Other Tribes, Other Scribes: Symbolic Anthropology in the Comparative Study of Cultures, Histories, Religions and Texts

by James A. Boon

Any interpretation of another culture is itself embedded in a specific cultural context and historical moment. In this book, James A. Boon investigates the history, dialectics and practice of the symbolic analysis of cultural diversity. His aim is to formulate a general comparative approach to the study of symbolic processes, integrating the major different theories about symbolic forms that have been developed by other writers. In so doing, he discusses the varying theories and practice of such figures as Durkheim, Weber, Marx, Mauss, Frazer, Saussure, Peirce, Lowie, Malinowski, Sapir, Hocart, Benedict, Parsons, Levi-Strauss, Geertz, Barthes, Foucault and others; and brings together a wide range of related issues in anthropology, linguistics, intellectual history, the sociology of religion and comparative mythology and literature. This original integration of social scientific and literary analysis will appeal to a wide range of readers interested in anthropology, history, philosophy and literature.

Genres: Anthropology

320 pages, Paperback

First published April 29, 1983

Reviews

[Elzira Rai · Rating 3 out of 5]

Finding a language to describe an incandescent octopus sunset is perhaps more difficult than providing a fairly acceptable characterization of so-called totemic systems, though both endeavors are equally undermined by debilitating conventions, clichés, and literary pedigrees. After an interesting, if acritical, recapitulation of Durkheim's solidarities and the professional fieldwork revolution in anthropology, Boon tries to rescue Weber from the oblivion the discipline has justly sentenced him to - failing miserably and oh-so-boringly. Purchas never quite finds a place in the book's overall narrative and by the time we get to the author's own ethnography of Balinese foot-vaginas and Ramayana shadow plays, one gets the feeling that Boon's understanding of local variants of Hinduism is flimsy at best (his knowledge of 'Indic Hinduism' certainly is, as evinced by the fact that his only sources are Dumont, a single book by Doniger O'Flaherty and, well, Weber). This is followed by a somewhat self-indulging eulogy of Lévi-Strauss as the corollary of Durkheim's moieties (the monad of structuralist dualism) and no less than three epilogues celebrating Leach and Lévi-Strauss. 

I had read Other Tribes more than 20 years ago, and apart from some vague details here and there, my only recollection was that I had found it a great book. Reading it more than two decades later is a puzzling and somehow disturbing experience, not because of the book itself but due to the contrast with my recollections of that first reading: while I'm significantly less excited about it than I was 20 years ago, I also feel that I may have grasped the overall point a little better back then. Trying to reconcile early 'reflexivity' and 'postmodern' fads with a penchant for structuralism (both from a somewhat naive perspective), the book is clearly a product of its era, which is fine, but its overall point eludes my older self.