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Fused by Paradox: The Challenge of Being an Israeli Psy-Trancer Abstract of Masters Thesis The following thesis focuses on distinctive aspects of Israeli psy-trance neotribes. The main question I am concerned with is how, despite the minimal use of verbal communication within this cultural context, neotribal members are able to comprehend, internalize and act in accordance with their subculture’s social mores and behavioral codes. In other words, the essay establishes and verifies the behavior of Israeli psy-trance neotribes first by analyzing their conduct and then substantiating it vis-à-vis their idiosyncratic use of language. The essay demonstrates how the limited language encountered at psy-trance events reflects, contributes, and to some extent creates the the term Israeli psy-trance music ,(טראנסיסטים) behavior and cultural norms of Transistim enthusiasts use to refer to themselves. First, I will delineate several key characteristics of psy-trance music and New Edge culture in general and then point out and discuss a central meme typical to the Israeli sector of this subculture. Next, I will show a behavioral pattern emblematic of Transistim which may be substantiated empirically by applying two systems of language analysis - the sign-orientated view of language and the theory of “Phonology as Human Behavior” - as a way to analyze their language (Tobin 1990, 1994, 1997; Diver, 1975, 1979). My analysis juxtaposes words connected to Israel’s New Edge culture with conduct I have observed during my participatory fieldwork at psy-trance parties and shows how these words accurately represent “the cognitive and perceptual behavior” of Transistim (Tobin, 1997). The first section discusses the major social, behavioral and linguistic manifestations of Israel’s New Edge psychedelic neotribal communities. Chapter Two groups Transistims’ behavior into a series of dichotomous pairs and illustrates how their conduct is, in fact, paradoxical. Chapter Three continues with this theme but also explains how some of these paradoxes are actually contradictory and even somewhat hypocritical. Chapter Four will further examine Transistims’ contrastive mannerisms by comparing their behavior with their language, thereby both verifying and providing additional insight into this subcultures’ ironic conduct. In sum, via a focus on Israeli psy-trance neotribes, my findings have led me to verify and understand better how word systems may be expressed in culture. 2 To be shaken out of the ruts of ordinary perception, to be shown for a few timeless hours the outer and the inner world, not as they appear to an animal obsessed with survival or to a human being obsessed with words and notions, but as they are apprehended, directly and unconditionally, by Mind at Large – this is an experience of inestimable value to everyone and especially to the intellectual...We must learn how to handle words effectively; but at the same time we must preserve and, if necessary, intensify our ability to look at the world directly and not through that half opaque medium of concepts, which distorts every given fact into the all too familiar likeness of some generic label or explanatory abstraction. (Huxley, 1954: 73-74) What the alien voice in the psychedelic experience wants to reveal is the syntactical nature of reality. That the real secret of magic is that the world is made of words, and that if you know the words that the world is made of you can make of it whatever you wish. (McKenna, 1993) You’re running and you’re running But you can’t run away from yourself. (Marley, 1978) 5 Chapter I: The Setting Introducing New Edge Neotribes Psy-neotribes The dance brings the gods of the village among the worshippers. In particular the magician himself is possessed by the gods, as his wild and yet perfectly rhythmical dancing suggest. Tensions mounts with his possession, as he indicates that he has found the source of evil and is about to drive it out. Then the whole dancing community goes wild with excitement. The dance lasts well into the night until all are exhausted. It is a catharsis, a purging – it heals and restores. (Lewis, 1969: 190) My research relates to aspects of the Israeli psychedelic electronic dance music underground’s core social unit, the neotribe, loosely affiliated heterogeneous ‘connectives’1 and dance to psy-trance electronic 2(שטח ,’whose members gather in the shetax (the ‘outback music. Israeli psy-trance neotribes are part of the wider, global, context of “New Edge culture,” defined by scholars as a “nexus of dance culture, Gaian values3, hi-tech and evolutionary ideas” (Gosney, 1993: electronic document; Davis, 1998)4. New Edge sociality bases itself around a transdisciplinary “integrative” cultural framework