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Image Acts
Author(s) -
Bakewell Liza
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
american anthropologist
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.51
H-Index - 85
eISSN - 1548-1433
pISSN - 0002-7294
DOI - 10.1525/aa.1998.100.1.22
Subject(s) - magic (telescope) , action (physics) , linguistics , image (mathematics) , epistemology , speech act , sociology , psychology , history , philosophy , computer science , artificial intelligence , physics , quantum mechanics
Over 80 years ago, Bronistaw Malinowski documented the verbal magic of Trobiand gardeners as they tended their crops. More than 40 years later, J. L. Austin argued that words are not simply descriptive but are equally engaged in the productions of actions, indeed are actions themselves. Not long afterward, this idea was given a name: speech acts. This article expands that concept to include what may be termed image acts and argues that a theory of action should include a theory of images.