RITUEL INTERAKTION OG ILLUSION: En relationel tilgang

Abstract

By providing an explicitly formal account of

three ethnographic examples – the Naven rite

of the Iatmul (Papua New Guinea),

Amerindian shamanism as illustrated by the

Kuna (Panama), and African male initiation

among the Wagania (Democratic Republic of

Congo) – the authors outline a “relational”

approach to the analysis of ritual action.

They suggest that the illusion implied by the

effectiveness of ritual action derives not

from the inherent nature of the items of

behaviour involved, but from the particular

kind of internal consistency that is imposed

by the interactive context in which they

occur. Thus, the singular realities constructed

through ritual performances are built up

and sustained, neither by their functional or

semantic properties nor by their syntactic

features (for example repetition or

fragmentation), nor by qualities depending

on pragmatic considerations (performativity,

staging procedures, etc.). Rather, they are

constructed primarily by the establishment

of a particular type of relational configuration.