Pacific Asia Inquiry, Volume 2, Number 1, Fall 2011
Shadows of the Prophet:
Martial Arts and Sufi Mysticism
D. S. Farrer
Reviewed by JEAN-MARC DE GRAVE
D. S. Farrer. (2009). Netherlands: Springer Science+Business Media. 311pp, 40 plates, 3 tables, 2 geneologies, 2
maps, 8 chapters, 2 appendices, glossary, references, index, $157.99 (cloth).
On the Subject
This book is about Malay silat, a proper Malay martial art that we might qualify as a
central – if not “the” central – social and cultural feature of Malay society, notably due to its
ethical and educative dimensions but also through its ritual, religious and political networks
involved, and the direct links to local artistic activities such as dance, theatre and music.
The study principally covers the Malay Peninsula itself, understood as a prominent part
of the Malay world which one, according to the author, includes the Isthmus of Kra, Singapore,
Riau Archipelago, Sumatra, the coastal regions of Borneo, the Sulu Archipelago, and possibly
the island of Java due to the very important circulation of people and techniques, as is shown by
the author. In the brief demonstration of the introductory part, the circulation of the involved
techniques even goes beyond the Malay Archipelago in North, South and Southeast Asia; D.
Farrer makes an interesting observation that Asian martial arts have developed wherever shadow
theatre has also developed (p. 26-27).
The author has opted to concentrate his description on the religious domain. The central
part of his work consists in describing a silat school called Seni Silat Haqq Melayu and its links
to the Malay branch of the Sufi order Haqqani-Naqshbandi. In doing so, the author also pays
attention to social aspects of silat so that we may have a complete view of what is at stake on the
subject. Among those various descriptions, an important one concerns the Malay conceptions of
ancestry and shamanism dealt with by different trends of Islam and Sufi perspectives, and with
cultural norms of the Malays’ every day life, especially that of the silat practitioners (called
pesilat). Another important one is how the Sufi order and the silat schools and networks are tied
to the political realm of the Malay state and authority.
In view of these important observations concerning silat, D. Farrer wonders why it has
not been seriously studied in the previous works on Malay society. In my view, this question
stands at the centre of the other existing studies concerning Malay martial arts covering Malaysia
and Indonesia. There are different causes such as the secrecy of the transmission, the influence of
colonial rule towards local martial activities considered potentially dangerous, as well as the self
censorship of the anthropologists or social researchers working for colonial governments or –
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later on – used to work in a world at peace. Those different reasons – and others tied to a
tradition of academic themes of research and the hegemonic general attention paid to Japanese
and Chinese martial arts – seem to explain the only very recent interest for the study of local
martial practices in the Malay world.
It is significant that different regional practices have been described and different
approaches have been used. These include a monographic and technical approach used by
Hiltrud Cordes (1990), attention oriented towards theatre performance used by Kirstin Pauka
(1998), for the Minangkabau silek of West Sumatra in both cases; attention oriented at the same
time towards the regional Sundanese penca of West Java, and towards politics and the modern
centralised state in the Indonesian president Suharto era by Lee Wilson (2006); attention oriented
towards self embodied gesture, inner power and feelings as well as to “sportivization” of the
national sport of pencak silat in West Java and Indonesia by Ian Douglas Wilson (2002);
concentration on Javanese ritual kanuragan initiation and its central bond to the Javanese global
set of life cycle and community rituals as a mean to understand modern school of Javanese
pencak by Jean-Marc de Grave (2006). In this perspective, Douglas Farrer’s contribution is
completely original considering the regional society and culture he describes (peninsular
Malaysia), and the subject he’s chosen (linkage to Sufism).
Fieldwork and Methodology
The different aspects of silat evoked above are described from the point of view of the
author’s own ethnography implying a long-term participant observation: nine months of
fieldwork in Malaysia concerning the school of Seni Silat Haqq Melayu and an almost twelve
years staying in the Malay world (1996-2007) providing him with a large amount of
complementary comparative data (p. 12-13).
