The ‘Chosen One’: Depicting religious belief through gestures

Abstract

AbstractIn this article, I analyze gestures produced during a dharma orientation lecture. The dharma orientation lectures are a part of the I-Kuan-Tao cult in Thailand. The analysis undertaken draws on multimodal (inter)action analysis (Norris, 2004, 2011a) providing the description of the interaction through multimodal transcripts of how different types of gesture simultaneously interplay with other modes in creating meaning. I begin with a frame analysis (Goffman, 1974; Tannen, 1993) of the interview transcript, where the primary participant consistently positions himself as ‘the chosen one’. Next, I analyse how the ‘chosen one’ uses different types of gestures to convey such ephemeral religious concepts as the ‘cycle of reincarnation’, ‘soul’, and ‘nirvana’ during the I-Kuan-Tao dharma orientation lecture. I demonstrate that gestures utilized by the participant, namely deictic, iconic, metaphoric and beat gesture (McNeill, 1992; Kendon, 2004) show the participant’s belief that he is ‘the chosen one’.