ANTHROPOLOGISTS LOOK THROUGH EYES OF THE ANTHROPOLOGISTS LOOK THROUGH EYES OF THE GROUP/SYSTEM: GROUP/SYSTEM: WHAT WHAT MAKES INDIVIDUALS MAKES INDIVIDUALS TICK? TICK? In preparing my paper for this congress I asked myself two questions TWO CORE QUESTIONS How enables TABOO, seen anthropologically from indigenous societies, to explain and deal with contemporary transgression problems of/with young men in our societies? Can we find and determine human cultures/communities/ contexts where TABOO TRANSGRESSIONS are managed effectively from a system’s survival point of view?
19
Embed
20140909 bekkum mediators taboos and the sacred uk durham conf with notes
This document is posted to help you gain knowledge. Please leave a comment to let me know what you think about it! Share it to your friends and learn new things together.
Transcript
ANTHROPOLOGISTS LOOK THROUGH EYES OF THE ANTHROPOLOGISTS LOOK THROUGH EYES OF THE
GROUP/SYSTEM: GROUP/SYSTEM: WHAT WHAT MAKES INDIVIDUALS MAKES INDIVIDUALS TICK?TICK?
In preparing my paper for this congress I asked myself two questions
TWO CORE QUESTIONS
How enables TABOO, seen anthropologically from indigenous
societies, to explain and deal with contemporary transgression
problems of/with young men in our societies?
Can we find and determine human cultures/communities/
contexts where TABOO TRANSGRESSIONS are managed
effectively from a system’s survival point of view?
MEDIATORS BETWEEN TABOOS & THE SACRED
REDRESSING YOUNG MEN’S TRANSGRESSIONSREDRESSING YOUNG MEN’S TRANSGRESSIONS FROM SYSTEMIC ANTHROPOLOGYFROM SYSTEMIC ANTHROPOLOGY
REYNARD THE FOX A cultural hero in medieval European mythology mimicking contemporary human society.
Though Reynard is sly, amoral, cowardly, and self-seeking and transgressor of ‘sacred values’. Still a sympathetic hero, whose cunning is a necessity for survival of society.
source: Charles Solomon Hyperion 1995
paper presentation (copyright Moira CTT)
Dirck van Bekkum ([email protected] (www.ctt.nl) Cultural & Systemic Anthropologist, The Netherlands
Taboo Conference II (TaCo2104) Durham University United Kingdom
TRANSGRESSING OF TABOOS TRANSGRESSING OF TABOOS (SACRED VALUES) (SACRED VALUES)
A TRICKSTER IS GUARDIANA TRICKSTER IS GUARDIAN OF OF TABOOS AND ..TABOOS AND .. A A MEDIATOR BETWEEN TABOOS & THE SACRED. MEDIATOR BETWEEN TABOOS & THE SACRED.
HE/SHE JOKES AND SCARES PEOPLE TO THE BONE AND HE/SHE JOKES AND SCARES PEOPLE TO THE BONE AND ..CONVEYS THE DEEPER MESSAGE ..CONVEYS THE DEEPER MESSAGE
HOWHOW CRUCIAL TABOOS ARE IN SURVIVAL/PROSPERITYCRUCIAL TABOOS ARE IN SURVIVAL/PROSPERITY .. AS FRAGILE AS HUMAN SOCIETIES/COMMUNITIES ARE .. AS FRAGILE AS HUMAN SOCIETIES/COMMUNITIES ARE
Source: artist BritishSource: artist British Columbia Indigenous PeoplesColumbia Indigenous Peoples
REDRESSING THE TABOO CONCEPTREDRESSING THE TABOO CONCEPT
Redressing the taboo concept:
- from an anthropological-systemic
Batesonian perspective
- leads to an innovative explanation of
transgressions of young men in
contemporary societies
Some western projections:
“taboos are not necessarily sacred anymore”
“taboos prevent us from ‘real freedom’ so let go of them”
“‘primitive (non-western) cultures’ need taboos to control their sexual/aggression instincts: we don’t!”
Overcoming taboos concern mostly religion and sex
Marshall Sahlins claims in his 2008 Tanner Lecture:
that Europe’s most suppressed taboo is a deep seated
collective anxiety for chaos and anarchy in society
TABOO CONCEPT TABOO CONCEPT
BURDENED WITH WESTERN PROJECTIONSBURDENED WITH WESTERN PROJECTIONS
CROSSCROSS--CULTURAL COMPARISON AS METHOD CULTURAL COMPARISON AS METHOD
TO CLEANSE THE TABOO CONCEPTTO CLEANSE THE TABOO CONCEPT
Steiner (1956): 4 active ingredients in TABOO in indigenous societies:
1) represents values crucial to survival of the community
2) defines the value and effectiveness of rituals
3) protects the individual in danger
4) protects society from endangered/dangerous persons
Cross-Cultural Compared ..a taboo transgressing
individual and his family/community run the risk of
being punished by supernatural (ancestral) powers
(Haviland et al. 2013).
TABOO IS CONNECTED WITH TABOO IS CONNECTED WITH
SACRED VALUES AND RITUALSSACRED VALUES AND RITUALS
Expanding Bateson systems theory…
transgressing taboos can be translated as
endangering a system’s stability and survival.
He coins this as ‘runaway schismogenetic
communication patterns’ (Bateson 1972; 1987)
Schismogenesis, making differences, is all
present in biological, and thus in human, systems
CENTRAL THEME IN BATESON'S WORKCENTRAL THEME IN BATESON'S WORK
Schismogenesis can be translated to anthropological
conceptions of TABOO as disrupting/damaging sacred
values. (Bateson 1969/1991)
How to differentiate between constructive
(promoting survival) and destructive
(endangering survival) schismogenesis?
In his cybernetic systemic conception:
How do human systems restrain control
destructive tendencies of schismogenesis?
Bateson did not offer a definite answer to this question!