Bodily Symbols
Individuals in Western societies like to think of themselves as unique. They choose clothes and accessories to express their personalities, and they wear their hair in a style which they feel suits them personally. They are expressing themselves through the symbols of the society in which they live, however, and their range of choice for dress and adornment is limited to what is acceptable in that society. Even the most outrageous outfits must cover certain areas of the body, and a person who...
Some Areas of Observation
One of the ways in which anthropologists find out about a system of classification is by looking at ideas which are strongly held by the people concerned. These are likely to be ideas learnt early in life, views which are difficult to dislodge even when one becomes aware of the fact that they are culturally relative. They include ideas which would provoke expressions of shock and disgust should they be contravened, ideas which arc at the root of prejudice and racial discrimination, for people...
Cosmology II Witchcraft Shamanism and Syncretism
In this chapter we will turn to examine in detail some important categories which have interested anthropologists over the years, and in which they have sometimes engaged in interesting dialogue with European historians. The first subjects are witchcraft and sorcery, which are not without intriguing meaning in the English language, but we will turn for our initial definitions to an African people studied by one of the better known British anthropologists introduced in the last chapter, namely...
Territorial Rites of Passage
Van Gennep's book is full of examples of rites of passage of different types, but most of these are set in small-scale societies which he argues imbue all such movements with ideas of a magico-religious variety. Since his book is still available and in print, let us turn here to examining some examples lt if sccular rites of passage which may be familiar to a wider range of readers. The prototype for rites of passage is, according to van Gennep, a territorial passage from one social space to...
A I listory of Social Anthropology
I'he subject of social anthropology as it is practised today has developed only within this century, and some ol the stages in its development will In illustrated 111 the chapters which follow. I lowever, its intellectual foundation go back much further and it is useful before embarking on tlu sc chupters to have an idea of the bar kground to the inquiries diicusicd. A thorough history of the subject would form the subject matter of a book in its own right, and indeed, several have been written...
Rites of Passage
Much has been written on the subject of ritual, and there have been many theories about its interpretation, but there is one classic work which has stood the tests both of time and of further research. This is the study of Arnold van Gennep, first published in 1909, in French, and translated into English in a book called Rites of Passage 1960 . Again, this writer refers to the people under discussion as 'primitive', and he talks mostly of people in small-scale society, but his theories have...
Marriage Rites
Marriage is a most important transition in most societies and it may coincide with the attainment of adulthood so that the rites associated with the wedding come at the end of the period of separation associated with the initiation into adulthood. In other societies there will be a long period of betrothal which may be regarded as a period of transition with rites at the beginning and end. In any case, in most societies this is a passage well marked with rites of separation, transition and...
Objects Inalienable Entangled and Wrapped
It is many years since the classic works referred to here were written, and their messages are clearly powerful, for they have probably inspired more reactions in the work of later scholars than any other related collection of ideas to be found in the subject. Some seek to refine the theoretical ideas put forward, others insist on a more thorough understanding of the ethnography, and, in between all this, the commentators comment on each other's reactions. It is particularly interesting to see...
Anthropological Interpretation of Symbolism
Much has been written on the subject of symbolism, and there has been some dispute among anthropologists about how far an outsider should go in the interpretation of the symbolism of another people. As Cohen puts it The ethnographic difficulty for us, therefore, is that not only is symbolism a matter of interpretation as it is everywhere but the interpretation of behaviour as symbolic in character is itself a matter of conjecture and litdgi'incnt which is only demonstrable through notions of...
The Indian Gift
Since Mauss's time, there have been many refinements to the ethnography he used, but his ideas are still discussed, sometimes critically. One important contribution was made by anthropologists who have worked in India, where the obligation to repay gifts received is shown not to be as universal as Mauss seemed to be suggesting. Here a form of gift known as dan or dana, made to a priest or members of a different caste who can deal with residual pollution, is positively not to be repaid, because...
What Social Anthropologists Do
Since it is difficult to say in a few words what social anthropology is, and, indeed, this whole book is dedicated to answering that question, let us start by looking at what people who call themselves social anthropologists do, or have done to achieve that title. As a social anthropologist myself, I know for a fact that most people I mention it to glaze over in a haze of incomprehension. Even those who nod knowledgeably may well be labouring under a complete misapprehension about what the...
Exchange
In a wider interpretation of social life, gifts may be seen to form just one material part of a complex system of exchange which is found in all societies in one form or another. Whether made in material form or not, exchange is an important means of communication which expresses social relationships at various levels. Within Western society, some of the ways in which social relationships are fostered are through dropping in to drink cups of tea or coffee together, inviting people to dinner and...
Animal Categories and Verbal Abuse
Edmund Leach has written about the role played by tabooed words in language. He is concerned with obscenities - dirty words, blasphemy and words of abuse - words that are unmentionable in some company, and therefore used to shock or impress in other circumstances. He argues that language in general is like a grid, in which words provide labels for important categories and break up the social and physical environment, which would otherwise be a continuum, into discrete, recognizable things....
Pollution
Anthropologists use the word 'pollution' to describe ideas found to be held strongly in various parts of the world about the destruction of a parallel notion of purity. In most cases, purity denotes cleanliness, but in many societies there are religious associations with this concept so that it would perhaps be more accurately translated into English as sanctity. It may be the case that rituals of purification precede any communication with the spiritual or supernatural world, for example, but...
Imity and Classification
Vurious theories have been advanced to explain partn ulat notions ol pollution uid taboo, but Mary Douglas has pointed out in In i book Purity and Danger 1966 , that they all form part of a wider system of classification. The taboos, and the ideas about purity and pollution, are thus themselves fertile areas of investigation for anthropologists, who try to set them in the context of other knowledge about the peoples in question, and about the historical influences they have experienced. The...
Living Art
The anthropology of art is not confined to the study of marketable objects, however. In many societies people assign aesthetic qualities to the decoration of their own bodies, sometimes spending days in the preparation of a particular display. Some cases of bodily decoration, and its symbolic associations, were raised in the previous chapter, but a particularly striking example of the aesthetic appreciation of bodily decoration is to be found among the Nuba people of Southern Sudan. Here young...
Acknowledgements
I must first of all acknowledge an enormous debt to the 'other people' whose worlds I have been privileged to share. These include some who barely receive i mention in the text, for I did not eventually choose to pursue further the .iiiily of their worlds, but they undoubtedly influenced my initial discovery of tin subject. First, the various people of Morocco among whom I lived and uuvellcd in 1966-7 and the French family to whom I became attached on that itti.ision and which has made me...
Definitions of Ritual
It may be objected at this point that some form of greeting is carried out anywhere on entering or leaving a house, and people may also adjust their bodily attire. Why then should this be regarded as ritual Let us turn first, then, to examine what exactly is meant by the term ritual in anthropology. In fact, there are several definitions of ritual , some of which restrict its use to describing behaviour of a religious nature see, for example, Lewis, 1980, pp. 6 38 de Coppet, 1992 but most...