A Discourse-Centered Approach to Culture: Native South American Myths and Rituals (Texas Linguistics Series)

While guiding us into the rainforests and savannas of lowlandSouth America on a quest to understand Amerindian myths and rituals, ADiscourse-Centered Approach to Culture is simultaneously an intellectualjourney into the theory of culture, and an endeavor to fathom the humandifferences that are attributable to culture, from consciousness of thephysical world and time to the ritual practices of chanting and speaking insecret languages.Urban argues that we cannot assume that culture is shared; we must study thequestion empirically. And the logical starting point for such aninvestigation is the discourse that actually circulates withincommunities--around the campfire, in ritual chanting or laments, and inspeech more generally. The book contains detailed analyses of myths thatwere tape-recorded in their Amerindian settings, including comparisons amongdistinct versions collected over time, and it explores the actual mechanismsof ritual wailing, ceremonial dialogues, and other discourse phenomena.

Greg Urban is Class of 1965 Professor of Anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania. His books include: Metaphysical Community: The Interplay of the Senses and the Intellect; and, soon to be released by the University of Minnesota Press, Metaculture: How Culture Moves through the World.