BOUNDED INTERPRETATIONS - THE PRAGMATICS OF RITUAL EXEGESIS IN GAYO SOCIETY

Interpretative discussions concerning rituals, whether or not they are meta-pragmatically incorporated into the rituals often disagree. In c ertain societies, it is useful to let different interpretations of the same ritual events circulate. This is the case among the Gayo in Nort h Sumatra, a relatively egalitarian society under the influence of a r eformist Islamic movement. This study of two Gayo invocations shows th e existence of opposed and irreconciliable conceptions of the purpose and means of ritual whose co-existence is made possible by the boundin g off of its constitutive parts and of the corresponding exegesis.