Sonic Spaces, Spiritual Bodies: The Affective Experience of the Roots Reggae Soundsystem

This paper advances a new understanding of spirituality within the geographies of religion. It builds on the premise that spirituality is latent within every body, and argues that it becomes manifest in response to an affective experience. Such experiences are often sensory in nature, rendering spiritual affect an embodied phenomenon that can be understood through the concept of an “embodied hierophany”. By exploring the affective experience of the roots reggae soundsystem, this paper shows how sonic spaces can enable processes of spiritual engagement. It draws on an analysis of four documentary films about soundsystem culture to show how situations of sonic dominance can bring about an embodied hierophany. In such situations, spirituality is experienced outside of the ascriptive framework of formal religious belief, and is therefore a more self-directed form of spiritual awakening.