Pain and suffering as part of religious life: The Mauritian Thaipusam kavadi
In a pop-science article published in Dingir, E. Kundtová Klocová discusses the various socio-cultural aspects of the Thaipusam Kavadi ritual as practiced in Mauritius.
Why do people perform rituals?
While researchers often try to answer the question of ritual participation from an outside (etic) point of view, the inside (emic) perspective is no less important. Dimitris Xygalatas together with Peter Maňo investigated the local understanding of various rituals performed by Mauritian Hindus.
Though the results lend support to an old anthropological observation that rituals are performed because "it has always been done that way", it seems that more demanding rituals trigger a wider spectrum of emic explanations. These explanations often relate to pressing and specific concerns and needs of performers.
You can find the paper here:
