Sonic Gendering of Ritual Spaces

Both the sound of bells from churches and the adhan from mosques call their communities to gather and punctuate the day at regular intervals. They also gender public spaces as male, addressing the (mostly) men who serve as leaders in the religion, as well as the men whose lives are described in scriptures—words that were predominantly recorded by men. Drawing on comparative case studies from Asia and Europe, we argue that through performance, in particular at mourning rituals, women sonically gender spaces, temporarily as female. In claiming those spaces, women performers create opportunities for articulating commentary and opinion about their lives and their community.