In his descriptions, D. Farrer has opted for an approach where the ethnographer (himself)
is part of the description, and he considers his project to be viewed in relation to the
anthropology of experience (p. 10-11). Thus the reader is invited to follow at the same time the
initiation of the participant observer along with the analytic development of the anthropologist
confronted by a complex object of study. In this perspective, the combination of ethnographic
data and analysis is well combined in its proportion and its organization, except maybe in chapter
2, which I think, would benefit from fewer theoretical references.
The author describes the process he went through as a martial arts practitioner and as a
researcher, a process that drove him to choose the school Seni Silat Haqq Melayu (SSHM) as the
central element of his study. This process starts in 1996 in London, goes on from 1999 and
continues throughout 2009 in Malaysia. Thus, if Malaysia stands at the centre of the main
descriptions, D. Farrer doesn’t omit descriptions of the implantation of the school in the UK, and
even somehow in the USA, where the Sufi brotherhood (tarekat) he studies recruits followers
through martial arts organizations that operate from within universities with no obligation to be
Muslim in order to follow the training (p. 35). The leader of the school and central informant of
D. Farrer is Pa’ Ariffin Yeop Mahidin (Pa’ means “Uncle”) – acting as “key consultant,” for
networks connection, and feedback provider to the author’s first sketches.
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For analysis purposes notably linked to the subject, and beyond, the author applies and
develops the notion of embodied knowledge (p. 30) and, as we shall see, is opposed to an
analysis in terms of representation.
Theoretical Approach in the Perspective of Embodied Knowledge
Evoking the previous scientific literature (p. 4), D. Farrer notices that authors speaking of
magic, healing, sorcery, and shamanism, omitted discussion of the silat master, himself
imbedded in one or another of those sets of embodied savoir-faire and value systems (p. 5-6).
The author argues that while Victorian scholars promoted a disembodied theory of magic,
and “a style of thinking basically essentialist” (p. 42), the silat master should be rethought as a
war magician acting in a broader analytical complex including the Sufi, shaman and magician.
As a matter of fact healing, ritual and theatre should be understood through war magic and not
separated from it. For D. Farrer, the omission of the martial artist from this complex is an error of
colonial analysis (p. 39).
The theoretical approach developed by the author includes for instance the necessity of
renewing old theories on magic such as Claude Lévi-Strauss’ interpretation of the shamanism
therapy as a “kind of primitive cathartic psychotherapy” (p. 48) by taking into account new ones
such as Bruce Kapferer’s point of view on sorcery as “power in its own right” and not as a
“representation” (p. 52). In the perspective of these works on magic and shamanism, the author
underlines the important link occurring between the silat master and the Malay ritual healer, the
bomoh (p. 49, 54, 56), well described by Carole Faucher (p. 49). Through this bond and different
Malay theatrical habits – such as latah (socio-theatrical mimicry, p. 54) or wayang shadow
puppet theatre (p. 54) – found in silat itself in its theatrical-like fight tricks or ethical
background, D. Farrer comes to pay special attention to the art and performance dimensions of
silat as a constitutive and a very important part of it. It drives him to develop a theoretical
approach notably marked by Victor Turner’s proposition (including its rejection by Richard
Schechner) of “the evolution of ritual into theatre” conceptualized in terms of “a shift from the
liminal to the liminoid” (p. 69).
Thus, the author still insists on the necessity of distancing himself from representational
interpretations. In this way he finds inspiration in Marcel Mauss and Pierre Bourdieu’s concepts
of techniques du corps, habitus and hexis as main notions shedding light on body and
embodiment. Nevertheless, he also uses Thomas Csordas’s understanding of embodiment to
avoid the dualistic conception to be found in techniques du corps that inducts the “mind/body or
subject/object” connotations (p. 73). The conception of embodiment by Csordas is presented as a
“coherent methodological standpoint” that complements or challenges “the semiotic analysis of
culture as a text.” On the basis of these different notions, D. Farrer shows how the embodiment
of silat occurs in wider Malay social circles involving “Malay quotidian movements or habitus
such as walking, sitting down, squatting, and standing.”
