![]() Magic is ""rigidly scripted"" (having stolen its scripts from re-religion, it ""rigidities them to retain their efficacy""). Magic social action is made up essentially of symbolic performances, a process to which linguistic symbolism is the key. To give a bare-bones outline of his thesis: magic is social action, broken down into seven categories of medical, black, ceremonial, and religious magic, occult sciences, the paranormal, and magical cults and sects. One is inevitably reminded of Sir James Frazer (whom O'Keefe challenges on various issues): like Frazer, O'Keefe has made a titanic survey of patterns of ""primitive"" behavior that he dislikes, not to say detests, despite their fascination. ![]() His command of the relevant material in these fields is attested to by hundreds of pointed quotations and literally thousands of footnotes. ![]() O'Keefe seems to have devoured whole libraries of sociology, anthropology, philosophy, and literature. ![]() A monumental treatise on magic-""a complete explanatory account of the whole thing, past and present, all the provinces""-so powerfully and elaborately developed it threatens to become muscle-bound. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |