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Percussion and Transition

Author(s): Rodney NeedhamReviewed work(s):Source: Man, New Series, Vol. 2, No. 4 (Dec., 1967), pp. 606-614Published by: Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and IrelandStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2799343 .

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PERCUSSION AND TRANSITION

RODNEY NEEDHAM

UniversityfOxford

'Lafacultee sentirst apremierefacult6el'ame' Laromiguierei826, I, 86).

This articlendicates problemwhich eems o relate o mattersf fundamentalimportancen social anthropology.he present bservationsre tentative,nd

I am not n a position o constructformal rgument. oreover, have deliber-ately itedas few authoritiess possible, artly orthe reason hat he relevantliteratures so immense hat can neitherist t all nor pretend oknow what sbest n t, ndpartly ecause he ntended orce fthis rticles that think very-bodywill recognise tonce whatphenomenand nstitutionst s about andwillnot needanydirectiono pertinentacts.What hopefor speciallyn publishingthese ncertainemarkssthat olleagueswill helptoframe he ppropriateon-ceptual erms or oming ogripswith he arge nduniversalmattershat reatissue.Alternatively,erhapst can be shown that here s no problem fter ll,or that heres a problem utthat thasbeen badlydefined.tmay even be that

thishas allbeenworked utbefore, ut suspect hatn such case am not theonlyonetobe ignorantfthefact.The problemnitiallyresentedtselfnthis orm:why snoise hat s produced

by strikingr shaking o widelyused n order o communicate iththeotherworld?

This formulationhanged smyreflectionsn thequestionhaped hemselves,andthe copeofthe nquiry ecame arwider, ut etmebeginwith heparticularpuzzlewhich irstaughtmy ttentionndwhich thersmay lsofind s ntriguing.The startingoint s the commonreport,ncounteredgainand againin theethnographicaliterature,hat shaman eats drum n order o establish ontact

with he pirits.tis so welldescribed,nd hasbeenso thoroughlyecognisedsacharacteristiceaturef a shaman's ctivities,hat hequestion eemsnot to havebeenasked so far, t least, s I candiscover)ustwhyhe beats drum, ndwhythis anging oise sessentialfhe sto communicate ith piritualowers.

My ownfirstecoursewas to turn oWilken'sfamous tudy f shamanismnIndonesia,ndtoseewhetherehadanythingosay bout hematter. e doesnot,it turnsut, solate his pecific roblem, uthedoeshelp oplacethe uestionn awider ontext. e points ut,namely,hat drum sbeaten, otonly ta shamanicseance, ut lsoon other ccasionsnorder o callthespiritsWilken 887: 479 n.i56), i.e., thatdrum-beating,houghndeedcharacteristicf theshaman,s not

peculiar ohisofficeut s a widely ecognisedmeans fmaking ontactwith hespiritual orld.The obvious omment, owever,sthat shaman oesnot lwaysbeata drum, nd thatneither o other eoplealwaysdo so whentheywanttocommunicate iththeotherworld. But, as Eliade says n discussinghamanicritual,there s always omeinstrumenthat,n one way or another,s able to

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PERCUSSION AND TRANSITION 607

establishontactwith he world of the pirits 'I964: I79), and this n itselfssurely very urious act.

What re hesenstruments?ere sa list:drum, ong, ell, ymbal, ambourine,xylophone,metallophone,attle, asp, tamping ube, ticksstruck gainst achother),ticks n stretched ats, esoundingocks, lashingnklets. o doubt hiscatalogue s very ncomplete, ut t is already mpressivelyxtensivendvaried.I am not aying, fcourse, hat hese nstrumentsre usedonly n order o contactthe pirits,rthatno other nstrumentsreusedfor his urpose;but they re all,to evena casualrecollection,mployedn order o communicate iththe otherworld-and they re llpercussive. iththis efiningerm, et thermeans anbeisolated,which trictlypeaking renon-instrumental,f doing thesamething,for xample, lapping,trikinghepalmagainst arious urfacesfthe body,or

simply tampinghe feet r drumming ith the heels.All over the world t isfound hatpercussion,y anymeanswhatever hatwill produce t, permits raccompaniesommunicationith heotherworld.

