Cosmic Coherence

A Cognitive Anthropology Through Chinese Divination
1. Auflage 2021
ISBN: 978-1-80073-268-1
Verlag: Berghahn Books

Buch, Englisch, Band 13, 222 Seiten, Format (B × H): 157 mm x 235 mm, Gewicht: 448 g

Reihe: Asian Anthropologies

Humans are unique in their ability to create systematic accounts of the world – theories based on guiding cosmological principles. This book is about the role of cognition in creating cosmologies, and explores this through the ethnography and history of Yijing divination in China. Diviners explain the cosmos in terms of a single substance, qi, unfolding across scales of increasing complexity to create natural phenomena and human experience. Combined with an understanding of human cognition, it shows how this conception of scale offers a new way for anthropologists and other social scientists to think about cosmology, comparison, and cultural difference.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Matthews, William

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Ethnologie | Volkskunde Volkskunde Historische & Regionale Volkskunde
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Spezielle Soziologie Soziologie des Brauchtums und der Traditionen

Inhaltsverzeichnis

List of Illustrations

Preface

Acknowledgements

Notes on Text

Introduction: Getting Our Ontological Assumptions Right

Chapter 1. Deep Ontology: A Fishy Business

Chapter 2. Divining in a Homological Cosmos

Chapter 3. Figurative Thought for a Coherent Cosmology

Chapter 4. Cosmological Change: Historical Homologism and ‘Chinese Thought’

Chapter 5. Scale, Cognition and Cultural Difference

Conclusion: Cosmic Coherence and Correlative Comparison

Appendix: The Content of the Yijing

Glossary of Key Chinese Terms

References

Index

Über Autor(innen)

Matthews, William
William Matthews is Fellow in the Anthropology of China at the London School of Economics and Political Science. He is the author of various scholarly articles and book chapters covering the topics of anthropology and Chinese studies.