Mary Douglas
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- January 2005
- ISBN:
- 9780199265237
- eISBN:
- 9780191602054
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199265232.003.0008
- Subject:
- Religion, Biblical Studies
Taboos are effective for guarding thought, and this chapter is about the equivalent role of performance in protecting what is known: it suggests that taboos should be seen as performative acts that ...
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Taboos are effective for guarding thought, and this chapter is about the equivalent role of performance in protecting what is known: it suggests that taboos should be seen as performative acts that stop the confusion of categories of purity/impurity. The author advances her thinking on the dietary rules of Leviticus from her earlier intellectualist approach that considered the rules as isolated categories of infringement, to a consideration that they are a codification of the law of impurity, in which food impurity is related to the defilement of the temple or body: Leviticus, then, is not just a ritual handbook, but much more. The first part of the chapter discusses approaches to taboos in relation to impurity, the politics of purity, forensic problems – as illustrated by the development of the extensive classificatory taboo systems for hunting by the Huaulu of the Celebes Islands, and taboos as building blocks for world‐making. The last part of the chapter turns to Leviticus itself, looking at silence about forensic impurity in Leviticus 1–17, at Jacob Milgrom's view of impurity in Leviticus as a defilement of the tabernacle and the divine power to purify it in a grand ceremony every year on the Day of Atonement, at clean and unclean animals, at the defiling of bodies listed in Leviticus 12–15, and the tabernacle as a microcosm in the context of the final editing of the priestly books during the Babylonian exile (when the temple had been profaned and destroyed, and there was no place to sacrifice or purify). Within the frame of reference for everything is the relation of the people of Israel to their God, and the dietary laws are here viewed as analogies: what cannot be offered to God at the altar may not be consumed as food, and there is no way to understand the law of impurity without considering the whole priestly project.Less
Taboos are effective for guarding thought, and this chapter is about the equivalent role of performance in protecting what is known: it suggests that taboos should be seen as performative acts that stop the confusion of categories of purity/impurity. The author advances her thinking on the dietary rules of Leviticus from her earlier intellectualist approach that considered the rules as isolated categories of infringement, to a consideration that they are a codification of the law of impurity, in which food impurity is related to the defilement of the temple or body: Leviticus, then, is not just a ritual handbook, but much more. The first part of the chapter discusses approaches to taboos in relation to impurity, the politics of purity, forensic problems – as illustrated by the development of the extensive classificatory taboo systems for hunting by the Huaulu of the Celebes Islands, and taboos as building blocks for world‐making. The last part of the chapter turns to Leviticus itself, looking at silence about forensic impurity in Leviticus 1–17, at Jacob Milgrom's view of impurity in Leviticus as a defilement of the tabernacle and the divine power to purify it in a grand ceremony every year on the Day of Atonement, at clean and unclean animals, at the defiling of bodies listed in Leviticus 12–15, and the tabernacle as a microcosm in the context of the final editing of the priestly books during the Babylonian exile (when the temple had been profaned and destroyed, and there was no place to sacrifice or purify). Within the frame of reference for everything is the relation of the people of Israel to their God, and the dietary laws are here viewed as analogies: what cannot be offered to God at the altar may not be consumed as food, and there is no way to understand the law of impurity without considering the whole priestly project.
John G. Kennedy
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9789774249556
- eISBN:
- 9781617970955
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- American University in Cairo Press
- DOI:
- 10.5743/cairo/9789774249556.001.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Middle Eastern Studies
The building of Egypt's High Dam in the 1960s erased innumerable historic treasures, but it also forever obliterated the ancient land of a living people, the Nubians. In the period 1963–64, they were ...
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The building of Egypt's High Dam in the 1960s erased innumerable historic treasures, but it also forever obliterated the ancient land of a living people, the Nubians. In the period 1963–64, they were removed en masse from their traditional homelands in southern Egypt and resettled elsewhere. Much of the life of old Nubia revolved around ceremonialism, and this study reveals and discusses some of the most important and distinctive aspects of Nubian culture. Since its original publication, this book has become a standard text in the fields of anthropology and cultural psychology. In addition to basic ethnographic data, this study contains discussions on the psychology of death ceremonies, the nature of “taboo,” and the importance of trance curing ceremonies. The book also presents information about a village of Nubians who had been resettled some thirty years earlier, thereby providing some clues regarding the possible patterns of future culture change among these recently relocated people.Less
The building of Egypt's High Dam in the 1960s erased innumerable historic treasures, but it also forever obliterated the ancient land of a living people, the Nubians. In the period 1963–64, they were removed en masse from their traditional homelands in southern Egypt and resettled elsewhere. Much of the life of old Nubia revolved around ceremonialism, and this study reveals and discusses some of the most important and distinctive aspects of Nubian culture. Since its original publication, this book has become a standard text in the fields of anthropology and cultural psychology. In addition to basic ethnographic data, this study contains discussions on the psychology of death ceremonies, the nature of “taboo,” and the importance of trance curing ceremonies. The book also presents information about a village of Nubians who had been resettled some thirty years earlier, thereby providing some clues regarding the possible patterns of future culture change among these recently relocated people.
