Beyond Rationalism

by Kapferer, Bruce

• ISBN13: 9781571814180
• ISBN10: 1571814183
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-02-01
• Publisher: Berghahn Books

Summary

In the decades since the collapse of socialism in eastern Europe, time has been a central resource under negotiation. Focusing on a local community that was considered a "model" in the socialist period, the author explores a variety of state-sponsored and unofficial pasts - history, folklore, and tradition - and shows how they "fit" together in everyday life. During the socialist period, the past was a central dimension of local politics and village identity. Post-socialist development has demanded a revaluation of temporality - as well as public and private space. This has led to fundamental changes in social life and political relations, reduced local resources, threatened village identity and transformed political activity through the emergence of new political elites. While the full implications of this process are still being played out, this study underlines some of the fundamental processes prevalent across eastern Europe that help explain widespread ambiguity vis-B-vis post-socialist reform.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	vii
Introduction: Outside All Reason - Magic, Sorcery and Epistemology in Anthropology	1	(30)
Bruce Kapferer
Beyond Vodou and Anthroposophy in the Dominican-Haitian Borderlands	31	(44)
Marit Brendbekken
The Smell of Death: Theft, Disgust and Ritual Practice in Central Lombok, Indonesia	75	(30)
Kari G. Telle
Sorcery, Modernity and the Constitutive Imaginary: Hybridising Continuities	105	(24)
Bruce Kapferer
The Sorcerer as an Absented Third Person: Formations of Fear and Anger in Vanuatu	129	(26)
Knut Rio
Sorcerous Technologies and Religious Innovation in Sri Lanka	155	(20)
Rohan Bastin
Maleficent Fetishes and the Sensual Order of the Uncanny in South-West Congo	175	(23)
Rene Devisch
Fantasy in Practice: Projection and Introjection, or the Witch and the Spirit-Medium	198	(17)
Michael Lambek
The Discourse of `Ritual Murder': Popular Reaction to Political Leaders in Botswana	215	(19)
Ørnulf Gulbrandsen
Strange Fruit: The South African Truth Commission and the Demonic Economies of Violence	234	(32)
Allen Feldman
Contributors	266	(2)
Authors Index	268	(3)
Subject Index	271