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...
Main Author: | |
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Format: | Electronic Article |
Language: | English |
Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
Journals Online & Print: | |
Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
Published: |
Brill
2021
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In: |
Journal of religion in Africa
Year: 2021, Volume: 51, Issue: 3/4, Pages: 452-478 |
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Zanzibar
/ Swahili (People)
/ Healing
/ Ritual
/ Magic
/ Deception
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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) |
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? |
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ISSN: | 1570-0666 |
Contains: | Enthalten in: Journal of religion in Africa
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Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1163/15700666-12340217 |