Thereby, the understanding of performance which is at stake is a broad one. In that way
D. Farrer aims to complete the so called anthropology of performance by adding “an adequate
conception of enchantment” inspired by Alfred Gell’s work on the anthropology of art. In this
perspective, the author centers on the history of silat and its technical aspect considered as means
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of “enchantment.” The purpose of the author is to set the attention from the cognitive domain
into the domain of embodied performance (p. 39).
Aspects of the constitutive means of enchantment are presented as “performance of
enchantment.” One of them is the silat wedding where the bride and groom become king and
queen for the day, interpreted by the author as a manner for the middle-class to represent oneself
as Malay in a valued aesthetic way “consumed in its turn through television, theatre, leisure and
tourism” (p. 88); the silat wedding consists of a dance-like set of movements significantly
referred to as flower (bunga) or art (seni) scrupulously described by the author in its technical
and social dimension (p. 93-96). Another one is the Malay weapons arsenal used in silat, and
more especially the keris Malay dagger and its close bond to royalty and to the myth (p. 92).
There, more detailed examples of the Malay gesture in silat and in everyday life are given and
compared to other socio-cultural similar contexts to show how Bourdieu’s concept of hexis fits
an explanation of how such an embodied activity as silat exists – in the sense of being favored –
in a broader set of techniques du corps and habitus (p. 96-98).
In these descriptions we start to see what the author notes further on: the difficulty to
separate the technical aspect from what I would call the ritual or mythical aspect, but which the
author calls “enchantment.” For instance, he explains that the fixed set of movements (proper to
a given school) called “flower” is looking so “graceful” that he himself could not image how
such an aesthetical gesture “could possibly be deadly” (p. 101), and he concluded that technical
elements do not suffice to explain the whole phenomenon in its perceptive and social
dimensions. Hence, he dedicated a special part to Malay rituals and Sufi mystic.
An interesting but unfortunately short part (p. 183-187) concerns the way the master, Pa’
Ariffin, transmits his silat knowledge to his son. Bourdieu’s concept of habitus is introduced
again. A good observation is made (footnote, p. 183) concerning the appropriateness of the term
“experiment” rather than the term “imitate” to speak of the transmission system. A reference
could have been made concerning the “situated action” or “situated learning” theoretical
approach found in the work of Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger.
Other complementary information is given (p. 193) according to which pesilat develop a
sharp sense of observation that enables them to reproduce complex sets of movements they have
seen only once. A sharp sense of observation with implications on body motion and aptitude is
found in ethnographical data, especially in Africa and South America. It seems here to have
reached a great level which would be interesting to investigate more deeply in a comparative and
collaborative approach.
Malay Conceptions on Ancestry and Shamanism, Islam and Sufi Perspectives,
and the Everyday Life of the Malays and Silat Practitioners
Borrowing the notion of “star group” from Victor Turner, D. Farrer argues that the silat
master (guru silat), is a key “traditional” Malay “role model” found in many different social
contexts such as religious rituals, art cults, performing arts, entertainment, sports, special forces
trainer, and so on. Nevertheless, according to the author, if the guru silat can also be identified as
an imam Muslim chief, as a bomoh traditional Malay healer or as a shaman, on the other hand,
guru silat and bomoh appear to him to be anti-structural compared to “the mainstream structural
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role of the imam” (p. 14). This assertion, I suppose, is tied to the comparatively standardized
teaching and networks of Islam, but is it because its formal elements are easier to see that it is
therefore more structured? The question remains unanswered.
Questions relative to bomoh or guru silat must be understood in the perspective of
ancient exchanges with Java and Sumatra, and notably the link to tiger spirits still practiced in
silek Minangkabau (West Sumatra), as I could observe it there. Through some of D. Farrer’s
informants (see notably p. 148), this link looks to be still present in Malaysia, but probably more
hidden and kept secret because of a stronger influence of Islam and modern ideologies.
