Symbolic Anthropology (Anthropology)

Jordan, Mandy M. Building Resiliency: The Role of Faith-Based Organizations in the Trauma-Affected Community of Santa Fe, Texas. Master of Science (Applied Anthropology), August 2021, 205 pp., 2 tables, 15 figures, 8 appendices, references, 91 titles. On May 18, 2018, a shooter entered Santa Fe High School, killing eight students and two teachers. Using ethnographic methods, this research examines the role of faith, rituals, language, and symbols in the trauma-affected community during the response, recovery, and resiliency efforts as perceived by the Santa Fe community and those impacted by the tragedy. Qualitative data collected from 100 individuals ages of 17-84 illustrated how historical trauma, community culture, and faith-based organizations impact community resiliency and how illusions of a homogenous view of the community left many feeling shocked, divided, forgotten or muted.

Occorre oggi allargare il nostro paradigma antropologico di riferimento, passando da un paradigma che dice una parte di verità sull'essere umano, a un paradigma più accogliente e più rispettoso, più confortevole per noi e per le esigenze della nostra libertà: un paradigma più adeguato alla nostra umanità. Un paradigma che riconosca come la nostra interiorità è sempre esteriormente mediata e come, al contempo, l’esteriorità si presenta alla nostra esperienza sempre interiormente mediata. È un paradigma che riconosce che l’essere umano è, prima di tutto ed essenzialmente, un animale simbolico.

The King's Two Bodies- Reflexion on the Symbolic of Power

Among the so-called Mari Prophetic Letters, one interesting text (ARM X 10) reports a cheerful vision of the king's return. The king, as usual, is acclaimed by the soldiers, in a formal exhibition of loyalty. Incidebtly, the scene occurs on two larges boats blocking the river course. The narrative also mentions several insigna embedded within the military acclamations. Since the symbolic character of the omen is highly significant, I discuss the account through interpretative ethnography.

SUMMARY: Chapter 10, in Renfrew & Bahn's textbook (Archaeology: Theories, Methods, and Practice), covers approaches to assessing how humans began to think and adopt language, use symbols, view one's world, measure time, plan ahead, practice religion, care for the deceased, portray oneself, others, and aspects of one's world, and other concepts.  In my view, this is one of the best college textbooks available, and is invaluable for students, archaeologists, and the public in general, to obtain a top notch overview of approaching and interpreting the archaeological record.  UPDATED March, 2021, some new images, text edits, significant re-formatting, etc.

Archaeological studies of African-American sites in North America have presented analysts with tremendous challenges of interpreting the possible symbolic meanings of nineteenth-century material culture.  A range of artifacts uncovered in the living and work spaces of African Americans in that time period raises issues of the interplay of individual and social group dynamics and implicates a spectrum of past expressive modes, from the emblems of sodalities to assertions of personal aspirations.  This chapter explores these dynamics through a case study, examining the characteristics of small hand figures uncovered at such archaeological sites and the broad historical processes in which those diminutive items were likely embedded.

