Item Details

Orpheus and the Underground: Raves and Implicit Religion -- From Interpretation to Critique

Issue: Vol 8 No. 3 (2005) Vol 8, No 3 (2005)

Journal: Implicit Religion

Subject Areas: Religious Studies

DOI: 10.1558/imre.v8i3.217

Abstract:

This three-part article highlights a personal liaison with the concept of implicit

religion as both cultural analyst and religion theorist. The lack of unity and

methodological rigour which characterize the reception of the concept of implicit

religion to date fuels the desire to apply it in a systematic fashion to a contemporary

youth culture phenomenon which satisfies the orphic metaphor of initiation,

night-time and music, and has been widely interpreted as harbouring some

sort of religiosity or rapport with the sacred: the English-born-turned-global

phenomenon of techno-music-fuelled raves. The first section presents general

information on raves, methodological considerations and an ‘ethnographic’

account stemming from field research conducted with a small group of Montreal

ravers in 2002. The second section is interpretative, starting with a synthesis of

existing interpretations according to which raves are driven by various religious

‘anthropo-logics’. The three definitional vectors of implicit religion are then

systematically applied to the material presented in section one, while drawing

parallels with Bailey’s (1997) presentation. The third and last part uses the

prior analysis as a basis from which to critique the concept of implicit religion.

It tries to show how the definition of implicit religion has shortcomings with

regards to the orphic—or, more precisely, the transgressive—pole of religion,

paramount in the study of raves. It also argues that the concept of implicit

religion is tributary of a typically ‘modern’ inflexion permeating sociological

theories on religion; an inflexion which has oriented research to date in this

field and which has led to confusion as to the status of implicit religion as religion

or ‘something like it’. The article closes with a few hints as to which

theoretical avenues the author thinks could overcome the conceptual difficulties

outlined.

Author: François Gauthier

View Original Web Page