But s percussion'eally hedefiningeature?t snotthemostgeneral, orthefirst haracteristicf these nstrumentsndproceduresssimplyhat hey eneratenoise.This s an interestingact, or t s certainlyotnecessaryhatnoiseofanykind hall ttract rgreet pirits; moke, estures,ances, robjects uch s masksorimages an all do asmuch, ndthey re of course ctually mployed ogetherwithnoise. This definition ill not serve,however, or there re innumerablemethods fproducing oise n addition o thosewhichwe areconsidering.hesecondmostgeneral eaturesthat hemethodsnquestionmakerhythmicoise;rhythmas lreadyttractedociologicalttentionBiicher899), and t scertainlya cultural henomenonfgreat mportance,ut it s clearly ot specific noughto answer o ourpurpose.Melody,on the otherhand, s far oo specific nd isobviously nappropriates a criterion;ome ofournoise-makersroducedistinctnotes ndarecapableofelaborating elodies r ofgeneratingther onal ffects,butotherse.g.,rattles,ticks, lapping) annot o so.Thisbriefurveyftypes fnoise-productionsvery lementary,nda longwayrrom eing xhaustive,ut t senough o confirmhe irstndicationhat hedefiningeatures ndeed ercussion.

How, next, s one to make ense fthis ssociationetween ercussionnd thespiritual orld?This s a difficultuestion o approachn thefirst lace becausethisrangeofnoise-makersoesnot so far s I know)correspondo a standardmusicologicalategory; ercussionnstru,ents re of coursecommonly istin-guished,but not the totalrangeof percussive evices and procedures nderconsideration,incenot all of these re instruments.n thesecond place, evenfamiliar ercussionnstrumentsaynot be grouped ogethern descriptionranalysis,uttheymaybe divided p accordingo material fmanufacture,on-struction,uality fsound, rigin, nd so forth. orexample, o take n old buteminently seful uthority,heEncyclopaediaf religionndethics evotesone

article o 'Drumsand cymbals' Crawley 9i2), another o 'Gongs and bells'(Wheeler9I3), andappends o the atter semi-independentrticle n Americanbells' Chamberlain9I3). These re n factmost nterestingndvaluable urveys,wellworth ecommendingoday, ut ogetherheyover nly our fthe ourteentypes f noise-makernmy provisionallassification,nd thefragmentaryreat-mentof them ntroduces gratuitousourceofdifficultyn grapplingwith the

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608 RODNEY NEEDHAM

problem.The real difficulty,owever, s presented y theproblem tself,n thatif the relationshipn question iasnot been solated efore or even if it is not

commonly ecognised) ne then acks he upport nd the timulation,n theformof analytical erms nd ideas,whichthe discipline therwise ormally rovides.I readily dmit hat do not know although have tried ard nough o find ut)whatpreviousworkmay have beendone n this onnexion, ut feelfairly urethat herelationshipetween ercussionnd communication ith heotherworldis not an everyday reoccupationmong ocial nthropologists.

There s, however, ne workwhich s of special nterest, amely he paper'The origin f bell and drum'byMaria DworakowskaI938). It touches n partof mypresent.problem,nd t smethodologicallynstructiveoo. Dworakowskabeginswith heblunt eclaration:The bell s usually onsideredo be exclusivelya musicalor signallingnstrumentlthough his s quite erroneous'I938: I).(This entence as promisingingwhich eminds ne that t s really ocart r thelateLordRaglan who might esthave dealtwith hepresent roblem.) he statesthat hebell plays role similar o thatof the drum mong manypeoples, ndcontends hatthere s a 'geneticunion' between he two instruments.o thisassimilationhe ddsthegong, a formwhich s as closely llied o thebell s to thedrum'.Herfirstntentions to constructn evolutionaryeries,he firstmemberofwhichwould be the drum ndthe ast the bell ofwestern urope.This is aconventional ind of ethnologicalim, and intrinsicallymost nterestingne;

butwhereDworakowska ngages he pecial ttentionfthe ocial nthropologistis n her xplicit ejection f museumriterianfavour f a sociological oncentra-tionon 'a strikingimilarityetween hebell and thedrum s regards herolewhich hey lay n everydayife, nmagic ndin religion'I938: 9). I neednotrecapitulatehedetailsn her xpositionf thefacts, orher onsiderationf otherapproacheso the nstruments,utwill takeup directlyhehypothesishich headvances. erarguments that hedrum s a continuationfthe offin-log'22-3),whichmayor maynot be historicallyound,but what is moreimmediatelyrelevants thatDworakowska rgues entrallyhat there s a close connexionbetween he drum nd the dead' 2o-2), so that hegeneticeries fdrum, ong,

