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My mother or father: person, metaperson, and transcendence in ethnographic theory

João, Pina-Cabral (2019) My mother or father: person, metaperson, and transcendence in ethnographic theory. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 25 (2). pp. 303-323. ISSN 1359-0987. (doi:10.1111/1467-9655.13027) (KAR id:67282)

Abstract

How do humans, who are materially composed biological constructs, come to transcend, that is, to see themselves as present in the world? This paper sustains that, in order to understand transcendence in personhood, we have to see the latter as a product of dividual not individual participation, as initially proposed by Lévy-Bruhl and recently developed by a number of phenomenologically inspired cognitive scientists. Personal ontogeny is what explains the relation between essence and existence in the case of metapersons (ghosts, deities, ancestors, some animals, etc.). In order to explore this problem, I discuss a minor occurrence that took place in my presence without my noticing it at the time when I was visiting an Afro-Brazilian temple compound in coastal Bahia (NE Brazil) in July 2011.

Item Type: Article
DOI/Identification number: 10.1111/1467-9655.13027
Subjects: G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation > GN Anthropology
H Social Sciences > HQ The family. Marriage. Women
Divisions: Divisions > Division of Human and Social Sciences > School of Anthropology and Conservation
Depositing User: Joao de Pina Cabral
Date Deposited: 13 Jun 2018 08:37 UTC
Last Modified: 09 Dec 2022 06:12 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/67282 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

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