Other Tensions Prevent the Emergence of a Coherent Vision Of

704 Rezensionen Other tensions prevent the emergence of a coherent ment in form of a phenomenological anthropology. But vision of phenomenological anthropology. Some articles, for this phenomenological anthropology to materialize, like that of Monica Dalidowicz (ch. 4) on the difficulties one has to do the groundwork of formulating the essenc- of learning (and teaching) Indian classical dance across es of both projects and, on this basis, develop a clear un- cross-cultural boundaries, or L. L. Wynn’s reflections on derstanding of the relationship between them. This might the representation of love in anthropology and phenome- be too much to ask from an edited collection, but Ram nology (ch. 10), present rich ethnographic details and ac- and Houston themselves establish this standard through counts. But this tends to go to the detriment of in-depth some of their more far-reaching claims (see also Ram on engagement with phenomenology (or vice versa: in chap- page 30), and their collection, viewed as a whole, does ters leaning towards phenomenology, like those of Throop not live up to it. and Downey, detailed ethnographic descriptions tend to All of this is not to say that “Phenomenology in An- be less prominent). Either one or the other seems to serve thropology” is not worth reading, that it does not con- as an attachment to the author’s main concern; a genuine tain well-crafted and carefully argued contributions full synthesis is rarely achieved, or even sought. Robert Des- of interesting ideas and insights. What it is supposed to jarlais’s essay on the use of photography as phenomenol- mean is that reading it, I found myself asking the question ogy in his long-standing fieldsite in Nepal is an exception whether there has indeed been a conceptual refinement of to this rule, combining a nuanced phenomenological dis- phenomenological anthropology in the last 20 years. Is course with rich ethnographic information. The same ap- there really some kind of progress in comparison to Csor- plies to Christopher Houston’s (ch. 12) reflections on the das’s application of Merleau-Ponty’s theory of the body to relationships between phenomenology, poetry, and eth- anthropology, or to Jackson’s vision of phenomenological nography, using Michael Jackson as example for their in- anthropology articulated in his introduction to “Things as terweaving in the work of a particular writer. They Are” (frequently cited in Ram and Houston)? I am In Wynn’s article, the aforementioned tension between inclined to answer the question negatively, and I am won- the ethnographic and the phenomenological expresses it- dering whether an anecdote from Michael Jackson’s after- self in a quite unjustified, yet telling criticism of phenom- word could not also be applied to the ways in which an- enology itself. She accuses Merleau-Ponty of having de- thropologists relate to phenomenology. The story is about scribed, in his chapter on sexuality in “Phenomenology of a famous natural scientist who recalled how she discov- Perception,” love and desire in “unrealistic”, because ex- ered as a five-year old that eggs in a basket do not fall out perience-distant ways: “what it [the chapter] completely if the basket is swirled around fast enough, even when it fails to convey is the emotion, the affect, of love and desire” is upside down. When she reported her discovery of an (240). Whoever has read the book, or phenomenological “anti-gravity force” to the grown-ups in her life, they re- philosophy in general, realizes immediately that it was acted dismissively, to her great disappointment, and treat- not Merleau-Ponty’s intention to evoke emotion and af- ed her experience as an instance of a familiar law. Jackson fect, but to understand its significance in human existence. uses her reaction to illustrate central features of the phe- With this I do not intend to say that anthropologists nomenological perspective: “But, she thought, it is still should not criticize phenomenology; but I think such criti- my discovery, because I made the discovery on my own. cism should be based on an awareness of the specificity The discovery was mine” (298). Reading “Phenomenol- of phenomenology. It needs to acknowledge that phenom- ogy in Anthropology,” one sometimes gets the impression enology and anthropology are different kinds of projects. that a new generation of anthropologists has discovered To spell out this difference: anthropology is fundamen- phenomenology for themselves, and pronounces excited- tally concerned with understanding the aspects of human ly, “this discovery is mine.” While this is commendable, lives relating to the concrete conditions in a specific space one would wish that there was something to which this and time; phenomenology as philosophy, by contrast, as- excitement would lead, the formulation of a principle or pires to formulate the conditions under which human be- “law,” some kind of shared understanding of what phe- ings are able to transcend this relativity, to make state- nomenology is supposed to mean