bell and cognatenstrumentsre all characteristicallyartof the ultof thedead.I have outlined his rgumentotonlybecause tmaynot be wellknown,butalso because fthevalue n Dworakowska's rocedure.hedeliberatelygnoreshematerials,methods f manufacture,orms nd mechanismsf the nstrumentsin orderto concentraten their ocialmeaning; heexamines heseparticularinstrumentsecauseof their ecognised rominencen cultures ll around theworld;and hemakes connexion,ven f not a wholly atisfactoryne,betweencertainypes fpercussionnstrumentsnd the dead. Her arguments alsonega-tively nstructive,n that tdoesnotdealwith, ndcannot xplain, heuseof somanyothermeansofproducing ercussiveound; it neglects, y itsessentially

developmentalast, he constant actors hichmaybe operative hroughoutnyhistoricalhanges; nd it is framedn termswhich reunduly ircumstantialacertain riginal nstrument, certain nitialreligious nstitution)nd are in-sufficientlyeneral r abstract.

Dworakowska's aper, hen,s anencouragingnd usefulxample, ut t s notfundamentalnough.A far morepromising pproach,n this espect,sthat f

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PBRCUSSION AND TRANSITION 609

Crawley,who writes:The music f thedrum smore losely onnected iththefoundationsf aurally eneratedmotion hanthatof anyother nstrument.t

iscomplete noughn tself ocover hewholerange fhuman eeling'I9I2: 9I).This stherightpproach,think,ecauset spsychological.ow ithasbeenwellenough hown, fcourse, hat en aucun cas la sociologiene saurait mprunterpurementt simplementla psychologieelleou tellede sespropositions,ourl'appliquerelle uelle ux faits ociaux' DurkheimI9OI] I967: xix),but hemorenearly cultural henomenonpproaches he universal he morenecessarytbecomes o seekthegrounds f it in thegeneral sychic haractersfmankind.In thepresent ase,theremarkably idedistributionfpercussiveoise-makers,employedn communication ith the otherworld, ndicates hat n historicalorsociologicalnterpretationouldbe quite nappropriate.t is this ircumstance

thatmakes he roblemspeciallyifficultor he ocial nthropologist,orwhereasthe discipline rovidesnotions nd techniqueswhichserverelativelywell inexplaining ocial institutionsr the structuref collectiverepresentations,tprovides s yetno way of understandingheelementaryorms f experience.Psychology,ntheother and,hason thewholeturnedwayfromuch oncerns,andforobvious cientificeasons as concentratedncreasinglyn more ifnitedandmanipulable henomena. sycho-analyticalork s likelynprincipleo bemore nlightening,ndthat fJungnparticularshighlyuggestive,ut tudiesnthis ield ave ofarnotexpanded heirompass omaItchheworldwide videncewhichtheanthropologistakesforgranted nd whichmustbe addressedf anintegralnderstandingfhumanitys ever obeachieved.

But ifCrawley's sychologicalandevenneurological)rientationsright, isspecific ropositionbout he drum s not sosatisfactory.e allknow omethingof the effectsfthedrumbecausewe have felt hem, ut s itpossible,o beginwith, oputthepropositionoempiricalest? here s noreadily pparentmeans,atanyrate, fdoing owith hepropositions tstands,nd toa rigidly ositivisticview thiswould rob it ofanydecisive alue. It might henbe maintainedhatCrawley's ssertions,hatever heir mmediateppeal, remerely ubjectivendmetaphorical.hiscriticismaises generalssueofepistemologicalr heuristic

principle;tcalls ntoquestion otonlyCrawley's ropositionut alsoothers fthekind whichmightbe equallyplausible nd seemon othergrounds o beappropriateo thetypeofproblem.My own responseo this orm fobjectionwould be that yrigidlyonfiningneself oempiricallyestableropositionsnewillneverget very ar nunderstandingan andhisworks.There remethodo-logical ustificationsf thisposition, ot to speakof otherconsiderationsf aphilosophical ind, utsince he ssue sbasically ne of ntellectualemper atherthanresoluble rgumenthere s little oint n offering defence ere.For thepresent,twillsufficeoconcede hat hepositionsdefensible,ndthatCrawley's(andsimilar) iewsneednotbe rejectedimply ecause tmaynotbepossible o

test hem bjectively.A relatedriticismsthat hevery ermsfthepropositionredifficultodefine:closenessfconnexion,nthis egard,s anextremelybscuredea; aurally ener-ated motion's nota precise escription;nd t snot t allclearhowthemusic fthedrummight e complete', nd n such waythat tmight over thewholerange',whateverhismay omprise,fhuman eeling. ut asKanthimself rites,

