Sacred Camp: Transgendering Faith in a Philippine Festival

Alcedo, Patrick (2007) Sacred Camp: Transgendering Faith in a Philippine Festival. Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, 38 (1). pp. 107-132. ISSN 00224634 (print); 14740680 (online)

Full text not available from this repository.

Abstract

By embodying the paradoxes found in three webs of signification — panaad (devotional promise), sacred camp and carnivalesque during the Ati-atihan festival — Augusto Diangson, an individual of the 'third sex', was able to claim membership in the Roman Catholic community of Kalibo, Aklan in the Central Philippines while also negotiating the Church's institution of heterosexuality. The narratives of mischief and the gender ambiguity of the Santo Niño or the Holy Child Jesus, the centre of Ati-atihan's religious veneration, further enabled Diangson to interact with Kalibo's Roman Catholicism. Through an analysis of Diangson and his participation in the festival, this article exposes how ordinary individuals in extraordinary events localise their faith through crossdressing and dance performance. Seen throughout the Philippines, these processes of mimicry and gender transformation transport individuals into zones of ambivalence and contradictions in which they are able to navigate through the homogenising discourse of their culture and the Church's homogenising myth of Roman Catholicism.

Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled Keywords: Aklan, Ati-Atihan, Catholicism, cultural performance, cultural performance criticism, Philippines, rites and rituals
Depositing User: Repo Admin
Date Deposited: 22 Apr 2017 13:27
Last Modified: 22 Apr 2017 13:27
URI: http://philippineperformance-repository.upd.edu.ph/id/eprint/367

Actions (login required)

View Item View Item