Producing locality: Space, houses and public culture in a Hindu festival in Malaysia
Victor Turner's concepts of liminality and communitas have left an indelible mark on anthropological studies on ritual. Basically, Turner argued that there is a dialectic between the mediacy of social structure (characterised as a 'closed society' or 'status system') and the...
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| Format: | Article |
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Sage
2001
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| Online Access: | http://eprints.sunway.edu.my/1/ |
| _version_ | 1848801718511337472 |
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| author | Yeoh, Seng Guan * |
| author_facet | Yeoh, Seng Guan * |
| author_sort | Yeoh, Seng Guan * |
| building | SU Institutional Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | Victor Turner's concepts of liminality and communitas have left an indelible mark on anthropological studies on ritual. Basically, Turner argued that there is a dialectic between the mediacy of social structure (characterised as a 'closed society' or 'status system') and the immediacy of communitas (an 'open society'). This article argues for a more fluid understanding of these kinds of social processes, drawing from Arjun Appadurai's char acterisation of a 'locality'as a 'complex phenomenological quality, constituted by a series of links between the sense of social immediacy, the technologies of interactivity and the relativity of contexts'. This is illustrated through the ethnographic description and analy sis of a local annual Hindu festival in an urban squatter settlement in Malaysia. While the mythic territoriality of the female deity primarily engenders symbolic boundary-making and life-sustaining activities, it also constitutes other layers of social spaces for organ isers and participants alike. Individual and corporate agendas overlap and criss-cross one another. Local knowledge is both parochial and constituted within the wider religious, social and political landscapes. Altogether, these kinds of activities contribute towards a 'public culture' of Hinduism in Malaysia, characterised both by differentiation and the semblance of communitas. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T21:11:55Z |
| format | Article |
| id | sunway-1 |
| institution | Sunway University |
| institution_category | Local University |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T21:11:55Z |
| publishDate | 2001 |
| publisher | Sage |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | sunway-12012-10-12T09:17:49Z http://eprints.sunway.edu.my/1/ Producing locality: Space, houses and public culture in a Hindu festival in Malaysia Yeoh, Seng Guan * BL Religion GT Manners and customs Victor Turner's concepts of liminality and communitas have left an indelible mark on anthropological studies on ritual. Basically, Turner argued that there is a dialectic between the mediacy of social structure (characterised as a 'closed society' or 'status system') and the immediacy of communitas (an 'open society'). This article argues for a more fluid understanding of these kinds of social processes, drawing from Arjun Appadurai's char acterisation of a 'locality'as a 'complex phenomenological quality, constituted by a series of links between the sense of social immediacy, the technologies of interactivity and the relativity of contexts'. This is illustrated through the ethnographic description and analy sis of a local annual Hindu festival in an urban squatter settlement in Malaysia. While the mythic territoriality of the female deity primarily engenders symbolic boundary-making and life-sustaining activities, it also constitutes other layers of social spaces for organ isers and participants alike. Individual and corporate agendas overlap and criss-cross one another. Local knowledge is both parochial and constituted within the wider religious, social and political landscapes. Altogether, these kinds of activities contribute towards a 'public culture' of Hinduism in Malaysia, characterised both by differentiation and the semblance of communitas. Sage 2001-01-01 Article PeerReviewed Yeoh, Seng Guan * (2001) Producing locality: Space, houses and public culture in a Hindu festival in Malaysia. Contributions to Indian Sociology, 35 (1). p. 33. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/006996670103500103 |
| spellingShingle | BL Religion GT Manners and customs Yeoh, Seng Guan * Producing locality: Space, houses and public culture in a Hindu festival in Malaysia |
| title | Producing locality: Space, houses and public culture in a Hindu festival in Malaysia |
| title_full | Producing locality: Space, houses and public culture in a Hindu festival in Malaysia |
| title_fullStr | Producing locality: Space, houses and public culture in a Hindu festival in Malaysia |
| title_full_unstemmed | Producing locality: Space, houses and public culture in a Hindu festival in Malaysia |
| title_short | Producing locality: Space, houses and public culture in a Hindu festival in Malaysia |
| title_sort | producing locality: space, houses and public culture in a hindu festival in malaysia |
| topic | BL Religion GT Manners and customs |
| url | http://eprints.sunway.edu.my/1/ http://eprints.sunway.edu.my/1/ |