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Ibibio Libation Performances and Worldview
Published 2013Subjects: “…Significations…”
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Blogging as A Space for Rhetorical Posturing on Israeli-Hezbollah War
Published 2012Subjects: “…signification…”
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Page will reload when a filter is selected or excluded.- Blogging, as a social medium, serves as a platform for individuals and organisations to produce rhetorical discourses that deserve scholarly attention. This rhetorical outlook of blogging features significantly in Middle East conflicts, as instanced in the Mideast blogs that cast their focus on the Israeli-Hezbollah war of 2006. Existing studies on blogging as a social practice seem to concentrate mainly on its social roles without paying much attention to its rhetorical outlook. This study explored the ideological nature of rhetoric in blog posts in order to establish how a comprehension of such rhetoric helps to create a better understanding of the role of blogging in the social process, especially in the context of conflict. A combination of socio-linguistic, semiotic and discourse analytic approaches, as expounded by M.A.K. Halliday’s Systemic Functional Linguistic theory, Teun van Dijk’s Triangulated Approach to discourse and Charles Sander Pierce’s semiotic theory, was adapted as the theoretical framework for the study. Ten Mideast weblogs, characterised by personal, collaborative and corporate blogs, which address the 2006 Israeli-Hezbollah conflict, and seven hundred and fifty posts, with two hundred and fifty readers’ comments, evenly distributed between the blog types, were purposively selected. The data, which are in three modes of signification -language, pictures and cartoons - were content-analysed. Bloggers employed three discourse structures - surface, schematic and dialogic – to pursue Zionist, anti-Semitic and Arab nationalistic ideologies in the posts. These three structures were arranged in a manner that got the blog readers into believing that they had made appropriate choices of response to the postings read, whereas their behaviours and opinions had been controlled through rhetorical strategies such as overstatement, understatement, metonymy, euphemism, mitigation and repetition, which all have a closer relation to underlying ideologies and belief systems of the bloggers. The surface structure contained nationalistic ideologies that were not overtly expressed but located in the linguistic and non-linguistic expressions that characterised the surface structure. The schematic structure defined the canonical order of the discourse through which topics were organised by conventional schemata such that subordinate topics were upgraded by assigning more prominence to them as headlines. The dialogic structure engaged the blog readers in imagined conversation, in which they were assigned passive role as mere commentators, whereas readers’ support was required for the credibility of the published news stories. The pattern of rhetoric in the posts was such that blog readers were made to tilt their views in support of the opinions expressed by the significations in the posts through the discourse strategies, a situation that made most comments in the posts align more with the viewpoints expressed by the bloggers. The nature of rhetoric in the Mideast posts indicates that bloggers conceal their opinions in various significations in an attempt to create strong persuasion for ideological support. The study has therefore provided the ground for establishing the Mideast blog posts as a site for readers’ manipulation in political communication, which is realised through rhetorical strategies embedded in the discourse. 1 results 1
- Blogging|| conflict 1 results 1
- Ibibio religious life 1 results 1
- Ibibio rituals 1 results 1
- Israeli-Hezbollah 1 results 1
- Libation among the Ibibio involves invocations, incantations and supplications to the gods and ancestors through which their world view is expressed. While aspects of libation such as sacrifices, chants, rites and rituals, which emphasis on contents, have been adequately researched, performance of libation has not been elaborately studied, relevant as it is in revealing the cultural values of the Ibibio people. This study, therefore, examines the performance properties and world view of Ibibio people in their libation performances. The study applies Charles Peirce‟s semiotic and Richard Schechner‟s performance theories. Purposive and snowball techniques were used in selecting fifteen libation performances covering sacrifice (3), coronation (2), purification (1), planting (1), harvest (1), appeasement (2), dispute (1), welcome (2), puberty (1) and naming rite (1), collected From Uyo (5), Itu (1), Nsit (1), Eket (2), Ibesikpo (1) Ini (3) and Ikono (2). These performances were transcribed and translated into English. Four Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) involving Chiefs (8), academics (3) and a combination of artisans, traders and youths, aged 25-35 (6) were held. In-depth interviews were conducted with libation performers (4), academics (3) and elderly members (3) of Ibibio society. Data were subjected to semiotic and critical analyses. Ibibio libation performances reveal indexical, iconic, and symbolic signs. Schnapps, ufọfọb (native gin), other hard drinks, nnʌk enañ (cow horn), ukpok/iko (gourd) or glass indexicates sacrifices. Pointing up and down to denote heaven and earth combines with verbal deixis in personal pronouns such as ami (I), nnyin (we) and mbufo (you), to indexicate the Ibibio source of strength. While nnʌk eniin (elephant tusk) and ekere (gong) are iconic of coronation performances, palm-wine and palm-oil are iconic of appeasement; animals are iconic of sacrifices. Ukpok/iko (gourd) symbolises oneness, palm-oil and eggs symbolise peace and nnʌk eniin (elephant tusk) symbolises royal authority. Ibibio libation performances are ritualistic, but some are more intense in contents and props. Performances from Ini and Ikono are more esoteric than those from the urban settings. Spatial and temporal settings of the performances vary according to context: while appeasement performances to Amasa, the water goddess, are set by the sea-side at midnight, with fowls, eggs, white basins, schnapps and priests dressed in white, appeasement performances for the earth deities are performed at shrines or spots of desecration, in the evenings with items like ufọfọb (native gin), other hard drinks and palm-wine. The insistence on schnapps for the water goddess underscores Ibibio understanding of schnapps as a foreign drink. Similarly, coronation performances are performed at designated spiritual arenas, while routine worship, welcome, naming or puberty rites are performed at homes with performers dressed in traditional attire. The select texts exhibit repetition and metaphor as devices used in exploring narrative properties such as plea, confidence and affirmation. Libation performances in Ibibio society which utilise symbolic drinks, objects and props reflect the mores of the people. Thus, they reveal a communion with the gods and ancestors manifested in theatrical aesthetic that portrays the cultural values and world view of the Ibibio. 1 results 1
- Libation text 1 results 1
- Performance 1 results 1
- Significations 1 results 1
- conflict discourse 1 results 1
- signification 1 results 1
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