practical epistemology

John Mcreery (jlm@TWICS.COM)
Thu, 27 Oct 1994 16:59:06 JST

Replying to John Stevens, in re his remarks on Bruce Kapferer's study of
Sinhalese exorcisms [sic].

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John,

Since receiving your first message, I've started rereading _A
Celebration of Demons_. I see what you mean about "cerebral
romanticism" and "textual arrogance." Kapferer does present the
Sinhalese as puppets acting out cultural scripts and offer himself as an
unimpeachable authority. Once again, we have found an author whose
faults are apparent to us both. What I am looking for, however, is some
positive models of things we might consider doing. Do you see any of
that in Kapferer's work? Also, I'm curious about what you mean by
"talking social life"? This seems to be your goal. How do you envision it?

John McCreery (JLM@TWICS.COM)