The Anthropology of Metaphor?
May 19, 2006 6:22 PM
Where can I find more writing about metaphor? I vaguely remember reading something about how, when machines became ubiquitous, people began understanding their lives in terms of machines. I'm looking for that sort of thing.
I'm enjoying Nietzsche's discussion of metaphor in "Truth and Lying in a Non-Moral Sense," de Man's discussion of metaphor in "Semiology and Rhetoric," Lakoff and Johnson's Metaphors We Live By. Any further recommendations would be nice. Cross-cultural examinations, such as how (or whether) different environments yield different metaphors which then yield different concepts and ideologies, would be especially helpful to me.
I'm enjoying Nietzsche's discussion of metaphor in "Truth and Lying in a Non-Moral Sense," de Man's discussion of metaphor in "Semiology and Rhetoric," Lakoff and Johnson's Metaphors We Live By. Any further recommendations would be nice. Cross-cultural examinations, such as how (or whether) different environments yield different metaphors which then yield different concepts and ideologies, would be especially helpful to me.
Roman Jakobson might be worth looking into. He has some observations about aphasia and the difference between metaphor & metonymy.
posted by juv3nal at 6:39 PM on May 19, 2006
posted by juv3nal at 6:39 PM on May 19, 2006
"Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television" By Jerry Mander. A gripping read for many reasons. Tons of stuff about the example you describe.
posted by hermitosis at 6:54 PM on May 19, 2006
posted by hermitosis at 6:54 PM on May 19, 2006
There was a whole bunch of psychology based on the "steam engine" model. Which sounds pretty absurd now.
posted by callmejay at 7:00 PM on May 19, 2006
posted by callmejay at 7:00 PM on May 19, 2006
Two recs that make fit:
Culture and the Senses: Embodiment, Identity, and Well-Being in an African Community
The Way We Think: Conceptual Blending and the Mind's Hidden Complexities
posted by Gyan at 7:01 PM on May 19, 2006
Culture and the Senses: Embodiment, Identity, and Well-Being in an African Community
The Way We Think: Conceptual Blending and the Mind's Hidden Complexities
posted by Gyan at 7:01 PM on May 19, 2006
You may have luck with some of the things written about allegory, as opposed to metaphor. Walter Benjamin writes about this seemingly archaic form as being, in fact, the essence of modernity in its self-counscious artificiality and temporality. This notion informs his best known essay "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction" (found in the collection called Illuminations) in which he tries to explain how modernity, in the form of industrial capitalism and mass-market entertainments, is at odds with the unique aura the pertains to great art, whose existence is now threatened altogether. It's a way of thinking about how a mode of discourse--alllegory, metaphor, symbol--gives access to something more amorphous like "the modern condition."
posted by Toolshed at 7:15 PM on May 19, 2006
posted by Toolshed at 7:15 PM on May 19, 2006
see Thomas Szasz's The Idea of Insanity or his other books which discuss the metaphorical nature of 'mental' illness. See also the paper by Howard Shaffer PhD from Harvard which discusses the conceptual crises in the addictions.
posted by madstop1 at 7:50 PM on May 19, 2006
posted by madstop1 at 7:50 PM on May 19, 2006
Metaphor and Thought, Second Edition, Cambridge University Press, 1993. Andrew Ortony, (ed).
Here are a few of the articles:
George Lakoff, "The Contemporary Theory of Metaphor"
Boyd, Richard, "Metaphor and Theory Change"
Donald Schon, "Generative Metaphor"
posted by Jeff Howard at 8:54 PM on May 19, 2006
Here are a few of the articles:
George Lakoff, "The Contemporary Theory of Metaphor"
Boyd, Richard, "Metaphor and Theory Change"
Donald Schon, "Generative Metaphor"
posted by Jeff Howard at 8:54 PM on May 19, 2006
Designing Information Technology in the Postmodern Age: From Method to Metaphor by Richard Coyne is quite good, and densely packed. Full disclosure: I know him.
posted by milquetoast at 4:41 AM on May 20, 2006
posted by milquetoast at 4:41 AM on May 20, 2006
Evans-Pritchard's work on the Nuer (start with The Nuer) details the ways in which cattle are the organizing metaphor of Nuer life. I think a lot of anthropology from this period looked for organizing metaphors, but perhaps over emphasized the structural importance of them.
posted by carmen at 9:59 AM on May 20, 2006
posted by carmen at 9:59 AM on May 20, 2006
After reading the pregnancy question, I'm reminded that Robbie Davis-Floyd does a whole lot of work on the "technocratic" metaphor and how it influences ideas about the biomedical interventions into pregnancy and birth.
posted by carmen at 10:21 AM on May 20, 2006
posted by carmen at 10:21 AM on May 20, 2006
Thanks everyone.
Anotherpanacea: I'm leaning toward the historicists you mentioned but I'm somewhat open-minded. I'd like to read the localized arguments.
"How do physical environments inspire and constrain ideology?" is the question I'm aiming at but I am willing to be sidetracked.
gyan: The book about African communities looks extremely great. Just what I'm looking for.
posted by Aghast. at 2:42 PM on May 20, 2006
Anotherpanacea: I'm leaning toward the historicists you mentioned but I'm somewhat open-minded. I'd like to read the localized arguments.
"How do physical environments inspire and constrain ideology?" is the question I'm aiming at but I am willing to be sidetracked.
gyan: The book about African communities looks extremely great. Just what I'm looking for.
posted by Aghast. at 2:42 PM on May 20, 2006
Someone else who writes thoughtfully about cross-cultural diversity in metaphor (strongly influenced by Benjamin and Arendt) -- anthropologist Michael Jackson.
You could try his At Home in the World (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2000) [Amazon] -- a lucid meditation on 'home' and 'homelessness' as concept and metaphor in Australian Aboriginal and Western thought.
posted by Sonny Jim at 6:08 PM on May 20, 2006
You could try his At Home in the World (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2000) [Amazon] -- a lucid meditation on 'home' and 'homelessness' as concept and metaphor in Australian Aboriginal and Western thought.
posted by Sonny Jim at 6:08 PM on May 20, 2006
I haven't picked up the Marx work but I will. Of Grammatology I've picked up a few times and put it down, not disappointed, just aware I'm not prepared. I've been getting nudged toward Foucault over and over recently so I think its about time to dive in and that title you mentioned sounds like a good place to start.
I've been pretending the complications (diaspora, etc.) you mentioned could be ignored or left for someone else to talk about, partly because its complicated and partly because I wanted to keep my studies attached to the field of physical anthropology. Archaeologists struggle to piece together ideologies of ancient cultures and I have a mind to help them take on that challenge someday. Of course, they are becoming more and more historical themselves.
posted by Aghast. at 6:26 PM on May 20, 2006
I've been pretending the complications (diaspora, etc.) you mentioned could be ignored or left for someone else to talk about, partly because its complicated and partly because I wanted to keep my studies attached to the field of physical anthropology. Archaeologists struggle to piece together ideologies of ancient cultures and I have a mind to help them take on that challenge someday. Of course, they are becoming more and more historical themselves.
posted by Aghast. at 6:26 PM on May 20, 2006
I learned so much from More than Cool Reason. I read it for a class but I think about the ideas in the book at least once a week since.
posted by frecklefaerie at 12:09 PM on May 22, 2006
posted by frecklefaerie at 12:09 PM on May 22, 2006
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posted by josh at 6:38 PM on May 19, 2006