Publication Type
Journal Article
Version
acceptedVersion
Publication Date
3-2019
Abstract
This paper advances a new understanding of spirituality within thegeographies of religion. It builds on the premise that spirituality is latentwithin every body, and argues that it becomes manifest in response to anaffective experience. Such experiences are often sensory in nature,rendering spiritual affect an embodied phenomenon that can be understoodthrough the concept of an “embodied hierophany”. By exploring theaffective experience of the roots reggae soundsystem, this paper showshow sonic spaces can enable processes of spiritual engagement. It drawson an analysis of four documentary films about soundsystem culture toshow how situations of sonic dominance can bring about an embodiedhierophany. In such situations, spirituality is experienced outside of theascriptive framework of formal religious belief, and is therefore a moreself-directed form of spiritual awakening.
Keywords
spirituality, sonic spaces, embodiment, affect, reggae, Rastafari
Discipline
Digital Humanities | Religion
Research Areas
Humanities
Publication
Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers
Volume
44
Issue
1
First Page
181
Last Page
194
ISSN
0020-2754
Identifier
10.1111/tran.12270
Publisher
Wiley: 24 months
Citation
WOODS, Orlando.(2019). Sonic spaces, spiritual bodies: The affective experience of the roots reggae soundsystem. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 44(1), 181-194.
Available at: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soss_research/2685
Copyright Owner and License
Authors
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Additional URL
https://doi.org/10.1111/tran.12270