Eviatar Zerubavel
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780195187175
- eISBN:
- 9780199943371
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195187175.003.0002
- Subject:
- Sociology, Culture
This chapter addresses the social organization of denial. Focus shifts as social attitudes change. Noticing and ignoring are always performed by members of particular social communities with ...
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This chapter addresses the social organization of denial. Focus shifts as social attitudes change. Noticing and ignoring are always performed by members of particular social communities with particular social conventions of attention and communication. In fact, the way one focuses his attention is often grounded in highly impersonal social traditions of paying attention. The normative underpinnings of the mental acts of noticing and ignoring are most spectacularly evident in the tacit social rules that determine what is considered irrelevant. It is noted that one acts tactfully when one “passes over something…and leaves it unsaid.” The distinction between tact and taboo is not as clear-cut as it may seem. It becomes fairly fuzzy when one considers, for example, the kind of silence produced by “political correctness,” as when people refrain from using race labels to avoid the risk of being considered racist.Less
This chapter addresses the social organization of denial. Focus shifts as social attitudes change. Noticing and ignoring are always performed by members of particular social communities with particular social conventions of attention and communication. In fact, the way one focuses his attention is often grounded in highly impersonal social traditions of paying attention. The normative underpinnings of the mental acts of noticing and ignoring are most spectacularly evident in the tacit social rules that determine what is considered irrelevant. It is noted that one acts tactfully when one “passes over something…and leaves it unsaid.” The distinction between tact and taboo is not as clear-cut as it may seem. It becomes fairly fuzzy when one considers, for example, the kind of silence produced by “political correctness,” as when people refrain from using race labels to avoid the risk of being considered racist.
Eviatar Zerubavel
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780195187175
- eISBN:
- 9780199943371
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195187175.003.0006
- Subject:
- Sociology, Culture
Silence breakers force the acknowledgment of things that people specifically prefer to ignore to avoid hurt or upset. Denial helps protect others besides oneself. The notion that “some things are ...
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Silence breakers force the acknowledgment of things that people specifically prefer to ignore to avoid hurt or upset. Denial helps protect others besides oneself. The notion that “some things are better left unsaid” emphasizes the role of silence in preventing conflict. Many groups view silence breakers as threats to their very existence. Many families seem to feel much more threatened by efforts to call attention to instances of incest within them than by the offense itself, “the taboo against talking about it [thus being] stronger even than the taboo against doing it.” Conspiracies of silence are often viewed as far less threatening than the efforts to end them.Less
Silence breakers force the acknowledgment of things that people specifically prefer to ignore to avoid hurt or upset. Denial helps protect others besides oneself. The notion that “some things are better left unsaid” emphasizes the role of silence in preventing conflict. Many groups view silence breakers as threats to their very existence. Many families seem to feel much more threatened by efforts to call attention to instances of incest within them than by the offense itself, “the taboo against talking about it [thus being] stronger even than the taboo against doing it.” Conspiracies of silence are often viewed as far less threatening than the efforts to end them.
Deborah H. Roberts
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- September 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780199288076
- eISBN:
- 9780191713439
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199288076.003.0014
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This chapter is concerned with the translation into English (chiefly between 1800 and 1950) of obscene or erotic elements in classical texts. Cultures vary widely in their construction of sexual and ...
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This chapter is concerned with the translation into English (chiefly between 1800 and 1950) of obscene or erotic elements in classical texts. Cultures vary widely in their construction of sexual and excremental behavior, and in the acceptable context of usage and emotional register associated with sexual and excremental language. Where the target culture considers such language obscene and therefore taboo, the translatability of the text may be called into question; the presence of obscenity in a work that is considered a classic poses particular problems given the presumed status of the text as elite and of public value, and an understanding of obscenity as vulgar or suitable for private consumption. This chapter investigates the complexity and diversity of responses to obscenity in expurgated and unexpurgated versions of several ancient authors and genres, identifying in the varieties of both euphemism and directness a commitment to the special standing of the text.Less
This chapter is concerned with the translation into English (chiefly between 1800 and 1950) of obscene or erotic elements in classical texts. Cultures vary widely in their construction of sexual and excremental behavior, and in the acceptable context of usage and emotional register associated with sexual and excremental language. Where the target culture considers such language obscene and therefore taboo, the translatability of the text may be called into question; the presence of obscenity in a work that is considered a classic poses particular problems given the presumed status of the text as elite and of public value, and an understanding of obscenity as vulgar or suitable for private consumption. This chapter investigates the complexity and diversity of responses to obscenity in expurgated and unexpurgated versions of several ancient authors and genres, identifying in the varieties of both euphemism and directness a commitment to the special standing of the text.
