Premium
leper, hyena, and blacksmith in Kujamaat Diola thought
Author(s) -
SAPIR J. DAVID
Publication year - 1981
Publication title -
american ethnologist
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.875
H-Index - 78
eISSN - 1548-1425
pISSN - 0094-0496
DOI - 10.1525/ae.1981.8.3.02a00070
Subject(s) - hyena , relation (database) , ethnography , sociology , natural (archaeology) , epistemology , the symbolic , anthropology , history , psychology , archaeology , ecology , philosophy , computer science , biology , psychoanalysis , database
Taken together, the disposal of a dead leper and the funeral for a hyena shot while hunting provide a way into a set of categories developed in Kujamaat Diola thought. I begin with the funerals and proceed first to supply ethnographic background to Kujamaat ideas about lepers and hyenas; I then go on to consider the symbolics of each in relation to the other and to related categories. The symbolic analysis takes into account three interdependent processes: variable marking, associative linkages, and analogic systematics. [leprosy; hyenas; blacksmithing; marking; natural symbols; symbolic anthropology]