Dark Room here: a ritual of obscurity and silence

Abstract

Among the several urban spaces de-
signed for casual sexual encounters, this paper fo-
cuses on the structure of the ritual of interaction
in the dark room of a nightclub frequented by men
who seek homoerotic practices. I propose a use of J.
L. Austin’s theory of speech acts in a context where
the performative acts are gestures, movements, and
the position in the space, among other corporal
signs, which not only say, but also do things. How
to do things without words? How to do ethnogra-
phy in silence? What do gestures say? How can
one do things by gestures? What is their “magical”
power? Is there an inner energy in gestures, just like
in words? This investigation is based on theoretical
issues from anthropological studies, which question
the pre-eminence of language and sight in ethno-
graphical work, and in the study of the ways groups
organize their own experiences.