ISBN:
0-485-19557-7
,
978-0-485-19557-6
ISSN:
0077-1074
Language:
English
Pages:
ix, 246 Seiten
,
Illustrationen
Series Statement:
Monographs on Social Anthropology No 60
Keywords:
Äthiopien Ethnie, Afrika
;
Hamar
;
Symbolik
;
Umgangsform
;
Soziales Leben
;
Übergangsritual
;
Anthropologie
;
Anthropologie, soziale
;
Kritik
Abstract:
This pioneering study, based on the authors's extensive fieldwork among the Hamar of southern Ethiopia, develops a radically new approach to symbolic production and ritual action. Dr. Strecker begins with a critique of earlier theories of symbolism, in particular those of the anthropologists Victor Turner and Dan Sperber. Drawing his own inspiration from the work of the Painter René Magritte and the philosopher Paul Grice, he develops and alternative, rhetorical theory of symbolism, in which symbolization is seen as an act of displacement or "conversational implicature." He then proceeds to analyse the production of multvocality in social life. Why, he asks, do people in certain social situations choose to communicate though multivocal symbols rather than through univocal signs? To answer this question he draws on a recent study of politeness phenomena by Penelope Brown and Stephen Levinson. By applying a discouse analysis to his own rich Hamar data, he re-examines Brown and Levinson's theory and shows how it helps us to understand symbolization as a social practice. He demonstrates that a theory of politeness is also a theory of social domination: how to honour provides the recipe for how to dishonour. Finally, he extends the theory of politeness into a general theory of ritual, and applies it to an analysis of a Hamar rite of transition.
Description / Table of Contents:
Foreword by Stephen Tyler -- Acknowledgements -- Introduction -- 1. Ritual and Symbolism -- 2. The Cognitive Basis of Symbolization -- 3. Symbolization as a Social Practice -- 4. Symbolization and Social Domination -- 5. Symbolization and Ritual -- Epilogue -- Bibliography -- Index
Note:
Literaturverzeichenis: Seite 227-232"The present essay was written as a partial requirement for a Habilitation at the Universtity of Göttingen." (Introduction)
,
Habilitationsschrift, Universität Göttingen, [1988]
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