Este estudo tem o objetivo de apresentar e discutir alguns aspectos do dramatismo, método de análise das relações humanas e principalmente dos atos da linguagem e de pensamento, tal como apresentado pelo filósofo e crítico literário norte-americano Kenneth Burke (1897- 1993), entre os anos de 1930 a 1960. Praticamente desconhecido em nossa língua, o nome de Kenneth Burke e seu dramatismo são presenças obrigatórias nos recentes compêndios que abordam os estudos da performance e das performances culturais, pela comparação e relação que estabelecem entre a vida cotidiana e o drama e necessitam ser melhor conhecidos. Entre tantos teóricos, seus trabalhos influenciaram os críticos literários Harold Bloom (1930) e Susan Sontag (1933-2004), sua aluna na Universidade de Chicago, e principalmente a fundamentação do sociólogo Erving Goffman (1922-1982), seja em seus estudos da vida cotidiana como em sua “abordagem dramatúrgica” (dramaturgical approach). Como se infere, a partir do dramatismo, não somos apenas utilizadores da linguagem, somos também utilizados por ela, ela determina nossas ações. O dramatismo se estabelece como um instrumento de análise da linguagem como ação simbólica a partir de cinco termos chave (pentad dramatístico): o ato em si, o que foi feito; o agente do ato, o ator, quem realizou o ato; a cena (o lugar, o onde); a agência, os meios/instrumentos ou como se realiza a ação, ou ainda a capacidade autônoma das pessoas fazerem suas próprias escolhas; e o propósito. O ato é o termo central em torno do qual se organizam as cinco categorias de análise (pentad) e a investigação dos motivos da ação é a estratégia fundamental da análise dramatística. Burke propõe que o campo de observação da ação humana e de suas incontáveis combinações, as transposições e as transformações entre os termos do citado pentad, possibilitem uma análise da ação humana que tem o drama como termo central. O dramatismo procura responder as questões de como podem ser explicadas as ações humanas e, principalmente, como estas ações são determinadas pela capacidade simbólica. O dramatismo torna-se elemento central na análise da teatralidade humana, do ser humano em performance.

This study aims at presenting and discussing some of the aspects of dramatism, method of analysis of human relations and mainly of the acts of the language and of the thinking, as it is presented by the North American philosopher and literary critic Kenneth Burke (1897-1993), from the years 1930 to 1960. Practically unknown in our language, Kenneth Burke‟s name and of his dramatism are compulsory presences in the recent compendiums which deal with the studies of performance and of cultural performances, for the comparison and the relation they establish between everyday life and the drama and thus require be better known. Among many theorists, Burke‟s works have influenced the literary critics Harold Bloom (1930) and Susan Sontag (1933-2004), his student at the University of Chicago, and mainly the theoretical founding of the sociologist Erving Goffman (1922-1982), being that in his studies of everyday life as well as in his “dramaturgical approach”. As it is implied from dramatism, we are not only language users, we are also used by it and language determines our actions. Dramatism is established as an instrument of analysis of language as symbolic action from five key terms (dramatistic pentad): the act in itself, what has been done; the agent of the act, the actor, who performed the act; the scene (the place, the where); the agency, the means/instruments or how the action is performed, or even the autonomous capability of people to make their own choices; and the purpose. The act is the central term around which the five categories of analyses are organized (pentad) and the investigation of the motives of the action is the fundamental strategy of the dramatistic analyses. Burke proposes that the field of observation of the human action and of its innumerable combinations, the transpositions and the transformations among the terms of the cited pentad, makes it possible for an analysis of the human action that has drama as its central term. Dramatism attempts to answer the questions of how human actions can be explained, and mainly how these actions are determined by the symbolic capability. Dramatism becomes a central element in the analysis of human theatricality, of the human being in performance.

Mi tezih dohtorá / Nere doktore-tesia / Mi tesis doctoral / My PhD Thesis.

Autor como Juan Porras Blanco del libro digital ‘Negación’ punk en la sociedad vasca. Investigación socioantropológica de un simbolismo liminal. Leioa (Bizkaia, EH): Euskal Herriko Unibertsitateko Argitalpen Zerbitzua / Servicio Editorial de la Universidad del País Vasco, 2005; 474 páginas. Serie Tesis Doctorales.

SINOPSIS

El movimiento punk surgió a finales de los setenta en una sociedad confundida, desencantada y sumida en un nuevo orden mundial donde parecía que las nuevas generaciones de jóvenes poco o nada tenían que decir. Cuando este movimiento llegó a Euskal Herria sufrió, sin embargo, una peculiar adaptación que hizo que su discurso permeara en todos los ámbitos y su influencia se extendiera hasta el día de hoy. La situación política convulsa, una lengua milenaria y un espíritu tribal hicieron escribir al punk una de las páginas más curiosas y entrañables de la historia reciente del País Vasco.