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6io RODNEY NEEDHAM

'If we could not undertakenything ith conceptuntilwe had defined t, allphilosophising ould be in a bad way' (I787: 759n).Let me emphasisegain,

also, that the issue s not the suitabilityf the particular ords that Crawleychooses o employ, or thedegree f his expositorykill, or theexactness f hisobservation. he difficultiesf expression nd interpretationncounteredn hispropositionbout hedrum re ypical,t eems o me,ofthegeneralityf ttemptsto describe lementaleelings,nd one cannot xpect obeginwith lear efinitionsoftheproblem.t snot omuch heparticularerms hat ause he rouble, ut heinherent ifficultyn translatinghephenomenanto ny termst all.

But how, in this ase, s one to make sense f the bangs, humps,aps, attles,and other everberationshich ndisputablyavesuch wide social mportance,and the ndividual ffectsfwhichareknown. One expedients to adopt the

premise hat verybodynows he ubject,ndthat heres thereforeo need tostrive or precise ormulation-justs one does notbother,fter ll, to demon-strate he mportance f sex,or to define rotic ensations. his, of course, s apositionwhich shouldbe adoptedonlywhenothers re obviously nnecessaryorhave appeared nfeasible, hich annotyetbe claimed n this ase; but thereseemneverthelesso be somegrounds or doptingt. One might vensuggest,indeed, hat t s anunavoidable osition,t some tage fthe nquiry,nd one thatis peculiarly ppropriateo the phenomena hemselves.n thematter f dealingwith heuniversalsychic ppeal f certain ind fnoise, resumablyhe uestionofexactdiscriminationythedistinctiveategoriesf ny ingle ulturehould otbe decisive. his s not thesphere f rational iscourse nd inference,ven,butthat of feeling.Admittedly,ociety tselfdefines nd organises eelings,ndconditionstsmembersorespondocertain ounds atherhan oothers-inonesociety he effect illbe produced ythedrum,n another y the gong, nd inanother y clapping-but practically verywheret is foundthatpercussionsresortedo n order o communicate ith he therworld, nd t sthenon-culturalaffectiveppeal of percussionwhich have to tryto relate o theconceptofspiritualxistence.

Essentially,rawley eems oberight: rums ohavethekind f ffect hich e

attemptsmpressionisticallyo describe,nd so do other ercussionnstruments.Gongsalso have such n effect,specially erhaps hedeeper nes, ndsimilarlywithbells.The effectn questions notso patentnthecaseofsome othertemsinthe ist bove, uch s rattlesnd ticks,ut llthese oise-makersend oproducea comparableffectivempact. his mpactsproduced,etmerepeat, otsimplyby rhythmrmelody ra certain oteorperiod fresonance,utby percussion.There s no needtogo intensivelyntothe iteraturen theneurological roundsofthiskind of effect:partfrom he commonexperiencefpercussivemusicalinstruments,he nternaluaking roduced y thunder,nd the imilar ffectsfgunfirerother xplosive oiseswhichvibrate he nvironmentrewell-known.

(The word percussion'omesfrom heLatin uatere,ostrike,hake.)There snodoubt that ound-waves ave neural ndorganic ffectsn humanbeings,rres-pectiveof thecultural ormationf the atter. he reverberationsroduced ymusical nstrumentshushavenot onlyaesthetic ut also bodilyeffects.heseeffects aybemore r ess onsciouslyndergone,ut heyre n ny aseunavoid-able.The soundsmark ff oints n a scaleof ntensityhe ffectsfwhich ange

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PERCUSSION AND TRANSITION 6II

from n agonising isruptionf theorganismown to subliminalhrills rotherbodilyresponses hichcontributeo the conscious ffectiveppreciation f the

sounds. rominentmong such ounds rethoseproduced y percussion, hichmay well be said to involve the foundationsfaurally enerated motion'.

