The Illusion of Reality and the Reality of Illusion: Staged Performance, Trickery, and Prestidigitation in Ritual

This article reflects on the role of staged and rehearsed performance, trickery, and prestidigitation in ritual, acts that many anthropologists have observed and registered in their ethnographic accounts but most often took to be fraud, and consequently were discarded from their analyses and interpr...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of religion in Africa
Main Author: Palmeirim, Manuela 19XX- (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Brill 2021
In: Journal of religion in Africa
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains:B Zanzibar / Swahili (People) / Healing / Ritual / Magic / Deception
RelBib Classification:AD Sociology of religion; religious policy
AE Psychology of religion
AG Religious life; material religion
BS Traditional African religions
KBN Sub-Saharan Africa
Further subjects:B Swahili
B Ritual
B trickery
B Healing
B Sorcery
Online Access: Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
Description
Summary:This article reflects on the role of staged and rehearsed performance, trickery, and prestidigitation in ritual, acts that many anthropologists have observed and registered in their ethnographic accounts but most often took to be fraud, and consequently were discarded from their analyses and interpretations. The curative episode narrated here as a point of departure was intentionally arranged beforehand by the practitioners to make-believe. It is considered in the context of other deluding and simulative acts that are often engaged in healing ritualized behaviour to address several questions. Is deception an intrinsic property of ritual? Do these acts necessarily entail the judgment of true or false? How can they coexist peacefully in the healer’s mind with seriousness and conviction?
ISSN:1570-0666
Contains:Enthalten in: Journal of religion in Africa
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1163/15700666-12340217