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Lateral symbolism and Atuot cosmology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 December 2011

John W. Burton
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Extract

... explanation is no more than exact description which bears its own interpretation (Evans-Pritchard 1973b: 764).

Social anthropologists increasingly question whether or not the translation of culture is possible, at least in the most profound sense (see e.g. Beidelman 1980: 39). If we are as yet uncertain of the essential characteristics of human perception and cognition (cf. Needham 1980: 19) the task of comparison is problematic. Are we to note how ethnographic data reveal indigenous instances of a polythetic mode of classification, or construct rigid dichotomies to sort them out? A related question is whether or not an ethnographic report is valuable because it serves to verify specific theories or because it invites alternative interpretations.

Résumé

Le symbolisme lateral et la cosmologie atuot

Une analyse de la classification symbolique atuot révèle une sorte de symbolisme latéral qui a été signalé à plusieurs reprises dans beaucoup d'autres peuples africains. Cependant, une analyse contextuelle de deux centrales métaphores religieuses atuot, c'est-à-dire ‘Dieu est gauche’ (Decau era cam) et ‘la vie est gauche’ (cam ke ro yen a te yei thin) suggère que la ‘signification’ de ces affirmations ne saurait bien se comprendre qu'à un autre niveau d'analyse. La notion de ‘gauche’ dans ces deux exemples signale un manque de savoir inexorable en ce qui concerne l'essence de chaque phénomène plutôt qu'une classification bien renseignée et précise.

Type
Dual classification
Information
Africa , Volume 52 , Issue 1 , January 1982 , pp. 69 - 80
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 1982

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