The observation and analysis of EMOTION associated with ritual provides a special problem for social researchers, because we are no equipped to directly observe INTERNAL STATES. The external presentation of these states are always CULTURE BOUND from the perspective of anthropology, and therefore are not accurate and dependable measures of emotion.
- weeping
- physical displays
- stoicism
- self-harm
- laughing
- smiling
these are all culture-bound and conditioned by the social context, culture, and individual temperaments of individuals.
Radcliffe-Brown: Sentiment and Society
- The expression of emotion is culture bound
- Crying (AS A SYMBOL)
- optional, yet circumscribed
- required
- forbidden
- Ceremonial Weeping: example Adaman Islands
- not a spontaneous expression of emotion, but six different times when they sit and wail and tears stream down their faces and then just as quickly it stops!
- individual is in complete control-mandatory
- Radcliffe-Brown: "ritual weeping is an expression of that feeling of attachment between persons which is of such importance in the almost domestic life of Adaman society-rites affirm the existence of SOCIAL BONDS
- Reciprocal wailing-strengthen positive feelings between parties and create such feelings where they are absent
- when two friends or relatives meet after a long time, they embrace and wail
- at a peacemaking ceremony
- at the end of a period of mourning, friends (not mourners) weep with the mourners
- one-sided wailing-stresses continued sentiment of attachment despite the fact that social bonds are being altered or lessened.
- after a death, relatives and friends embrace the corpse and weep over it
- when the bones of the dead man or woman are recovered, they are wept over
- at various stages of initiation ceremonies, female relatives of a youth or girl weep over him or her
- Sadness is separate from the EXPRESSION of sadness
- Wailing CREATES the proper sentiment (Indian and Kabuki traditional theater has these same concepts, as does method acting).
- Rituals and their functions:
- "ceremonial customs area means by which a society acts upon its individual members and keeps alive in their minds a certain system of sentiments. Without the ceremony, these sentiments would NOT EXIST, and without them the social organization could not exist"
- Like Durkheim, R-B felt that rituals aroused similar sentiments in all its participants, and SOCIAL BONDING as a result of these sentiments. BUT here, the function of ritual is to PRESERVE THE STRUCTURE (society) ITSELF. What R-B looked at was the particulars of how this happened.
Professional Mourner's Taiwan
Professional Mourners of Sardinia
OPPARI of India (performed by lower castes)
North Koreans (must) weep over Kim Jong-il
Whaaaa? Great Britian?
- Ritual self-mutilation and wailing
- people gouge their faces, slash their thighs, burn their breasts, bludgeon their friends and wail.
- much of the violence is so extreme it is not uncommon to add to the death toll.
- But violence is not random, it has rules:
- Women: prohibited normal speech during mourning, do most of the wailing and are subject to most of the violence.
- one's relationship (kinship) determined the infliction of violence, and so it was meted out in a highly structured way
- Problem: we cannot assume that the actions stem from truly felt emotions, but we must assume that once expressed, the sentiment becomes real.
- claims the emotion they feel is not sorrow, but togetherness! (see film)
- others feel moral pressure to put their behaviors in line with the sentiments of the bereaved.
- why do the emotions expressed at funerals differ from culture to culture
- why are emotional responses in funerals never random-prescribed
- what are the social dynamics that preserve the conventions of funeral behavior
- Funeral customs among the Nyakyusa
- obligatory to attend based on relationship, others may attend and are welcome
- gender divide on expressing grief
- women wail
- women sit in or around the house with the corpse and wail until the time of burial. Wailing is intense and most intense by old women who may wail continuously four 4 days
- men dance
- Expressions of fear (spirit contact is dangerous)-women wail because they are fearful
- fear of afterworld
- fear of spirits
- fear of not performing the ceremonies properly
- fear of contagious disease
- fear of witchcraft
- Men dance with increasing energy and numbers (war dance) as a sign of mourning after the wailing. male strength and courage are emphasized in comparison to female fear and trembling.
- men's grief is tolerated through dance-relief of certain UNBEARABLE EMOTIONS
- leads to men fighting or young men and women having sex as an expression of their power and virility
- could express antipathies all ready under the surface of social relationships (both fighting and unsanctioned sexual relationships)
- confront death with an ASSERTION OF LIFE
Clifford Geertz: Javanese Fatalism
- Javanese funeral as calm rather than full of sentiment and emotion like these
- proper state is IKLAS, willed affectlessness, so that the deceased might properly transition to the world of the dead-evenness of feeling
- death holds no great terror or anxiety -fatalistic
Culture and Sentiment: patterned by culture and a reflection of cultural beliefs about life and death
Maori Haka:
Maori Haka:
Haka is performed for all occasions to celebrate the emotions of a significant life event. From wars to weddings and funerals, Haka are traditionally performed by a group of men, women participate as part of the chorus or in separate Haka. It’s a forceful dance with heavy stomping of feet, trembling hand movements, dilated eyes and protruding tongues and is generally not performed uniformly by all the participants. Maori believe the whole body should speak during a Haka to convey a particular message, whether it’s to welcome someone or to say good bye when a fellow Maori passes.
Traditional Maori believe that when death occurs the person’s spirit travels to the Pohutukawa tree which sits on the crest of Cape Reinga on the farthest Northend of the Island.The spirit never leaves the body until the person has been buried. Once arrived, the spirit slides down one of the roots of the tree into the sea before rejoining their ancestors.
Each Haka has its own meaning and some are very personal and known only to the performers.
Today Haka are still performed at funerals of Maori people to express grief while instilling strength and determination into the participants so that they are able to perform with the power and force that’s required to express the passion, vigor and identity of their people.
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