Abstract

This study is an ethnographic exploration of a women's drumming circle in Southwestern Ontario. The focus of the paper is to act as a conduit to open up a communication link between the women and their conceptions and perceptions of the multicultural construction of their ritual group; and a detailed reading of a few academic texts that are representative of the dominant discourse in their respective branches of the study of anthropology. The emphasis of the paper is on points of convergence and difference between academic theory and the ritual practice of the drumming group with the goal of opening avenues of research in the concrete reality of the imagination. Some of the issues that are to be developed are a working definition of the spiritual essence--the mystic 'it'--of culture; the structuring of the women's ritual around a feminine energy spirit and the organizing principle of consensus; as well as an examination of individuality and the process of group formation.