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" Music and the ritual of death among the Maronite Christians in Lebanon "
Guilnard Jean Moufarrej
A. J. Racy
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Latin Dissertation
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English
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| Record Number
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53152
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TL23106
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3207381
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| Main Entry
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Guilnard Jean Moufarrej
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| Title & Author
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Music and the ritual of death among the Maronite Christians in Lebanon\ Guilnard Jean Moufarrej
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| College
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University of California, Los Angeles
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| Date
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2005
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| Degree
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Ph.D.
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2005
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| Page No
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249
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| Abstract
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Among the Maronites, a Lebanon-based indigenous Christian community in communion with the Roman Catholic Church, funeral rituals play a central social role. These rituals both inform us about the local attitudes toward life and death and give us access to old practices that were documented in manuscripts that date back at least as far as the thirteenth century. Modernization, globalization, emigration, civil war (1975--1990), and other factors have together influenced many aspects of the local religious expression, but the Maronite Church has succeeded in adapting to the emerging temporal and spiritual needs of its followers without losing its identity. Maronite scholars have preserved traditional Maronite music and texts, which they have translated from Syriac, the original liturgical language, into Arabic, while maintaining the original Syriac poetic meter. The present funeral liturgy and other rituals in the Maronite Church today show considerable continuity, particularly in the use of traditional texts and the music to which they are sung. This dissertation examines the role of music and ritual in the Lebanese Maronite funeral tradition. I conducted fieldwork in villages and cities in Lebanon, where I documented contemporary practices and analyzed older liturgical manuscripts related to funeral ceremonies. In this study, I investigate aspects of continuity and change in the funeral ritual and demonstrate how music and poetry help maintain the sense of communal identity that prevails among Maronites in Lebanon and abroad. Furthermore, my research addresses several broader issues, in particular how rituals transform people's lives, create a communal feeling, and assure a sense of connection with the past; and how liturgical chants and laments express people's emotions and serve as a mediator between two worlds.
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Philosophy, religion and theology; Communication and the arts; Social sciences; Christians; Death ritual; Lebanon; Maronite; Music; Ritual; Religion; Cultural anthropology; 0326:Cultural anthropology; 0413:Music; 0318:Religion
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A. J. Racy
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University of California, Los Angeles
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