Is the Spirit Here?: Questioning Presence

The phenomenology of "presence" emphasizes not only the "appearing of appearance" (der Schein des Schein--Hegel) but also its "disappearing," its moments--perhaps constitutive--of opacity, ambiguity, resistance, and self-negation. If it requires believers to believe, it also opens possibilities of doubt, skepticism, and ideological and social non-participation in group identifications. The paper explores this dynamic using examples of traditional shamanistic dance and performance of the Pacific Northwest Coast (as interpreted by indigenous participants and by ethnographers) and the tragic drama of Classical Greece (as interpreted by Nietzsche and Warburg).