Thus, some ontological questions arise like how to conciliate trance in silat practice –
especially tied to animal spirit possession – “where it is essential to shaman, but taboo or haram
in the Muslim view?” More broadly, how should protective or auspicious magical practices be
categorized if there is a missing link in the un-hierarchical set of pre-existent descriptions? As an
answer, D. Farrer proposes to use the concept of “magic war” (p. 15). As a matter of fact,
through study of the existent scientific literature – both on Malay world and more broadly – on
the themes of sorcery, witchcraft, shamanism and healing performances, the author notices that if
war is sometimes evoked, it is never considered as a main topic (p. 24-25). In that perspective, he
finds a key to explain the continuity between pre-Muslim conceptions and Muslim ones. For
instance, he notices that the Muslim prayer (solat) or the ritual ablutions before solat (wuduk)
often inspire a silat gesture (I have also observed it in Java); he also points out secret prayers and
dhikr for the warrior which induces him to analyse silat interpretation of Islam as a warrior
religion (p. 162-163).
The author comes to show the specificities and similarities of the so called “Sufi silat,”
and more especially the Seni Silat Haqq Melayu (SSHM) school ones, compared to esoteric
Malay notions and embodied knowledge of kebatinan (see further). Through a day by day
ethnography completed by a detailed presentation of the Malay key notions, we can feel how
Malay pesilat (silat practitioners) are squeezed between two different systems of values, the
Muslim one and the non-Muslim one (or pre-Muslim one) (p. 40).
At the same time, we can see how some of them can manage to create a unique system in
which they don’t need to choose between one or the other. It is the case, for instance, in the way
some masters of SSHM use the Malay notion of semangat (a polysemous Malay word which
notably designs the special vital force contained in any object or creature) to say that it is “the
highest art of silat” (p. 135-137). Furthering the Malay notions tied to kebatinan, the author
introduces a sub-part called “The Shadow Complex.” There, it appears that Sufis of the
Naqshbandi brotherhood, towards their embodied ritual ultimate goal to annihilate the self in the
Oneness of Allah, consider themselves to be “Shadows of the Prophet” (hence the title of the
book), in the way they imitate Prophet Muhammad’s life, the Prophet being considered as “the
Perfect Man” (p. 141, 163). Rather astonishingly, no direct relation of continuity seems to be
established between the pantheist notion of semangat and Sufi doctrine of Unity of the being
(itself pantheist in its own way), nor by the informants or the author.
More detailed explanations show that the human being is composed of twenty shadows
that ritual practice can reveal, and that sifat, as the appearance (the author compares to Plato’s
shadows of the cavern), is opposed to the inner and true part of reality (p. 143). These different
Malay and Sufi conceptions are integrative parts of the Malay kebatinan. The word is from the
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Arabic root batin (“inner, spiritual…”) itself opposed to zahir (“outer, physical…”) (p. 144).
Thus, Malay kebatinan looks similar to Javanese kebatinan in its main outlines, notably in the
way it is composed of local, Hindu-Buddhist and Muslim elements. Those descriptions on Malay
kebatinan are all the more interesting since, as the author points out, it is much less studied than
the Javanese one.
In fact, some differences can be noticed. For instance, spirit possession and animal
ancestry practiced by Malay pesilat, in the author’s descriptions (p. 145, 148), seem to be part of
kebatinan whereas it wouldn’t be the case in the Javanese context where kebatinan is more
influenced by mystical aspects of formal religions on the basis of the proper Javanese
conceptions and rituals called kejawèn (even if spirit possession is also largely spread in Java).
But breathing and concentration exercises are integral parts of the two kebatinan species. Both
on an ideological aspect and technical aspect, it is worth mentioning the fact that, if in the
Islamic Malay styles of silat spirit possession is forbidden, however spontaneous bodily
movement are also performed, in that case it is the power of Allah which is summoned (p.146).
