actions has to be performed in a special manner.Blessing the goat and
worshipping it require specific formulae. The cleaning of Buyut's relics
is not just any washing operation; indeed the order in which various
ingredients are rubbed onto the relics is supposed to be particularly
important. Fourth, the instruments of ritual, a consecrated sword or
special relics, are special objects that cannot in principle be replaced by
more convenient substitutes. Finally, the script,the particular ordering
of actions, is of course crucial. One is not allowed to behead the goat
and then bless it, handle the relics before the caretaker has cleaned
them, or get the shaman to fight a ram after he has climbed up the pole.
[232] People perform rituals to achieve particular effects (receive the
gods' protection, turn boys into men) but the connection between the
actions prescribed and the results expected is often rather opaque. The
Javanese assume that cleaning the relics and handling them will have
some beneficial effects, but that does not explain the connection. Also,
why handle the relics in that particular order? Why circulate them
counterclockwise? Many rituals come with no explanation for the spe-
cific actions. The Kham Magar apparently do not explain why the new
shaman should try to bite a ram's tongue as opposed to a chicken's
foot. When there are local explanations, they are often like religious
explanations described in the first chapter; they explain one element
by producing another one that would itself require explanation. For
instance, people in Java circulate the relics counterclockwise because
of the widespread Indonesian belief that this motion concentrates
some element (in this case the blessing of the relics) whereas clockwise
motion would disperse it. But there is no account of why that is the
case.^5
We often say that ceremonies are meaningfulto the people who
perform them. Through ritual, people perhaps grasp or express
important messages about themselves, their relationships to each
other and their connection with gods and spirits. This may well be
what some ritual participants themselves offer as a justification for
their performance. But do rituals really convey much meaning? Tobe
blunt, what on earth does it meanto bite a ram's tongue or to get some
mean-looking character to pretend he is killing your children? What
is the information transmitted? Not much, apparently. If you asked
people what they had learned or expressed through participation in
such rituals, they would find the question rather strange. In most
human groups people have all sorts of rituals but no good explanation
of why they should be performed, especially of why they should be
RELIGION EXPLAINED