Totemism

This report aims to describe and explain the place of totemism in Aboriginal culture(s) in NSW, from 1788 to the present day. It also asks whether 'totemism' is an appropriate concept to describe the social and religious affiliations Aboriginal people have towards plant and animal species. The report suggests that the concept of kinship is perhaps a better term to describe these relationships.

The report also helps organisations such as the NPWS to understand and recognise the relationship between land management and totemism. Through land management programs, the report argues that Aboriginal forms of respect for the environment can become a living reality in NSW.

The report is the result of a project funded by the NSW Biodiversity Strategy.
It is co-authored with Diana James and Christine Watson

Le personnage de Phéraulas est le plus original de la Cyropédie, et il le tient de son caractère présenté comme représentatif de la population perse. Il convient donc de le prendre au sérieux, même s'il se livre à des activités qui semblent insensées. Dans cette étude, on prendre en compte deux de ses interventions, pour l'instant inexplicables : un discours dans lequel il se vante de son enfance violente et désordonnée, puis une folle cavalcade durant laquelle il reçoit par hasard une motte de terre sur la figure, mais à son avantage. L'un comme l'autre de ces épisodes n'ont d'explication qu'en ayant recours à des structures anciennes, dogmatiques, rituelles ou magiques, présentées dans les religions iraniennes. Ils ne doivent pas être entièrement dus à la fantaisie de Xénophon.

The character of Pheraulas is the most original in the Cyropaedia, and it is due to the fact that he is presented as fully representative of the Persian population. It should be taken seriously, even if, at first sight, he pursues meaningless activities. In this study, two of his actions will be taken into account, for now inexplicable: a speech in which he boasts about his violent and troubled childhood; then, a wild horse run, during which he gets a clod of earth on his face, just by chance, but to his advantage… Both episodes cannot be explained without recurring to several ancient and structures dogmatic, ritual or magical, within Iranian religions. They may not be entirely due to the Xenophon's imagination.

This article develops a non-reductive approach to celebrity, treating it as an iconic form of collective representation central to the meaningful construction of contemporary society. Like other compelling material symbols, the celebrity-icon is structured by the interplay of surface and depth. The surface is an aesthetic structure whose sensuous qualities command attention and compel attachment; the depth projects the sacred and profane binaries that structure meaning even in postmodern societies. While celebrity worship displays elements of totemism, it also reflects the eschatological hopes for salvation that mark post-Axial Age religion. The attacks on celebrity culture that inform critical public and intellectual thinking resemble iconoclastic criticisms of idol worship more than they do empirical social scientific study.

Sergei Eisenstein's visit to Hollywood and Mexico, from 1930 to 1932, finds the famous director in rather unfamiliar territory. While his stay yielded little artistic output, in the form of an unfinished movie on Mexico, his theoretical reflections on American film and its foremost champions, Charlie Chaplin and Walt Disney, count among the most fascinating, yet also contentious elements of Eisenstein's intellectual biography. A central part of his American aesthetics is his theory of »totemism«, which he develops in an intricate dialogue with the various encounters on his journey as well as from a plethora of literary references that seems to betray the agenda of his communist beginnings. The article argues that, despite its mystical overtones and logical contradictions, Eisenstein's theory of »totemism« remains connected to his earlier convictions through an attempt to reconcile his new insights with a critical social or sociological theory.

A simplified go-to document that shall the give the reader an overview of the pillars of African Traditional Religion. It also promises to be a book that urges the reader to find out more about African Traditional Religion because it demystifies a religion shrouded in secrecy and persecution from the major religions of the world. The Axioms of Kemet are advices and instructions from Ancient Egypt.

