Michael Suk-Young Chwe
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691158280
- eISBN:
- 9781400846436
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691158280.001.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Social Theory
Why do Internet, financial service, and beer commercials dominate Super Bowl advertising? How do political ceremonies establish authority? Why does repetition characterize anthems and ritual speech? ...
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Why do Internet, financial service, and beer commercials dominate Super Bowl advertising? How do political ceremonies establish authority? Why does repetition characterize anthems and ritual speech? Why were circular forms favored for public festivals during the French Revolution? This book answers these questions using a single concept: common knowledge. Game theory shows that in order to coordinate its actions, a group of people must form “common knowledge.” Each person wants to participate only if others also participate. Members must have knowledge of each other, knowledge of that knowledge, knowledge of the knowledge of that knowledge, and so on. The book applies this insight to analyze a range of rituals across history and cultures. It shows that public ceremonies are powerful not simply because they transmit meaning from a central source to each audience member but because they let audience members know what other members know. For instance, people watching the Super Bowl know that many others are seeing precisely what they see and that those people know in turn that many others are also watching. This creates common knowledge, and advertisers selling products that depend on consensus are willing to pay large sums to gain access to it. Remarkably, a great variety of rituals and ceremonies, such as formal inaugurations, work in much the same way. By using a rational-choice argument to explain diverse cultural practices, the book argues for a close reciprocal relationship between the perspectives of rationality and culture. It illustrates how game theory can be applied to an unexpectedly broad spectrum of problems, while showing in an admirably clear way what game theory might hold for scholars in the social sciences and humanities who are not yet acquainted with it. A new afterword delves into new applications of common knowledge, both in the real world and in experiments, and considers how generating common knowledge has become easier in the digital age.Less
Why do Internet, financial service, and beer commercials dominate Super Bowl advertising? How do political ceremonies establish authority? Why does repetition characterize anthems and ritual speech? Why were circular forms favored for public festivals during the French Revolution? This book answers these questions using a single concept: common knowledge. Game theory shows that in order to coordinate its actions, a group of people must form “common knowledge.” Each person wants to participate only if others also participate. Members must have knowledge of each other, knowledge of that knowledge, knowledge of the knowledge of that knowledge, and so on. The book applies this insight to analyze a range of rituals across history and cultures. It shows that public ceremonies are powerful not simply because they transmit meaning from a central source to each audience member but because they let audience members know what other members know. For instance, people watching the Super Bowl know that many others are seeing precisely what they see and that those people know in turn that many others are also watching. This creates common knowledge, and advertisers selling products that depend on consensus are willing to pay large sums to gain access to it. Remarkably, a great variety of rituals and ceremonies, such as formal inaugurations, work in much the same way. By using a rational-choice argument to explain diverse cultural practices, the book argues for a close reciprocal relationship between the perspectives of rationality and culture. It illustrates how game theory can be applied to an unexpectedly broad spectrum of problems, while showing in an admirably clear way what game theory might hold for scholars in the social sciences and humanities who are not yet acquainted with it. A new afterword delves into new applications of common knowledge, both in the real world and in experiments, and considers how generating common knowledge has become easier in the digital age.
Sheryl Kroen
- Published in print:
- 2000
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520222144
- eISBN:
- 9780520924383
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520222144.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History
This chapter looks at the two public ceremonies by which the regime defined and sought to relegitimize itself in relation to the previous twenty-five years. It notes that the first ceremony took ...
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This chapter looks at the two public ceremonies by which the regime defined and sought to relegitimize itself in relation to the previous twenty-five years. It notes that the first ceremony took place in public squares in every city, town, and village of France between Napoleon's fall after the Hundred Days war and the summer of 1816. It further notes that local officials enacted the symbolic mise-en-place, or putting-into-place, of the Restoration by rounding up, inventorying, and finally destroying the “unnatural” and “corrupt” emblems of the Revolution and Empire. It emphasizes that the regime also pursued its “politics of forgetting” every year, on the 21st of January and the 16th of October, in the way which it represented the most problematic events of the Revolution, the executions of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette.Less
This chapter looks at the two public ceremonies by which the regime defined and sought to relegitimize itself in relation to the previous twenty-five years. It notes that the first ceremony took place in public squares in every city, town, and village of France between Napoleon's fall after the Hundred Days war and the summer of 1816. It further notes that local officials enacted the symbolic mise-en-place, or putting-into-place, of the Restoration by rounding up, inventorying, and finally destroying the “unnatural” and “corrupt” emblems of the Revolution and Empire. It emphasizes that the regime also pursued its “politics of forgetting” every year, on the 21st of January and the 16th of October, in the way which it represented the most problematic events of the Revolution, the executions of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette.
Babak Rahimi
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781479879366
- eISBN:
- 9781479884131
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9781479879366.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, Ancient History / Archaeology
This chapter points to the ways that Safavid rulers in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries created public “gaming” spectacles in their public square, called the “Image of the World.” Rahimi ...
