Somatic Coordination: An Ethnography of Religious Entrainment in Christian and Neo-Pagan Rituals
How do modern ritual coordinators intentionally establish liminal spaces and significant ritual experiences? In this article, intentional organization of ritual experiences is examined using material from three disparate ethnographic cases. Responding to Peter Beyer’s call to consider contemporary n...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Oxford Univ. Press
[2018]
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| In: |
Sociology of religion
Year: 2018, Volume: 79, Issue: 1, Pages: 108-128 |
| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Christianity
/ Religious community
/ Neopaganism
/ Spirituality
/ Senses
/ Ritual
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| Online Access: |
Volltext (Verlag) Volltext (doi) |
| Summary: | How do modern ritual coordinators intentionally establish liminal spaces and significant ritual experiences? In this article, intentional organization of ritual experiences is examined using material from three disparate ethnographic cases. Responding to Peter Beyer’s call to consider contemporary nontraditional religious rituals and Meredith McGuire’s call to focus on the sensory in religion, I focus on the sensory experiences of three contemporary religious rituals in different traditions. I examine the ways entrainment of embodied experience worked to build shared intent, drawing boundaries and feeding on entrainment from the disparate backgrounds of attendees to engage both seekers and organizational members. Through ritual coordinators and participants’ sensory reports, the question of what constitutes ritual efficacy is examined. I argue that it is in the points where participant and organizer experiences meet or fail to meet, that the boundary work of coordinators in ritual becomes essential. |
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| ISSN: | 1759-8818 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Sociology of religion
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1093/socrel/srx054 |