An interesting case study is given through the genealogy and career of Pa’ Ariffin
(SSHM’s master). It appears that Pa’ Ariffin’s forefathers have served the royal family for the
past six hundred years (p. 189). Through his own experience it is explained how the permission
(ijazah) to become master is transmitted by great masters and religious cadres or saints through
the transmission of “mystical rules” (amanah) and the right to create silat movements on the
basis of an improved mastering of the technical and spiritual aspects. We can notably see how the
master uses traditional Malay habits and conceptions in different life contexts. For instance, his
child’s placenta is buried in front of the house (p. 177) (like in Java).
A very interesting part of the master’s life is that he was imam in St. Ann’s Mosque in North
London from 1992 until 1996, but he felt the duty so heavy that he finally decided to end it (p.
191-192). It is worth adding here that in his youth, the silat master hesitated to become Christian
and that he even followed Transcendental Meditation before he converted to the Naqshbandi in
1986 (p. 216).
The Silat School Seni Silat Haqq Melayu
and the Malay Branch of the Sufi Order Haqqani-Naqshbandi
As evoked above, the silat school SSHM represents a subpart of the Sufi brotherhood
Haqqani-Naqshbandi, itself issued from the Naqshbandi order. The leader of the school, Pa’
Ariffin Yeop Mahidin, used to be bodyguard (hulubalang) of the Malay Prince H.R.H. Shaykh
Raja Ashman, himself son of the Sultan of the State of Perak, and Caliph of the HaqqaniNaqshbandi of which leader is Shaykh Nazim, locally “venerated as a living Saint” (p. 6).
According to D. Farrer, Shaykh Nazim’s group mission is to diffuse “high” Sufism (as
opposed to popular Sufism) among the masses, thanks to “extensive transnational links” through
their “first-class-jet-set lifestyle,” supplemented with the use of websites, publications and email
(p. 36). Leaders of the school claim “to practice the original Malay silat” which used to develop
secretly among the Malay aristocracy.
Rather than borrowing an interpretation of Islamization concerning the relative success of
the Haqqani-Naqshbandi order and of the Seni Silat Haqq Melayu in UK and USA, D. Farrer
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explains it from the western point of view through the phenomenon of New Age, in which the
main topic is to find “an activity that is oriented towards transcending the ego” (p. 37-38). We
can follow this expansion in London through Pa’ Ariffin’s career, experience and networks he
developed in this city.
The silat training of Seni Silat Haqq Melayu occurs in Saint Ann’s Mosque, formerly
named Saint Ann’s Priory, before it was purchased by the Haqqani foundation (p. 200). The
author explains that no advertising is used for the recruitment of silat students because the aim is
not to make money. The club grew through word of mouth and personal introduction. That gave
a “mood of communitas” among the members whose number was about 60 persons in 1996 (men
and women) (p. 201-202).
D. Farrer also describes the forty day retreats of SSHM which are inspired by the forty
day retreat of the Haqqani-Naqshbandi brotherhood (also briefly described) aimed at breaking
the ego through ascetic training and adapted psychological treatment (p. 203-204). The 1999
collective retreat held in the forest reserve of Janda Baik (Malaysia) for 20 of Pa’ Ariffin’s
British students and 20 Malay students is presented. The author gives special attention to the way
verbal mortifications for western followers were hard to support and explains that in the long run
(after the forty day camp) ego busting provoked the loss of many among the best pupils of the
school (p. 210). On the other hand, the author gives some examples of British pesilat that came
to convert to Islam, and in some cases made the pilgrimage to Mecca with Pa’ Ariffin (p.
213-216).
More broadly, he presents the four Sufi levels of learning (p. 153), and shows how this
mystic path represents a source of inspiration for Muslim silat practitioners enabling them to
become members of the brotherhood by attending specific rituals (p. 164-169). On that point, a
comparison with Sundanese penca and Sufi orders in West Java might turn out to be very
interesting in the future.
