The Representation of Passion in Muharram Ritual Ceremony

The present research uses the method of analytical anthropology and Geertz’ analytical theory for the representation[1] of the elements of Muharram rituals as the lived religion, with emphasis on the element of “passion”. The represented rituals are siah-pushi (funeral black-wearing), sineh-zani (street procession), zanjir-zani (self-flagellation with chain), qameh-zani (cutting one’s scalp with blade), ta’ziyeh (passion play), and qorbani (sacrifice). Rituals are studied as meaningful and systematic religious actions considered as culture; the article proves that Muharram ceremony reproduces the cultural identity in the sense that a person’s mentality is materialized through it. In this research, it is claimed that passion and motion are the spirit of rituals, the nature of Muharram ceremony has a tendency towards mimesis and visibility, and such a ritual ceremony attaches the past to the present; it not only is the identity-giving element and the re-enforcer agent of social structure, but also has proved its potential in reproducing morale, social communication, in-group interactions, social linkages, communal consciousness, and religious beliefs.
[1] Representation: pretending, showing again, explaining, expressing (Amid). Representation accords different meanings in each setting. In anthropology, it denotes to how people produce meaning in each culture. In this article, representation means distinguishing a set of unwritten social contracts that those who perform rituals in Muharram ceremony have placed their rituals upon. Representation is a way to evaluate the meaning latent in context. It forms the world, the ways of striving in it, and the methods of communicating in it. It is used for compensating the gaps in a setting called symbolic order.