[O]ne constant experience threads through and occasionally surfaces from all modes of celebration, solemn or festive: a transcendent ecstasy rooted in deep physiological passions and charged up autonomic awareness but burgeoning and ramifying beyond them into transient imaginative apprehensions of the meanings inherent in self and society. (Turner 1982d:23)
Introduction (chapter seven)
ConFest is a vast extra-ordinary moment contextualising the meta-performative communication of authentica. Attending to the liminal modality of drama, this chapter articulates the variegated on-site evocation of the personal, political and cultural sacra of ConFesters. A focus upon a range of performances and narratives is intended to demonstrate how the discourse and practice alternates hold 'sacred' are (re)produced. In the first part, I field the view that ConFest is a multi-cultural drama - that is, a many-genred topos facilitating hyper-reflexive inquiry into the profligate 'ultimate concerns' (MacAloon 1984 in Lewis and Dowsey-Magog 1993:201) of participants. The remainder of the chapter maps the composition of these sacra. In the second part, the sacra of self-healing and Earth consciousness are discussed. Self and globe are regarded as integral, a symbiosis manifest in contemporary expressions of Neo-Pagan eco-spirituality. In the third part, I shift attention to the significance of indigeneity for alternates. Several extra-ordinary moments are partially reconstructed to convey something of the way Australia's indigenous people and landscape are evoked, appealed to and solicited for the purpose of authentication, and in the name of reconciliation.
Maps
Chronology
Appendices
Glossary of Acronyms and Abbreviations
References: A-L
References: M-Z
Chapter Seven Contents
Thesis Contents