INSIDE THE GURU'S GATE - Anpere

action. 714 These constructs may involve interpretations of religious beliefs, conceptions,
and values that people superimpose on action. In the search for meanings of
ritualized acts one must attend the processes of making and drawing divergent
meanings from the world around.
Humphrey & Laidlaw specify two levels of imputed meanings: individual purposes
and social purposes that are shared by people. The actors may have conscious
and unconscious reasons for conducting certain acts and actively search for interpretations.
On an individual level people often (but far from always) feel impelled to
look for symbolic and other meanings to apprehend the action performed. In verbal
statements they negotiate their reasons and explanations for engaging in these acts
and thereby link action to a multitude of possible meanings. There may also be an
authoritative (oral and written) tradition, sustained by learned specialists, which
propagates and institutionalizes public meanings, goals, and theories of ritual conducts.
Rituals can be buttressed by centuries of exegetical traditions that aim to explain
the meanings of the practice. Humphrey & Laidlaw maintain that individual
and social purposes often have different cognitive qualities: socially held aims are
more often expositions of theological points which specialists attempt to tie down to
particular action, whereas people’s own purposes for performing rituals are only
partly aligned with these conventional motives. 715 What people do when they link a
particular belief with action is that they represent an idea to themselves and to others.
In the Sikh tradition, the written code of conduct (Sikh Rahit Maryada) is a modern
attempt to specify the religious behavior required of all faithful Sikhs. The manual
presents a collection of publicly acknowledged ceremonies by which Sikhs should
celebrate a new-born child, contract a juridical marriage, bid farewell to deceased
family members, and become a member of the Khalsa community. The Sikh Rahit
Maryada presumes a conventional understanding of the social effects of fulfilling
these ceremonies. Local Sikhs in Varanasi will notice that there is only one way to get
married according to Sikh customs: the man and woman who are joined together in
wedlock must make four circumambulations around the Guru Granth Sahib to the
tune of the gurbani composition Char lavan. The obvious social effects of the performance
on both an individual and structural level are the couple’s unification in a legal
and morally valid marriage and the transformation of their social status to husband
and wife. The Sikh tradition has already stipulated the formal procedure and the
social effects which can be expected from a wedding. The bridal couple needs merely
to confirm to pre-existing conventions by committing to the constitutive rules of the
714
A discourse is a concept which places people’s actions on an abstract level, as floating over,
enveloping, and directing acts in order to explain individual or social expressions. In Habbe’s
definition, a discourse is language and acts that are structured according to particular ideological
patterns which our statements and acts comply with when we act in different social and
epistemological domains. Each of these ideologically meaningful patterns can be called a discourse
(Habbe 2005: 71).
715
Humphrey & Laidlaw 1994: 185 ‒ 186.
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Published on www.anpere.net in May 2008