读书笔记|What kinship is and is not

This, then, is what I take a “kinship system” to be: a manifold of intersubjective participations, which is also to say, a network of mutualities of being. (pp.20)

算是在本书中第一次提出mutual being的概念,但是这里尚未指明mutualities的范围到底可以拓展至什么程度,而且究竟是纵向的拓展还是横向的拓展。显然,如果是要大大拓宽文化的意涵,一定会强调横向的维度。

Far from being regarded as unique entities, Melanesian persons are as dividually as they are individually conceived. They contain generalized sociality within. Indeed, persons are frequently constructed as the plural and composite site of the relationships that produced them. The singular person can be imagined as a social microcosm. (1988, 13)

Marilyn很鲜明地将mutual being与个人身份的多重构成挂钩,或者说每个个体其实都容纳了所属社区的大的团结。不过还需要看他的具体推理过程是什么,由此推断这里的dividual being到底是什么意思。

【Being and participation】

I realize that in speaking of “being”, let alone “transpersonal being”, I risk dragging the discussion of kinship into dark philosophical waters, an epistemic murk made the more obscure by an outmoded anthropological concept of “participation”. (pp.32)

“Participation is not a fusion for beings who lose or retain their identity at the same time,” said Lévy-Bruhl; “it enters into the very constitution of these beings. It is immanent in the individual, a condition of existence.”

所以交互性的存在实际上是一种对“参与”的认识论上的反思?牵涉到哲学对于存在substance的讨论。在这个意义上kinship下的being否认了个体的独立性,以及关系本身的物质性。mutual being更像是kinship的存在状态,而非单纯的隐喻。并且这更不是个体与他者的辩证式的对立。事实上存在一种先见:存在先存在,然后进入关系之中。也就是所引的第二段,是一种先于个体的存在状态。但Lévy-Bruhl认为participation本身是存在/物质/beings得以可能的必要条件。例子就是父子叔侄这一类的关系,看起来是两个,但其实是同质的一个。Lévy的论证其实要追溯到柏拉图的多上之一,也就是说在多个独立主体之上存在一个整全,这里指的就是有一个共同祖先。形塑后的部落组织又会通过行为习性等区分身份认同,由此将整个group视作那个一。

这一节的讨论非常形而上,没法抓到很什么切实的东西,田野材料又不是很有共鸣,所以有些云里雾里。

刚才打到“先于个体而存在的状态”,想了一下档口,很自然的观点时认为不同主体的关系是依靠后天的发展而形成的。和之前讨论的关系先存在还不一样,因为他那个基础是有一个共同祖先来维系,但档口这里显然没有,顶多是“在之前档口工作所遗留下来的惯性”,塑造出某种“实践感”,而没有什么先验地维系关系的存在。而且上面的讨论似乎还是纵向的维度。

【Parenthesis on Human Nature】

从人性自然,也就是sociobiology的角度探讨we-ness的可能性,从婴儿的行为就可以看出人天生的有观察别人的意图和关注的动机。Tomasello认为人的本能就是帮助和分享helping & sharing。婴儿和母亲的互动正体现了mutually regulating one another's interests and feelings in intricate, rhythmic patterns, exchanging multimodal signs and imitations of vocal, facial, and gestural expression. 有点类似于亚里士多德在尼各马可伦理学中的平等友爱的第二个论证——感知感知。

What is the implication for anthropological science if mutuality of being is at once an inherent disposition of human sociality and the distinctive quality of kinship relations?

所以仍然需要将自然生物的层面勾连文化的维度。或者说,语言和文化知识区分人类性情的表现,亲属关系才是更深的普遍内在。

【Transpersonal Praxis】

有点类似于差序格局的讨论?对于处于不同位置的人,同一经历的意义层次不同。举例:丧礼:

Most common are mourning practices that signify a mutual death: that is, dying with one's kinsmen by self-mutilation, tearing one's clothing, going unwashed, not working, and other such forms of withdrawal from normal sociality. Sooner or later, however, the mourning is terminated, along with intimate connection with the dead.

在丧礼的意义上讨论mutual being,和死者的亲属关系在这种参与死后仪式的意义上延续。