Contradiction and Forgetting in Yewéssey Culture
Date
2001-07
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Repository Usage Stats
views
downloads
Citation Stats
Abstract
Anthropologists are now inescapably aware of conflict, contradiction, and negotiation in even the most seemingly "traditional" socio-cultural orders. The literature on "memory" is particularly rich in illustrations of how contradictory evocations of the past undergird conflicting performances and assertions of interest in the present. This study of the traditionally nomadic Yewéssey people documents a genre of performance seldom discussed in the anthropological literature—the ritual performance of forgetting as a means of resolving intractable conflicts and cultural contradictions. This essay is written with an undergraduate or lay audience in mind and is intended to introduce anthropological comparative method, and some of its most important vocabulary, in accessible language. Questions for classroom discussion are provided at the end.
Type
Department
Description
Provenance
Subjects
Citation
Permalink
Published Version (Please cite this version)
Publication Info
Matory, J Lorand (2001). Contradiction and Forgetting in Yewéssey Culture. Transforming Anthropology, 10(2). pp. 2–12. 10.1525/tran.2001.10.2.2 Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/6502.
This is constructed from limited available data and may be imprecise. To cite this article, please review & use the official citation provided by the journal.
Collections
Unless otherwise indicated, scholarly articles published by Duke faculty members are made available here with a CC-BY-NC (Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial) license, as enabled by the Duke Open Access Policy. If you wish to use the materials in ways not already permitted under CC-BY-NC, please consult the copyright owner. Other materials are made available here through the author’s grant of a non-exclusive license to make their work openly accessible.