Fromthepointof view of culture istory,lso, tmaybe importanthat er-cussive ounds rethe asiest o make, nd themost bviously ossible: hey o notdependupon specialmaterials,echniques,r deas,butcanreadily e madewiththehumanbody alone or by ts brupt ontactwith nyhardorresonantart ftheenvironment.n two senses, herefore,tmaybe concluded hat ercussionsa primarynd elementalhenomenon.

So far, hen,havegeneralisedneterm'noiseproduced y trikingrshaking')in the matter nder nvestigation,nd I haveplacedtheshaman's rum na farwidercontext fpercussive henomenand theirphysiologicalffects.ut thisleaves correspondingerm 'communication ith heotherworld')whichthenseemsmuch oo explicit nd deationaloaccount or o general relation.

How am I to generalisehis econd erm?Wilken I887) haspointed utthatdrums re used notonlyto establishontactwith pirits,ut alsoto repel hem,but this s stilla formof communication iththeotherworld.What othersituations nd institutionalisedorms f behaviour re markedby percussion?Oncethequestionsput nthisway, t s seen hat ercussiveevices re used n avery argenumberf ituationsther han hat fcontactingpirits.worakowska

has ndeed ndicated he mportancef bells nddrums n thenormal ourse fsocial ife, n healing, rophylaxis, unting, arfare, unerals,tc. I938: 9-I2);

and one has only o review thnographicaliteratureo appreciatehat ercussionis typical f a remarkably ide rangeofother ituationsuch s birth,nitiation,marriage,ccession o office,acrifice,unar ites, alendricaleasts, eclarationfwar,thereturn fhead-hunters,hereceptionfstrangers,he naugurationfahouseor a communal uilding,market ays, owing, harvest,ishingxpeditions,epidemics,clipses,nd so on.Often he nstrumentsre dentifiedith he vents,and are themselveshematerialymbols fthem;their layersmaybe not ustnormal articipantsut ndispensablefficiantst the rites ndceremonies hich

are distinguishedythe ounds.Whatis it that hese vents ave n common?Obviously hat hey re rites epassage.n otherwords, heclass ofnoise-makerss associatedwith the formalpassagefrom ne status r condition o another. nce again,though, am notsaying hat uch rites annotbe accomplished ithout ercussive oise-makers,orthat nly uchdevices reused omark hem, ut implyhat heresa constantand mmediatelyecognisablessociationetween hetype fsound ndthetypeofrite.What amproposing, amely,sthat heresa significantonnexionetweenpercussionndtransition.

This, suggest,sthedefinitiveelation,nd thenature f theconnexionsthe

realproblem. here scertainlyo intrinsicelationshipetween hephenomena,yet he ssociations too firm or he nswer o be soughtnthe ontingentarti-culars fcultural radition. n obvious nd conventionalesortstolook at otherusual meansofmarkinghetransitionrom ne categoryo another. ne suchexpedientstheuseofa special ocabularyvanGennep909: 24I; [I960: I69];cf I908), which mighteven be thought ormally omparable, o some slight

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6I2 RODNEY NEEDHAM

extent,n that t nvolves heproductionf distinctiveounds.Anothermeansisthe ssumptionf pecial lothes, rnaments,r masks-oralternativelyhedivesti-

ture f all such xternal istinctions;nd yet nothersto change ocation,o thatthepassagefrom ne social or mysticaltatus o another s symbolised,s vanGennep hows,by a territorialassage.But these omparisonsre nothelpful,for number f reasons; irstly,hesenstitutionsre ndividuallyessgeneral ndmore variablethanthe feature f percussion; econdly, hey themselvesreseverally nd typicallyccompanied y percussiveounds; nd, thirdly,hey resimply lternative eans f markingransition,o that heymerely ose the amefundamentalroblem ut nmorecomplexforms.Moreover, hey ctuallyeadawayfrom he pecific uestion,nthat hey emand nanalysisftransitionitesassuch.Butthenecessaryeaturef ransitionillequallynescapablye markedn

