Beef, Dog, and Other Mythologies: Connotative Semiotics in Mahāyoga Tantra Ritual and Scripture

Scholars have long debated how the antinomian elements in the Buddhist Tantras are to be interpreted. Some maintain that they are to be taken literally; others that they are figurative or "symbolic." Both, however--in approaching these statements as examples of directly denotative natural...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of the American Academy of Religion 2007-06, Vol.75 (2), p.383-417
Main Author: Wedemeyer, Christian K.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Ambrosia
Asian religions
Beef
Buddhism
Buddism
History and sciences of religions
Meats
Religious literature
Religious rituals
Rites & ceremonies
Sacred texts
Semiotic connotation
Semiotic signs
Semiotics
Signification
Symbolism
Tantra
Theology
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Summary:Scholars have long debated how the antinomian elements in the Buddhist Tantras are to be interpreted. Some maintain that they are to be taken literally; others that they are figurative or "symbolic." Both, however--in approaching these statements as examples of directly denotative natural language--miss the most essential aspect of the semiology of these traditions. This paper demonstrates that the Buddhist Mahāyoga Tantras employ a form of signification (theorized by Roland Barthes) called "connotative semiotics," in which signs (a signifier-signified union) from natural language function as signifiers in a higher-order discourse. Employing these simiological tools enables criticism to recognize that what is fundamentally operative--in both ritual performance and scriptural narrative--is a grammar of purity and pollution in significant dialog with both earlier Buddhistn Tantras and Broader Indian religious norms. This suggests that such antinomianism--far from representing either "tribal" practices or rarified yogic codes--reflects concerns native to mainstream Indian religion.
ISSN:0002-7189
1477-4585
DOI:10.1093/jaarel/lfm006