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This chapter points to the ways that Safavid rulers in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries created public “gaming” spectacles in their public square, called the “Image of the World.” Rahimi argues that this urban space was used as a ritual site wherein the king, his court, aristocrats, diplomats, travelers, and the population of the city of Isfahan could engage in communal play. Rahimi argues that this square in both joyful celebrations and solemn moments (such as the commemorations of al-Muḥarram) served as a vital performative space for the Safavid state.Less
This chapter points to the ways that Safavid rulers in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries created public “gaming” spectacles in their public square, called the “Image of the World.” Rahimi argues that this urban space was used as a ritual site wherein the king, his court, aristocrats, diplomats, travelers, and the population of the city of Isfahan could engage in communal play. Rahimi argues that this square in both joyful celebrations and solemn moments (such as the commemorations of al-Muḥarram) served as a vital performative space for the Safavid state.
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- March 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226532424
- eISBN:
- 9780226532523
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226532523.003.0005
- Subject:
- History, Cultural History
This chapter focuses on domesticity and marriage and explore the accommodations forced upon Anglo newcomers by the economic and political strength of Hispano elites. The chapter also tracks an ...
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This chapter focuses on domesticity and marriage and explore the accommodations forced upon Anglo newcomers by the economic and political strength of Hispano elites. The chapter also tracks an important shift in Anglo racializing projects, one spurred by Anglos' inability to denounce and demonize Hispano people with impunity. The chapter argues that Anglos turned to two groups as exemplars of irregular and dangerous domesticity: African Americans and prostitutes. Like Indians and Hispanos in other settings such as Indian schools, rape trials, and public ceremonies, negative depictions of the embodied actions of African Americans and prostitutes provided the backdrop against which Anglos could portray their own supposed superiority and fitness for citizenship.Less
This chapter focuses on domesticity and marriage and explore the accommodations forced upon Anglo newcomers by the economic and political strength of Hispano elites. The chapter also tracks an important shift in Anglo racializing projects, one spurred by Anglos' inability to denounce and demonize Hispano people with impunity. The chapter argues that Anglos turned to two groups as exemplars of irregular and dangerous domesticity: African Americans and prostitutes. Like Indians and Hispanos in other settings such as Indian schools, rape trials, and public ceremonies, negative depictions of the embodied actions of African Americans and prostitutes provided the backdrop against which Anglos could portray their own supposed superiority and fitness for citizenship.
Benjamin Schonthal and Tilak Jayatilake
- Published in print:
- 2021
- Published Online:
- January 2021
- ISBN:
- 9780197553831
- eISBN:
- 9780197553862
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780197553831.003.0018
- Subject:
- Law, Comparative Law
This chapter highlights the strategies that religious groups are using to cope with a crisis that has simultaneously damaged the financial, spiritual, and organizational capacities of religion while ...
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This chapter highlights the strategies that religious groups are using to cope with a crisis that has simultaneously damaged the financial, spiritual, and organizational capacities of religion while also making those capacities more important than ever. Following a regional overview, it considers Covid-19’s effects on religion in one relatively small case study: Buddhist communities in Sri Lanka. Sri Lankan Buddhist communities face a variety of challenges which are also faced by other religious groups in Asia. These include avoiding close contact with co-worshippers, addressing economic depression among devotees and institutions, and managing the new legal and administrative restrictions proposed by government. Also, like other religious groups, Sri Lankan Buddhists have proposed their own range of religious solutions to the unfolding crisis. These include special forms of public blessing, social service activities, and alterations to public ceremonies and rituals. Looking at Buddhists’ responses to the Covid-19 pandemic in Sri Lanka illuminates not only the depth and extent of the disease’s impact on societies in Asia, but it also highlights the creative and unprecedented changes to religion that have come from the pandemic.Less
This chapter highlights the strategies that religious groups are using to cope with a crisis that has simultaneously damaged the financial, spiritual, and organizational capacities of religion while also making those capacities more important than ever. Following a regional overview, it considers Covid-19’s effects on religion in one relatively small case study: Buddhist communities in Sri Lanka. Sri Lankan Buddhist communities face a variety of challenges which are also faced by other religious groups in Asia. These include avoiding close contact with co-worshippers, addressing economic depression among devotees and institutions, and managing the new legal and administrative restrictions proposed by government. Also, like other religious groups, Sri Lankan Buddhists have proposed their own range of religious solutions to the unfolding crisis. These include special forms of public blessing, social service activities, and alterations to public ceremonies and rituals. Looking at Buddhists’ responses to the Covid-19 pandemic in Sri Lanka illuminates not only the depth and extent of the disease’s impact on societies in Asia, but it also highlights the creative and unprecedented changes to religion that have come from the pandemic.
