This paper discusses ritual performances as negotiations of identity within the heterogeneous Lao migrant community in Berlin. Taking as an ethnographic focus point the official opening of a ‘Lao Club Berlin’ in summer 2011, we will explore how ritual performances aimed at constructing a specific Buddhist cultural space during the event with the purpose of reconciling different Lao migrant identities. The ritual here had to address a small and heterogeneous migrant community. The latter was comprised of people who were sent to then communist East Germany (GDR) for their studies by the Lao government, but also of families who had fled the very same regime in the late 1970 and had found asylum in West Germany. Moreover, ethnic Lao from Thailand—mainly women who had married Germans—also joined the group. We will discuss the role of certain material objects and Buddhist symbols deployed during the event and show that their performative invocation created a connection to the spatial and ritual origins in Laos. Despite the inherent fragility and diversity of the group, we argue that the successful creation of liminality contributed to a renewal of identity and belonging and a temporary alleviation of differences rooted in distinct experiences of migration. With reference to ritual theory as developed by Victor Turner, performance theory, and works that investigate the potential failure of ritual performances, we will also examine the strategies for overcoming what we label ‘ritual insecurities.’ The latter were mainly caused by a lack of religious resources and different memories and experiences of migration, but to a certain degree could be counterbalanced through ritual action.
目次
Abstract 1 1. Introduction 1 2. Revolution in Laos and migration from Isan: Three trajectories of migration 3 3. The creation of a shared ritual Lao space: Social hierarchies and liminality 5 4. Ritual insecurity: Lack of resources and performativity 9 5. Conclusion 12 Bibliography 13 Abbreviations of the BStU and the GDR's Ministry of Sectet Police 15 Short Bios 15
