Re: mutilation and ritual

Adrienne Dearmas (DearmasA@AOL.COM)
Tue, 9 Jul 1996 12:02:46 -0400

In a message dated 96-07-05 04:36:00 EDT, dread@ANTHRO.UCLA.EDU (Dwight W.
Read) writes:

> There's a bit of a mix-up here. My assertion that "fashionable tattooing"
> in the West may be surface structure without deep structure (i.e., it is
> imitation of the surface, outward manifestation of ritualized, symbolic
> behavior) does not entail the absence of the phenomenon of deep structure
> in the West, only that "fashionable tattooing" in the West, by virtue of
it
> being imitative behavior, lacks a "deep structure," hence the absence of
> symbolism, ritual, etc. with "fashionable tattooing" is not surprising. I
> suspect that if one pushes hard enough, McCreery's "social and cultural
> context that informed the rites" would start to look suspiciously like
deep
> structure.
>
What constitutes fashionable tattooing? And who are they imitating?

- Adrienne