Power and the Ritual Genres: American Rodeo

Abstract

Among most significant developments in scholarship of late twentieth century is liberation of concept of power from strictly political to research in all domains of social life. In this we are especially indebted to Michel Foucault who conceived of power as something that circulates, and of individuals as vehicles through whom power passes. He argued for ascending analyses of power that would start from regional and local forms and institutions, focusing on power at its extremities, studying the myriad of bodies which are constituted as peripheral subjects as a result of effects of (Foucault 1986:229-235) Having turned attention to practices of power, these perspectives have brought new attention to subject of ritual or ritual genres. Although power of ritual to produce transformations in both lives of individuals and in political systems has long been recognized, studies of ritual have now made explicit its relationship to power. Formal ritual, festival, celebration, fair, spectacle, and their many variants all provide a home to and a stage for exercise of power. Moreover, studies have also demonstrated that power of ritual is accessible to both reactionaries and revolutionaries for their various political purposes.' While this new body of theory influenced by knowledge of power and power of knowledge has led to some stimulating new approaches, ritual genres remain complex events that utilize symbols and rest upon a range of persuasive devices, and each of genres