Original Articles

Greeting rituals as everyday management of differences among RasTafari groups in Stellenbosch

Published in: Anthropology Southern Africa
Volume 33 , issue 3-4 : Engaging difference: Perspectives on belonging and exclusion in contemporary southern and East Africa , 2010 , pages: 126–131

DOI: 10.1080/23323256.2010.11500001

Author(s): Lennox Olivier Sociology and Social Anthropology, Stellenbosch University,

Keywords: RasTafari , greeting , interpellation , semiotic mobility , community formation

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Abstract

Greeting is a meaningful part of everyday interaction among individuals from different RasTafari groups in Stellenbosch, since it contributes to the construction and maintenance of the identity and boundaries of groups. Drawing upon extensive participant observation, I first look at forms of greeting as critical signs in RasTafari interaction and second, at how they are employed, in Althusser's (2001/1971) terms, in interactive processes of ideological interpellation. Finally, I apply Blommaert's (2005) concept of semiotic mobility to analyse greetings as autonomous text, albeit contingent to and constitutive of the context in which they are produced. I argue that greeting rituals allow the groups the ‘reasoning’ of differences, while keeping a sense of belonging to a broad RasTafari community.

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