SYNOPSIS

The punk movement emerged in the late seventies in a confused, disillusioned and mired society in a new world order where it seemed that the new generations of young people had little or nothing to say. When this movement arrived to Euskal Herria/Basque Country suffered, however, a peculiar adaptation which made its speech permeate all areas and its influence extended until today. The turbulent political situation, a millenary language and a tribal spirit made the punk movement write one of the most curious and beloved pages of the recent history of the Basque Country.
--------------------
En relación con esta tesis doctoral, también soy autor -como Huan Porrah- del libro Negación punk en Euskal Herria. Tafalla (Nafarroa): Txalaparta argitaletxea, 2006; 408 páginas. Libro con copyright que aún está en venta:
http://huanporrah.edublogs.org/2006/11/17/libro-negacion-punk-en-euskal-herria/

Whilst the condition of a damaged ethical life has received due scholarly attention to date, only rarely is resistance to it conceived as an actual possibility with the potential of real effects on a macro-social scale. This is not just a curious lacuna in the literature. To ignore or miss concrete possibilities or even instances of resistance is to reinforce the apparent naturalness and inevitability of structures of injustice. The aim of this edited collection is to help address this epistemological neglect, exploring the multiplicity of motives, presuppositions, sites, ways, and consequences of acts of resistance. As shown in the ensuing contributions, resistance can be recalcitrant or transformative in its aims, discursive or physical in its means, and local or generalised in its loci. If there is a single argument that can be distilled, it is that the emergence of progressive resistance entails the incessant rational critique of so-styled ‘common sense’ and prevalent ethical claims–a process which could be called ‘the banality of good’. Contributors (in alphabetical order): Andrea Mubi Brighenti, Leonidas K. Cheliotis, Lilie Chouliaraki, Spiros Gangas, Richard Kearney, Alison Liebling, John O’Neill, Nancy Scheper-Hughes, Justice Tankebe, Ezra Tessler, Sappho Xenakis.


Contents

List of Contributors
Acknowledgements

1. Roots, Rites, and Sites of Resistance: The Banality of Good: An Introduction
Leonidas K. Cheliotis

2. Values, Crisis, and Resistance: Prospects for Freedom Reconsidered
Spiros Gangas

3. Narcissism, Humanism, and the Revolutionary Character in Erich Fromm’s Work
Leonidas K. Cheliotis

4. Thinking after Terror: An Interreligious Challenge
Richard Kearney

5. Ecce Homo: The Political Theology of Good and Evil
John O’Neill

6. Resistance as Transformation
Andrea Mubi Brighenti

7. Acting on Vulnerable Others: Ethical Agency in Media Discourse
Lilie Chouliaraki

8. Sites of Resistance: Death Row Homepages and the Politics of Compassion
Ezra Tessler

9. Face to Face with Abidoral Queiroz: Death Squads and Democracy in Northeast Brazil
Nancy Scheper-Hughes

10. Resisting Submission? The Obstinacy of ‘Balkan’ Characteristics in Greece as Dissidence against ‘The West’
Sappho Xenakis

11. Legitimation and Resistance: Police Reform in the (Un)Making
Justice Tankebe

12. ‘Governmentality’ and Governing Corrections: Do Senior Managers Resist?
Alison Liebling

Se analiza el universo de ideologías, prácticas y representaciones cosmológicas asociadas por los chané del noroeste argentino con el ámbito del monte. Se describen etnográficamente fenómenos como la división conceptual del espacio; la relación de la categorización espacial con la división sexual del trabajo y las relaciones de género; el protocolo ritualizado de conducta para con los seres del monte y los dueños tutelares de las cosas; la ambigüedad simbólica del ámbito del monte; el juego de analogías y paralelismos entre las representaciones montaraces y la estructura social (redes de parentesco, alianza, reciprocidad y redistribución, ideologías del liderazgo y la propiedad, etc.). Se discute la discriminación analítica de matices exegéticos en diversos contextos simbólicos, semánticos y experienciales en los cuales las acciones y los enunciados de los chané adquieren cotidianamente su sentido y su inteligibilidad. Se demuestra, finalmente, que el conocimiento del monte no conforma un registro abstracto de datos espaciales, biológicos o geográficos sino una auténtica percepción cultural de la realidad.

