Stross ANT 393 Fall 1999

SYMBOLISM, ICONOGRAPHY, and WORLDVIEW

Week 1. Introduction (semiotics; symbols, icons, and indexes - methods

for investigating symbolism, iconography- what is symbolism)

Suggested Reading: Firth (Symbols...), Huxley, Berger

(Signs...), Miner [packet], Turner [packet].

Weeks 2 & 3. Body (stature, parts, products, physiology, basis for

explaining and describing things and their operations that are

body-external, & for manipulating such socially constructed

things and operations as societal divisions, laws, warfare,

planting, hunting, eating, etc.-- is there a body "language"?;

what are the boundaries and boundary markers of the body? What

about gender?) seeing the other in body ritual , Merleau-Ponty's

Phenomenology of Embodiment.

Suggested Reading: Vlahos, Guthrie, Leach (Hair) [packet],

Sayer, Klein [packet], W.F. Morris (weaving and cosmology),

Guss (weaving and creation), Brett-Smith, Stone-Miller and

McEwan (weaving and architecture).

Weeks 4 & 5. Body Augmentation: Gesture, Posture, Clothing, Housing

(types of gesture, kinds of meanings conveyed -- are gestures

made actually part of the body, or are they simply

meaning-conveying manipulations of the body.--is there a

gestural "language"?, a "language" of clothes,

a "language" of housing; what are the boundaries of gesture,

posture, clothing, housing? -- What about gender?)

Suggested Reading: M. Knapp, D. Morris (Manwatching,

Gestures), Goffman (Behavior in Pub.; Presentation of Self),

Benson.

Week 6 & 7. Space (housing, town planning, geography -- Is there

a "language" of space?; what are the boundaries of spatial

divisions?; what are the major directions?; what are the

major divisions/partitions of space? How do we name kinds of

spaces (e.g. corners, middles, ends, etc.?; - What about gender?)

Suggested Reading: Hall (Hidden Dimension), Richardson,

Rapoport, Cunningham [packet], Kubler (Art and Architecture),

Sahi (pp. 4O, 75-79, 126-133), Abbot (Flatland)

Week 8. Time (dating, calendars, cyclic activities, measurement of time,

synchrony in interaction, age and aging - venerability, sacred

time, dream time, waiting, time and relationships, evolution and

time, symbols for the passage of time [e.g. river of time,

thought and time] -- Is there a "language" of time? - how much

is "time" dependant on "memory";- what are the boundaries of

time? - what are the divisions of time? How do we name kinds of

time?; what are the major directions of time?; - What about

gender?)

Suggested Reading: Leach (two essays)[packet], Hall (Dance

of Life), Eliade (Sacred and Profane), Gossen, *Bricker

[packet], Deetz and Dethlefsen [packet] ; JW. Dunne (An Experiment With Time)

Week 9. Sound (sound symbolism in language, sound and sentiment, sound

and space [intervals, harmonics, scales], sound and time, the sound of music

-- Is there a "language" of sound?; what are the boundaries of

sounds?; what are the divisions of sounds?; how do we name kinds

of sounds? - What about gender and sound?. Where does music fit in?

Suggested Reading: Feld (Sound and Sentiment), Feld

[packet],

Week 10. Cosmology (the Sacred Landscape--plants, animals, geographic

features, colors, sizes, time periods, divination, numbers, altars, idols,

amulets, souls, witches, founding a town, supporters of the

earth, (nature) deities - Is there a "language" of cosmology?--

how do boundaries function in cosmology?; how do categories

function in cosmology?; - What about gender? )

Suggested Reading: de Santillana & von Dechend,

Allen, Roe, A. Kennedy [packet], P. Furst

(Jaguar Baby) [packet], Brotherston (Image...), Needham

(Blood...) [packet], Granet [packet], *Heyden [packet], *Knab

[packet], Earle [packet], Krupp, *Stocker et al (crocodiles)

[packet]

Week 11. Religion - Worship and Sacrifice: Birth, Initiation,

Marriage, Health, Death, Rebirth --- war, slavery, gathering,

hunting, planting, eating, "sports", "play", etc., -- Is there

a "language" of Religion?; what are the boundaries of religious

categories? ; - What about gender?)

Suggested Reading: Eliade (reader), Frazer, Budge

(Amulets...), Underhill, Neuman, Graves, Campbell (Masks:

Primitive; Mythic Image), Sejourne, E. Hunt, Didron, Ferguson,

Van Gennep (Rites of Passage), Allegro (Lost Gods), *Leach

(View from Bridge) [packet], Leach (animal categories) [packet]

Week 12&13 Power - (Leadership, Rank, Authority, War -- founders,

kinship, continuity of leadership -- Is there a "language" of

power?; how do boundaries function in the acquisition,

maintenance, exercise, and flaunting of power? - What about

gender?)

Suggested Reading: Schele (Blood of Kings), Schele and

Friedel (Forest of Kings), Freidel and Schele (Maya Cosmos),

P. Furst ("Fertility, vision quest...), Joralemon

(Bloodletting), Eliade (Shamanism),

Week 14. Writing - (symbol of a symbol of a symbol; Is writing

"language"? - What about gender?)

Suggested Reading: Moran and Kelley, Graves, McLuhan

(Gutenberg Galaxy, Understanding Media), Diringer, Basso,

Scholem, Allegro (Mushroom & Cross),

Bibliography