some way or other i.e., not onlyby a tripartiteitual), nd the question osedhereswhypreciselyercussionhould e soprominentlynd o verywidely m-ployed sa speciallyuitable ind fmarker. he answersnotgoing o be arrivedat, suspect, y thiskindof comparison,or thethings omparedn thiscasebelong odifferentrders. n theonehand he nstitutionsbeatingfdrums, tc.)have eendefinedeductionallyyphysicalriteriasound-waves,eural esponses)whichhave no social content, hereas n theotherhand nstitutionssacrifice,stc.)which reequally ocialhavemerely een classed ogetherociologicallynawaywhich etains heirocial ndcontingentature. heseconsiderationsiveall:hemorereason o reverto transition's the econd ermntherelation.This offers formallyatisfactoryefinitionf theproblem, ut n the end t

only hows ll themore learly owprofoundnd eeminglyntractableproblemit is. What am dealingwith s theconjunctionf twoprimal, lementary,ndfundamentaleatures:) the ffectivempact fpercussion,) the ogical tructureofcategory-change.ccordingo commonnotions,hese omponents ertainotwo quitedisparatemodesofapprehension:motion ndreason.Yet empiricallythere eems o be a significantonnexion etween hem.Thisconnexion annotbe derived xclusivelyrom ne or the othermode, .e.,eitherffectivelyr elselogically,incebydefinitioneitherontains r implies hedistinctivend irre-ducible eaturesftheother.Nor isthere,twouldappear, nythingnthe ocialcontext f transitionhichmight ccount xternallyor heconnexion etweenthese onventionallyisjoined eatures.t wouldbe easy enough o saythatweshould gnore ommonnotions, r evena philosophicallystablishedppositionbetween eelingndthought,nd instead onsider irectlyhe associationhat spostulated; ut to do so wouldstill eavean evident ontrastetween ercussionand transition,nd t s this neluctableisparity,oweverdefined, hichframestheproblem.

It seems, herefore,hat neis committedo an anthropologicalindof depthanalysis',na synopticttemptotranscendonventionalcademic istinctionsnd

to account orhumanphenomena, sychic nd social, n theirntegrity.urner(I966) and more speciallyeidelmanI964; I966a; I966b)haveprovided aluableexploratoryxamples fthis ort f nvestigation,ndmuch fmyown workonclassificatione.g.,Needham npress)hasbeendirected ythe same concern. ofar, think t will be agreed, hiskindof research asserved,ta theoreticalevel(as distinct romethnographicalnterpretation)nlyto delineate heproblems

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PERCUSSION AND TRANSITION 613

involved, ot to solve them.This at least s the position n which findmyselfat this oint n thefaceof thisnew problem. ut I do not find uch conclusion

especially ismaying,orwhereas ocial anthropologylikephilosophy) ashadconsiderableuccess n discerningnd formulatingroblems,t is verymuchamatter f opinionwhethertcan be said ever o have solved ny of them. n thepresentnstance shallbe gratifiedf t is onlythought hat hese roblematicalcomments ave contributedn any way to a clearer onception f the primaryfactorsf human xperience,nd particularlyf the basic mportancef feelingincoming o termswithphenomenaleality.

Whether r not t is agreed hat heres a realproblem ere, r thatmyownrather affledbservationsre at all cogent, t least there s a methodologicalpreceptwhich t mayproveuseful or heethnographerndthetheoreticalocialanthropologisto keep n mind, amely opayspecial ttentionopercussion.orthe rest, conclude imply nd mnemonicallyy restatinghe problem n theform f theunduly orthrightnd apparentlynlikely ypothesis:

Theres a connexionetweenercussionnd ransition.

NOTES

This paperwas originally iven, n itspresent orm, s a lecture t theUniversityfOxford n April,967. Certainurtheracts ave ince ome o mynotice nd hould enotedhere.

i. Thequestion hy shaman eats drum as nfact een dvertedobyvan derLeeuw.Without osing his pecificuestion,r consideringhe ssue nany detail, everybriefly

states hat rummingnddancingnduce state fecstasyn the hamanI933, ch. 6. 2).Thispossibilityasbeengone ntomore ully yFrancis uxley,n fascinatingaperwhich

was published hile he resentrticle as n press.Writingbout oodoo n Haiti,he reportsthat: It isthe rummersho argely rovoke issociation;hey re kilfulnreadinghe igns,andby quickening,ltering,r breakingheir hythmhey anusually orce he risis nthose[dancers] ho areready ort' I967: 286). Sometimeshedancer ollapses efore e hasbeenpossessed y the ommandingresence f thegod; he s puton hisfeet y the udience, hosend im uton tothedance loor gain tillthe uffetsf ound ave heir ull ffect'286).

