The Chimera Principle - An Anthropology of Memory and Imagination

Carlo Severi

ISBN 10: 0990505057 / ISBN 13: 9780990505051

Verlag: HAU Apr 2015, 2015

Beschreibung

Neuware - First published in the French language as 'Le principe de la chimere: Une anthropologie de la memoire, 'Carlo Severi s 'The chimera principle 'breaks new theoretical ground for the study of ritual, iconographic technologies, and oral traditions among non-literate peoples. In relying on ornaments, body painting, masks, or pictograms, the memory of peoples without writing has always seemed labile, disordered, or doomed to failure. Such mnemonic techniques are regularly described by historians as abortive attempts to express basic concepts through graphic means. This book presents an alternative theoretical position based on the results of an extensive anthropological and ethnographic survey throughout the Americas and Oceania. Herein, Severi analyzes visual and mnemonic devices used in ritual contexts across many societies, arguing that religious ontologies are pragmatically produced by ritual actions that demonstrate a kind of chimeric imagination at the core of many non-Western arts of memory. With theoretical turns both philosophical and ethnographic, 'The chimera principle' unfolds new approaches to research in the anthropology of memory and ritual, revealing a new ethnographic theory of imagination. Translated by Janet Lloyd, with a critical foreword by anthropologist David Graeber, this first English edition is both an invaluable resource and an instant classic for anthropologists, art historians, and philosophers.

Bestandsnummer des Verkäufers 9780990505051

Bibliografische Details

• Titel: The Chimera Principle - An Anthropology of Memory and Imagination
• Verlag: HAU Apr 2015
• Erscheinungsjahr: 2015
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN-10: 0990505057
• ISBN-13: 9780990505051
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Zustand: Neu
• Abmessungen: 228B x 153 H x 32 T Millimeter Breite: 228 mm, Höhe: 153 mm, Tiefe: 32 mm
• Gewicht: 611 Gramm

Über diesen Titel

Inhaltsangabe

Available in English for the first time, anthropologist Carlo Severi’s The Chimera Principle breaks new theoretical ground for the study of ritual, iconographic technologies, and oral traditions among non-literate peoples. Setting himself against a tradition that has long seen the memory of people “without writing”—which relies on such ephemeral records as ornaments, body painting, and masks—as fundamentally disordered or doomed to failure, he argues strenuously that ritual actions in these societies pragmatically produce religious meaning and that they demonstrate what he calls a “chimeric” imagination.

Deploying philosophical and ethnographic theory, Severi unfolds new approaches to research in the anthropology of ritual and memory, ultimately building a new theory of imagination and an original anthropology of thought. This English-language edition, beautifully translated by Janet Lloyd and complete with a foreword by David Graeber, will spark widespread debate and be heralded as an instant classic for anthropologists, historians, and philosophers.

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Carlo Severi is professor at the Ecole des hautes etudes en sciences sociales and director of research at the Centre national de la recherche scientifique. Janet Lloyd has translated more than seventy books from French, including Philippe Descola's Beyond Nature and Culture, published by the University of Chicago Press.