Secular and Scared Rituals-Music
-‘Many cultures do not enforce a rigid separation between the sacred and secular. Sometimes there is no separation whatsoever.’—Many tribes use song and ritual as a never-ending part of life. An example of this would be the Pygmy tribes of southern Africa, songs such as Mongombi, Anduwa and Bobangi are captured in the Unesco Collection ‘Musical Sources’ LP.
Mongombi-Shouts uttered while hunting with nets
Anduwa-Song performed during the return from a hunt
Bobangi-Song to celebrate the catching of game
–Performance artist Anna Halprin puts focus on everyday rituals such as eating, sleeping, greeting, touching, moving—and invent new rituals that honour the body and the earth. Eg-‘Halprins 1987 Planetary Dance, a two-day dance ritual, consisted of groups of dancers in 25 countries moving in synchrony to make a wave of dance circling the earth.’
-Halprin says “Dancing for others, opportunity to find the peace within. All indigenous dances are for the health and healing of the whole community.”—Dancing is a participatory form of communication or expression through actions rather than words. Even from a scientific perspective dancing is exercise, exercise helps release endorphins, thus making the dancer feel happier.
“Your body becomes an instrument”
Structure, Functions, Processes and Experiences
Rituals and ritualising can be understood from at least four perspectives:
- Structures-What rituals look and sound like, how they are performed, how they use space, and who performs them.
- Functions-What rituals accomplish for individuals, groups and cultures.
- Processes-the underlying dynamic driving rituals; how rituals enact and bring about change.
- Experiences-what its like to be in a ritual.