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An anthropologistnaturally
hasa greatersenseofachievementifhesucceedsinshowingthat
somethingwhichseemstoperformoneroleinfactalsoorprimarily
performsanother,orthatsomethingwhichseemsto performno
roleat alloronethatonlymakessenseintheidiomofthesociety
concerned(butnotobjectively),doesperforman intelligiblerole
afterall. Moremeritattachesto showingthat a feudreally
contributesto thecoherenceofthegroup,orthatthereligious
ritualhasimportanteconomicconsequences,etc.,thanto saying
thattheovertlyor apparentlyeconomicreallyis such,orthat
theapparentlypointlessritualreallyhas no pointat all. This
naturaland legitimatepreferencefordiscoveringthenewrather
thanthe obviousmay of coursedegenerateinto a pursuitof
paradox,oran exaggerationofthewayinwhichvarioushuman
activitiesareinterrelated.But still,anthropologyis,moreperhaps than othersciences,the studyof how
thingsare more
and otherthantheyseem. P. 183
Thereare analogiesbetweentheFunctionalistanthropologist
and the linguisticphilosopher.The latter, having abjured
thedoctrinesleadingto translation,reduction,ofactuallymade statementsto
simplermodels,seeksinsteadtheirmeaningin
theiruse(function?)intheactualsituationsinwhichtheyoccur.
The anthropologist,debarredby his callingfromdiscounting
primitivereligion,magic,etc.,simplyas error,mistakentechnology,etc.,againseekstheir" meaning"
intheirfunction(use?)
intheirsocialcontext. Ironicallyenough,attheverytimewhen
philosophers,in analysingand classifyingtypesof" meaning"
areturningtotheactualcontextandactivityfora clue,weshall
see one whoseprofessionalconcernis withjust thoseactivities
and contextsturnto philosophyand whatis perhapsa slightly
datedtheoryofmeaning(parallelism,mirroring)foraid p. 184 clue, dica, aid, ajuda.
p. 187
Roughlyspeaking,Leach believesthatlanguage,systeiiisof
propositions,describerealityin virtueofreflectingit in some
fairlyliteralsense,in otherwordshe believesinwhatmightbe
calledtheparallelismtheoryofmeaning. Thisis whatweneed
knowofhisphilosophy. Asa matterofanthropology,hebelieves
thatritualreflectsthesocietyinwhichitoccursina similarway.
Furthermore,he seemsto equate " socialstructure" withideas
inpeople'smindsas tohowtheirsocietyshouldbeideallyorganised,withhowpowershouldbe
distributedwithinit. We thus
getfourentitieswhichare parallelor "reflecteach other", or,
in thelast case, are actuallyidentical: verbaldescriptionofa
societyby an anthropologist,ritualin thatsociety,theideal of
thatsocietyas envisagedbyitsmembers,andfinallythestructure
ofthatsocietyitself. Leach musttakea very" dispositional"
viewof" ideas" forthislastidentitytohold,andthereisindeed
independentevidencethathedoestakesucha view. ThisequationinLeach's terminologyis
facilitatedbythepartialoverlaps
in thenormalmeaningsofthemembersofthefollowingseries:
' Ideal ' correctbehaviour, ' expected behaviour 'social
structure'. Readers who mightboggle at the equation of
'ideal ' and ' structure' mayseeitsjustificationinthiscontext. P. 189