Voice matters. The vocal creation and manipulation of ritual temporalities
Résumé
Voice is physical matter that can be easily manipulated rhythmically with different effects,
in particular on how the temporal flow is perceived. Changes of elocutionary tempo,
variations of the length of syllabic groups or pauses, synchronies and asychronies with the
textual rhythms often play a crucial role in the pragmatics of ritual discourses. Yet such
vocal manipulations have been insufficiently analyzed. They have to be understood in close
relationship with the other gestural actions of the participants, and may also be dependent
on the regimes of communication projected onto the non-human participants invoked
during the ritual performance. By the creation of an extra-ordinary sensorial perception of
temporality, they contribute to the multitemporality proper to the ritual, as well as to its
transformative internal structure. Mayan examples are used to illustrate how the
materiality of voice induces such ritual temporalization.