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  • Leach Two Essays Concerning The Symbolic Representation of Time

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    Leach Two Essays Concerning the Symbolic Representation of Time

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    Leach Two Essays Concerning the Symbolic Representation of Time

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    Leach Two Essays Concerning the Symbolic Representation of Time

    Droits d'auteur :

    © All Rights Reserved
    Téléchargez comme PDF ou lisez en ligne sur Scribd
    Signaler comme contenu inapproprié
    241 vues9 pages

    Leach Two Essays Concerning The Symbolic Representation of Time

    Transféré par

    lu
    Leach Two Essays Concerning the Symbolic Representation of Time

    Droits d'auteur :

    © All Rights Reserved
    Téléchargez comme PDF ou lisez en ligne sur Scribd
    Signaler comme contenu inapproprié
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    ‘This chapter is intaded 1 serve only sa aspets of the worktime and space and 1 cxoxt ‘gencrliniductin tothenateeofichsioss then the ways in which symbols become My start SSmmbolim: morespoiiespmblisproblamsnfsed with emotion. Students teres i Ba wor [re trcated insubsequent chapters, cpecily pursing the sobet of symbolism in gnc ord wt @ _ tes nsymbe ctssiaton, myth and gh consul, among othe, Ogden and context ‘Foal Thesis sresrangsd toshow fst, Rian” The Aleny fea 190, Synonym : the ways symboh repent the most basic cte) or Whitchend's Sp hdeliam (192). inant ohihe i Siele‘an none 1 perhaps | tnund R. Leae fempsis aa Lez Outside ‘TWO ESSAYS. teen CONCERNING THE SYMBOLIC suageet REPRESENTATION OF TIME ears tis a truism tha time, especially in its ealendrical aspects. has been endowed ReSeoaet a ates ‘example, bymenienuec with red mating, look ata Roman Cath clndar {ghestestinony te he pester of he ancet conection tat a fen made een sacred alsa te yeu Youd, used iar mesure on hese siferine Kachin © seater wie esccene balan avers ee og eee ee ise et et tee ee ee are standard potions of time and given them novel interpretations. His frst essay. ‘The tine bs ad a rs ee re eR ace e See eer eee meg ey ana anata See oc cicero man nt ou ee frre See pee Patten clei etree eaten hee re to the question of why men throughout the world ‘their calendars by ee aetna eee Bros ‘Reprinted rom Elound R. Leach, Resin drop (London The At hhow then be a are cn Geese coeeoaee ate oe to of “ros nd Chom" ne Tom Wo Oe an oiginly ard iavcatcns gs coieeaneoses ee Die Toe Sanita Sm yee ey elaron pa Dlortions The amendments which bave boon brie Aistince ae ty string pin this symp tne 2's word nthe Cog nguage fsa ford which we ise in a wide sara of Zones and it hasa considerable umber of Spon yet oly ical tots Ian Englt-Freach dictionary tmehasone of te longest ens inthe Gook tine i {enps and Jos and hee, and age, and ‘ele and ston 2nd ae more esd and fone of thse are simple eqns ope perhaps closest to Engi tones it pono. tons une't Guide of Esrope this sort of ambiguity is evn re mare For cumple the a ung of te Racha peopl of Noth Burma ‘Ee (o contin no sage word which core Sponds all lsc to Engih tnesisead thee are sumeouy partial equiva, For ‘Sample, inthe lowing clpresons the ‘Richio equivalent ofthe word tone would Gir in every ee The sine by thesockie ating long ine = ‘Ashore ne one ‘The preset ine Ps Sprit ne e Thevine bas come Ire Inthe ne of Que Vera. lakhs pat Many ane fe oat and tha certainly doesnot exhaust the list 20 not think & Kochin would regard thse words as in any way synonyme for one nother This Sort of thing suegests an intresting problem which i guite distin from the purely philosopticd ise as to shat isthe ature of Time. Thais: How do we come 10 fave such a verbal category as tne ata? How does it link up wth our everyday experienees?