Resumen. Este trabajo analiza el modo en que movimientos religiosos contemporáneos recrean pasados históricos y tradiciones religiosas dentro de nuevos marcos organizacionales y cosmológicos, los que pueden verse como una crítica cultural a la modernidad que ellos experimentan como sujetos históricos. Desde una perspectiva antropológica, exploro los casos del neo-paganismo lituano, por una parte, y del culto brasileño del Santo Daime, por la otra. De esta forma, se identifican elementos clave de su imaginación religiosa, condensados en rituales, mitos y organización social, los que expresan una muy creativa reinvención de tradiciones. Argumento aquí que ésta implica una compleja reconstrucción simbólica del tiempo y del espacio en la cual las nuevas visiones de lo antiguo juegan un rol cultural y político central.

Narratives of contemporary religious modernity: the new traditions of the old.
Abstract.This paper analyzes how contemporary religious movements recreate historical pasts and ancient religious traditions within new organizational and cosmological frameworks, which can be regarded as a cultural critique of modernity they experience as historical subjects. From an anthropological standpoint, I explore the cases of Lithuanian Neo-Paganism, on the one hand, and the Brazilian Cult of Santo Daime, on the other. In doing so, key elements of their religious imagination, condensed in rituals, myths, and social organization are identified, expressing a quite creative re-invention of traditions. I argue that the latter imply complex, symbolic reconstructions of time and space in which new visions of the old play a key cultural and political role.

The paper deals with what probably is the earliest evidence of symbolic behavior known today in Eastern Siberia and adjacent parts of Central Asia. The author describes a collection of non-utilitarian objects from the Early Upper Paleolithic site of Podzvonkaya, situated in the western half of the Trans-Baikal region. Of particular interest is a series of pendants made of ostrich eggshell and believed to date from a period ca. 40 kya (on the basis of radiocarbon dates obtained on bone samples from the same layer). In addition, there are numerous bones and stones with rhythmically set incisions and other markings, some of which seem to be parts of complex representations. The collection includes also three bone tools with apparently decorative heads.

This essay argues that the metamorphosis of Cinderella's mother into a cow, featured in folktales across Europe, bespeaks hoary notions concerning procreation,  the animal shapes of wandering spirits, and the fate of the soul in the afterlife.

This paper intends to present a role of sexual dimorphism of man in such conceptualisation of world which resulted from both, the paradigm of animism and analogizying symbolisation, based on the iconic signs. Thus a certain theory of main cognitive paradigms and the process of symbolisation were advanced and. then, referred to manifestations of sexual dimorphism of man in archaic hunting-gathering societies. Finally, the received deductions were exemplified in the evolutionary course of ideological development of mankind, starting from the Upper Paleolithic period and ending on ancient centers of urbanized civilisations. The latter stage was shown on the basis of the example of the Chinese Yin-Yang doctrine.

Bárta, M.
2016 "Dummy mummification" in the Old Kingdom: a new intact case from the 5th Dynasty , Abusir. In Rich and Great. Studies in honour of Anthony J. Spalinger on the ocassion of his 70th Feast of Thoth edited by R. Landgráfová and J. Mynářová, pp. 15-17. Czech Institute of Egyptology, Prague.

The study deals with the burial of priest Neferinpu from the 24th century B.C., reign of Nyuserra - Djedkara which was found in Abusir South. His burial demonstrates that at this period dummy mummification was not a rare case. The general characteristics of his burial arrangement shows valuable details pertaining to the symbolism and rituals of the Ancient Egyptians and their perception of the afterlife prerequisites.

