Apologies for Cross Posting:
REMINDER of the forthcoming Radcliffe-Brown Lecture in Social
Anthropology being held that the British Academy in London on Thursday
evening.
Please circulate to any contacts you have who might be interested.
Abstract of Radcliffe-Brown Lecture: Oct 18th 2001.
Professor James Fernandez
University of Chicago.
The Disease of Language : Is There Any Cure?
This lecture takes up the role and dynamic of the figurative in
communicative and categorical interaction and in the theoretical argument of
anthropologists about these social processes. Whereas Radcliffe Brown's
"natural science of society" has long been brought under the duress of all
the cultural factors that construct and subvert the functional stabilities
of nature, in more recent years the natural conditions of cultural
production, the body in the mind, have been urged both against cultural
autochthony and pure reason. This lecture addresses these recent arguments
and begins comparatively by grounding itself in "the conjectural history"
and speculation about the nature, that is to say, "science" of language of
Max Muller and his Victorian contemporaries with whom we associate the
phrase 'the disease of language." Can their mid 19th century figuration of
the dynamics of cultural and language diffusion on a worldwide basis offer
insight into present problems concerning the language of global interaction.
Culture and language will be defined in this lecture by reference to matters
of predicative and revitalizing potential.
The lecture shall begin at 5.30pm and take place at the Academy's
premises: 10 Carlton House Terrace, London SW1. The lecture shall be
followed by a reception to which members of the audience are invited.
British Academy lectures are freely open to the general public, and
everyone is welcome, but because of limitations on space it is sometimes
necessary to restrict attendance. If you wish to attend, it is essential
to inform the Meetings Department at the Academy. Telephone: 020 7969 5264
or email lectures @britac.ac.uk Further information about the Academy's
events can be found http://www.britac.ac.uk/events/index.html.
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Angela Pusey
Assistant Secretary Lectures and Symposia
The British Academy
10 Carlton House Terrace
London SW1Y 5AH
Tel: 020 7969 5264
Fax: 020 7969 5414
Email: [log in to unmask]
Web site: www.britac.ac.uk
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