黃佩玲。〈悲傷的身體樞軸：巴基斯坦信德省蘇非伊斯蘭獻唱社群的情感實踐與倫理關係轉動〉。《民俗曲藝》233 (2026.9): 121–79。
Huang Pei-ling. “Embodied Hub of Sorrows: Affective Practice and Pivoting Ethical Relations in a Sufi Devotional Singing Community in Sindh, Pakistan.” Journal of Chinese Ritual, Theatre and Folklore 233 (2026.9): 121–79.
Abstract
巴基斯坦南部信德省的一個伊斯蘭獻唱社群，於十八世紀蘇非聖人沙•阿部督•拉替夫•貝泰（Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai）的陵墓歷代傳唱聖人的靈性詩歌《沙之樂章》。本文結合情感與倫理之理論，探索此社群的獻唱者如何透過獻唱的情感實踐，以身體為樞軸轉向不同的神聖對象，形塑多重的倫理關係。自稱rāgī faqīr的信徒每週組團在聖人陵墓前獻唱，樂章之詩詞與吟唱方法引導他們實踐「思念真主與聖人的愛和悲傷」之情感倫理。此實踐於在地歷史過程中匯聚了來自不同宗教、教派傳統的悲傷情態（sorrowful modalities），蘊含多重身體經驗、象徵意義、與神聖關係的可能性。
本文聚焦兩組身體實踐—嗓音發聲及身體承受苦痛—分析獻唱者的行動與論述，以探討獻唱者在二十世紀以降此地什葉派哀悼儀式發展的脈絡中，如何透過悲痛的身體，將體現「分離之悲傷」的蘇非獻唱綑綁（bundle）新的符號意義、將痛苦「外部化」，並發展出「哀悼之悲傷」情態。獻唱者在強烈的情感氛圍中，調頻（attune）於關係性的神聖倫理，維持跨教派參與的開放性。本文分析南亞伊斯蘭之在地化宗教獻唱社群如何透過情動的身體實踐，開展新的倫理可能性，希冀對探索情動的民族音樂學、討論倫理實踐的人類學，以及關注物質性與聲音行動之宗教學研究有所貢獻。
An Islamic devotional singing community based in Sindh,
Pakistan, has transmitted the spiritual poetry of eighteenth-century Sufi saint
Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai at his shrine over the centuries through the melodic
tradition of Shah Jo Rāg (Shah’s Melodic Corpus). In this article, I draw on
theories of affect and ethics to explore how these devotees, through affective
practices of devotional singing, pivot toward different divine entities through
their bodily praxis, thereby cultivating multiple ethical relationships. These
devotees, who self-identify as rāgī faqīrs (singing devotees), form
groups to perform weekly, guided by poetry and prescribed modes of rendition to
practice an affective ethics of “love and sorrow” in remembrance of Allah and
the Sufi saint. This practice has accumulated multiple “sorrowful modalities”
drawn from various religious and sectarian traditions through regional
historical processes; it thus contains possibilities for multiple embodied
experiences, symbolic meanings, and sacred relationships.
I focus on two forms of bodily practice—vocal production and the corporeal endurance of pain—to analyze devotees’ actions and discourses within the context of expanding Shi’i mourning rituals that developed in this area during the twentieth century. Through bodies of sorrowful pain, devotees “bundle” new semiotic significance onto their devotional singing, which traditionally embodies the sorrowful modality of Sufi “pain in separation.” In this bundling process, they externalize pain to cultivate a distinct sorrowful modality of “grief in mourning.” Within such intense affective atmospheres, practitioners “attune” to a relational ethics with the divine, one that maintains an openness to cross-sectarian participation. By analyzing how a locally-situated South Asian Islamic devotional community generates new ethical possibilities through affective bodily practice, this article seeks to contribute to the ethnomusicology of affect, the anthropology of ethical practice, and the study of materiality and sonic action in religious studies.