Abstract
The present article explores the relationship of silences, as vocal and non-vocal bodily practices, to forms of power in religion and work. More specifically, it focuses on Filipina domestic workers in Greece who are members of Iglesia ni Cristo, an independent Filipino church. In the hierarchical contexts of the church and paid domestic work, where the church expands its influence, silence is a dominant embodied religious ethos, an ideal behavior for female workers and an expression of obedience. This silence enhances women’s subordination resulting in strict power relationships. Silencing the body, however, is also an agential practice of Filipina immigrants themselves, a tool to transform power relationships into more reciprocal ones. By reflective and unreflective practices of bodily silence, migrant Filipinas reverse subjection, transform the power relationships in which they are involved and attribute to them a more relational character.
Highlights
In 1973 Clifford Geertz describes the object of ethnography using an example involving non-vocal, silent bodily practices:[it is] a stratified hierarchy of meaningful structures in terms of which twitches, winks, fake- winks, parodies, rehearsals of parodies are produced, perceived, and interpreted, and without which they would not, exist, no matter what anyone did or didn’t do with his eyelids ([1], p. 7).Through this example, Geertz places at the center of “thick description” body practices, gestures, and non-verbal forms of communication
I will attempt to show that silence(s) in Iglesia ni Cristo (INC) are being both culturally defined techniques of the body and a religious body ethos compatible with obedience
Iglesia ni Cristo (INC) is a Filipino church founded in Manila on the 27th of July, 1914
Summary
In 1973 Clifford Geertz describes the object of ethnography using an example involving non-vocal, silent bodily practices:. Bodies are thought of maintaining ‘a language’, of constructing a ‘grammar’ and of ‘speaking’ about mentalities, cultures, and religions These perspectives seem to value Husserl’s idea that cognitive attitudes and not bodily ones bridge the intentional gap between mind and world. Exploring Merleau-Ponty’s idea of the mediating role of silence, in the transition from nature to language, I center on the silence of the body trying to reveal its transformative power in human relationships. I will attempt to show that silence(s) in INC are being both culturally defined techniques of the body and a religious body ethos compatible with obedience These characteristics of silence(s) combined with its ambiguous character, make them the appropriate vehicle for transforming power relations into more reciprocal ones. Passing into the realm of representations, silence remains a decisive point in the transformation of power relations into more reciprocal ones
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