Symbols that Stand for ThemselvesUniversity of Chicago Press, 1986 - 150 pages This important new work by Roy Wagner is about the autonomy of symbols and their role in creating culture. Its argument, anticipated in the author's previous book, The Invention of Culture, is at once symbolic, philosophical, and evolutionary: meaning is a form of perception to which human beings are physically and mentally adapted. Using examples from his many years of research among the Daribi people of New Guinea as well as from Western culture, Wagner approaches the question of the creation of meaning by examining the nonreferential qualities of symbols—such as their aesthetic and formal properties—that enable symbols to stand for themselves. |
Table des matières
1 Introduction | 1 |
2 Too Definite for Words | 14 |
The Holography of Meaning | 34 |
Mortality and FigureGround Reversal | 58 |
Real and Unreal Time | 81 |
6 The Western Core Symbol | 96 |
Thirdorder Trope and the Human Condition | 126 |
References | 143 |
| 147 | |
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Expressions et termes fréquents
accidentia analogic flow articulation becomes Berengar betrothal birds body brain bride price cancellation church clock closure coding collective conception constituted conventional reference core symbol crocosm cultural dialectic cycle Daribi kin death detumescence divine presence elicited embodied encompassing epoch eucharist exchange expansion external flow female figure figure-ground reversal flow of analogy Fourth Lateran Council frame metaphor function ghost guruwari habu horizontal flow human immortal interdict internal kind kinship language literal macrocosm and microcosm marriage meaning mediation mediative medieval metaphor microcosm modern mortal motivation myth nature neocortex Neoteny not-not obviation opposition organic pagebidi pagehabo pearlshells perceived perception plurality points of reference production Purari River realization reference points referential reform relationship relative relativization Richard Sennett ritual Roy Wagner sacrament second-order trope semiotics sense sequence skin snake social Souw spatial structure substantia substitution thing third-order trope tion transformation transubstantiation trope tural University Press Walbiri Wycliffe