The main purpose of this article is to make a comparative interpretation of petroglyphs and rock paintings and to try to date them considering many criteria. Anatolian geography has always been the focal point with its historical culture and inventory. However, there is not much research on this subject in this geography, which is very rich in petroglyph and rock paintings. There are many similar petroglyphs and rock paintings in neighboring regions of Anatolia (Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Iran, Nakhchivan). Mostly all dating and evaluations are interpreted according to their typological similarities with other geographies. In this article, we will try to create some analyzes and hypotheses from both the Anatolian and other geographies and using our data.

The Grolier Codex (Codice Maya de Mexico, CMM) is discussed in the context of the archaeoastronomy of the ancient Americas on pages 98-99 of the March 1990 National Geographic Magazine article "America's Ancient Skywatchers" by John B. Carlson. One of four known ancient Maya books, the Grolier Codex depicts different manifestations of the planet Venus; the column of glyphs on the left of each panel records days in a 104-year Venus almanac. These plaster-coated bark-paper pages, carbon-dated to the 13th century, represent only half of the 20-page original. A numbered photographic arrangement of the Grolier Codex depictes the author's discovery that Codex pages 10 and 11 are actually two parts of the same "page 10".  Carlson clarifies the identities of Venus deities depicted in the Grolier Codex from a comparison of images from the Cacaxtla murals and links the images of the Grolier Codex with ancient Maya astronomically timed ritual warfare and sacrifice. (Grolier Codex photographs: Enrico Ferorelli; Other photos: Bob Sacha)

This article has been posted on Academia.edu as part of the Grolier Codex Project of the Center for Archaeoastronomy under the directorship of John B. Carlson, Ph.D.  The Grolier Codex Project seeks to further advance the study of the Maya Grolier Codex.

The similarities between music and language are often remarked upon. For this reason, many thinkers fall into a linguistic bias in music analysis. Both are unique products of the human mind serving the purpose of expression, although they do not coincide entirely. Meanings conveyed musically and linguistically differ due to physical, conceptual and formal limitations. A closer study of their creation points to the common root of linguistic and musical production, consisting in the human affinity for symbolic transformation of experience, stemming from evolutionary adaptation to the changing environment. Symbolisation not only allows the human being to internally conceive the reality which surrounds them, but also to represent objects and concepts in absentia. This faculty prompted the elaboration of systems of communication and artistic creation, a virtually ludic activity reflecting the inherent cerebral processes.

Hess, R. U. (2017). The meaning of the hourglass symbol. Journal of Anthropological Approaches to the Paranormal, Paranthropology Vol 8(1), March 2017, 43.

A brief description of the meanings of the hourglass symbol developed by
myself and published in the latest issue of Paranthropology. And its synchronistic cross-cultural similarities with the cosmic symbol developed by Mark A. Schroll and the symbols' archetypal significance. Thanks to the guest editor of this issue, Mark A. Schroll, PhD.

http://paranthropologyjournal.weebly.com/…/paranthropology_…

The khachkar, or cross-stone, is a memorial stone unique to Armenia. It is a free-standing, upright, rectangular stone slab that is elaborately carved in a deep bas-relief on the side facing
west. A cross is carved in the center of the stone against a background of vegetal and interlaced geometric motifs.

This collection of thirteen articles from the Journal of the Sind Historical Society concentrates on precolonial and colonial Sind. These articles reveal much about Sindh’s past and historically showcase the region’s broad socio-cultural spectrum. Scholarship frequently overlooks the subjects and people in this collection. In part, this oversight is due to so few libraries (both in Pakistan and around the world) having copies of the Journal of the Sind Historical Society. There are no reprints of these articles in any other book, nor has anyone reprinted them in their entirety since the 1930s and 1940s.

The articles in this book not only deepen knowledge about Sindh but also the history of Pakistan and the diversity of its people. They represent, like most research printed in the Journal of the Sind Historical Society, ‘forgotten’ chapters in both Sindhi and Pakistani history. These chapters celebrate Pakistan’s socio-cultural diversity and point toward how the histories of region and nation should be intertwined.

