava, Suva, 2011. 59
3.2 Kava-drinking session, Nagonedau, Kadavu, 2006. 62
3.3 Jean Charlot’s “Black Christ” with kava bowl, Navunibitu,
Ra, 2009. 69
5.1 Part of page 3 in the Fiji Times, April 12, 2009. 100
5.2 Cover of the Fijian language version of the Peoples Charter. 112
5.3 Billboard promoting the Peoples Charter, Sigatoka, 2010. 113

Preface
This book is based on twenty-eight months of research conducted in
Fiji between 1996 and 2011. In Tavuki Bay, Kadavu Island, I carried out
village-based ethnographic fieldwork during parts of 1996, 1998–1999,
2003, and 2005–2006. In Suva, Fiji’s capital, I conducted ethnographic
and archival research during parts of 2008, 2009, 2010, and 2011.
My primary fieldwork method is to record and analyze speech, primar-
ily speech during church services. In doing so, I aim to understand peo-
ple’s beliefs and practices regarding religious authority and the efficacy of
ritual. In archival research, too, I focus on the ways that language is used
for religious purposes. My justification for taking this approach is that in
Christianity in Fiji—and especially in Methodism, the focus of most of my
work—a sense of effective religious practice depends heavily on the use of
particular forms of speech. Eventful things like sermons, prayers, and sto-
rytelling are the vital substance of Fijian Methodism; they are what make
religion matter to people. In Chapter 2, I tell the story of being dazed by
my encounter with Pentecostalism at a riotous “crusade” in a public park,
an event in which Christianity’s sensational embodied elements came to
the fore: running and dancing, raising hands to heaven, and applauding
God loudly and often, a style of worship sharply different from that of
Methodism. Even as I appreciated the force of such intensely embodied
practices, however, I could not help but notice that the Pentecostal preach-
er’s speech—specifically, his sermon and altar call—played the pivotal role
in turning all of that kinetic energy into a coherent ritual event that was
meant to be considered an effective encounter with divinity.
Each of the following chapters is based on a different kind of relationship
with the communities involved. In Chapter 2, I was a detached observer at a
public event. I stood and clapped along with the Pentecostals, but I am not
Pentecostal myself, I did not speak in tongues, and I did not get dunked in
the baptism tank. My approach to the performance, in which I focus strictly
on the textual patterns unfolding in the preacher’s speech, might frustrate