Facing the Unexplainable
Challenges of Communication and Understanding in the Anthropological Analysis of Ritual
Keywords:
anthropology, capoeira, sensitive experience, inexplicable, ritualAbstract
The aim of this article is to analyze the issue of the inexplicable in the anthropological analysis of ritual. Communication problems exist with the symbolic elements and knowledge transmitted to the participants within the ritual context. Because the experience in this context is intense and outside the realm of everyday life, the article's central argument states that the transmission of ritual knowledge often occurs immediately as a non-verbal sensory experience, where participants interact with non-human entities bestowed with agency, affecting the performative dynamics. To support this argument, an ethnographic description of the Afro-Brazilian ritual of capoeira is made, where there are limits in the transmission of knowledge and where the power of leaders is defined as a discovery of an inexplicable, mysterious and secret force, which affects their lives and their social relationships. Finally, the text describes the way in which ritual practices such as capoeira and its encounter with the inexplicable affect the lives of participants over time.
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