In questo elaborato, partendo dall’analisi della caccia, uno degli innumerevoli aspetti che rispecchiano il dominio dell’uomo sulla natura, sarà esaminato il rapporto tra uomo e animale che dall’età preistorica si è evoluto fino ai giorni nostri determinando numerose conseguenze per l’attività dell’uomo e il suo modo di gestire la vita sulla Terra. Il modello che sarà utilizzato per definire i termini dell’analisi partirà dalla genealogia della caccia, analizzando da un lato il processo evolutivo dell’essere umano, e dall’altro lato la storia della caccia, circoscritta a quelle civiltà che hanno avuto un notevole impatto sull’attuale concezione di gestione dell’attività venatoria in Occidente, in particolare in Europa. Si vedrà che fin dall’età dell’Homo habilis questa pratica ha accompagnato l’ideologia del dominio dell’uomo sulle diverse specie animali considerati come totem: entità con significato simbolico alle quali ci si sente legati per tutta la vita.

By digging deep into our knowledge of the past, I present an archaeological and anthropological investigation: Understanding Religion Evolution: Animism, Totemism, Shamanism, Paganism, & Progressed Organized Religion The above picture is my art and I am going to explain some of its imagery. The Interconnectedness of Religious Thinking? " Religion is an Evolved Product " In a general way, it all starts with Animism (a theoretical belief in supernatural powers/spirits) and this is physically expressed in or with Totemism (a theoretical belief in a mythical relationship with powers/spirits through a totem item), which then enlists a full-time specific person to perform this worship and believed interaction as Shamanism (a theoretical belief in access and influence with spirits through rituals). In addition, there is the further employment of myths and gods added to all the above, which is Paganism and is often a lot more nature-based than most current top world religions, thus hinting to their close link to more ancient religious thinking from which it stems. My hypothesis is expressed with an explanation of the building of a theoretical house (modern religions development). It seems ancient peoples had to survived amazing threats in a " dangerous universe by superstition perceived as good and evil " , and human " immorality or imperfection of the soul " , which was thought to affect the still living and led to ancestor worship. Presumably, this ancestor worship led to the belief in supernatural beings, which some of these were turned into the belief in gods. This feeble myth called gods were just a human conceived idea that was " made from nothing into something over and over, changing again and again, taking on more as they evolve, and all the while, they are thought to be special. " However, it is just supernatural animistic spirit-belief perceived as sacred.

This article shows that the question of "Historical Thinking and the Human" demands expanding the field of the philosophy of history. What I propose is to investigate the issue from two perspectives: firstly, by positioning it in the broader philosophical context, one that increasingly transcends the boundaries of the humanities to enter the realm of the life sciences; and secondly, by drawing on a wider range of analytical material than has usually been the case in classic works in the philosophy of history. I will critically reflect upon history's anthropocentric biases, highlighting the need to develop an alternative to history. My thinking is aligned, on the one hand, with notions of the agency of images that have emerged from art criticism and visual culture studies (W.J.T. Mitchell), and, on the other hand, with the idea of theriomor-phism, which I explore in terms of new animism, new totemism and philosophical ethology (Roberto Marchesini). In my analysis of works by the South African artist Nandipha Mntambo (cowhides and Europa), I argue that a future-oriented redefini-tion of the human should transcend the limited categories that have emerged within the framework of history understood as a Eurocentric approach to the past rooted in Greco-Judaic-Christian tradition.

Alicudi è una delle più piccole e selvagge isole dell'arcipelago vulcanico delle Eolie insieme a Filicudi, la sua gemella. Nel folklore eoliano il nome di Alicudi è associato da sempre a storie fantastiche e misteriose: mahare (streghe) che in volo raggiungono Palermo o addirittura l'Africa, esseri umani che si trasformano in animali, pescatori che conoscono formule magiche per 'tagliare' le trombe marine, indovini, oracoli e altre misteriose presenze. Folklore, radici sciamaniche e ipotesi misteriche.

1. This short book of roughly 150 pages begins with a sharp and no-beating-about-the-bush critique of every concept that we as a class have learnt to grapple with in methods in anthropology so far. So to begin with, Totemism suggests a discursive shift in the methodology. Lévi-Strauss takes up theorists one by one and shows us how the cultural specificities each of them went into great lengths talking about takes us nowhere near to but instead farther away from arriving at the logic or conceptual basis of the phenomenon of totemism, which must be seen as merely a conceptual tool, like the bricoleur, in understanding structures of human mind and society.

