Yelle's book seems to cost about $100, so I'm not sure if I'm likely to
read it or not. :-)
*Explaining Mantras: Ritual, Rhetoric, and the Dream of a Natural
Language in Hindu Tantra*
Al
Christopher I. Lehrich wrote:
> Robert Yelle has a well-received book on mantras, analyzed by very
> complex linguistic means. I read it in dissertation form; it's now
> out from Routledge, I believe.
>
> I would recommend against trusting Tambiah on this issue, although
> it's certainly worth thinking about what he has to say. My book on
> Agrippa has a fairly lengthy critique, which seems to have been fairly
> well received among early modernists and some anthropologists. But
> certainly for ancient written magical materials, I would distrust his
> somewhat confused invocation of Austinian speech-acts.
>
> Chris Lehrich
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