Chapter Seven. Collective Effervescence, Numinous Experience Or Proto-Religious Phenomena? Moshing With Durkheim, Schleiermacher And Otto

2010 ◽  
pp. 107-127 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Collective Effervescence ◽  
Numinous Experience

scholarly journals Cocaine Rituals in Club Culture: Intensifying and Controlling Alcohol Intoxication

2021 ◽  
pp. 002204262098651
Author(s):  
Marit Edland-Gryt
Keyword(s):  
Young Adult ◽  
Young People ◽  
Alcohol Intoxication ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
Cocaine Use ◽  
Interaction Rituals ◽  
Collective Effervescence ◽  
Drinking Culture ◽  
Cocaine Users ◽  
And Control

Clubbing is an important part of the nighttime economy, and cocaine use is, for some young people, an essential part of this clubbing culture. However, the interaction rituals around the use of powder cocaine in this context remain understudied. This study is based on qualitative interviews with young adult recreational cocaine users ( n = 28) and explores how they use cocaine in club settings, in relation to rituals and drinking culture. The analysis identified three main explanations for using cocaine: (a) unity with friends because of shared transgression, (b) the high as a “collective effervescence,” and (c) the possibility to control, extend, and intensify drinking to intoxication. These three explanations illustrate how cocaine rituals were deeply integrated in drinking-to-intoxication rituals, and how the illegality of cocaine use reinforced feelings of unity with friends. In the nighttime economy, cocaine use and its related rituals are used to intensify and control alcohol-fuelled partying.

Effervescence Accelerators: Barriers to Outsiders in Christian Interaction Rituals

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Scott Draper
Keyword(s):  
Social Dynamics ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Strong Support ◽  
Social Solidarity ◽  
Latter Day Saints ◽  
Religious Rituals ◽  
Interaction Rituals ◽  
Collective Effervescence ◽  
Social Dynamic ◽  
Christian Congregations

Abstract In interaction ritual theory, barriers to outsiders are cues that communicate who is and is not excluded from a ritual. Prior research on religious rituals has established strong support for the hypothesis that barriers promote collective effervescence and social solidarity. Questions remain, though, regarding how this social dynamic impacts the practices, identities, missions, and conflicts of congregations who strive to be inclusive. We conducted microsociological analysis of rituals based on participant-observation and focus groups at six Christian congregations: Jehovah’s Witnesses, Latter-day Saints, Christian Scientists, Brethren, Catholics, and Episcopalians. Barriers were built in all the rituals, bringing congregational distinction through contrast with different types of outsiders. We also observed effervescent moments where barriers were low and inconsequential, suggesting that severe barriers are unnecessary. Rather, the special ritual function of barriers is to provide instant jolts of effervescence, especially when other social dynamics are failing.

Revisiting Brehier – Differences between Plotinus’ Enneads and Advaita Vedānta

Philotheos ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-25
Author(s):  
Deepa Majumdar ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Philosophical Tradition ◽  
Advaita Vedānta ◽  
Advaita Vedanta ◽  
Numinous Experience ◽  
Key Issues ◽  
Concrete Concepts

Bréhier revives the possibility of Indian Upaniṣadic influence on Plotinus, specifically in the area of mysticism – asking what in Plotinus’ philosophy is foreign with respect to the Greek philosophical tradition. After Bréhier there are vigorous defenses of Plotinus’ Greek origins – not all of which respond directly to the key issues he raises, or address Plotinus’ mysticism specifically. My purpose in this paper is not to answer Bréhier, but to revisit him, for the purpose of delineating paradigmatic differences between Plotinus’ metaphysics and that in Advaita Vedānta. Starting with differences in their respective texts and conceptions of the Divine, I explore concrete concepts (Māyā, tolma, the forms, gun․as, etc.), so unique to each tradition that they comprise the heart and essence of their differences. I assert as well that their metaphysical distinctions imply dissimilarities in their modes of mysticism. In this effort I uphold numinous experience above historical influences. This paper therefore has four parts: (1) Revisiting Bréhier, Armstrong, and Others; (2) Defining Terms: Texts, Methods, and Conceptions of the Divine (Striking Similarities); (3) Contrasting Advaita Vedānta and the Enneads (Paradigmatic Differences); and (4) Conclusion.

Go to More Parties? Social Occasions as Home to Unexpected Turning Points in Life Trajectories

2018 ◽  
Vol 82 (1) ◽  
pp. 51-74 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alice Goffman
Keyword(s):  
Life Course ◽  
Social Inequality ◽  
Qualitative Data ◽  
Turning Points ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Emotional Energy ◽  
Life Trajectories ◽  
Time Out ◽  
Collective Effervescence ◽  
The Life Course

Reviving classical attention to gathering times as sites of transformation and building on more recent microsociological work, this paper uses qualitative data to show how social occasions open up unexpected bursts of change in the lives of those attending. They do this by pulling people into a special realm apart from normal life, generating collective effervescence and emotional energy, bringing usually disparate people together, forcing public rankings, and requiring complex choreography, all of which combine to make occasions sites of inspiration and connection as well as sites of offense and violation. Rather than a time out from “real” life, social occasions hold an outsized potential to unexpectedly shift the course that real life takes. Implications for microsociology, social inequality, and the life course are considered.

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