equilibrium

complementarity

physics

relationship

second law of thermodynamics

is, for the Kachin of Burma, maintained by drawing on a language of stability by using that language to do 'historical' changing things.

by 'preserv[ing] equilibrium by saying that the ritual and symbolic systems of the Kachin act as if there were equilibrium societies in Burma. Their cultural system draws on a language of stability but uses that language to do 'historical,' changing things. The anthropologist' mistaken, then lies in taking the tribes' symbols for the reality' (Abbot 2004:151)

is never, in any sense, actually to be found within historical facts, and yet it proves a useful fiction to methodologically assume a system of ideas forming an equilibrium system in order to gain genuine insight.

when the anthropologist insist that his concern is with 'sociology' rather than with 'history', he at once imposes upon the evidence an assumption that systemic order may be discerned among the confusions of empirical fact. Such systemic order cannot be described without introducing notions of equilibrium and to that extent the argument of this book is itself an equilibrium analysis' (Leach 1964:xi). 'In brief, my argument is that although historical facts are never, in any sense, in equilibrium, we can gain genuine insights if, for the purpose of analysis, we force these facts within the constraining mould of an as if system of ideas, composed of concepts which are treated as if they were part of an equilibrium system. Furthermore I claim to demonstrate that this fictional procedure is not merely an analytical device of the social anthropologist, it also corresponds to the way the Kachins themselves apprehend their own system through the medium of the verbal categories of their own language' (Leach 1964:ix).

equilibrium, n.Memes

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