Um Isto cachimbo é não: ritual, poética e antropologia

Abstract

This essay discusses the appellant imbroglio between "symbolism" and "pragmatic" in general anthropological theory. From the Naven (a Iatmul ritual), compared to other ethnographic records, and from the scrutiny of a logical-theoretical model for the rituals (Severi and Houseman), we proposed an different background, toward the poetic, from which it is suggested the need for a closer look at the assumptions wrapped up in notions like "language", "symbol", "performance", "expression" and "image".