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| Jaganshi (profile) wrote, on 12-2-2004 at 10:07pm | |
| This is a research paper that I wrote for anthropology about part of the convention. Forgive the formatting if you please. It wasn't built for blog publishing, but if you'd like to read it anyway, you are more than welcome. Introduction Over Thanksgiving Break, I attended an anime convention called Sugoicon. The expectation for all of us was to spend the weekend at Sugoicon wandering around aimlessly, watching panels, admiring things we could not buy, and checking out cosplayers (people who attended in some form of costume or another). At the convention, nearly everyone was dressed as a character from a Japanese anime series or video game. One attendee caught my eye. He was dressed as a character from the anime series Trigun. He was, for the duration of Sugoicon, Nicholas D. Wolfwood, a Catholic priest/gunfighter/head of an orphanage who carries an enormous cross wrapped in bandages. This cross, when unwrapped, is revealed to be made entirely of guns with a rocket launcher in the bottom end. Needless to say, Wolfwood is no ordinary man of the cloth. The most conspicuous Wolfwood at the convention came complete with one giant wrapped cross. Ethnography I was at the convention with my boyfriend Brian and several of his friends. After having seen this particular Wolfwood around for a day or so, Brian and I had an idea. I stopped Wolfwood in a passageway-turned-common room. “Hey Wolfwood!” I yelled. “You perform marriages?” He grinned and replied, “How can I refuse?” He made his way over to us for the purpose of performing a mock marriage ceremony. “Wait!” He said. “We need a ring! We can’t do this without a ring. And do you guys have vows prepared? Just standard love-honor-cherish stuff. But we need a ring or we can’t do it.” We scrambled a bit, and a man standing next to me wearing chain mail spoke up. I’d never seen this man before, and none of us knew him, but he told us to wait. “Hold on,” he said with a pair of pliers in one hand. “You need a ring?” He took a piece of his chain mail off his vest and opened it until it was finger-sized. He handed it to Brian. “No problem. I only have eight thousand or so.” So, Brian and I exchanged our vows, Wolfwood pronounced us married and signaled the kissing of the bride. For an impromptu anime marriage, it was actually rather complete. Brian even had a best man (though we didn’t notice him until afterward, earning Will the title of Best Ninja). Ethnographic Analysis Behavior of Ritual Participants Why did I ask Wolfwood to marry us? -Wolfwood is one of my favorite anime characters, and just talking to this particularly well-executed version was something of an honor anyway. Part of it was the fact that I knew Brian also liked Trigun and would appreciate the novelty of the situation. Part of it is because I'm a girl, and as a girl, I enjoy weddings... particularly one for me. Why did Brian agree to the marriage? -Brian said later that he agreed "because I thought it would be entertaining. Also because I thought it would be an amusing way to show off my girlfriend in public. Also Wolfwood is my hero." Why did Wolfwood agree? -It probably made him feel like he was being a good Wolfwood. It spoke highly of his anime fanhood. Since he went to the trouble of dressing as a cartoon priest, a request for a marriage ceremony is probably the highest form of compliment. Why did the man with the chain mail vest provide the makeshift ring for us? -Due to the general aura of "do whatever you want as long as it amuses the rest of us," the man probably thought that this was a novel idea. Maybe he thought it was endearing that two teenagers were going to have a pseudo-marriage performed by a cosplayer at an anime convention. It could also have been a chance to show off his hand-made chain mail vest. What better way to draw attention to it than by offering someone a piece of it for themselves? Why did Will decide to be Best Ninja? -Maybe he just wanted to participate in a fun activity when there was nothing else to do. He said later that he was planning on running into the Dealers' Room and buying us a couple of rings, but rapidly realized he did not have sufficient funds to do so. Symbolic Representations in an anime marriage One thing I found striking about this marriage ceremony was how complete it was despite the impromptu nature of this entire arrangement. There was a priest (of sorts), a wedding ring (of sorts), and of course the recitation of vows. It’s highly likely that Wolfwood did not necessarily represent the blessing of God as a priest would in a more standard marriage. Instead, he stood in for the anime Powers That Be and added a certain novelty to the ceremony that would not have been present had he not been a young man dressed as an anime character. Wolfwood, as the authority present, was in charge of the wedding procedure. No one questioned his request for vows, as vows are positively a requirement in western-style marriages. These vows are the concrete verbal acknowledgement of the couple’s commitment to their new duties as married people. Without the vows, a marriage is not as clearly linked to the underlying purpose of the ritual: merging two people into one married unit via promises of commitment. This commitment is also represented by the ring, which appears (due to the symbology of circles in general) in most uses to represent eternity. In this case, the ring was not a circle, but rather an improvised wedding ring intended simply to get the point across. Thus, the ring apparently transcends its base meaning to take on its own status as something that can in turn be symbolized by something else… in this case a second-hand bit of chain mail. |
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Silvos | 12-02-04 11:31pm *hug* |