2. Lévi-Strauss drives the point of the utility of totems as a conceptual tool further consequently, where he calls totemism as nothing but an illusion that has forever kept us veiled away from the actual flesh and bones of what lies underneath. While stressing that totemism is a non-event in entirety, what he seeks to do is not negate its importance but rather displace its locus from popular modes of study that have used this to reiterate systematic differences in societies, suggesting a disjuncture between the primitive and the modern. He ridicules this scholarship and states with examples how totemism as a system is based not on similarities between the representer and the represented but on the recognition of systematic differences that continues to govern modern thought.
I want to expound this idea using certain  ideas from Saussure's linguistics, the ideas of the signifier and the signified, which is what largely influenced Lévi-Strauss in his analysis and understanding this makes our job of understanding Totemism so much more pleasurable.

3. Thereby what Lévi-Strauss achieves in doing is situating totemism well within the sphere of the cognitive rather than mere functional that anthropolgists so far have only relegated totemism to. Thus the much overused brilliant quote arrives in direct conflict with Malinowsky that "Totems exist not because they are good to eat but because they are good to think." He elaborates this idea further in 3 dedicated chapters in his next book The Savage Mind and I shall briefly elaborate on that.
(Do briefly and elaborate even go together?)

4. The last bit must deal with the metaphorical basis of totemic way of thinking, trying to link it with how within the Lévi-Straussian framework metaphors play a titanic role in understanding societies at large and later on structuralism in general. The singular significance of the incest taboo must also feature in this section where the mode of thinking in binaries is set up, of nature and culture, one against the other, a theme that outlines structuralism. I will try to show how the taboo forms the point origin of the binaries and by extension, the structure itself, and by virtue of such a vantage position is situated both inside and outside of the structure and how that affects the play that Derrida talked about.

5. Overall this book provides a genuine joy of experience in the exercise of reading a text, however we look at the action of reading. So if time permits I might try to bring out snippets from the books (Totemism and the chapters from The Savage Mind) that got me excited and make so much sense to the overall course we have at hand, especially because the theorist engages with a multitude of practitioners from the field and analyses their theoretical underpinnings.

Knygoje kalbama apie archajiškiausią Lietuvos religiją – vandens, žuvų, vėliau vandens gyvačių kultą, totemizmą. (Žaltys yra ir vandens, ir žemės gyvatė.) Totemizmas – pirmoji žmonijos religija. Apie seniausią lietuvių religiją išlikę labai daug medžiagos, tačiau beveik nėra jokių tyrinėjimų – tik nedideli fragmentai apie vandens ir žalčio reikšmę tautosakoje. Turime daugiau kaip penkis milijonus tautosakos pavyzdžių (pasakų, dainų ir pan.), tarp jų daug mįslių, kurios neįmintos.

Jei negalime Lietuvoje ir pasaulyje grąžinti pagarbos žalčiui, žuviai, vande- niui, gamtai kaip mitologijos subjektams, bent jau suvokime, kad pusė pasaulio šiuo metu kenčia troškulį, o didelė dalis žmonių migruoja, kariauja, kenčia – pirmiausia iš nežinojimo, arabiškai vadinamo džahilija. Sakoma, kad iš jo kyla nesidomėjimas savo praeitimi, dabartimi bei ateitimi, merkantilizmas, savižudybės, žmogžudystės, žmogaus savivertės praradimas, sudėtingos tapatybės paieškos tampa kasdienybe.

Juk tikroji mitologinė kasdienybė – tai amžinieji Vandenys, iš kurių atėjome ir į kuriuos sugrįšime. „Čia Lietuva, čia lietūs lyja...“ – rašė Eduardas Mieželaitis. Šiam įžvalgiam Žmogui ir deramai neįvertintam religijotyros Meistrui Gintarui Beresnevičiui skiriama ši knyga.