which incorporates theories and practices such as “holistic health, deep ecology, new science, desktop publishing and multimedia directives, eco-cities, cyberculture, electronic music and the ‘transmodern tribalism,5 evolving in festival culture, intentional communities and new social and economic networks across the planet” (Gosney, 2004) . “Neotribes,” a term put forward by French social philosopher Michel Maffesoli, are a contemporary subcultural version of the tribal unit and a part of the “new forms of social collectivity...taking root and challenging our established models of politics and tradition” (1996: 76). Describing the same social construct, global theorist, Arjun Appadurai, has termed groups “communities of sentiment,” suggesting that their “post- national” status provides “new resources for identity and energies for creating alternatives to the nation-state” (1996: 7). In his work on contemporary body modification, the British sociologist Paul Sweetman suggests that neotribes are “a move away from rational, contractual social relationships towards an empathetic form of sociality, where what is important is not some abstract, idealized goal, but rather the feeling of togetherness 6 engendered by one’s direct involvement with the social group” (2004: 85, emphasis in the original). “Neotribal groupings” he remarks “are informal, dynamic and frequently temporary alliances centered around...feelings rather than a commitment to particular ideologies or beliefs. Built around tactility and proxemics, these are non-instrumental, apolitical allegiances ‘whose sole raison d’être is a preoccupation with the collective present’” (Sweetman, 2004: 86, emphasis in the original; Maffesoli, 1996: 75). Neotribes also are associated with post-modern hyper-individualization, “that is, a temporal and transient culture defined by, among other features, a blurring of conventional social categories” (Carrington and Wilson, 2004: 65). Similar to other post- modern subcultural allegiances, neotribal affiliation is loose, as members coalesce from various countries and walks of life (Muggleton, 1997; Reynolds, 1998). “Non-ascriptive” neotribes exist without defined consensual goals and “are inherently unstable and not fixed by any of the established parameters of modern society; instead they are maintained through shared beliefs, styles of life, an expressive body-centeredness, new moral beliefs and senses of injustice, and significantly through consumption practices (Hetherington, 2001: 247). In his study of the sociology of youth music cultures, researcher Andy Bennett points out that “tribal identities serve to illustrate the temporal nature of collective identities in modern consumer society as individuals continually move between different sites of collective expression and ‘reconstruct’ themselves accordingly” (2000: 80). Kevin Hetherington, a social geographer whose research centers on space and identity, considers sub-culture gatherings like psy-trance celebrations to be “very tribal or autotelic” in nature (2001: 246). In other words, “as social venues they rapidly become their own goal; styles of dress, political or religious beliefs, adherence to musical styles or modes of living are often deliberately accentuated and defended”(ibid). Psy-trance New Edge gatherings “represent the chaotic, disorganized and transient features of modern life that transgress the routines and familiarities of everyday life” (249). The heterogeneous assemblages characteristic of Israeli New Edge neotribal gatherings occur via an intermingling of gender, age, social, economic and linguistic backgrounds which exist solely within the New Edge setting6. Because of both their physical and cognitive separation from conventional society, these frameworks allow 7 participants to try on different roles or act out alternative identities (Hetherington, 1998: 36). In consequence, many Transistim deliberately separate their New Edge and ‘straight’ .(חיים כפולים) ’edge social arenas by leading ‘dual lives The fact that many Transistim lead dual lives appears symptomatic of contemporary global civilization and various scholars have suggested that in today’s intersecting globalized reality, previous forms of economic, social and cultural distinctiveness now ‘flow’ together so that it is hard for people to claim a single, firm or one dimensional sense of individuality or identity (Urry, 1990; Urry and Lash, 1994; Appadurai, 1996; Bauman, 2000; Wang, 2000). Thus, contemporary sociality has been dubbed “liquid” (Bauman, 2000), “nomadic” (Richards and Wilson, 2004), “mobile” (Urry, 1995), “ruptured” (Appadurai, 1996), and “increasingly pluralistic and polytheistic” (Featherstone, 1995). British sociologist and contemporary culture theorist Mike Featherstone notes that in contrast to