ABSTRACT
In the chapter on “Cognitively Costly Religion” in his book on the theory of modes of religiosity, Harvey Whitehouse summarizes male initiation ritual among the Mali Baining of Papua New Guinea. These initiations, he writes, “involved a period of isolation of the novices at a remote location in the forest, the endurance of painful ordeals, and the imposition of secrecy (enforceable on pain of death).” During the initiations, he continues,
Most important for Whitehouse’s theory is his further observation that
Such initiation rites, found in many human cultures past and present, along with similar types of low-frequency, high-arousal ritual, are characteristic of what Whitehouse calls the “imagistic” mode of religiosity. Because of its “shock-effect,” he observes, ritual experience in this mode etches itself into the episodic memory of participants and creates a lasting bond among fellow “survivors” of the ordeal. The shock created by the ordeal is primarily cognitive. Participants struggle over time to make sense of the trauma that was imposed upon them by members of their own community, even of their own clan or family. Whitehouse refers to this process of highly motivated sense-making as “spontaneous exegetical reflection.” The natural result is a diversity of insights, or “revelations,” among initiates over time about the meaning of the ritual.