Bronislaw Malinowski (1884-1942), born and educated in Poland,
helped to establish British social anthropology. His classic
monographs on the Trobriand Islanders were published between
1922 and 1935, when he was a professor of anthropology at the
London School of Economics. The present collection of
Malinowski's early writings establishes the intellectual background
to this achievement. Written between 1904 and 1914, before
he went to Melanesia, all but two of the essays are published here
in English for the first time. They show how Malinowski's considerable
impact on twentieth-century thought is rooted in the late
nineteenth-century philosophy of Central Europe, especially the
work of Ernst Mach and Friedrich Nietzsche, and in the critical
appraisal of the ethnological theories of Sir James Frazer.

The table of contents is as follows:

Introduction: Malinowski's reading, writing, 1904-1914.  1
  On Malinowski's writings from 1904 to 1914    1
  Nietzsche, Mach and Frazer, and their relationship in Malinowski's work.  3
  Malinowski's personal and intellectual development    9
  The Nietzsche essay: a charter for a theory of myth    16
  The dissertation 'On the economy of thought'    26
  'Religion and magic': observations on Frazer’s The Golden Bough    38
  The methodological critique of Frazer's Totemism and Exogamy,
        the review in Lud    42
  Gender and power in Australian society: ‘Tribal male associations in Australia'    49
  'The economic aspects of the intichiuma ceremonies'    51
  Durkheim's dichotomy disputed    57
  The essay on 'The relation of primitive beliefs to the forms of social organization'  58
  The essay on 'The sociology of the family', a review of the literature    61

Malinowski's writings, 1904-1914
  1. Observations on Friedrich Nietzsche's The Birth of Tragedy (1904/5)    67
  2. On the principle of the economy of thought (1906)    89
  3. Religion and magic: The Golden Bough (1910)    117.
  4. Totemism and exogamy (1911-1913)    123
  5. Tribal male associations in Australia (1912).  201
  6. The economic aspects of the intichiuma ceremonies (1912).  209
  7. The relationship of primitive beliefs to the forms of
        social organization (1913)    229
  8. A fundamental problem of religious sociology (1914)    243
  9. Sociology of the family (1913-14)    247

The most famous Pre-pottery Neolithic site of Anatolia, Göbekli Tepe, since 1994 has been the subject of intensive studies due to its peculiar characteristics , linked to the presence of both circular buildings and the so-called anthropo-morphic T-shaped pillars. It was supposed that its discovery would have been one of a kind, but in the next few years scholars revealed the existence of similar settlements in the area of Şanlıurfa Province. These sites, still far from being investigated, share with Göbekli Tepe the same archaeological evidences, including chronological features, size and architectural and iconographic traits. The aim of this article is to focus on the new available data, which could lead us to re-discuss the interpretive models valid up to a few years ago, as recent publications point out. New inter-pretive tools and excavations are required to better understand what seems to be the clue of the presence of a real cultural facies with precise connotations, amongst which an high specialized craftmanship, that was able to exploit the best limestone morphology of the territory for the construction of monumental complexes.

The quest for identity is a central topic of North American contemporary Native fiction which recurrently dwells on the ontological confusion experienced by Native and bicultural protagonists and the subsequent urge to come to terms with their distinctiveness. Indeed, in many novels and short-stories the heroes, or anti-heroes, attempt to recover their lost dignity for better or worse while overcoming obstacles and enduring ordeals that sometimes prove absurd. Meanwhile, unexpected magic pervades the crude descriptions of modern-day life on Canadian reserves and American reservations and intrudes in the most trivial situations eventually transcending fate and destiny. The hybrid tutelar spirits thus staged, symbolically referring as much to the Western world as to secular indigenous traditions, disguise their presence with the aim to bring together the estranged protagonists in a reshaped modern clan. By so doing, these supernatural forces endow the characters' physical and spiritual journeys with renewed meanings. Such a process directly alludes to ritualized totemism, an array of ancient animistic practices and beliefs thoroughly documented by 19th-century anthropologists and since then thought to have fallen into disuse. Interestingly, many contemporary Native authors, among whom Louise Erdrich, David Treuer, Eden Robinson et Joseph Boyden, contrive new totems in order to address otherwise the identity issue. This thesis aims to demonstrate how their literary reinvention of totemism engages a threefold movement, to perpetuate, rejuvenate and (re)create a specific form of Native identity.