È grazie alla modernità se possiamo oggi riscoprire la natura storica di Gesù e del cristianesimo originario. Il cristianesimo non nasce con Gesù e, quando prende forma definita, appare come una religione avversa all’ebraismo. Gesù, però, era ebreo e non voleva fondare un’altra religione.
Il libro mostra dapprima l’azione critica esercitata dalle scienze storiche moderne sulla visione del modo antiebraica creata dal cristianesimo antico. Si riscopre ad esempio la natura ebraica della Bibbia che il cristianesimo antico aveva negato cristianizzandola.
I capitoli centrali mettono in luce l’impatto della scienza moderna sul sistema teologico cristiano. Sono le concezioni politiche moderne che denunciano la deformazione politica del cristianesimo. Le dichiarazioni dei diritti dell’uomo (emerse grazie all’illuminismo) hanno avuto un impatto trasformatore positivo non solo sulle diverse forme di cristianesimo, ma anche sull’ebraismo e sull’Islam. La sterminata ricerca storica moderna su Gesù, però, non è frutto di un atteggiamento anti-cristiano, ma delle molteplici e diversificate correnti cristiane che assumono volta a volta i diversi fattori culturali della modernità.
In sostanza, ebraicità di Gesù, nascita del cristianesimo antiebraico e impatto critico della modernità sono tre aspetti inscindibili che stanno al cuore dell’interrogazione contemporanea.

The ancient Egyptians have long been hailed for having a stable civilization that reigned with little change to its customs or population for thousands of years (Hughes, 1992 p.12). The civilizations that span Egypt ca. 3500 BCE through 332 BCE as a whole particularly exemplifies an ancient adjustment of a people to their environment (Gemmill, 1928 p.296). In this paper I will broadly examine the environmental aspects of ancient Egypt, such as the predominant feature of its terrain known as the Nile River and the methods by which the Egyptian people were able to sustainably harness it’s energy for so many millennia; The massive Nile being predominantly the single most important resource of ancient Egypt by providing its abundance of natural resources and, through its cultivation, the recreational as well as necessary goods that likely heavily influenced the culture’s long-term success. I also briefly examine Egypt’s fundamental Fungis, Flora, and Metazoa (Animalia), as well as these biological kingdoms importance within the society’s physical needs to religious rituals. The conglomeration of information here has been gathered by means of secondary research by analysis of journal articles and books, with intentions of more fully understanding as well as illustrating the landscape of ancient Egypt and how these populations interacted with and ultimately altered their surrounding ecology.

English Summary:


This remarkable book is the fruit of 30 years of investigations of two archaeologists, husband and wife, Maria Magdalena and Andrzej Antczak, on the pre-Hispanic archaeology of the majestic Los Roques Archipelago, Venezuela. The uniqueness of the Los Roques Archipelago within the panorama of insular pre-colonial archaeology in the Americas centers on the discovery of more than 400 human clay figurines on one small island, Dos Mosquises, along with elaborate primary ritual contexts and the remains of a gargantuan queen conch (lobatus gigas) exploitation enterprise. This book is the winner of two of the highest scientific publication awards in Venezuela (2006 & 2009).


Resumen en Español:


Desde el título de este volumen de indiscutible valor, la palabra “prometidas” aplica oportunamente a nuestro maravilloso archipiélago venezolano de Los Roques la alegoría bíblica que coloca al final de un exigente camino hermosas tierras, donde corren ríos de leche y miel. Hacia estas islas con abundantes recursos marinos, entre los cuales destaca el gran caracol marino llamado ‘botuto’, se dirigían las canoas indígenas durante al menos cuatro siglos antes de la conquista europea. Las campañas de explotación de los recursos en las islas dependían del éxito de la actividad ceremonial, testimoniada por centenares de figurinas humanas, incensarios, ocarinas y pipas cerámicas, flautas de hueso y silbatos de concha, recuperados por los arqueólogos en complejos contextos primarios.

