Showing papers by "Maurice Bloch published in 2008"
TL;DR: It is proposed that explaining religion in evolutionary terms is a misleading enterprise because religion is an indissoluble part of a unique aspect of human social organization and the neurological basis for this type of social, which includes religion, will depend on the development of imagination.
Abstract: It is proposed that explaining religion in evolutionary terms is a misleading enterprise because religion is an indissoluble part of a unique aspect of human social organization. Theoretical and empirical research should focus on what differentiates human sociality from that of other primates, i.e. the fact that members of society often act towards each other in terms of essentialized roles and groups. These have a phenomenological existence that is not based on everyday empirical monitoring but on imagined statuses and communities, such as clans or nations. The neurological basis for this type of social, which includes religion, will therefore depend on the development of imagination. It is suggested that such a development of imagination occurred at about the time of the Upper Palaeolithic ‘revolution’.
157 citations
TL;DR: This article examined the link between truth and sight and the implications of this link for our understandings of the concept of evidence, and proposed to give an example of precisely how we might attempt to generalize about a phenomenon such as the recurrence of the association between verite and sight without ignoring important anti-universalist points.
Abstract: This paper examines the link between truth and sight, and the implications of this link for our understandings of the concept of evidence. I propose to give an example of precisely how we might attempt to generalize about a phenomenon such as the recurrence of the association between truth and sight without ignoring important anti-universalist points. In doing this, I hope to give one example of how anthropology, in the original sense of the term, is a still possible enterprise, in spite of the criticisms such an approach has had to face in the last thirty years.
Resume
L'auteur examine le lien entre verite et vision et ses implications pour notre comprehension du concept de preuve. Il propose un exemple de la maniere dont nous pourrions tenter de generaliser un phenomene tel que la recurrence de l'association entre verite et vision, sans negliger d'importants arguments anti-universalistes. Par la meme occasion, l'auteur espere donner un exemple de la facon dont l'anthropologie, au sens originel du terme, est encore une entreprise possible malgre les critiques que cette approche a essuyees au cours des trente dernieres annees.
46 citations
01 Nov 2008
TL;DR: The authors discusses the reputation of Claude Levi-Strauss, comparing and contrasting the high esteem which he is accorded by French intellectuals and the French public with that held by foreign anthropologists.
Abstract: This essay discusses the reputation of Claude Levi-Strauss, comparing and contrasting the high esteem which he is accorded by French intellectuals and the French public with that held by foreign anthropologists.
1 citations
19 Sep 2008
TL;DR: Bloch visited Finland in 2014 as the keynote speaker of the interdisciplinary symposium "Ritual Intimacy - Ritual Publicity" organized by the Collegium for Advanced Studies at the University of Helsinki as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: Professor Maurice Bloch visited Finland in March 2014 as the keynote speaker of the interdisciplinary symposium 'Ritual Intimacy – Ritual Publicity' organized by the Collegium for Advanced Studies at the University of Helsinki. In connection to his visit he granted an interview to Suomen Antropologi, in which he discusses some of the central points of his ritual theory and shares his views on past, present and future directions in the study of ritual.
1 citations