Keith Gandal
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- September 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195338911
- eISBN:
- 9780199867127
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195338911.003.0006
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory, American, 20th Century Literature
These three authors, although compulsively writing out of a distress engendered by their “mobilization wounds,” learned by the time of writing their twenties masterpieces to submerge and transfigure ...
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These three authors, although compulsively writing out of a distress engendered by their “mobilization wounds,” learned by the time of writing their twenties masterpieces to submerge and transfigure this pain so as not to embarrass themselves with the revelation of their sense of inadequacy. All three had produced previous texts that openly address Anglo characters' humiliations in the military and so come off as bitter. The high modernism of Gatsby, Sun, A Farewell to Arms, and Sound, with its symbolism and its sense of tragedy (as opposed to bitterness), is a result of these authors developing the devices that allow them to disguise their mobilization traumas and thus to continue to exorcise them, but now obliquely. In Hemingway's and Faulkner's novels, “objective” sexual obstacles (injury, incest taboo) stand in for the military rejection that emasculated these Anglo authors, disguising and transfiguring it. Hemingway and Faulkner dignified the suffering of their Anglo alter egos by making their true loves impossible; Fitzgerald's alternative strategy for dignifying his sense of rejection was to split himself between two alter egos — one Anglo American and one ethnic American — and to give the experience of social rejection to a tragic character based only minimally on himself, namely, Gatsby.Less
These three authors, although compulsively writing out of a distress engendered by their “mobilization wounds,” learned by the time of writing their twenties masterpieces to submerge and transfigure this pain so as not to embarrass themselves with the revelation of their sense of inadequacy. All three had produced previous texts that openly address Anglo characters' humiliations in the military and so come off as bitter. The high modernism of Gatsby, Sun, A Farewell to Arms, and Sound, with its symbolism and its sense of tragedy (as opposed to bitterness), is a result of these authors developing the devices that allow them to disguise their mobilization traumas and thus to continue to exorcise them, but now obliquely. In Hemingway's and Faulkner's novels, “objective” sexual obstacles (injury, incest taboo) stand in for the military rejection that emasculated these Anglo authors, disguising and transfiguring it. Hemingway and Faulkner dignified the suffering of their Anglo alter egos by making their true loves impossible; Fitzgerald's alternative strategy for dignifying his sense of rejection was to split himself between two alter egos — one Anglo American and one ethnic American — and to give the experience of social rejection to a tragic character based only minimally on himself, namely, Gatsby.
ROBERT V. DODGE
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199857203
- eISBN:
- 9780199932597
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199857203.003.0014
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Behavioural Economics
People in Britain and the former British colonies drive on the left-hand side of the road while those in the U.S. and most of the rest of the world drive on the right. This chapter explores the ...
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People in Britain and the former British colonies drive on the left-hand side of the road while those in the U.S. and most of the rest of the world drive on the right. This chapter explores the development of such “conventions,”—rules that organize society that do not require the force of authority to see that they are followed. It discusses Schelling's ideas on coordination and is based largely on Robert Sugden's work. It presents the development of spontaneous order with the “crossroads game” matrix. This shows drivers approaching crossroads having options of maintaining speed or slowing down. Asymmetries will be noticed, and eventually “smart” drivers will establish a pattern that “dumb” drivers learn. Schelling notes that Sugden is a Libertarian, and has interest in showing that a government may not be necessary for an orderly society to function. Sugden comments on Kenneth Arrow, who he said had believed that the free market would effectively deal with medical care without government interference, but who turned away from his faith in the market mechanism. The supplement to this chapter includes a column by Paul Krugman on the need for government that references Kenneth Arrow, entitled “Why Markets Can't Cure Health Care.”Less
People in Britain and the former British colonies drive on the left-hand side of the road while those in the U.S. and most of the rest of the world drive on the right. This chapter explores the development of such “conventions,”—rules that organize society that do not require the force of authority to see that they are followed. It discusses Schelling's ideas on coordination and is based largely on Robert Sugden's work. It presents the development of spontaneous order with the “crossroads game” matrix. This shows drivers approaching crossroads having options of maintaining speed or slowing down. Asymmetries will be noticed, and eventually “smart” drivers will establish a pattern that “dumb” drivers learn. Schelling notes that Sugden is a Libertarian, and has interest in showing that a government may not be necessary for an orderly society to function. Sugden comments on Kenneth Arrow, who he said had believed that the free market would effectively deal with medical care without government interference, but who turned away from his faith in the market mechanism. The supplement to this chapter includes a column by Paul Krugman on the need for government that references Kenneth Arrow, entitled “Why Markets Can't Cure Health Care.”
