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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),   

 

 

 

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02/20/2004