Sonic spaces, spiritual bodies: The affective experience of the roots reggae soundsystem

• Main Author: WOODS, Orlando
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2019
• Subjects: spirituality; sonic spaces; embodiment; affect; reggae; Rastafari; Digital Humanities; Religion
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soss_research/2685; https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/soss_research/article/3942/viewcontent/Sonic_spaces_spiritual_bodies_av.pdf
• Institution: Singapore Management University

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.