Why the position matters: kneeling down, looking up
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| Year of publication | 2014 |
| Type | Appeared in Conference without Proceedings |
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| Description | Major part of religious traditions is built upon strict distinction between the human and superhuman/divine in the domain of power. Superhuman entities are often described as omnipotent or having supernatural powers, while humans are presented as weak, humble and powerless. This distinction is sometimes emphasized not only in teachings, but also in visual representations and demands of visible submissive behaviour towards the superhuman agents. Apart from culturally grounded cues of power and dominance, verticality is often used as a basis to distinguish the powerful from the subordinate, both visually and as a bodily expression. Current research in metaphor and perception shows a direct connection between the size and placement of a stimulus (semantic or visual) and the estimation of its power, dominance and importance. Stimuli placed higher in a vertical space are perceived as more powerful and dominant, whereas those placed on lower positions are perceived as inferior and powerless. Similarly, open and expansive bodily positions are connected to dominant behaviour, while lowered and closed postures (such as kneeling) are perceived as expressing obedience and submission. Current theorizing in the area of embodied cognition claims that bodily positions and environmental settings play an important role in composition of specific embodied states. Thus, bodily positions are not just the result of some antecedent emotional state; they are a necessary part of the emergence and shaping of states. Experimental evidence supports this assertion for many bodily postures – there is however no exhaustive research program focusing on submissive positions and dominance cues in religious rituals. In the light of existing research, I argue that submissive bodily positions in religious rituals are not mere expressions of subordination, but that they establish and modulate the submissive attitude and behaviour towards the superhuman agents. |
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