ANTH 209 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Poiesis

• School: McGill University
• Department: Anthropology
• Course: ANTH 209
• Professor: Emilie Parent

Document Summary

This assumes the existence of a chasm between culture and emotion. Working with ascetics showed him that we must pay attention to the people using the symbols. We must attend to 3 things: (1) the origin of the symbol. Is in the psyche in the individual"s story. Matted hair is a way of expressing a deep anguish. Both public and private outwardly on display, but a representation of something quite special (2) the meaning of the group or individual: may be contradictory. Matted hair is viewed by some as dirty, but as beautiful and godly by others (3) the sociocultural message: most difficult to figure out. Hard to pin down what matted hair mean culturally accounts are very unique and different. No one attributed the same meaning to the locks. Symbols are both private and public: they are manipulated and inhabited.