Barbara Glowczewski
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- May 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781474450300
- eISBN:
- 9781474476911
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474450300.003.0006
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
This chapter systematically analyses Warlpiri taboos showing how they can all be dispatched into four contexts (socialisation rituals, totemic relationships, mother-in-law/son-in-law relation, death) ...
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This chapter systematically analyses Warlpiri taboos showing how they can all be dispatched into four contexts (socialisation rituals, totemic relationships, mother-in-law/son-in-law relation, death) and four domains (space, language, sexuality and goods, especially food). Each combination of a context and a domain virtualises forms of obligations and ritual transgressions, which connect all taboos in a hypercubic way (see chapter 6). In that underlying entanglement of prohibitions and transgressions, any structural dualism seems to be conjured. Taboos become a way to create human and non human heterogeneous temporality, both as a vertical transmission – in the succession of generations re-enacted through socialisation and mourning rituals – and as a horizontal differentiation perpetually redefining these modalities of alliance and of ritual interdependance between the totemic groups. Everybody has an interest in reproducing a balance that respects the Law and pressing others to do the same, as well as giving what he/she has so that others will reciprocate. Such a social pressure partly explains the refusal to accumulate and the systematic circulation of all possessions, cars, clothes, etc., although it does not prevent conflicts. In fact, a certain dissensus is valued. First published in French in 1991.Less
This chapter systematically analyses Warlpiri taboos showing how they can all be dispatched into four contexts (socialisation rituals, totemic relationships, mother-in-law/son-in-law relation, death) and four domains (space, language, sexuality and goods, especially food). Each combination of a context and a domain virtualises forms of obligations and ritual transgressions, which connect all taboos in a hypercubic way (see chapter 6). In that underlying entanglement of prohibitions and transgressions, any structural dualism seems to be conjured. Taboos become a way to create human and non human heterogeneous temporality, both as a vertical transmission – in the succession of generations re-enacted through socialisation and mourning rituals – and as a horizontal differentiation perpetually redefining these modalities of alliance and of ritual interdependance between the totemic groups. Everybody has an interest in reproducing a balance that respects the Law and pressing others to do the same, as well as giving what he/she has so that others will reciprocate. Such a social pressure partly explains the refusal to accumulate and the systematic circulation of all possessions, cars, clothes, etc., although it does not prevent conflicts. In fact, a certain dissensus is valued. First published in French in 1991.
S.C. Dube
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780198077312
- eISBN:
- 9780199081158
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198077312.003.0005
- Subject:
- Sociology, Social Stratification, Inequality, and Mobility
This chapter focuses on the laws being upheld by the Kamar society and its possible breaches. It observes that the present tribal administrative system of the Kamars is similar to the British ...
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This chapter focuses on the laws being upheld by the Kamar society and its possible breaches. It observes that the present tribal administrative system of the Kamars is similar to the British sponsored judicial system. It reveals that tribal jurisprudence is founded on primitive ethics; occasional stealing, for example, is not considered wrong. Some of the breaches of the law include incest, and the breaches of taboos connected to menstruation. It then describes the Panchayat, where only the more serious breaches of tribal law and custom are taken up. The rest of the chapter provides a detailed discussion of the other serious breaches of the law (adultery, witchcraft, etc.). It also presents two cases of the use of love magic, and notes the tribe's attitude towards these kinds of cases.Less
This chapter focuses on the laws being upheld by the Kamar society and its possible breaches. It observes that the present tribal administrative system of the Kamars is similar to the British sponsored judicial system. It reveals that tribal jurisprudence is founded on primitive ethics; occasional stealing, for example, is not considered wrong. Some of the breaches of the law include incest, and the breaches of taboos connected to menstruation. It then describes the Panchayat, where only the more serious breaches of tribal law and custom are taken up. The rest of the chapter provides a detailed discussion of the other serious breaches of the law (adultery, witchcraft, etc.). It also presents two cases of the use of love magic, and notes the tribe's attitude towards these kinds of cases.
Micaela Janan
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- February 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199556922
- eISBN:
- 9780191721021
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199556922.003.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This chapter introduces the book's methodology, centred upon the Law of the Father. For Lacan, the Father is an abstract principle of legislative, and punitive power, rather than a biological ...
