Teodori: Cosmological Building and Social Consolidation in a Ritual Dance

Dance is a mode of communication affiliated with the qualities explicitly inherent in human beings that of expressing abstract ideas. Exposing concepts by using the body as the medium of expression is part and parcel of human activity. The Teodori, literally hand dance, is a ritual dance which focuses on the expression of the body and hands. Members of a Japanese new religion called Tenrikyo communally perform the Teodori, translated as the dance with the hand movements. This study aims to uncover the meanings and dynamics of the Teodori. It intends to do so by relying on the analytical insights provided by Clifford Geertz, an interpretive anthropologist, who advocates a semiotic approach.