By Raymond Firth
ISBN-10: 0415694663
ISBN-13: 9780415694667
This booklet first released in 1973 deals a huge survey of the examine of symbolic principles and behaviour.
The learn of symbolism is well known these days and anthropologists have made titanic contributions to it. Raymond Firth has lengthy been the world over identified for his box examine within the Solomons and Malaysia, and for his theoretical paintings on kinship, economics and faith. the following from a brand new perspective, he has produced a wide survey of the research of symbolic rules and behaviour.
Professor Firth examines definitions of image. He lines the heritage of clinical inquiry into the symbolism of spiritual cults, mythology and desires again into the eighteenth century. He compares a few glossy ways to symbolism in artwork, literature and philosophy with these in social anthropology. He then cites examples in anthropological therapy of symbolic fabric from cultures of various sophistication. ultimately he deals dispassionate analyses of symbols utilized in modern Western occasions - from hair-styles to the use and abuse of nationwide flags; from cults of Black Jesus to the Eucharistic ceremony. In all this Professor Firth combines social and political topicality with a scholarly and provocative theoretical inquiry.