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This chapter introduces the book's methodology, centred upon the Law of the Father. For Lacan, the Father is an abstract principle of legislative, and punitive power, rather than a biological function. The Father not only informs the Law—the basis of the ordered human community, like Thebes—but more abstractly ‘polices’ the conceptual boundaries that are the essence of the Symbolic (Lacan's term for the cultural symbolization systems whose categories underlie the linguistic and social order). One achieves identity as an individual, as a citizen, as a collective—even as Man or Woman—in relation to the Father. Each identity depends upon an implied binary (self/other; Theban/non‐Theban; Man/Woman); the stability of that defining boundary rests in the paternal metaphor. But Ovid's Thebes dramatizes the baleful influence of a malevolent, perverse Father‐principle constantly destabilizing the distinction between ‘reality’ and ‘fantasy’—between the authorizing narrative of the existing (Augustan) political order, claimed as truth, and its disavowed nightmare double, disclosed in the truth's internal contradictions.Less
This chapter introduces the book's methodology, centred upon the Law of the Father. For Lacan, the Father is an abstract principle of legislative, and punitive power, rather than a biological function. The Father not only informs the Law—the basis of the ordered human community, like Thebes—but more abstractly ‘polices’ the conceptual boundaries that are the essence of the Symbolic (Lacan's term for the cultural symbolization systems whose categories underlie the linguistic and social order). One achieves identity as an individual, as a citizen, as a collective—even as Man or Woman—in relation to the Father. Each identity depends upon an implied binary (self/other; Theban/non‐Theban; Man/Woman); the stability of that defining boundary rests in the paternal metaphor. But Ovid's Thebes dramatizes the baleful influence of a malevolent, perverse Father‐principle constantly destabilizing the distinction between ‘reality’ and ‘fantasy’—between the authorizing narrative of the existing (Augustan) political order, claimed as truth, and its disavowed nightmare double, disclosed in the truth's internal contradictions.
Jesse Ferris
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691155142
- eISBN:
- 9781400845231
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691155142.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, Middle East History
This chapter studies the interplay between the battlefield in Yemen and the domestic front in Egypt. It begins with a revisionist account of the Egyptian counterinsurgency campaign, based on Egyptian ...
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This chapter studies the interplay between the battlefield in Yemen and the domestic front in Egypt. It begins with a revisionist account of the Egyptian counterinsurgency campaign, based on Egyptian memoirs and captured documents, and then proceeds to discuss three Egyptian taboos—casualties, cost, and corruption—demonstrating that the pursuit of revolutionary politics abroad contributed significantly to the enfeeblement of the revolution at home. Although the direct cost of the war in lives and treasure may not have been as great as some have argued, the indirect costs of the war proved catastrophic for Egypt. Furthermore, a number of mutually reinforcing factors impressed upon Nasser the need to come to terms with Saudi Arabia in order to end the conflict in Yemen.Less
This chapter studies the interplay between the battlefield in Yemen and the domestic front in Egypt. It begins with a revisionist account of the Egyptian counterinsurgency campaign, based on Egyptian memoirs and captured documents, and then proceeds to discuss three Egyptian taboos—casualties, cost, and corruption—demonstrating that the pursuit of revolutionary politics abroad contributed significantly to the enfeeblement of the revolution at home. Although the direct cost of the war in lives and treasure may not have been as great as some have argued, the indirect costs of the war proved catastrophic for Egypt. Furthermore, a number of mutually reinforcing factors impressed upon Nasser the need to come to terms with Saudi Arabia in order to end the conflict in Yemen.
Jerome Neu
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199862986
- eISBN:
- 9780199949762
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199862986.003.0006
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Moral Philosophy
“One day the brothers who had been driven out came together, killed and devoured their father and so made an end of the patriarchal horde” (Freud 1912–13, 141). The “one day” of this sentence is not ...
