Material Culture and the Magical Power of Dance Objects

Abstract

This paper takes up the call by scholars such as Alfred Gell to consider objects of material culture as objects, by examining them in the context of production, circulation and reception. Because they are unadorned and without visual interest, langarol, the hand‐held artefacts used in some New Ireland dance performances, do not lend themselves to modes of analysis that see cultural objects as surrogate texts, the hidden meanings of which can be ‘read’. This very ‘lack’ enables us more readily to discern their significance, which lies in their magical potency and in the performance of their creator, the shaman, in attracting, wielding and revealing his awesome power. The power sought is less power over others and more power to — the ability to realise projects that can elicit effects. If consciousness and body are one, such achievements are to be understood as embodiments of intentionality and agency. It is through the production and wielding of such objects that people make themselves.

Engendering Gesture: Gender Performativity and Bodily Regimes from New Ireland

“…Using these means having contact with powerful and dangerous substances and spirit beings that causes violent and uncontrollable shaking in the dancers. Such disorderly bodily movements indicate a male dancer's supreme effort to withstand these dangerous forces, and his ability to do so (see Eves 2004Eves , 2009aEves , 2009b.…”

“…From that time on, women were forbidden to dance or to see the tubuan prior to its display. 4 These dances, the most powerful of the magical contests and displays held at Lelet mortuary feasts and other events, are displays of masculine power that pit men against men in competitive battles (Eves 2004(Eves , 2009a(Eves , 2009b; see also Nachman 1981). A great deal of magic and sorcery is associated with men's dances in general, and the tubuan dance in particular, and the seclusion and fasting regimens ensure the dancers are protected against attacks of sorcery as well as against the heaviness of women.…”