Knowing the World or Hiding It: A Response to Maurice Bloch

Maurice Bloch's recent re-examination of Balinese concepts of time led him to the conclusion that ritual cognition, as opposed to practical knowledge, hides the world and is about hierarchy and inequality. Bloch's elevation of practical and universal concepts is at least disputable. The di...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Man 1978-12, Vol.13 (4), p.591-599
Main Author: Bourdillon, M. F. C.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Agricultural soils
Cognition
Cultural anthropology
Hierarchical epistemology
Hunter gatherers
Religious rituals
Rituals
Social inequality
Social structures
Soil fertility
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Summary:Maurice Bloch's recent re-examination of Balinese concepts of time led him to the conclusion that ritual cognition, as opposed to practical knowledge, hides the world and is about hierarchy and inequality. Bloch's elevation of practical and universal concepts is at least disputable. The differences between ritual and practical knowledge do not always follow the lines that Bloch suggests, and his data do not in fact contradict Durkheim's thesis that ritual provides an early step in the progress of reflective thought. Also, ritual and social structure are not as intimately linked to inequality as Bloch suggests: in some situations ritual expresses an attempt to control inequality rather than to promote it.
ISSN:0025-1496
1359-0987
DOI:10.2307/2801251