Beef, Dog, and Other Mythologies

Connotative Semiotics in Mahāyoga Tantra Ritual and Scripture1

Bibliographic Data

ID5806919
AuthorsChristian K Wedemeyer (University of Chicago, corresponding author)
Year2007
Volume75
Issue2
Pages383-417
Publication date2007-06-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of the American Academy of Religion (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0002-7189 • E-ISSN: 1477-4585
PublisherOxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1093/jaarel/lfm006
OpenAlexW2091027197
LanguageEN
Citations received6
References cited10

Scholars have long debated how the antinomian elements in the Buddhist Tantras are to be interpreted. Some maintain that they are to be taken literally; others that they are figurative or symbolic. Both, however-in approaching these statements as examples of directly denotative natural language-miss the most essential aspect of the semiology of these traditions. This paper demonstrates that the Buddhist Mahāyoga Tantras employ a form of signification (theorized by Roland Barthes) called connotative semiotics, in which signs (a signifier-signified union) from natural language function as signifiers in a higher-order discourse. Employing these semiological tools enables criticism to recognize that what is fundamentally operative-in both ritual performance and scriptural narrative-is a grammar of purity and pollution in significant dialog with both earlier Buddhist Tantras and broader Indian religious norms. This suggests that such antinomianism-far from representing either tribal practices or rarified yogic codes-reflects concerns native to mainstream Indian religion

Tantra · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Indian and Buddhist Studies · Language, Metaphor, and Cognition

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