Contains contributions dealing with religious narrative and cognitive theory written by some of the world's leading scholars in the fields of cognitive science, narratology and comparative religion. This title explores the neurological processes and possible genetic foundations of how language emerged in Homo sapiens.

In this collection of essays, Clifford Geertz explores the nature of his anthropological work in relation to a broader public, serving as the foremost spokesperson of his generation of scholars, those who came of age after World War II. ...

The paper is one of the four central texts where Clifford Geertz summarized his ideas. Geertz suggests an understanding of art as a social phenomenon and gives a social anthropological account of aesthetic experience. In opposition to structuralism, which analyzes art as a closed sign system developing according to its inherent logic, and to radical functionalism, which attempts to study art as if its main function was to maintain established institutions of culture, Geertz proposes to view a (...) work of art as a symbolical expression of the significant experience of its creator. In this case the ability of aesthetic perception of the work of art is treated as the ability to recognize the symbols it contains — the ability that results from involvement in the relevant cultural practices. Author illustrates his argument by the examples from the studies of that time: studies of Abelam tribe of New Guinea, Yoruba people of Western Africa, Quattrocento Italia, and modern Morocco. (shrink)

Clifford Geertz was perhaps the most influential anthropologist of our time, but his influence extended far beyond his field to encompass all facets of contemporary life. Nowhere were his gifts for directness, humor, and steady revelation more evident than in the pages of the New York Review of Books, where for nearly four decades he shared his acute vision of the world in all its peculiarity. This book brings together the finest of Geertz's review essays from the New (...) York Review along with a representative selection of later pieces written at the height of his powers, some that first appeared in periodicals such as Dissent, others never before published. This collection exemplifies Geertz's extraordinary range of concerns, beginning with his first essay for the Review in 1967, in which he reviews, with muffled hilarity, the anthropologist Bronislaw Malinowski. This book includes Geertz's unflinching meditations on Western academia's encounters with the non-Western world, and on the shifting and clashing places of societies in the world generally. Geertz writes eloquently and arrestingly about such major figures as Gandhi, Foucault, and Genet, and on topics as varied as Islam, globalization, feminism, and the failings of nationalism. Life among the Anthros and Other Essays demonstrates Geertz's uncommon wisdom and consistently keen and hopeful humor, confirming his status as one of our most important and enduring public intellectuals. (shrink)

At the founding editor’s invitation in 1991–92, the members of the editorial board and the department editors of Common Knowledge wrote individual and small-group calls for papers to be published in the inaugural issue of Spring 1992 and the succeeding issue, Fall 1992. This call for papers was published among the first group.

L’attuale riabilitazione dell’etnocentrismo, benchè si tratti di un etnocentrismo rilassato e condiscendente, affonda le sue radici in una concezione monadologica della pluralità delle culture che trascura il fatto che, nella realtà contemporanea, il confronto con l’altrui diversità può contribuire innanzitutto a una migliore comprensione di noi stessi. In un simile contesto l’immaginazione etnografica rappresenta senza dubbio un antidoto al narcisismo morale in quanto ci offre gli strumenti migliori per perlustrare quello spazio intermedio che sta tra noi e quegli ‘altri’ che (...) nelle società contemporanee sono sempre più spesso al nostro fianco. Principalmente in ciò consistono ‘gli usi della diversità’ : nel rafforzare la nostra capacità di immaginare la differenza.Today’s rehabilitation of ethnocentrism, though a ‘relax-and-enjoy-it’ one, is rooted in a ‘monadologic’ conception of cultural plurality which overlooks the fact that, in the contemporary predicament, to be confronted with the other’s diversity may primarily mean a better understanding of ourselves. In such a context, the ethnographic imagination is undoubtedly an antidote to the moral narcissism, in so far as it allows us to explore the space that lies between us and those ‘others’ who, in our societies are for the most part among us. This is what ‘uses of diversity’ primarily means: empowering our ability to imagine difference. (shrink)

This study focuses on the altars of the major annual Hopi ceremonials which display ritual objects, the possession and use of which give religious and secular power. With the importance of such objects in mind, an iconographic study of Hopi religion is particularly illuminating. This study aims to demonstrate how to view Hopi altars and is supplemented by a theory of the mechanics of efficacy in the Hopi altar context. The text provides a general introduction to Hopi religious practice and (...) distinguishes three levels of information: 1) the calendrical and ritual contexts of Hopi altars, 2) the functions of these altars within those contexts, and 3) the iconography and iconology of the altars, understood here in a literal sense as the study of the forms and structures of the altars on the one hand and the study of the implicit and explicit symbology of the altars on the other. The book provides keys to understanding through exemplification and typology, and is meant to be of particular use to museums and research libraries. (shrink)

