An Anthropology of the Subject: Holographic Worldview in New Guinea and Its Meaning and Significance for the World of Anthropology

290 Pages·2001·3.05 MB·English

by  Roy Wagner

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An Anthropology of the Subject
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An Anthropology
of the Subject
Holographic Worldview in
New Guinea and Its Meaning
and Significance for the World
of Anthropology
Roy Wagner
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS
Berkeley (cid:2)Los Angeles (cid:2) London
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University of California Press
Berkeley and Los Angeles, California
University of California Press, Ltd.
London, England
© 2001 by the Regents of the University of California
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Wagner, Roy.
An anthropology of the subject : holographic worldview in
New Guinea and its meaning and significance for the world of
anthropology / Roy Wagner.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn0-520-22586-4 (cloth : alk. paper)—
isbn0-520-22587-2 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Anthropology—Philosophy. I. Title.
gn33.w28 2001
301(cid:3).01—dc21 00-061991
cip
Printed in the United States of America
10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02 01
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements
of ansi/nisoz39.48-1992 (r1997) (Permanence of Paper).(cid:2)(cid:4)
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To Aubrey and Dagiwe, to Dawn, Smokey,
and “Mother” Wright
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Contents
list of illustrations ix
preface xi
abstract of the argument xiii
introduction xvii
i. the human hologram
1
To Be Caught in Indra’s Net 3
2
Where Is the Meaning in a Trope? 18
3
A Sociality Reperceived 31
4
Our Sense of Their Humor: Their Sense of Ours 48
ii. the trap of iconicity
5
The Story of Eve 67
vii
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viii CONTENTS
6
The Icon of Incest 81
7
The Queen’s Daughter and the King’s Son 97
8
The Consumer Consumed 112
iii. the echo-subject
9
Echolocation 129
10
Imaginary Spaces 144
11
The Cakra of Johann Christian Bach 158
12
The Near-Life Experience 173
iv. cakra
13
Reinventing the Wheel 191
14
The Physical Education of the Wheel 206
15
Sex in a Mirror 221
16
The Single Shape of Metaphor in All Things 236
glossary of unfamiliar concepts 251
notes 257
index 263
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Illustrations
1. The net of Indra 14
2. Iri lolosiconography 35
3. Iri lolosprotocol 39
4. Two ways of becoming an ancestor 44
5. Twincest: one of two 52
6. Two of one: the adult embryo 55
7. Chess Kali 95
8. Reflexive hominization 122
9. Geos chronotopos 181
10. Dimensional sublation 216
ix
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