ANTH245 2007-09-17

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ANTH 245: Lecture for SEPT 17 2007

Recap

Rappaport's second cybernetic loop

• Sacred propositions -> pragramatic proposition -> the System --> Ritual experience --> Sacred propositions
• Actually similar to this:
  • EXPERIENCE --> RELIGION --> POLITICS --> ECONOMICS --> EXPERIENCE

Levi-Strauss

Essay 1 (Structuralism)

>> See Levi-Strauss, 1951, "Language and the Analysis of Social Laws"

Wiener's pessimism

• Working from analysis of "time series" data under stable conditions
  • e.g. anti-aircraft
• Famously found social science unfertile

The model of linguistics

• Historical linguistics
  • Grimm's law
  • Regular and unconscious
  • Phonemes and perception ("sound blindness")
• Langue vs. Parole

Structuralism

• The linguistic analogy
• Elements and rules
• Same as "code"
• Same "universal grammar" applied to language and other domains

The image of the computer

• Explained by reference to the computer (or database)
• Not the only time:

The day may come when all the available documentation on Australian tribes is transferred to punched cards and with the help of a computer their entire techno-economic, social and religious structures can be shown to be like a vast group of transformations.

The Savage Mind (p. 89)

Essay 2 (Mythology)

>> See Levi-Strauss, 1955, "The Structural Study of Myth"

Themes

Myth as signal and message

• Message as ontology
• Code as method of interpretation
• Myth itself is a vehicle for ontology

The function of myth

• Compare to Rappaport
  • L-S focuses on content, Rappaport sacred context
  • L-S helps explain myths credibility -- it overcomes contradictions
• Compare to Bateson
  • Patterns
• Who is communicating?

L-S's image of the computer

• Confuses cybernetics with computation
• Actually very interested in databases