Haqqani-Naqshbandi Sufi Order, Silat Schools and Networks,
and the Political Realm of the Malay State and Authority
Using Amri Baharuddin Shamsul’s work, the author evokes the development of the
Revivalist Islamic Movement, or dakwah (call to the faith, apostolate) movement, against
“deviationist religious cults” since the end of the 1960’s, as tied to the participation of silat
schools in the Sino-Malay race riots of may 1969, which preceded a resurgence of silat
movements across Malaysia (p. 8-9).
It appears that the dakwah movement has come to progressively and partially share the
interests of the Malaysian State. This movement is noteworthy with respect to the economic trade
with Middle East countries such as Iran since the 1990’s. It is in such a context that, in 2000, the
Islamic Development Department of Malaysia, created a list of 125 “deviationist religious cults”
considered to be active under the cover of silat. Groups of silat are also implied in the training of
the Jamaah Islamiah, regional branch of Al-Qaeda.
Through the existing research literature on the subject and the occasional Malaysian State
reactions towards Sufi tarekat, the question arises whether the Naqshbandi order is effectively
presenting an alternative form of governance to the State or is it no more than a simple religious
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movement. The question remains unanswered. To D. Farrer’s eyes, sultans and aristocracy
networks were largely left outside of political and economic affairs and they may have found a
way of acting in between Malay economic development and co-option of the religious dakwah
ideology by the government.
This repeated difficulty of separating religious and political realms in Southeast Asian
studies – often leading to ethno-centric interpretations – can be understood through the micropractice of genealogical relationship. For instance, in D. Farrer’s view, the way Malay masters
consider their genealogical ascendance is not by consanguine relationship, but rather by moral
affinity, perpetrates a broader Southeast Asian tendency. This gave rise to a selective “backtracing” proceeding both cognatically and unilaterally, and to the selection of important relatives
among whom were sultans, rajas, religious or warrior chiefs (p. 177) (a tendency we also find in
Java’s pencak masters).
If the practice of such a “spiritual” affinity appears to be socially recognized, it looks
different when considering the relationship of Malay pesilat with other groups like the Bugis
(from Sulawesi) or the Minangkabau (from Sumatra). In some cases such alliances were taboo
for contextual reasons and could provoke the refusal of the candidate’s masters and elders to
officially recognize his status as master should he contract a forbidden alliance (p. 181).
Reading D. Farrer’s descriptions, it appears that standardized but long term changing
hierarchy and contextual alliances found in silat networks are both basically religious and
political. Another example of this is the question of the cleaving of the silat schools. Seni Silat
Gayong Malaysia school – a very big silat school where Pa’ Ariffin also teaches – had to find
solutions to prevent such a split. The answer has been the creation of an important ceremony
called sundang which is held in the presence of the Sultan of Perak’s son. Through such events,
the author sees a strong influence of the traditional royal authority maintained on those silat
groups and networks. The analysis suggests that this authority is still much more active in its
essence than an analysis in terms of modernity or modern democracy would let it be understood
(p. 196-198).
It appears too that exogenous alliances directly made with political institutions occur.
Thus, the author evokes the close link existing between silat Gayong and the political
organization of the United Malays National Organization (UNMO), and the Royal Malaysian
Police. Such bonds also often occur on the personal level of the masters. It is in this way that
descriptions show how Pa’ Ariffin’s father was an important leader fighting against the Japanese,
and joined the British secret service after World War two (p. 181).
General Remarks
Given the subject of the book, D. Farrer is facing the difficulty of having to choose the
right categorization to classify the object of his study. Silat is not a martial art in the sense of a
physical activity stricto sensu, nor a sportive or competitive activity. On the opposite side of the
possible categorizations, silat is not exactly a ritual initiation in the sense of an obligatory rite de
passage for all the members of the community without any exception. Even if this state of things
characterizes silat – notably through the explicit link to death conceived as mere afterlife and the
less explicit but recurrent link to ancestry kinship tied to Malay animism – and given that the
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Malay Peninsula has been Indianized, Islamized and westernized, the ritual initiation involved
has been going through some modifications which have also introduced more “evasive” or at
least different purposes for the goal of the initiation.
