Reconnaissances (Heritage) - Softcover

Needham, Rodney

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0802064043 ISBN 13: 9780802064042

Publisher: University of Toronto Press, 1980

Synopsis

The reconnaissances of this book are ventures in the deep analysis of the unconscious as testified to by world ethnography. The topics examined are the image of the half-man, the operation of analogical classification, and ideas about sovereign powers to which men conceive themselves as subject. In each case, analysis brings out remarkable uniformities on a global scale. These cultural similarities are not correlated with particular social forms or linguistic traditions, and in their characteristics features they are not the products of deliberate cogitation or creative invention. The formal attributes they share are that they are premised on binary opposition and symmetry. The argument is that, intrinsically, the social facts in question are spontaneous products of unconscious ‘cerebrational vectors,’ and that they are archetypes of human experience.
The three studies included in the volume, originally delivered as lectures at the University of Toronto in 1978, form an important sequel to Needham’s previous book, Primordial Characters, and further develop certain of its analytical themes and substantive issues.

About this title

About the Author

RODNEY NEEDHAM is Professor of Social Anthropology at Oxford University and Fellow of All Souls College. He is the author of Structure and Sentiment; Belief, Language, and Experience; Remarks and Inventions; Primordial Characters; and Symbolic Classification.

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Toronto Press
• Publication date: 1980
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0802064043
• ISBN 13: 9780802064042
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 132