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“One day the brothers who had been driven out came together, killed and devoured their father and so made an end of the patriarchal horde” (Freud 1912–13, 141). The “one day” of this sentence is not the “once upon a time” of fairy tales; it introduces what is meant to be the description of an actual event. It is meant to be a part of a genetic explanation of totemic and later religions, of their associated taboos and rituals, and, indeed, of a good deal more: and the form of the explanation would seem to require the truth of the description. A genetic explanation explains by showing an event or state of affairs to be the result of prior events or states of affairs. It is obvious that not every list of events in chronological order will constitute a genetic explanation. They must form a “developmental sequence.” There must be selection among events, states of affairs, and conditions to find those that form a genuine series. The criterion of relevance here is causal; that is, there must be general principles asserting relations of dependence between succeeding elements in a genetic explanation. Thus, in addition to his historical narrative, Freud must provide plausible connecting general principles if his account is to have any force as an explanation. It may well be that some at least of the claimed historical events can be dispensed with, and that what is of value in the account resides in its general conditions and principles.Less
“One day the brothers who had been driven out came together, killed and devoured their father and so made an end of the patriarchal horde” (Freud 1912–13, 141). The “one day” of this sentence is not the “once upon a time” of fairy tales; it introduces what is meant to be the description of an actual event. It is meant to be a part of a genetic explanation of totemic and later religions, of their associated taboos and rituals, and, indeed, of a good deal more: and the form of the explanation would seem to require the truth of the description. A genetic explanation explains by showing an event or state of affairs to be the result of prior events or states of affairs. It is obvious that not every list of events in chronological order will constitute a genetic explanation. They must form a “developmental sequence.” There must be selection among events, states of affairs, and conditions to find those that form a genuine series. The criterion of relevance here is causal; that is, there must be general principles asserting relations of dependence between succeeding elements in a genetic explanation. Thus, in addition to his historical narrative, Freud must provide plausible connecting general principles if his account is to have any force as an explanation. It may well be that some at least of the claimed historical events can be dispensed with, and that what is of value in the account resides in its general conditions and principles.
Ellen Wiles
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780231173285
- eISBN:
- 9780231539296
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231173285.003.0004
- Subject:
- Political Science, Asian Politics
This chapter explores the lives and literary work of the younger generation of contemporary writers in Myanmar through three writers: Nay Phone Latt, blogger, former political prisoner, short story ...
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This chapter explores the lives and literary work of the younger generation of contemporary writers in Myanmar through three writers: Nay Phone Latt, blogger, former political prisoner, short story writer and director of a computer education NGO; Pandora, poet and former public servant in Singapore; and Myay Hmone Lwin, short story writer, novelist and publisher.Less
This chapter explores the lives and literary work of the younger generation of contemporary writers in Myanmar through three writers: Nay Phone Latt, blogger, former political prisoner, short story writer and director of a computer education NGO; Pandora, poet and former public servant in Singapore; and Myay Hmone Lwin, short story writer, novelist and publisher.
Werner Sollors
- Published in print:
- 1997
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195052824
- eISBN:
- 9780199855155
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195052824.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, African-American Literature
Why can a “white” woman give birth to a “black” baby, while a “black” woman can never give birth to a “white” baby in the United States? What makes racial “passing” so different from social mobility? ...
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Why can a “white” woman give birth to a “black” baby, while a “black” woman can never give birth to a “white” baby in the United States? What makes racial “passing” so different from social mobility? Why are interracial and incestuous relations often confused or conflated in literature, making “miscegenation” appear as if it were incest? When did the myth that one can tell a person's race by the moon on their fingernails originate? How did blackness get associated with “the curse of Ham,” when the Biblical text makes no reference to skin color at all? This book, an exploration of “interracial literature,” examines these questions and others. In the past, interracial texts have been read more for a black–white contrast of “either–or” than for an interracial realm of “neither, nor, both, and in-between.” Intermarriage prohibitions have been legislated throughout the modern period and were still in the law books in the 1980s. Stories of black–white sexual and family relations have thus run against powerful social taboos. Yet much interracial literature has been written, and this book suggests its pervasiveness and offers new comparative and historical contexts for understanding it. It ranges across time, space, and cultures, analysing scientific and legal works as well as poetry, fiction, and the visual arts, to explore the many themes and motifs interwoven throughout interracial literature. From the etymological origins of the term “race” to the cultural sources of the “Tragic Mulatto,” the book examines recurrent images and ideas.Less
Why can a “white” woman give birth to a “black” baby, while a “black” woman can never give birth to a “white” baby in the United States? What makes racial “passing” so different from social mobility? Why are interracial and incestuous relations often confused or conflated in literature, making “miscegenation” appear as if it were incest? When did the myth that one can tell a person's race by the moon on their fingernails originate? How did blackness get associated with “the curse of Ham,” when the Biblical text makes no reference to skin color at all? This book, an exploration of “interracial literature,” examines these questions and others. In the past, interracial texts have been read more for a black–white contrast of “either–or” than for an interracial realm of “neither, nor, both, and in-between.” Intermarriage prohibitions have been legislated throughout the modern period and were still in the law books in the 1980s. Stories of black–white sexual and family relations have thus run against powerful social taboos. Yet much interracial literature has been written, and this book suggests its pervasiveness and offers new comparative and historical contexts for understanding it. It ranges across time, space, and cultures, analysing scientific and legal works as well as poetry, fiction, and the visual arts, to explore the many themes and motifs interwoven throughout interracial literature. From the etymological origins of the term “race” to the cultural sources of the “Tragic Mulatto,” the book examines recurrent images and ideas.