for anthropology. Only ments that are “true” regardless of circumstance. In short, when such an understanding has been produced, one will while anthropology stresses the particularity, phenome- be able to say that the field of phenomenological anthro- nology emphasizes the universality of human existence. pology has entered the stage of maturity. Of course, one wants to object, these differences are not Bernhard Leistle clear-cut: anthropology inevitably must make a univer- salist assumption (about the anthropologist’s faculty to communicate across cultural boundaries), and conversely, Rogers, Chris: The Use and Development of the phenomenology’s reflection on experience departs from Xinkan Languages. Austin: University of Texas Press, the paradoxical insight that every kind of universal claim 2016. 262 pp. ISBN 978-1-4773-0832-5. Price: $ 29.95 is necessarily connected with a particular perspective. But Mesoamerica is one of the World’s major areas of lin- that does not mean that the two projects can simply be guistic diversity, evidencing a considerable number of identified with each other, as is implied in Wynn’s and seemingly unrelated families. Mesoamerican languages other contributions to the volume. promise many insightful linguistic reconstructions, sup- There is thus indeed a great affinity between phenome- ported by colonial descriptions and pre-Columbian texts, nology and anthropology, and potential of mutual enrich- implying a lot of details on language contact in the deep Anthropos 112.2017 https://doi.org/10.5771/0257-9774-2017-2-704 Generiert durch IP '170.106.34.90', am 28.09.2021, 04:20:17. Das Erstellen und Weitergeben von Kopien dieses PDFs ist nicht zulässig. Rezensionen 705 past and prospects for long-range comparison. That is the glottal fricative? Taking into account that all conso- why Mesoamerican linguistics heavily depends on gram- nants are attested in glottalised and glottalised form, does matical descriptions and reconstructions for every single it make sense to reanalyse the phonological system as one member in the area; if one of them is not under consid- of non-glottalised consonants, non-modal, and laryngeal- eration, any hypothesis of borrowing or independent de- ised vowels? Similar distribution is the main argument velopment becomes weak. Until very recently, Xinkan for considering Totonacan languages to have laryngeal- languages of Guatemala were a gap being represented ised vowels. Is it possible to treat glottalised consonants in post-Saussurian times only by two articles (O. Schu- in Xinkan as biphonemic combinations? Word-medial bi- mann Gálvez, Fonémica del dialecto xinca de Chiquimu- consonantal clusters of glottalised consonants are banned lilla. In: Summa antropológica de homenaje a Roberto J. in the language; the glottalisation of the second member Weitlaner. México 1966: 449–454; L. Campbell, Mayan in word-medial consonantal clusters involves an epenthet- Loan Words in Xinca. International Journal of American ic vowel inserted between two consonants. Linguistics 38.1972: 187–190), a diagnostic 100 word-list The author proposes that Xinkan verbs are lexically (H. McArthur, Xinca. In: M. K. Mayers [ed.], Languages and morphologically divided in four classes: transitive of Guatemala. The Hague 1966: 309–312) and an unpub- verbs, agentive intransitive verbs, affective intransitive lished master’s thesis (O. Schumann Gálvez, Xinca de verbs, and fluid intransitive verbs. It is a kind of seman- Guazacapán. México 1967). Two recent books by Frauke tic alignment. Agentive intransitives denote actions per- Sachse (Maldonado de Matos. Arte de la lengua szin- formed by an agent in control of the action; affective in- ca. Markt Schwaben 2004; Reconstructive Description transitives are those whose subjects are not in control of of Eighteenth-century Xinka Grammar. 2 vols. Utrecht the action or ensuing state, i.e., undergoers. Fluid intran- 2010) and by Chris Rogers (2016) changed the situation. sitives can belong to both agentive and affectivecl asses. They are very different in the nature of the analysed data However, the examples given show that the so-called (an 18th-century manuscript and field recordings made in agentives are mostly verbs of bodily processes and speak- the 1970s), in volume (957 and 262 pages), and in the way ing (to cough, be sick, sleep, spit, speak), while the so- of presenting the data. The last book is under review here. called affectives are verbs of motion and posture (to en- The book is based on the author’s Ph.D. thesis of 2010, ter, climb, stand, squat, drown). I suggest a revision of the “A Comparative Grammar of Xinkan,” but is different in proposed semantic categorisation because in my opinion scope and aims and includes additional data. The intrigu- verbs of motion and posture are prototypically agentive. ing title suggests a particular perspective taken, though The interlinear text in Guazacapán Xinka is supplied the book does not say much about the use of Xinkan lan- with a word-for-word translation only.

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