Stanley TambiahThinkers

Already existing grids of meaning is the idea that emergent meanings form out of already existing meanings.

Cosmology is the collection of ideas that inform a culture in their understanding of how the world operates.

Focalization and transvaluation is on our radar. Try again later or consider contributing!

Langue is the engraphic system to which belongs meaning as the relation between sign and the thing signified. Parole is that to which the speaker and listener belong.

The Metaphor is that which, along with symbols, contains both truth and fiction. Taken literally it misrepresents.

Religion is based on an organized community, and it is supposed to encompass all aspects of life including morality and notions of acceptable behavior which are imposed by an external entity (God and the supernatura).

A Ritual is almost the exact same as the mundane except for the aspect of sacredness, which is characterized by conventionality, rigidity, fusion, and repetition.

A Ritually involuted society is a society in which the domains of religion, polity, and economy fuse into a single total phenomenon.

Science is a system of behavior by which man acquires mastery of the environment. As opposed to religion, mankind has much more personal control over events.

Science is, in contrast to religion, a developed discipline. Logical arguments are created, can be challenged, and knowledge can be extended.