Jeffrey C. Alexander
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780195160840
- eISBN:
- 9780199944156
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195160840.003.0019
- Subject:
- Sociology, Culture
This chapter considers the Watergate Scandal in the U.S. as a democratic ritual. It examines the how and why of the perception of Watergate and explains how it became a moral symbol. It describes ...
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This chapter considers the Watergate Scandal in the U.S. as a democratic ritual. It examines the how and why of the perception of Watergate and explains how it became a moral symbol. It describes what must happen for an entire society to experience fundamental crisis and ritual renewal.Less
This chapter considers the Watergate Scandal in the U.S. as a democratic ritual. It examines the how and why of the perception of Watergate and explains how it became a moral symbol. It describes what must happen for an entire society to experience fundamental crisis and ritual renewal.
Heonik Kwon
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520247963
- eISBN:
- 9780520939653
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520247963.003.0003
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Asian Cultural Anthropology
This chapter introduces a brief history of Ha My and My Lai with a focus on the historical situation of the village being turned inside out by the violent forces of the Cold War. The abstraction of ...
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This chapter introduces a brief history of Ha My and My Lai with a focus on the historical situation of the village being turned inside out by the violent forces of the Cold War. The abstraction of total war had to be weighed against concrete needs for survival, and this painful negotiation was a genuine people's struggle in the streets during the violent Cold War. This paradigm of the people's war also became a reality, with tragic consequences, to some of those who fought against the paradigm. Following this, the chapter discusses the history of the village's ancestral temples and their fluctuation between being positive and negative moral symbols as a way of situating the political history within the spectrum of local norms. Even post Cold War, the political identity of the people could not be settled and they had to deal with the consequences of the war.Less
This chapter introduces a brief history of Ha My and My Lai with a focus on the historical situation of the village being turned inside out by the violent forces of the Cold War. The abstraction of total war had to be weighed against concrete needs for survival, and this painful negotiation was a genuine people's struggle in the streets during the violent Cold War. This paradigm of the people's war also became a reality, with tragic consequences, to some of those who fought against the paradigm. Following this, the chapter discusses the history of the village's ancestral temples and their fluctuation between being positive and negative moral symbols as a way of situating the political history within the spectrum of local norms. Even post Cold War, the political identity of the people could not be settled and they had to deal with the consequences of the war.
