Ecology, Meaning, and Religion
1979
First Published
3.91
Average Rating
266
Number of Pages
"Two enterprises have proceeded in anthropology since ts earliest days. One, objective in its aspirations and inspired by biological disciplines, seeks explanation and is concerned to discover laws and causes. The other, subjective in its orientation and influenced by philosophy, linguistics, and the humatities, attempts interpretation and seeks to elucidate meanings. I take any raditcal separation of the two to be misguided, for the relationship between tem, with all of its difficulty, ambiguity, and tension, is a reflection of, or metaphor for, the condition of a species that lives in terms of meanings in a physical world devoid of intrinsic meaning but subject to causal law. The concept of adaptatioon when applied to human society must take account of meaning as well as cause, and of the complex dynamic of their relationship." -from the book.
Avg Rating
3.91
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22
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3 STARS
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2 STARS
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Author
Roy A. Rappaport
Author · 3 books
Roy A. Rappaport was an American anthropologist known for his contributions to the anthropological study of ritual and to ecological anthropology.
