Strangely perhaps, but not so strange if you think about it, from my perspective as a student of religion (in a broad sense), this awesome drumming and dance reflects, it seems to me, what one of the founders of sociology, Emile Durkheim, called “collective effervescence,” a kind of social unconscious, a primeval energy or force underlying all social life. I see here an electric-like social energy Durkheim found in ancient rituals (see his The Elementary Forms of Religious Life [1912]), but also, I would add, this electric-like social energy can be found in some churches, and even in secular spheres such as local bars with smokin live bands and modern rock festivals -- a social energy that has the capacity to and often does forge new symbols and shared ideals of social life. Just think of the role music played in the civil rights movement, especially gospel, folk and soul. For Durkheim, religions exist because human beings exist only as social beings and in a humanly shaped world. He saw religion as an eminently social thing, which such drumming and dancing as this exemplify, or so it seems to me.
Posted on: Thu, 01 Jan 2015 18:25:03 +0000
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