| (OF cours in our ona eas, equipped as we ace with clocks and adios and astronomical observatories, ime is a aiven factor in our Secial situation it an essential par Of our Ives which we take oe sraned. But seppose \wehad noclocksandno scientific astronomy, how then Should wehink about time? What ‘bsious atrbutes vould time then ser (0 posters? Pethaps i is impasile to answer such a very hypothetical iestion, and yet, clocks pant it seems tomethat ovr modsrn Enalsh notion of me embraces at least two diferent kinds) of experiene which are logis, istinet and even coneadictry Firstly, thre is the nation of repetition Wheneser we thnk about messing time we concern oursclics with some kind af metro nome; it may be the king ofa click or @ pole beat or the eeucencr of das or moons Dr annual seasons, but always thee some ting which repeats Secondly, there is the notion of one sepetition. Weare aware thal ising things fare born, grow old and de, and that thi i an reversible proces, "am inclined to think tat al other aspects of time, duration for example or historical Sequence, are Pirly simple derivatives from ‘hse two basic esperienss (2) tor onan pasnomnn of atu pet theme ‘shes (0) tate change revere, Now our modern sophisticated view tends to throw theemphasison the second of these aspect of time. "Time," says Whitehead "is sheer succession of epochal durations”? it goes on and on. All the sume me need © Fecognize that this ireversibty of tie Is psychologically. very “unpleasant. Indced, throughout the worl, religious dogmas a largely concerned with denying the final “truth” ofthis common sen experiance Religions of course vary grealy i the manner by which they purport to repudiate the "reality" of death; one athe commonest devices is simply to assert that death and bya are he same aL ia ai as as death follows bth This eens ‘amount to-deasing th ‘mE By eatin [would go further 1 seems to me that if itwerenot for religion we should not attempt to embrace the two aspects of time under fone category at all. Repetiive and non fepetitive even are not, after al, Lsiealy fe same, We teat them both as aspects of ‘ne thing,” ne nt Hecaure Fatal te do 50, But becsune of elizios peu, The dea of Tim. ike the isa of God, fone of those ‘etegorct which, we find necessary Decause we ane social animale father than because of anthing empirical i fur objective experince of the worl ‘Or putitihis way. Inout conventional way? ‘of thinking, every interval of imei marked by repetition: 1 has a beginning and an end swhich are “the same thing™™the tick of 4 lock, Sunes, the new moon, New Years fay. bu every interval of tine is only 2 Section of some larger ineral of time hich likewise hogine aed ends ia tepsition.0 If we think in tis way, we must end by Supposing that “Tine sel” (whatever that Ishimust repeat isl Empirical this sams tw bethe case, People do tnd to think of time fas something shh ulumately repeats selfs this applies equaly to Austalian aborigines, ‘Ancient Grecks, and modem mathematical astronomers My view that we think this sway net because there is no ter possible ‘ay of thinking, but Decause we have a psychological (and hence religious) sepug- fanee to conicmalating either the idea of death or the idea ofthe ead ofthe univers, Taticve this srgumant may serv to thio Some ight upon ‘he eepresntation of tine in primive ritual and mytholoay. We our: Seltes in thinking about time, are Far too closely ted to ‘he formulations of the Astronomes; if we do not refer fo tne a if Ie were a coordinate stright line sietching an infinite pest (os infin future, we describe a6 4 cle or cyl, These are Purely geometrical metaphors, yet ther i= Fothing intrnsicaly geometrical about time 48 we actally experience st. Only mathe ‘aticions ae ordeal ineined to think of ‘petition asan aspect of motion ima circle. Ina primitive, unsophisticated community the metaphors of repetition ace Tely to be fof a'moch more homey nature: vomiting. for example, or the osilatons ofa weavers shutle, or the veguenee_ of agricultural sctiilies, of even the nitual exchanges of Series of interned marriages When We describe sich sequences as “esc” we innocently inteodize a geometrical notation ‘which may all be entirely absent in the thinking ofthe poogleeneerned. Indeed in soie primitive societies it woul seem tha the tine proces sno experienced asa "succession ofepeckal durations” at alls there is no sense af wong on and on in the ‘amedircetion-ortoind sod round the same Uwhesl. On the consary, tne is experienced as something dnceninsous, a eyeation of epeaied reversal a soguence of evils between polar opposes: nisht and. day, ‘sinter and summer drought and ood, a8 and south, life and death, In such a scheme the past as no "depth to i all pas is ually past: its simply the opposite of now. Tis relizion, mot common sense, that persuadesmen to tclude such various oppo Siions unde a sage eategory sich 38 lime. Night and da hfe and death ae loiclly similar pairs only inthe Sense that they are both poies of contaries. His religion that dente thom, ticking us into thinking of

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