La presencia de esta diversidad de objetos en los campamentos temporales de las pequeñas islas oceánicas es un fenómeno excepcional en la arqueología del Caribe. En este sentido, la publicación de esta monografía es el cumplimiento de un prolongado esfuerzo y de un caro anhelo por proporcionar al lector una explicación sólida y coherente de este fenómeno arqueológico único. Es también el final de una importante etapa de ese camino verdaderamente exigente de la investigación arqueológica. A través de sus páginas, con un soporte teórico documental de inusual solidez y pertinencia, se difunde el fruto de muchos años de perseverante dedicación para sus autores, María Magdalena Mackowiak de Antczak y Andrzej Antczak, arqueólogos y antropólogos vinculados desde hace tiempo con la Universidad Simón Bolívar.

Se trata, sin duda, de una obra mayor, enriquecida por 1500 ilustraciones y más de 200 tablas, que describe hallazgos arqueológicos excepcionales recuperados de manera sistemática durante más de 60 campañas de trabajo de campo, y desarrolla propuestas verdaderamente seminales para el entendimiento del significado y la valoración del legado prehispánico en Venezuela y, en especial, en sus territorios insulares.

Este volumen ha sido concebido no solamente como lectura referencial para profesionales y estudiantes de arqueología y antropología, sino también esta dirigido al lector no especializado que puede sentirse atraído por el vibrante, colorido y desconocido pasado prehispánico presentado en estas páginas. También, a través de esta monografía los autores aspiran a infundir El Orgullo por el Pasado, el lema que orienta sus trabajos de investigación y docencia.

Este vasto y complejo proyecto editorial ha sido posible gracias a la concertación de un gran equipo profesional y una venturosa alianza de nuestra Universidad con Banesco y Petrozuata, confluencias que celebramos también como promesas felizmente cumplidas.

El libro ha recibido numerosos premios nacionales incluyendo:

IV Premio Nacional del Libro 2006, Mejor Libro Científico otorgado por el Ministerio del Poder Popular para la Cultura.

2009 Premio Alterno por Mejor Investigación en Ciencias Sociales, otorgado por la ASOVAC (Asociación Venezolana para el Avance de la Ciencia).

2007 Premio Andrés Bello para la Mejor Investigación en Ciencias Sociales otorgado por la Universidad Simón Bolívar.

Este trabajo es parte de una investigación en antropología vial que desarrolla el grupo Culturalia en la Facultad de Filosofía y Letras (UBA). Se trata de una exploración antropológica de los imaginarios viales en la Argentina. El estudio parte de la idea de que los hechos viales son hechos sociales y que, como tales, son parte de la trama de representaciones colectivas que definen las múltiples dimensiones de la ocupación del espacio público por parte de los ciudadanos, en una tensa y ambigua relación entre las normas estatales y las prácticas concretas que uno puede observar en la calle. Dado que la conducta social es una acción simbólica, nos interesa identificar los principales símbolos que condensan estos imaginarios viales en situaciones cotidianas.  El objetivo del trabajo es hacer explícita la urdimbre de significados culturales que dan sentido a los principales patrones de comportamiento vial, comenzando por el área de Buenos Aires y el Conurbano. Este conjunto de datos antropológicos servirán de insumos conceptuales y empíricos para la elaboración a largo plazo de una necesaria política de estado sobre el campo vial en nuestro país. Una política tal debe necesariamente aproximarse al fenómeno vial, que es una suma de variables de gran complejidad, desde un enfoque igualmente complejo, en donde la seguridad es un aspecto clave aunque no el único de este sistema de interacciones sociales en el espacio público.

There are certain thoughts - intimations - that will seem corny, or laughable, and therefore dismissed - and only seriously absorbed into the changing mind when felt, in the shelter of the quietly moving music of the soul.
It is the function of art, and of love, to make this music heard . . . 