To present different cosmological goals for the same activity the author proposes new
tracks for the analysis. The construction of the neologism “occulturation” is one of them.
Nevertheless, a proper definition of the word “occult” by the author, tied to its etymological
sense of “hidden, secret,” for instance, would increase the consistency of this neologism.
Otherwise, “occult” could introduce an Islamic perspective (more broadly a religious or secular
formal one) in the analytical field by considering a priori that there must be occult elements and
what they are.
Another point to which I would like to draw attention concerns the author’s theoretical
perspective – which I find very interesting and justified – concerning his reluctance towards a
representational approach. Though interesting, I would like to put into perspective his opposition
towards the interpretations of the term “representation” relative to a “static Durkheimian
representational orientation” and “a passive reflection” of social persons as seen in Daniel de
Coppet’s article (1992, p. 115-30), which is unfortunately not yet translated into English. In this
work, the author opens a broader perspective by investigating etymologically the term
representation as “action consisting in making present” (action de rendre présent) in the course
of his analysis of the evolution of the French king funerals during the Middle Ages.
He shows that formerly the corpse of the dead monarch was not placed in the coffin
because the king represented God on earth and death was an inexplicable phenomenon coming
from the divine. Thus, the absence of the corpse signified the presence of the inexpressible; or
more precisely, made the inexpressible present, which is in accordance with what a ritual is
supposed to express or to do. In that case, we can see that there is no difference between what is
conceptualised and what is done in the action: the actual presence (and absence at the same time)
of something which cannot be expressed through verbal language alone; action is present in the
definition and in the acting itself.
Further definitions of “representation” are tied to the king’s funerals when later on the
corpse will be present in the coffin: the appropriation of the divine by mankind. This gives two
principal ways of understanding the word “representation” (as well as death and ritual activity):
one in which meaning and action are not separated, the other one where it starts to be or actually
is. It opens perspectives to significant comparison between different social contexts: the
difference stands in the comparison, not in the theoretical approach.
I should add that de Coppet’s definition is not contradictory to Bruce Kapferer’s
conception followed by D. Farrer, according to which ritual “leads to the creation of meaning
through the change in participants” and can “transform the existential circumstances of persons
in non-ritual realities” (p. 255). I think they are complementary in the sense that both induce
progressive change in everyday life, place and time.
In the same perspective, the analytical tools used by the author in the subpart dedicated to
death push him to criticize the narrow interpretations of the concept of ideology in terms of
“false beliefs” or “particular ideas presented as universal.” It is well justified according to the
subject dealt with, but we must add that in Louis Dumont’s (1986) definition of ideology as “a
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system of (social) values,” the value is something of which activeness induces competition
between values, including technical and embodied practices.
Conclusion
In conclusion, this book testifies to an enormous labor involving great capacities in
different domains: ethnography in difficult conditions, bibliographical referencing, theoretical
and innovative analysis, high level specialization on Malaysia and on Islam. It will particularly
be of great interest for anthropologists and social scientists interested in embodied and corporal
activities, in religious phenomenon, in Islam, in Malay society and culture, and in traditional war
or martial activities, as well as for any reader interested in Malaysia, magic and martial arts. It
makes a major contribution to the understanding of Asian martial arts as they are actually
practiced and conceived in their regions of origin.
References
Cordes, H. T. (1990). Pencak silat, die kampfkunst der Minangkabau und ihr
kulturelles umfeld. (Inaugural dissertation). Philosophischen fakultät,
Universität zu Köln (University of Cologne).
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Dr. D. S. Farrer is Assistant Professor of Anthropology, Division of Humanities, College of
Liberal Arts & Social Sciences, University of Guam, Mangilao, Guam.
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