Les premières années du vingtième siècle sont fertiles en moments, événements et publications qui, rétrospectivement, dénotent tous la recomposition en cours de la « science de l’homme », comme l’appelaient alors ses protagonistes. Une effervescence institutionnelle caractérise ce champ scientifique qui voit une autonomisation accrue de plusieurs disciplines marquant chacune leur territoire et leurs ambitions, parallèlement à un affaiblissement du magistère de l’anthropologie physique. Dans la division du travail scientifique, la pratique ethnographique gagne progressivement en légitimité. L’intensité des débats sur les origines et les formes des religions primitives bouscule la théologie catholique, en même temps qu’elle fait entendre une analyse savante et laïque des phénomènes religieux grâce à une attention grandissante accordée aux matériaux ethnographiques qui viennent nourrir la réflexion des historiens des religions, sociologues, philosophes, préhistoriens, anthropologues et linguistes.
S’il s’agit bien d’une histoire disciplinaire qui est ici esquissée, elle tente de dépasser ce strict découpage pour rappeler que l’anthropologie fut au croisement de nombreuses disciplines qui ont également contribué à son émergence et à sa reconnaissance. Par ses multiples coups de sonde dans ce champ scientifique très dynamique, 1913, la recomposition de la science de l’homme propose un état des lieux certes incomplet mais suggestif des tensions, des enjeux, des rapports de force, des dialogues, des pratiques scientifiques, qui le structurent et l’animent. Les différents auteurs rassemblés ici font le pari de la pertinence heuristique de l’approche situationnelle, contextuelle, institutionnelle, pour une histoire de l’anthropologie qui s’intéresserait tout à la fois aux idées, aux revues, aux institutions de savoir, aux réseaux de sociabilité savante, aux acteurs qui n’eurent pas tous l’heur d’être sacrés pères fondateurs de la discipline.
Cet ouvrage est le septième volume des Carnets de Bérose, une collection éditée électroniquement par le Lahic et le département du Pilotage de la recherche et de la politique scientifique de la Direction générale des patrimoines (ministère de la Culture).

Geçmişten Geleceğe Küçük Asya-Anadolu (Ed. M. Aça - M. Ali Yolcu)

Bu çalışmada neler var?
Evlerin duvarına veya bahçelere asılan kafatasları, çocuk beşiklerine asılan kaplumbağa kabukları... Nazara karşı koruyuculuğuna inanılan kemikler, iskelet parçaları, kafatasları, kabuklar... Peki bunlar nazara karşı neden koruyucu olarak seçilmiştir? Bu tercihin ruh inancıyla ilgisi nedir? Ruh iskelette midir? Canlılığın ve ölümün birlikteliği nasıl hierofaniler meydana getirmektedir? İye/koruyucu varlık inanışlarının iskelet parçalarının kullanımı üzerinde etkisi var mıdır? Ölen insanlar için "kemikleri sızlamak" deyimi neden kullanılır? Günümüzde insan kemiklerini toz hale getirerek yiyen topluluklar var mıdır?

