Discourse and the Construction of Society: Comparative Studies of Myth, Ritual, and ClassificationIn this bold theoretical work, Bruce Lincoln explores the ways in which myth, ritual, and classification hold human societies together--and how, in times of crisis, they can be used to take a society apart and reconstruct it. Without overlooking the role of coercive force in the maintenance (or overthrow) of social structures, Lincoln argues his thesis with compelling illustrations drawn from such diverse areas as Platonic philosophy, the Upanishads of India, ancient Celtic banquets, professional wrestling, and the Spanish Civil War. This wide-ranging interdisciplinary study--which draws on works in history, semiotics, anthropology, sociology, classics, and indology--offers challenging new insights into the complex dynamics of social cohesion and change. |
Contents
On the Writing of this Book | 11 |
The Politics of Myth | 27 |
Competing Uses of the Future in the Present | 38 |
Rethinking the Swazi Ncwala | 53 |
Aspects of Ceremonial Meals | 75 |
Reflections | 89 |
Revolutionary Exhumations in Spain | 103 |
Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries | 110 |
The Tyranny of Taxonomy | 131 |
The Dialectics of Symbolic Inversion | 142 |
10 | 160 |
Unconcluding Postscripts | 171 |
| 205 | |
Acknowledgments | 219 |
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Discourse and the Construction of Society: Comparative Studies of Myth ... Bruce Lincoln Limited preview - 2014 |
Discourse and the Construction of Society: Comparative Studies of Myth ... Bruce Lincoln Limited preview - 2014 |
Discourse and the Construction of Society: Comparative Studies of Myth ... Bruce Lincoln Limited preview - 2014 |
Common terms and phrases
African Aristocracy analysis anomaly assault Bartholomew's Bartholomew's Day Massacre Bhunu Blodeuedd Bricriu Bundahishn Cambridge Catholic celebrated Church clan Classification cleavage colonial considered constructed Culture deconstruction discourse Dlamini E.E. Evans-Pritchard earth established Estèbe Evans-Pritchard exhumations Fabulous Freebird Feast Figure given Gluckman groups hierarchy History Huguenots Husayn Hystaspes iconoclasm ideology important instance instrument integration inversion Iran Iranian Irish Islam kingship Kuper latter London massacre Mbandzeni ment module Moreover myth mythic Namuci narrative Ncwala Nuer Nuer and Dinka past patricians plebes political position present princes professional wrestling radical rank Rebellion relations Religion religious Revolution ritual royal seated segments sentiments of affinity sentiments of estrangement Sergeant Slaughter slogans Sobhuza Sobhuza II society sociopolitical Spain Spanish Spanish Civil War status story structure struggle Studies Swazi Swazi king Swazi Nation Swaziland symbolic Tara taxonomic thereby tinsila tion traditional whereas York Zoroastrian
Popular passages
Page 5 - There is therefore one language which is not mythical, it is the language of man as a producer: wherever man speaks in order to transform reality and no longer to preserve it as an image, wherever he links his language to the making of things, metalanguage is referred to a languageobject, and myth is impossible. This is why revolutionary language proper cannot be mythical. Revolution is defined as a cathartic act meant to reveal the political load of the world: it makes the world; and its language,...
Page 4 - ... only verbal, but also the symbolic discourses of spectacle, gesture, costume, edifice, icon, musical performance, and the like— may be strategically employed to mystify the inevitable inequities of any social order and to win the consent of those over whom power is exercised, thereby obviating the need for the direct coercive use of force and transforming simple power into "legitimate