We found a match
Your institution may have access to this item. Find your institution then sign in to continue.
- Title
Silence, Noise, and Ritual.
- Authors
Weller, Robert P.
- Abstract
This essay begins from Rodney Needham’s observation of a crosscultural pattern where percussive noise tends to accompany moments of ritual transition. Noise, that is, creates a frame around ritual, marking it off as something separate from ordinary life. I go on to contrast ritual uses of noise (uninterpretable sound) and silence (uninterpretable quiet). One example is a comparison of Pentecostal glossolalia and Quaker silence, and a second focuses on rural Taiwanese funerals in the 1970s. In both cases, silence and noise differ significantly in how much space they offer people for interpretation, but both help to create the rhythms of ritual and thus of social life. They do not, however, work in the same ways. If noise creates the frame, as Needham argued, silence often breaks through frames. However, silence is also fragile and easily broken, while noise can simply absorb interruptions. That is why silences are quite rare in ritual contexts.
- Subjects
RITES &; ceremonies; RITUAL; NOISE; QUAKERS; FUNERALS; RHYTHM
- Publication
Taiwan Journal of Anthropology, 2023, Vol 21, Issue 1, p1
- ISSN
1727-1878
- Publication type
Article