In this thesis I explore human-animal relations amongst the Bebelibe of the Commune of Cobly, in the northwest of the Republic of Benin, West Africa, with a focus on how they relate to their tikedimɔmɔnte (true totem(s), literally “interdict(s)-true”). I start with an historical review of totemism, the debates it generated and how these contributed to the recent ontological turn in anthropology. I then explore the theoretical ideas I use for my analysis, which include “presencing” and the “ontological penumbra” (J. Merz 2017b; J. Merz and S. Merz 2017). Presencing builds on semiotics by explaining how people make meaning present through their engagement in and with the world around them, whilst ontological penumbras are the shadowy spaces of limbo that affect our whole being and that people need to negotiate as part of making sense of their engagement with the world. As part of these theoretical frameworks, I examine the “onton”, as introduced by Johannes Merz (2017b). Ontons are experiential, agentive and relational entities that are the result of presencing processes. Ontons, however, cannot be divided into representations (signifiers) and represented (signified) as signs can. An engagement in the world between different entities in an ontonic and thus nonrepresentational sense necessitates my introducing further notions including shared “ontonity” (instead of shared humanity) and “ontonhood” (rather than personhood). I demonstrate how these theoretical ideas work with reference to human-animal relations primarily amongst the Bebelibe in the Commune of Cobly. In order to do this, I provide an in-depth, “thick description” (Geertz 1973) ethnography that explores how people perceive and relate to animals through hunting, domestication, attitudes to eating meat, animal commodification, reincarnation, shapeshifting and totemism. As part of my analysis I also examine the impact of Christianity on human-animal relations by exploring several incidents involving Christians and their tikedimɔmɔnte.

For thousands of years, men have struggled to establish their supremacy. At first, they used spirits to secure for themselves a function in a natural world that seemed to have taken sides with the feminine. Eventually, they created an all-mighty divinity, and established their status as second to none other than that highest of all authority.

Sailing through history, we show that the way procreation was perceived has determined how men and women positioned themselves in the universe. It has wielded consequences that have deeply affected our evolution, from the primal vision of an all-encompassing natural world in which Mother Nature represented the source of all life, to the subjection of nature and woman, with God the Father sitting at the summit of the creation.

This emphasis on gender and nature brings into perspective the current social and economic resurgence of women and the new attitude towards environment that needs to be protected from our own deeds. These intricate leitmotifs make us witness a turning point in our history.

Chaucer’s Parliament of Fowls traces his rejection of Neoplatonist and moral allegories, with their emphasis on transcendent truths and teachings. Instead, the Parliament’s dreamer observes and absorbs a richly sensual earthly environment, replacing mainstream allegory’s guiding question  “How shall I save myself?” with the more mundane question “What’s happening here?” In exploring this latter question, the Parliament stages three contrasting ontologies—three models of how living things are interrelated—that continue to inform anthropological and environmental thought today. As dualism, animism, and totemism collide and intersect, Chaucer develops a productive uncertainty about the order of things. His ontological experiment offers a prehistory and a way forward for contemporary environmental theory.

Książka poświęcona jest socjologicznej analizie miejsca, jakie w polskim społeczeństwie zajmują (poczynając od drugiej połowy XIX w.) arystokracja, szlachta i ziemiaństwo. Należy wszelako podkreślić, że nie jest to monografia historyczna. Zasadniczym celem tego studium jest próba wyjaśnienia roli spuścizny szlacheckiej w kształtowaniu polskiego modelu obywatelskiego oraz opisanie roli tego dziedzictwa i środowisk je pielęgnujących dla innych grup społecznych w Polsce, zwłaszcza dla inteligenckiej elity. Książka obejmuje studium socjologiczne środowiska spadkobierców najważniejszych polskich rodów arystokratycznych i znanych rodzin ziemiańskich, omówienie badań nad społeczną percepcją tradycji i środowisk szlacheckich i ich obrazem w przestrzeni publicznej oraz przegląd międzynarodowego, przede wszystkim europejskiego, kontekstu podobnych sieci społecznych.