  It is not the music of depression - it is the way through.

In this article, see pages 164, 166-168 for Stuart's discussion of the Grolier Codex.  It is highly significant that the Mexican State of Chiapas and the Universidad Autonoma de Chiapas chose to include the Grolier Codex as an authentic ancient Maya book in 1985 and make a fine color facsimile available along with the Dresden, Paris, and Madrid codices for further research. 

This review and essay of "Los Codices Mayas" is being posted as a personal tribute to my friend and colleague, the late George E. Stuart, Ph.D. (1935 - 2014) for his great generosity and many extraordinary contributions promoting world archaeology over several generations.

This article has been posted on Academia.edu as part of the Grolier Codex Project of the Center for Archaeoastronomy under the directorship of John B. Carlson, Ph.D.  The Grolier Codex Project seeks to further advance the study of the Maya Grolier Codex.

At Metaphysics A 5 986a22-b2, Aristotle refers to a Pythagorean table, with two columns of paired opposites. I argue that 1) although Burkert and Zhmud have argued otherwise, there is sufficient textual evidence to indicate that the table, or one much like it, is indeed of Pythagorean origin; 2) research in structural anthropology indicates that the tables are a formalization of arrays of “symbolic classification” which express a pre-scientific world view with social and ethical implications, according to which the presence of a principle on one column of the table will carry with it another principle within the same column; 3) a close analysis of Aristotle’s arguments shows that he thought that the table expresses real causal relationships; and 4) Aristotle faults the table of opposites with positing its principles as having universal application and with not distinguishing between those principles that are causally prior and those that are posterior. Aristotle’s account of scientific explanation and his own explanations that he developed in accordance with this account are in part the result of his critical encounter with this prescientific Pythagorean table.

ΠΕΡΙΛΗΨΗ: Σε τούτο το άρθρο, το οποίο αναφέρεται στα δύο πρώτα κεφάλαια των «Θλιβερών Τροπικών», επιχειρείται η παρουσίαση των βιωματικών τρόπων με τους οποίους ο Κλωντ Λεβί-Στρως συσχετίστηκε με την πρακτική της εθνογραφίας. Μέσα από τα γνωρίσματα της ιδιοσυγκρασίας του, που αναδεικνύονται στις περιπέτειες των ταξιδιών του στους Τροπικούς, φανερώνονται οι όψεις μιας μελλοντικής μεθοδολογίας, οι οποίες επρόκειτο να μεταποιηθούν σε ερευνητικά εργαλεία του πεδίου της ανθρωπολογίας, ιδίως ύστερα από τη δεκαετία του 1980. Το «φιλοσοφικό ημερολόγιο» ενός θεωρητικού ανθρώπου, που σαγηνεύεται από τη ζωτικότητα και τη δυναμική της εθνογραφικής διαδικασίας, αντιπαραβάλλεται προς το στεγνό επιστημονικό πνεύμα που κυριαρχεί στο πρώτο μισό του 20ού αιώνα. Η ομολογία ζωής-επιστήμης στο πρόσωπο του Λεβί-Στρως αποκαλύπτει τη δυνατότητα ενός εθνογράφου, ο οποίος μπορεί να μεταπηδά από τη θεωρία στην ποίηση και αντιστρόφως, κινούμενος στις διαφορετικές πτυχές του ίδιου συμφραζόμενου που ερευνά.

ΛΕΞΕΙΣ ΚΛΕΙΔΙΑ: εθνογραφία, μεθοδολογία, ταξίδια, ιδιοσυγκρασία, ανθρωπολογία, φιλοσοφία, εθνολογία, πολιτισμικός δομισμός, τοπίο, δυτικός πολιτισμός.

«Μισώ τα ταξίδια και τους εξερευνητές· και παρ' όλα αυτά ετοιμάζομαι να διηγηθώ τις περιπέτειές μου».

Δημοσιευμένο στο: Εθνολογία 16 (2013-2016) [2017] 7-24.