Richard J. Parmentier's Books

Signs and Society

Further Studies in Semiotic Anthropology

By: Richard J. Parmentier

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

Signs and Society

Further Studies in Semiotic Anthropology

By: Richard J. Parmentier

A major voice in contemporary semiotic theory offers a new perspective on potent intersections of semiotic and linguistic anthropology. In Signs and Society, noted anthropologist Richard J. Parmentier demonstrates how an appreciation of signs helps us better understand human agency, meaning, and creativity. Inspired by the foundational work of C. S. Peirce and Ferdinand de Saussure, and drawing upon key insights from neighboring scholarly fields, Parmentier develops an array of innovative conceptual tools for ethnographic, historical, and literary research. Parmentier’s concepts of “transactional value,” “metapragmatic interpretant,” and “circle of semiosis,” for example, illuminate the foundations and effects of such diverse cultural forms and practices as economic exchanges on the Pacific island of Palau, Pindar’s Victory Odes in ancient Greece, and material representations of transcendence in ancient Egypt and medieval Christianity. Other studies complicate the separation of emic and etic analytical models for such cultural domains as religion, economic value, and semiotic ideology. Provocative and absorbing, these fifteen pioneering essays blaze a trail into anthropology’s future while remaining firmly rooted in its celebrated past.

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

280

Publisher

Indiana University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0253025141

ISBN 13

9780253025142

The Sacred Remains

Myth, History, and Polity in Belau

By: Richard J. Parmentier

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

The Sacred Remains

Myth, History, and Polity in Belau

By: Richard J. Parmentier

At one level this book is a compilation of political traditions of Belau in Micronesia-from the divine foundation of political systems to the present day. It offers an analysis of the structures and dynamics of Belauan history, identifying several forms of order and some of their potentials for change. Also the author develops a critique of standard approaches to history in small-scale societies. He argues for a semiotic approach that recognizes the historical consciousness of actors in the society under study.

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

372

Publisher

University of Chicago Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0226646955

ISBN 13

9780226646954

Signs and Society

Further Studies in Semiotic Anthropology

By: Richard J. Parmentier

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

Signs and Society

Further Studies in Semiotic Anthropology

By: Richard J. Parmentier

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

280

Publisher

Indiana University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0253025141

ISBN 13

9780253025142

Voices of Modernity

Language Ideologies and the Politics of Inequality

By: Richard Bauman,Charles L. Briggs

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

Voices of Modernity

Language Ideologies and the Politics of Inequality

By: Richard Bauman,Charles L. Briggs

Language and tradition have long been relegated to the sidelines as scholars have considered the role of politics, science, technology and economics in the making of the modern world. This novel reading of over two centuries of philosophy, political theory, anthropology, folklore and history argues that new ways of imagining language and representing supposedly premodern people - the poor, labourers, country folk, non-europeans and women - made political and scientific revolutions possible. The connections between language ideologies, privileged linguistic codes, and political concepts and practices shape the diverse ways we perceive ourselves and others. Bauman and Briggs demonstrate that contemporary efforts to make schemes of social inequality based on race, gender, class and nationality seem compelling and legitimate, rely on deeply-rooted ideas about language and tradition. Showing how critics of modernity unwittingly reproduce these foundational fictions, they suggest new strategies for challenging the undemocratic influence of these voices of modernity.

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

378

Publisher

Cambridge University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0521008972

ISBN 13

9780521008976

The Sacred Remains

Myth, History, and Polity in Belau

By: Richard J. Parmentier

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

The Sacred Remains

Myth, History, and Polity in Belau

By: Richard J. Parmentier

Based on two years of fieldwork in Belau, an Austronesian culture in western Micronesia, The Sacred Remains is an outstanding example of the new approach to ethnographic writing that challenges Western views of the history of non-Western societies. Richard J. Parmentier employs semiotic methods to analyze both linguistic and nonlinguistic signs representing Belauan history, showing that these signs also organize social and political structures. He identifies four pervasive semiotic patterns that appear rhetorically in myths, chants, and historical narratives and graphically in the arrangement of certain classes of stones, including village boundary markers, burial platforms, exchange valuables, and monoliths found at abandoned sites in the islands. While not neglecting historical evidence from Western sources, Parmentier contends that the history of Belau cannot be understood without taking into full account indigenous categories of space, time, and transformation and without recognizing the importance of Belauan social actions that construct, interpret, and transmit historical knowledge. Supporting his analysis of Belauan history with concrete ethnographic demonstration, Parmentier presents a work of central importance for Austronesianists, anthropologists, and historians.

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

366

Publisher

University of Chicago Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0226646963

ISBN 13

9780226646961

Book's by Richard J. Parmentier

Signs and Society

Signs and Society

The Sacred Remains

The Sacred Remains

Signs and Society

Signs and Society

Voices of Modernity

Voices of Modernity

The Sacred Remains

The Sacred Remains

Username

Password

Username

Password

Password again

Birthday

Email