Does Holiness Have a Color? The Religious, Ethnic, and Political Semiotics of Colors in Mauritius

Bibliographic Data

ID13085692
AuthorsLeo Couacaud (0000-0003-0227-565X, University of Mauritius, corresponding author)
Year2016
Volume4
Issue2
Pages176-214
Publication date2016-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueSigns and Society (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2326-4489 • E-ISSN: 2326-4497
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1086/688513
OpenAlexW2553984660
LanguageEN
Citations received4
References cited25

Colors play an important role in the social landscape of Mauritius. First and foremost, they help to distinguish the separate identities of the island’s major religious faiths. But that is not all, as they also serve to reinscribe cultural differences between the island’s various ethnic groups. And there is also evidence to suggest that this ethnoreligious color symbolism is exploited by the island’s major political parties to mobilize the support of voters. So saturated is the Mauritian social landscape with these color schema, that is hard to see how the society can overcome its ethnic divisions and foster a sense of national unity until these cultural practices are attenuated. Indeed as long as the state continues to allocate subsidies to religious organizations on the basis of their ability to objectify their respective cultural differences, it is unlikely such practices are going to disappear anytime soon. The aforementioned issues are explored using a variety of anthropological theories and methods, with particular emphasis laid in the article on the benefits of adopting a more nuanced symbolic approach to the construction of ethnicity in Mauritius to that which is currently available in the literature

Aesthetics · Art · Epistemology · Ethnic group · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Schema (genetic algorithms · Semiotics · Social science · Sociology · State (computer science · Subsidy · Variety (cybernetics · African history and culture studies · Anthropology · Caribbean history, culture, and politics · Economic Zones and Regional Development · Gender Studies · Law

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