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The article starts by outlining the theoretical and conceptual foundations in the field of multimodal interaction analysis, which, based on its spatiallinguistic orientation, deals with the meaning of space for the constitution of social meaning. Conceptually, we refer to the ideas of architecture-forinteraction and social topography. Empirically, we look towards the entire range of visually perceptible physical expressions of the Communion participants. We also focus on the spatial prerequisites and the space-related knowledge of the visitors, which becomes evident in their situational behaviour. From our point of view, Communion is not only a ritual in worship but also a task of coordination and positioning. We analyse video excerpts of two Communions in Lutheran-Protestant worship. The central question is: How do the people who hand out the sacrament to the participants take part in the procedure themselves (self-supply)? The video excerpts are from Germany(Rimbach and Zotzenbach, South Hesse). We see self-supply as a situational reproduction of institutional structures and relevancies. Methodologically, we first analyse an example in detail, in which we elaborate constitutive aspects of self-supply and the associated implications in the sense of an arising communitisation of the faithful. The subsequent analysis is carried out from a comparative perspective with reference to the results already obtained. The analyses lead to two basic models. Firstly, we identified a two-phase model in which first the churchgoers and then separately the institution’s representatives celebrate Communion. Structurally linked to this model is the is the diverging presence of those who have already completed the ritual, divergence resulting in two ensembles with their respective interaction space. The churchgoers watch the pastor and his assistants perform the ritual themselves. Secondly, we were able to formulate an integrative model in which the pastor celebrates Communion as one of the community. This preserves cohesion among all churchgoers and there is no ritual display of the institution’s representatives as in the two-phase model. As for model-shaping factors, two aspects become particularly clear: The first are the opportunities which the architecture-forinteraction, i.e. the concrete space for the Communion, provides. The second is the number of participants who perform the ceremony under these spatial conditions. Both aspects have a direct impact on the organisation of Communion, the movement within the church space and, indirectly, on the structure and implications of self-supply.
In this article, the execution of a ritual as a component of religious communication is analysed. The ritual, in which the church community remembers the deceased, is celebrated in the evangelic church of Sarepta (Volgograd) on the last Sunday of the church year, the so-called ‘eternity Sunday’. The study of the ritual is based on two scientific approaches: ethnomethodology and multimodal interaction analysis. These approaches make it possible to analyse the social and cultural practices of church visitors in conjunction with the organisation of church service. Specifically, it becomes possible to:
a) develop new scientific paradigms when analysing the actual use of the church interior,
b) identify basic religious activities of communication in church,
c) introduce new concepts into scientific use,
d) present the ritual of remembrance in Sarepta as a complex, multimodally constituted religious event,
e) focus the coordination of linguistic, physical and spatial activities of church visitors and clerics at different stages of church service and to understand their respective social content and communicative status.
For analysing the video recordings of the church service, the concepts of ‘architecture-for-interaction’ and ‘social topography’ are used, making it possible to discover new aspects of spatial influence on communication. The concept of ‘architecture-for-interaction’ provides the framework for answering the question of how the church interior in Sarepta contributes to the organisation of the ritual. Forms of situational use of space and the cultural knowledge underlying this use are captured with the concept of ‘social topography’. From a structural viewpoint, the analyzed ritual in Sarepta is based on organization and division of responsibilities, consists of phases of structural non-simultaneity, has a three-positional spatial basis, and is structurally open. Because of these characteristics, the execution of the ritual can be described as ‘participatory rituality’. Participatory rituality allows for a religious socialization which lets the community members participate as active and legitimate participants in religious communication and autonomously contribute to the execution of the ritual.
This article explores how close one can come to a cultural-scientific perspective on the basis of a constitution-analytical methodology. We do this on the basis of a comparison of the celebration of Totensonntag in Zotzenbach (Southern Hesse) and Sarepta (Wolgograd). In both places, there are protestant churches that perform this ritual to commemorate the dead on this “Sunday of the Dead” as a part of their church service. Our scientific interest lies in the reconstruction of the rituality produced during the in situ execution. In both services, the names of the deceased are read out and a candle is lit for each deceased person. In Zotzenbach the priest reads out the names and an assistant ignites the candles for the deceased, whereas in Sarepta the bereaved are responsible for this. Since the ritual is organised in very different ways in terms of architecture-for-interaction (statically in Zotzenbach, spatially dynamic in Sarepta), we can reconstruct two completely different models of rituality: a demonstrative one (Zotzenbach) and a participative one (Sarepta). The demonstrative model works on the basis of a finely tuned coordination between the two church representatives and is aimed at a dignified execution. The model in Sarepta is not suitable for the production of formality due to its participatory structure. Here, however, the focus is also on the aspect of socialization, which goes beyond the church service and offers the Russian-German worshipers the opportunity to situationally constitute as a culturally homogeneous group.
In diesem Aufsatz wird einzelfallanalytisch der Frage nachgegangen, wie die Struktur einer Kirchenbesichtigung aussieht. Im theoretischen Rahmen, der die Kirchenbesichtigung als kulturelle Praktik konzeptualisiert, wird „Objektkonstitution“ als eine aktive Leistung des Kirchenbesichtigers in den Blick genommen. Bei den Aufnahmen zum Kirchenbesichtigungskorpus wurden die Besichtiger nicht nur bei ihrem Gang durch den Kirchenraum und der visuellen Wahrnehmung bestimmter Raumaspekte gefilmt. Sie wurden vielmehr darum gebeten, ihre visuelle Wahrnehmung durch begleitendes Sprechen auch zu kommentieren. Aufgezeichnet wurde das Besichtigungskorpus mit zwei Kameras: einer Actionkamera, die den Wahrnehmungsraum der Besichtiger dokumentiert, und einer Kontextkamera, die ihnen bei ihrem Weg durch den Raum folgt.
Dieses experimentelle Erhebungsdesign, bei dem exothetisches Sprechen bewusst als wissenschaftliche Erhebungsmethode eingesetzt wird, macht es möglich, das Besichtigungskonzept der Personen als dynamisches Zusammenspiel ihrer visuellen Wahrnehmung des Kirchenraums und ihrer wahrnehmungsbegleitenden Exothese zu rekonstruieren. Dass Objektkonstitution eine aktive Herstellung ist, durch die der Kirchenraum in den Relevanzen seines Betrachters teilweise neu entsteht, zeigt die Fallanalyse in exemplarischer Klarheit: Anton, der analysierte Besichtiger, der sich ausführlich mit zwei großen Gemälden beschäftigt, konstituiert diese de facto als „Bilderrahmen“, ohne überhaupt auf die dargestellten Szenen einzugehen.