Separateness as a Relation

The Iconicity, Univocality and Creativity of Korowai Mother-In-Law Avoidance

Dados Bibliográficos

ID2252137
AutoresRupert Stasch (Reed College, autor correspondente)
Ano2003
Volume9
Fascículo2
Páginas317-337
Data de publicação2003-06-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoJournal of the Royal Anthropological Institute (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 1359-0987 • E-ISSN: 1467-9655
EditoraWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/1467-9655.00152
OpenAlexW1994378915
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas20
Referências citadas22

A Korowai mother-in-law and son-in-law avoid seeing and touching each other, sharing food, speaking of each other in the singular, and uttering each other's names. I argue that these different avoided actions are understood as analogous forms of contact and impingement, and that the avoidances embody a qualitatively distinctive vision of social existence, according to which separateness, obligation, and uncertainty can be conjoined as positive bases of social connection. Avoidance practices epitomize and shape the broader institutional character of affinity as a relation of contingent accommodation and obligation. Korowai register these aspects of avoidance practice explicitly in their ideas about the consequences of transgression, and in their creative adjustment of the degrees of avoidance that they uphold

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