The effectnquestions said obeproduced hroughisturbancesf the nnerar, n organwhichmodulatesosturalttitude, uscle onus, reathinghythms,eartbeat,lood pressure,feelingsf nausea nd certain ye reflexes. uxley onvincinglyroposeshat theapparatusofdrumming,ancing,nd inging' annot nly ffecthe nnerar, ut s actuallyaimed t tinan effortodissociatehewaking onsciousnessrom tsorganizationnthebody' 287).

Fromwhat have hownbove, owever,t s unfortunatelylain hat ven radical xplana-tion fthis ind, hough ery pt as Crawleywouldhave greed)nthe aseofcertainnstru-ments, oesnot answer o therange f phenomenand related onsiderationsowhich heshaman's rum smerelyn ntroduction.Itmay e remarked,ncidentally,hat he ocationalmark f voodoopriestr priestesss a rattle294).)

2. Professor aurice reedman as ndependentlyurnishedsplendid omplemento theargumentf thepresentrticle, oth upportinghehypothesisnd extendingherange frelevanthenomena,n hisobservationsn Chinesemarriageitual.

Whenthebride eaves erhome nd sseparatedrom er amilyhe s n a phase ftran-sition'fromwhich he willemerge nly n herbridal hamber t the end of her ourney.During his hase hemaybe possessed', ccordingoone authorityJohann rick), ytheGod ofHappinessFreedman967: I6). 'The special haracterf the ransitions marked yanother eature: s theprocession oves ff, s it arrives,nd sporadicallylong theroute,

firecrackersre etoff' I7).Freedmanomments ponthe ittle ntellectualuriosity hichhas been excited yfire-crackers,nd he then roposes isown provisionalnterpretation.rackersrepart f a seriesofnoise-producershich tretchesrom alt n thefire tone endto the annon t theother.'Noise sused sa marker.tpunctuatespproachesoandseparationsrom piritsnd certainformalpproacheso andseparationsrom umans'I7). Inthese ontexts eitherhefear fevil spirits or the xpressionf oy-which are motivesxpressedy Chinese hemselves-needberelevant:The markeri.e.,noise] s ... neutral'.

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614 RODNEY NEEDHAM

Freedmanioesonto considerurtheronnexionsfnoisewith ymbolsuch sfire,ight,andcolour,ndtosuggestertaindeological omponentsfsettingff irecrackers;ut t s

hisrelationaliscemmentf connexionetweenxplosionsndtransitionhichmakes uchremarkableontributionothe ineofenquiryaken phere. did ndeedmake referenceabovetothe ffectsfgunfireand otherxplosive oises', ut had missed hefact hat uchsoundspercussiventhe xtreme)re lso ymbolicallyelevant. et nourownculture,fterall, olemnntrancesndexits remost rominentlyarked y explosions: headofstatesgreeted ith twenty-oneunsalute,nd rifle olleys refired t the gravesidef a deadsoldier.Marriageites rerelevant,oo,for t aEuropeanwedding heres a traditionalarallelto the Chinese irecrackers:ans-morerecentlyeplaced y tin cans-are tiedbehind hewedding arriage, here hey ang, esoundnd clash ikemad.

Now thisast s a crucial actwhich hows morefundamentalorrespondenceithfire-crackers,nd withcordite alutations,amely hat n these asesthere s no rhythm. hejangling acophonyf thepans s quiterandom,nd thefurious attle fChinese ireworks(numbersfwhich re setoff tonce,moreover,o that hey roduce ursts foverlapping

reports)sequally on-rhythmical.he same strue fEuropean ransition-markingymeansoffirearms,or n bothof the eremoniesnstancedhe nterval etweenhe hotsstoo ongtocomposeny hythm. hat ounts,hereforeand amgratefulo Freedmanor avingedmetosee this ewproof),snotrhythm,ndcertainlyotmelody, utnothingther hanpercussion.

The arrestingonvergencend mutualmplicationsf thepapersby Crawley, wora-kowska, uxley nd Freedmanontopics s initiallyisparatesdrums ndcymbals,ellanddrum, oodoo, nd Chinesemarriageites), ogether ithmyown tentativeonspectus,eemto show tleast hat here eallys somethingn thehypothesis.ut thisntumonly howsagain hat heres a realproblem.

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