KINGDOM COME, BUT WHO IS THE KING? ESSAY ON THE CONCEPT OF AMBIGUITY AS CLAIMED BY E. R. LEACH

Authors

  • Bojan Žikić Department of Ethnology and Anthropology Faculty of Philosophy, University of Belgrade

Keywords:

ambiguity, contradiction, identification, cultural hero, structural anthropology, cognitive anthropology

Abstract

I discuss analytic purpose of the term ambiguity, as used by E. R. Leach, for the issues concerning identification with cultural heroes. Cultural heroes represent cultural cognitive models, which are unquestionable concerning norms and values they stand for in the real life, no matter some contradictions could be noted within them by the external observer. People striving to improve their status – as Leach has put it – by identifying with the figures of cultural heroes do not take into consideration such contradictions, taking the model and its representative, cultural hero, as granted form for the object of their identification. If we study what those people think and how they behave accordingly, and not that what we the anthropologist think they think and do, I argue that the term ambiguity is analytically obsolete.

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Published

2011-06-30

How to Cite

Žikić, B. (2011). KINGDOM COME, BUT WHO IS THE KING? ESSAY ON THE CONCEPT OF AMBIGUITY AS CLAIMED BY E. R. LEACH. Anthropology, 11(1), 9–19. Retrieved from https://www.antropologija.com/index.php/an/article/view/285

Issue

Vol. 11 No. 1 (2011): Anthropology

Section

Original scientific paper

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