Possessing Spirits and Bodily Transformation in Zanzibar Reflections on Ritual, Performance, and Aesthetics

The paper explores the need for a critical inquiry into how we perceive the terms "performance", "performative acts" and "performativity" when these terms are applied in anthropological analysis of ritual and everyday life in different societies and cultural contexts. It is argued that the term "performance", as well as various derivations of it such as performative acts, performativity as well as drama, is widely applied as if univocal in connotation, while at the same time, it is obvious that the term is alluding to different meanings. With reference to ethnographic material, the paper discusses the ways in which the term "performance" may or may not inform our understanding of the interlacing of ritual and daily life without conflating the distinction between reality and theatre as well as that between authenticity and simulation in ritual.