EXPLORATIONS IN ANTHROPOLOGY A University College London Series Series Editors: Barbara Bender, John Gledhill and Bruce Kapferer Joan Bestard Camps, What's in a Relative? Household and Family in Formentera Henk Driessen, On the Spanish Moroccan Frontier: A Study in Ritual, Power and Ethnicity The Anthropology of Time Alfred Gell, The Anthropology ofTime: Cultural Construction ofTe mporal Maps and Images Tim Ingold, David Riches and James Woodburn (eds), Hunters and Gatherers Volume 1. History, Evolution and Social Change Volume 2. Property, Power and Ideology Cultural Constructions of Tem oral Ma Bruce Kapferer, A Celebration ofDemons (2nd edn.) p ps Guy Lanoue, Brothers: The Politics ofViolence among the Sekani ofNorthern British Columbia and Images Jadran Mimica, Intimations ofInfinity: The Mythopoeia ofthe Iqwaye Counting System and Number Barry Morris, Domesticating Resistance: The Dhan Gadi Aborigines and the Australian State Thomas C. 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Roy Ellen and Katsuyoshi Fukui (eds), RedefiningNature, Ecology, Culture and Domestication First published in 1992 by Berg. Editorial offices: 150 Cowley Road, Oxford, OX4 1JJ,UK 838 Broadway, Third Floor, New York, NY 10003-4812, USA Contents Reprinted in 1996 and 2001 ©Alfred Gell 1992, 1996, 2001 Figures and Tables vii Acknowledgements viii All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form Part I Differences in the Cognition of Time Attributed or by any means without the written permission of Berg. to Society and Culture Berg is the imprint of Oxford International Publishers Ltd. 1. Durkheim 3 2. Evans-Pritchard 15 3. Levi-Strauss 23 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data 4. Leach 30 A catalogue record for this book is available from the Library of -KTime-reversal in Umeda Ritual 37 Congress. 6. Cultural Relativism 54 7. Transcendental Temporal Cultural Relativism 61 XBali: the 'Motionless Present' 69 British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data 9. Anti-Durkheimian Anti-relativism 78 10. Contrasted Regimes 84 Gell, Alfred Psychological Evidence for the Universality of constructions of temporal � The anthropology of time: cultural Time Cognition 93 maps and images. - (Explorations in anthropology) I. Title II. Series 3-2: Piagetian Developmental Psychology 97 115 .13. Critique of the Piagetian Approach to Time Cognition 104 14. Linguistic Arguments for the Cognitive ISBN 0 85496 717 6 Universality of Time 118 0 85496 890 3 (pb) ]5(The Development of Time-talk 132 Part II Time-maps and Cognition Printed in the United Kingdom by Biddles Ltd, Guildford and King's Lynn /f6. Time in Philosophy: the A-series vs. the B-series 149 v vi Contents 17. The B-series 156 18. The A-series 166 19. B-theory Economics vs. A-theory Economics 175 20. Chrono-geography 190 21. The Economics of Temporal Opportunity Costs 206 Figures and Tables �22;: Opportunity Costs and the Fatefulness of Human Existence 217 23. Husserl's Model of Internal Time-consciousness 221 229 .. 24. The Temporal-perceptual Cycle �2!5:/The Modalization and Counterfactuality of Figures Time-maps 242 2.1 Space, genealogy and time 20 Part HI Time and Practice 5.1 The Umeda annual cycle 39 5.2 Umeda hair-styles and masks 44 263 26. The Natural Attitude and the Theory of Practice 5.3 Time inversion 49 . 27. The Theory of Practice and the Timing of 12.1 Piaget' s experiment 99 Exchanges 275 19.1 Expectational vs. mechanical time 176 28. A-series: B-series:: Gemeinschaft: Gesellschaft:: Them: 19.2 Potential surprise for two competing projects 185 Us 286 19.3 Gambler's indifference map 188 20.1 Hagerstrand's time-map 194 29. Calendars and Consensual Co-ordination 294 20.2 Jane's prism 196 30. Calendars and Power 306 20.3 (a) vertical and (b) horizontal partitioning of the 31. Conclusions 314 time-supply 200 20.4 Time-supply and time-demand 201 329 References 21.1 The Becker model 207 336 23.1 Husserl's model of internal time-consciousness 225 Index 24.1 Husserl' s model as a perceptual cycle 234 24.2 A general model of time recognition 239 25.1 Modal accessibility relation in S.5, S.4 and S.4.3 modal systems 250 25.2 The branching future and/or past 251 25.3 Temporal cognitive map 257 Tables 5.1 Synoptic table of the Ida ritual 40 17.1 The A-series vs. the B-series 157 vii Acknowledgements ix data on Bali which I have reported (I hope correctly) on pages 74-5, in the course of one of the most memorable anthropologi­ cal conversations I have been privileged to enjoy. Needless to add, any deficiencies in my account of Bali are not attributable to him. Nancy Munn read the complete final draft, and though she Acknowledgements was too much under pressurt; with her own forthcoming review of the 'Anthropology of Time' literature to make detailed com­ ments, I drew enormous reassurance from her generally favour­ able reaCtion. Sections of this work have also been presented at seminars at the L.S.E., the University of Oxford, and New York University, where audiences made a number of useful The composition of this book has occupied me) off and on, for comments. more years than I care to contemplate, and over the course of I am grateful to the London School of Economics and my this time I have amassed a number of debts. Of these, perhaps department for granting me a sabbatical year during which I was the most outstanding is the debt I owe to Bruce Kapferer, the able to revise and substantially rewrite this book. editor of the series 'Explorations in Anthropology', who encour­ Finally I must thank Simeran Gell, and Rohan for putting up aged me to revise and publish the original manuscript of this with me while I got on with my solitary labours. I hope it has all book, which I had sadly concluded was not likely to appeal to been worthwhile. anyone outside my immediate circle. Latterly, reading over the completed manuscript, I am more sanguine than hitherto, that among these pages there will be some capable of beguiling, even instructing, a more diverse audience than I feared in my more despondent moments. Bruce Kapferer's editorial stimulus has been all the more noteworthy in that I am well aware that on theoretical questions I have frequently taken positions which are diametrically opposed to his own. His comments I have taken into account as best I could, and very useful they were too, but I am also particularly conscious of his editorial forbearance, and grateful for it. I can say the same for Jadran Mimica, who brought my manuscript to his attention initially. I can only conclude that these two have behaved in a genuinely altruistic manner throughout, and what framer of 'Acknowledgements' can say more than that? Among my other debts are those I owe to present and past colleagues at the London School of Economics, notably Maurice Bloch, whom I have repayed in typical departmental fashion with a bouquet of criticism and carping. He read the original manuscript and discussed many detailed points with me. Christina Toren also read the original version, and advised me on psychological questions. She is not, however to be held responsible in any way for my discussion of cognition. I am also particularly grateful to Ward Keeler, who provided me with the viii Part I Differences in the Cognition of Time Attributed to Society and Culture Chapter 1 Durkheim The anthropology of time, in its contemporary form, can be traced to a well-known passage in the introductory chapter of Durkheim' s The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life (1915: 9-11): what philosophers call the categories of the understanding, the ideas of time, space, class, number, cause, personality ...correspond to the most universal properties of things . they are like the solid frame surrounding all thought [which] does not seem to be able to liberate itself from them without destroying itself, for it seems that we cannot think of objects which are not in time and space, that have no number, etc.... Now when primitive beliefs are systematically analysed, the principal categories are naturally found.They are born in religion and of religion, they are a product of religious thought.