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
Segue
Cognitive models
Actually looking at a pattern (myth)
Levi-Strauss
Background
Essay 1 (Structuralism)
>> See LeviStrauss1951
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
Kroeber's Theory
Structuralism
- The linguistic analogy
- Elements and rules
- Same as "code"
Essay 2 (Mythology)
>> See LeviStrauss1955
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