Centralna teza książki głosi, że środowiska arystokratyczne i postziemiańskie pozostają w kluczowej – dla zrozumienia ich społecznej pozycji – relacji wobec inteligencji. Historycznie relacja ta była w dużym stopniu antagonistyczna, jednak po roku 1918, który można uznać za symboliczny moment ustanowienia II Rzeczypospolitej jako swoistej „republiki inteligenckiej”, osłabiona arystokracja i ziemianie zaczęli obejmować rolę wewnętrznej inteligenckiej subelity. Potomkowie znanych rodzin arystokratycznych i ziemiańskich stali się istotną częścią elity inteligenckiej republiki, a relacje z nimi można uznać za symboliczny probierz inteligenckich roszczeń do przywództwa obywatelskiego i moralnego oraz własnej elitarności. Tak nakreślony kontekst analityczny pozwolił postawić tezę o arystokracji i – szerzej – o potomkach elit szlacheckich jako o inteligenckim totemie. Wokół takiego totemu, rozumianego jako kluczowy symbol ciągłości historycznej polskich elit, kształtowana jest współczesna polska tożsamość obywatelska. Zaproponowana w książce interpretacja relacji arystokracji, ziemiaństwa i elit szlacheckich z inteligencją, służąca zrozumieniu genezy nowoczesnego polskiego modelu obywatelstwa, stanowi propozycję nowego ujęcia historycznej ewolucji polskich hierarchii społecznych w kategoriach socjologicznych. Podejście to jest też próbą rozwoju krytycznej, zorientowanej historycznie i porównawczo analizy nad obywatelstwem polskim.

This is a truly ground breaking analysis of Homer's Iliad. The author, a natural scientist, embarks on a journey through this eternal masterpiece employing an arsenal of conceptual tools from Anthropology (ethnology), Ethology, Psychoanalysis, Neuroscience, and Philosophy. A terrifying and at the same time tender look into the darkness of the male soul. Seldom has Homer emerged so majestic and insightful.

"One of the more spectacular expressions of prehistoric rock art in all of North America is the petroglyph concentration in the Coso Range of eastern California. These glyphs have played a prominent role in attempts to understand forager religious iconography. Four decades ago, Heizer and Baumhoff (1962) concluded that Great Basin petroglyphs were associated with hunting large game and were intended to supernaturally increase success in the hunt. Similarly, in their seminal work Grant et al. (1968) concluded that the mountain sheep drawings of the Coso region bolstered the “hunting magic” hypothesis. However, this hypothesis has become increasingly marginalized by a prevailing view that considers most rock art as an expression of individual shamanistic endeavor (cf. Lewis-Williams and Dowson, 1988; Whitley, 1994; Whitley and Loendorf, 1994). This article explores comparative ethnologic and archaeological evidence supporting the hunting magic hypothesis. I place this explanatory framework in a larger context based on a contemporary understanding of comparative religion and the complexity of forager symbolism. The article argues that the preponderance of Coso images are conventionalized iconography associated with a sheep cult ceremonial complex. This is inconsistent with models interpreting the Coso drawings as metaphoric images correlated with individual shamanic vision quests.
"

The intention of this essay is to phenomenologically explore the ways in which a Neolithic person may have interacted within the space of Göbekli Tepe in light of archeological evidence. Specifically, we will examine 1) participation in construction, 2) possible understandings of symbolism, and 3) what rituals may have occurred therein. More specifically, we will attempt to limit our study to Enclosure D at Göbekli Tepe. Without ignoring the surrounding context, this micro scale approach should allow a more direct focus on understanding how a Neolithic person may have viewed this obviously meaningful space.

My purpose in this paper is, first, to explore metaphorical recursiveness in Yaminahua, i.e. the latter’s folding of the common binary structure: {(x) things + (y) words} into the threefold scheme: (A) things + (B) external analogies + (C) internal metaphors, as displaying a multi-iconic semiotic system of the type: A ≈ [B] ≈ C, which is finally reduced to a twofold indexical system: A ← [B], contra Graham Townsley’s dismissal of semiotic theory as being, in contrast to cognitive construction, of no relevance in the making of the ‘twisted’ rhetoric distinctive of Yaminahua shamanism. And, secondly, to show that within the traditional Yaminahua worldview ‘animism’, ‘totemism’, and ‘analogism’, which Philippe Descola’s has famously de- scribed as alternative ontologies, have not only eventually coexisted, but also structurally intertwined in a complex ternary system supportive, on the one hand, of the basal binary logic characteristic of most Amazonian ontologies, and correlative, on the other hand, to the fourfold intersecting structure that has traditionally made possible the integration of all the Yaminahua people into the four dimensions of space, time, society, and the cosmos.

Forthcoming in Tipití: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America (https://digitalcommons.trinity.edu/tipiti/)