Carl N. Degler
- Published in print:
- 1993
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195077070
- eISBN:
- 9780199853991
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195077070.003.0010
- Subject:
- History, History of Ideas
This chapter examines the anthropological aspects of the prohibition against incest taboo or marriage or sexual relations between certain close relatives. In his mid-19th century, studying of North ...
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This chapter examines the anthropological aspects of the prohibition against incest taboo or marriage or sexual relations between certain close relatives. In his mid-19th century, studying of North American Indian tribes, Lewis Henry Morgan, sometimes called the father of American anthropology, accounted for the prohibition of incest by reference to a basic principle of animal breeding. This explanation was rejected by social scientists despite the powerful impetus given to biological explanations in accounting for differences in human behavior.Less
This chapter examines the anthropological aspects of the prohibition against incest taboo or marriage or sexual relations between certain close relatives. In his mid-19th century, studying of North American Indian tribes, Lewis Henry Morgan, sometimes called the father of American anthropology, accounted for the prohibition of incest by reference to a basic principle of animal breeding. This explanation was rejected by social scientists despite the powerful impetus given to biological explanations in accounting for differences in human behavior.
Carl N. Degler
- Published in print:
- 1993
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195077070
- eISBN:
- 9780199853991
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195077070.003.0011
- Subject:
- History, History of Ideas
This chapter examines social scientists' use of biology in the study of human behavior. The conundrum of the roots of the incest taboo among human beings is surely the most elaborate example of the ...
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This chapter examines social scientists' use of biology in the study of human behavior. The conundrum of the roots of the incest taboo among human beings is surely the most elaborate example of the way biological knowledge has been drawn upon by social scientists. Another application of biology was in the discovery that among some animal species individuals in a group situation arranged themselves in a hierarchical pattern of relations. This study took place during the 1920s.Less
This chapter examines social scientists' use of biology in the study of human behavior. The conundrum of the roots of the incest taboo among human beings is surely the most elaborate example of the way biological knowledge has been drawn upon by social scientists. Another application of biology was in the discovery that among some animal species individuals in a group situation arranged themselves in a hierarchical pattern of relations. This study took place during the 1920s.
Alexander Murray
- Published in print:
- 2000
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198207313
- eISBN:
- 9780191677625
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198207313.003.0017
- Subject:
- History, European Medieval History, Social History
This chapter begins with a second reflection about historical method. It is about an intellectual convention quite as innate as periodisation to historical thoughts, namely the assignment of sources. ...
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This chapter begins with a second reflection about historical method. It is about an intellectual convention quite as innate as periodisation to historical thoughts, namely the assignment of sources. It is divided into five sections, split into two groups. The first three sections look at custom and belief in societies with no obvious claim to be sources of universal European custom. Considered here are suicide taboos among primitive peoples, attitudes to suicide in ancient and medieval India, and suicide law in medieval Islam. The last two sections examine milieux from which suicide taboos might directly have been transmitted, looking at suicide and the early Germans, and Egypt.Less
This chapter begins with a second reflection about historical method. It is about an intellectual convention quite as innate as periodisation to historical thoughts, namely the assignment of sources. It is divided into five sections, split into two groups. The first three sections look at custom and belief in societies with no obvious claim to be sources of universal European custom. Considered here are suicide taboos among primitive peoples, attitudes to suicide in ancient and medieval India, and suicide law in medieval Islam. The last two sections examine milieux from which suicide taboos might directly have been transmitted, looking at suicide and the early Germans, and Egypt.
Cheris Shun-ching Chan
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780195394078
- eISBN:
- 9780199951154
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195394078.003.0000
- Subject:
- Sociology, Economic Sociology
The life insurance business has been growing rapidly in China in recent years, despite complaints by insurance sales agents about the local public’s resistance to discussing death or misfortune. This ...