BackgroundParents affected by cancer are confronted with challenges such as communicating with their children about the disease and dealing with changes in their parental role. Providing appropriate information could support affected parents and their children. Still, high-quality and information booklets are rare. Therefore, we developed an information booklet for affected families. The study aims are: investigating the acceptability and usability of the information booklet, determining parental information needs, and collating suggestions for implementation. Finally, we adapted the booklet according to the (...) findings.MethodsWe interviewed five experts in psychosocial care of parental cancer and nine affected parents using a semi-structured interview guideline. Participants received the developed booklet after giving the consent to participate. Interviews on acceptability and usability of the booklet and information needs were conducted about 1 week after receiving the booklet. The interviews were analyzed using structuring content analysis.Results Experts and parents reported that the information booklet addresses the experiences of affected families and that the content combination makes it useful in an unprecedented way indicating both acceptance and usability. Following dimensions were identified as information needs: communication, support offers, children’s disease understanding and needs, organization of family life, competence in parenting, and sources of additional information material. The booklet should be handed out personally by, e.g., healthcare professionals and might be accompanied by a personal counseling. Minor adaptations on language and content were conducted based on the findings.ConclusionIndicated acceptance and usability of the developed information booklet for parents with cancer suggest a low-threshold, basic support for affected families and health professionals. The diverse parental information needs are covered. The long-term effects of the booklet, e.g., on the use of psychosocial support offers, parental self-efficacy and psychological distress will be quantitatively investigated. (shrink)

The Anthropology of Sport and Human Movement represents a collection of work that reveals and explores the often times dramatic relationship of our biology and culture that is inextricably woven into a tapestry of movement patterns. It explores the underpinning of human movement, reflected in play, sport, games and human culture from an evolutionary perspective and contemporary expression of sport and human movement.

El objetivo del artículo es describir rasgos estructurales de la comprensión de metáforas mediante una comparación con la comprensión de otras culturas, tal como ésta ha sido comentada por Wittgenstein y Geertz. El fenómeno de estudio es la comprensión enfática de metáforas fuertes. La comparación entre ambos tipos de comprensión sirve para plantear y dar respuesta a tres preguntas desatendidas en la profusa literatura sobre la metáfora: 1) ¿En qué sentido nos sorprenden las metáforas fuertes? 2) ¿En qué sentido (...) pueden ser profundas? 3) ¿En qué sentido hablamos de la riqueza de este fenómeno lingüístico? /// This paper sets out to describe the structural features of metaphor comprehension through a comparison with the process of understanding other cultures construed along the lines proposed by Wittgenstein and Geertz. The phenomenon under analysis is the emphatic understanding of strong metaphors. The comparison between understanding metaphors and cultures serves to raise and answer three questions that have been neglected in the vast literature on metaphors: 1) In which sense do strong metaphors surprise us? 2) In which sense can a metaphor be profound? 3) In which sense do we speak of the richness of this linguistic phenomenon? (shrink)

Este ensaio coloca em questão os “usos da diversidade” em uma perspectiva pós-estruturalista. Para tanto, faz surgir um discurso agonístico e ambivalente dos estudos antropológicos de Clifford Geertz. Ali, dá-se a ver um saber e uma clivagem abertos à Filosofia e à Ética comprometidas com o poder decolonial. Palavras-chave: Diversidade; Antropologia; Pós-estruturalismo.

The idea that the mind, i.e., common sense, is not an inherent human structure but a cultural system, has become a general assumption taken for granted by many. Richard Rorty’s post-Philosophical culture serves as an illustrative example. One of the most renowned representatives of the radical critique of the mind, i.e., of common sense, is the cultural anthropologist Clifford Geertz. He believes that we are in need of an ethnography based on the “thick description”. Geertz’s insights have strongly (...) influenced the postliberal theologians. Consequently, the centre of the theology—the faith—has once again been obscured. Therefore, this article seeks to emphasize the importance of faith, based on Josef Pieper’s sagacious insights. (shrink)

The idea that the mind, i.e., common sense, is not an inherent human structure but a cultural system, has become a general assumption taken for granted by many. Richard Rorty’s post-Philosophical culture serves as an illustrative example. One of the most renowned representatives of the radical critique of the mind, i.e., of common sense, is the cultural anthropologist Clifford Geertz. He believes that we are in need of an ethnography based on the “thick description”. Geertz’s insights have strongly (...) influenced the postliberal theologians. Consequently, the centre of the theology—the faith—has once again been obscured. Therefore, this article seeks to emphasize the importance of faith, based on Josef Pieper’s sagacious insights. (shrink)

This is the first full-scale study of the work of Clifford Geertz, who is one of the best-known anthropologists in the world today.