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The life insurance business has been growing rapidly in China in recent years, despite complaints by insurance sales agents about the local public’s resistance to discussing death or misfortune. This empirical puzzle serves as a starting point for the book. The introductory chapter poses empirical and theoretical questions, lays out the analytical framework, presents the methodology, and highlights the academic values of the case. It discusses Viviana Zelizer’s insights about the role of cultural values in suppressing the development of American life insurance in the first half of the 19th century, and addresses the questions left unanswered by her argument. In particular, it considers how modern enterprises originating in western contexts can expand to places with different cultural traditions, if cultural values can suppress a market from emerging. To address this question, an analytical framework that incorporates both the classical concept of culture (emphasizing values and ideas) and the tool-kit concept of culture (highlighting practicality), is proposed, laying the groundwork for the analysis in subsequent chapters.Less
The life insurance business has been growing rapidly in China in recent years, despite complaints by insurance sales agents about the local public’s resistance to discussing death or misfortune. This empirical puzzle serves as a starting point for the book. The introductory chapter poses empirical and theoretical questions, lays out the analytical framework, presents the methodology, and highlights the academic values of the case. It discusses Viviana Zelizer’s insights about the role of cultural values in suppressing the development of American life insurance in the first half of the 19th century, and addresses the questions left unanswered by her argument. In particular, it considers how modern enterprises originating in western contexts can expand to places with different cultural traditions, if cultural values can suppress a market from emerging. To address this question, an analytical framework that incorporates both the classical concept of culture (emphasizing values and ideas) and the tool-kit concept of culture (highlighting practicality), is proposed, laying the groundwork for the analysis in subsequent chapters.
Cheris Shun-ching Chan
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780195394078
- eISBN:
- 9780199951154
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195394078.003.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Economic Sociology
This chapter provides a context for the ethnographic stories that unfold in subsequent chapters. It begins with a brief historical background of commercial life insurance in China, dating back to the ...
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This chapter provides a context for the ethnographic stories that unfold in subsequent chapters. It begins with a brief historical background of commercial life insurance in China, dating back to the early nineteenth century through the end of the Maoist regime. Then, it details the economic, institutional, and cultural conditions in urban China in the late 1980s to the 1990s, and assesses each of these conditions’ possible impacts on the development of commercial life insurance, both favourable and unfavourable. In particular, the chapter details how major cultural barriers to life insurance, including the Chinese cultural taboo on death, are rooted in Chinese philosophical and folk religious traditions. Finally, it relates these institutional and cultural conditions to the theoretical questions of the book. It presents the characteristics of the emergent Chinese market, namely its uneven growth pattern, the dominance of domestic insurers, and its disproportionate focus on money management, and argues that neither the cultural value nor the cultural tool-kit model alone is sufficient to explain these characteristics.Less
This chapter provides a context for the ethnographic stories that unfold in subsequent chapters. It begins with a brief historical background of commercial life insurance in China, dating back to the early nineteenth century through the end of the Maoist regime. Then, it details the economic, institutional, and cultural conditions in urban China in the late 1980s to the 1990s, and assesses each of these conditions’ possible impacts on the development of commercial life insurance, both favourable and unfavourable. In particular, the chapter details how major cultural barriers to life insurance, including the Chinese cultural taboo on death, are rooted in Chinese philosophical and folk religious traditions. Finally, it relates these institutional and cultural conditions to the theoretical questions of the book. It presents the characteristics of the emergent Chinese market, namely its uneven growth pattern, the dominance of domestic insurers, and its disproportionate focus on money management, and argues that neither the cultural value nor the cultural tool-kit model alone is sufficient to explain these characteristics.
Anthony Kauders
- Published in print:
- 1996
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198206316
- eISBN:
- 9780191677076
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198206316.003.0003
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History
The last years of Imperial Germany saw the rise of vanguards who subjected contemporary society to searching critiques and tried to conceptualize the felt crises of history. Years before the ...
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The last years of Imperial Germany saw the rise of vanguards who subjected contemporary society to searching critiques and tried to conceptualize the felt crises of history. Years before the explosion of 1914, these men and women had developed theories and formulated ideas which after 1918 were to enter the common parlance and emerge as given forms of discourse. This chapter suggests therefore that in the period prior to the First World War the taboo against certain forms of anti-Semitism lay embedded in a context which precluded certain forms of victory, but that at a later stage these taboo rules were deprived of their original meaning and were ‘apt to appear a set of arbitrary prohibitions’. Even if events showed that the taboo was wearing down, its future remained open; and even if Germans witnessed a concerted and sustained assault on this taboo, defeat was not yet final.Less
The last years of Imperial Germany saw the rise of vanguards who subjected contemporary society to searching critiques and tried to conceptualize the felt crises of history. Years before the explosion of 1914, these men and women had developed theories and formulated ideas which after 1918 were to enter the common parlance and emerge as given forms of discourse. This chapter suggests therefore that in the period prior to the First World War the taboo against certain forms of anti-Semitism lay embedded in a context which precluded certain forms of victory, but that at a later stage these taboo rules were deprived of their original meaning and were ‘apt to appear a set of arbitrary prohibitions’. Even if events showed that the taboo was wearing down, its future remained open; and even if Germans witnessed a concerted and sustained assault on this taboo, defeat was not yet final.
