Wagner, Roy 2019. The Logic of Invention. Chicago: HAU Books. 135 pp. ISBN: 9780999157053 (paperback); ISBN: 9781912808526 (E-book). oy Wagner (1938–2018) was, along with linear. In an obviation diagram, all connections Marilyn Strathern, one of the most between different points of a trope can be traced. Rprominent figures of the so-called New It is ‘metaphor spread out’ (p. 60). The diagrams Melanesian Ethnography. The Logic of Invention show how the conditions for the next step in is his last book, published posthumously and a trope are set up, to be obviated, ‘anticipated available as an open access download via and disposed of ’, in sequence. There are several HAU books. In addition to works based in examples of two- and three dimensional ethnography, Wagner has been building a more obviation diagrams in the book, which add universal theory of meaning throughout his to the previous texts in picturing details and career, and The Logic of Invention continues this comparisons of specific examples. trajectory. The book consists of a preface, four Chapter 3, titled ‘Nonlinear causality’, chapters, and an epilogue. Despite the many critiques unicausality, the persistent tendency links between them, the chapters are fairly to seek out a single cause for natural and other independent, rather different perspectives on phenomena. Wagner links this to ‘the illusion certain aspects of the theoretical apparatus than of linear causality’, the way phenomena are a cumulative argument. As usual, the scope is perceived as the result of chains of causality, far-reaching. Wagner’s focus is on meaning, but despite the way ‘determining influences the use of symbols is not treated as one more converge, diverge, and intersect with one tool of the human condition among others. another at all angles’ (p. 59). An obviation Rather, meaning is what creates our existence diagram is a way to find and picture some and its conditions on all levels. The Logic of of these influences. Wagner also points out Invention ‘is about the many subvariants of in several places that a joke reverses linear the subject-object transformation’ (xiii), the causation in that it first presents the effect, dialectic of perspectives necessary for human and the punchline presents a surprising cause. perception and understanding. I will pick out Although Wagner is not a humor theorist as some examples to illustrate. such, as an anthropologist studying comedy The chapters discuss principles already I have found Wagner’s theories singularly familiar from Wagner’s previous work. helpful in my project. Humor is notoriously Obviation, the way meaning unfolds in tropes difficult to analyse, and I suspect the emphasis such as myths or rituals, is one of the central on unicausality is partly to blame for theories points of Wagner’s theory (Wagner 1981; 1986). that aim to reduce humor to a single effect. This An obviation diagram is a way of seeing both the leads to bracketing out some aspects of humor, linear order of the development of a metaphor, which flattens the phenomenon and does not do as well as the axes of interaction that are not justice to its multifacetedness. Wagner’s ideas, suomen antropologi | volume 45 issue 2 summer 2020 65 Book reviews such as invention and convention, and figure- it has increased in complexity and idiosyncrasy. ground reversal, offer a way to attend to the The Logic of Invention is, at times, convoluted in ambiguity and shifting perspectives of humor the way it works through repeating examples while leaving the joke intact. with only small variations. The style of writing One of the chapters consists of commentary alternates clear statements with playful reversals on Ludwig Wittgenstein’s propositions. This is in a way that can be disconcerting. For a reader an interesting departure from the other chapters unacquainted with the writings of Roy Wagner, in that alternating texts by Wittgenstein I would not recommend starting with this with Wagner’s commentary creates a sort of book. Rather, this work would be better to visit dialogue. A previous work, Coyote Anthropology, after reading the others, so as to appreciate the was written as a dialogue between Roy and nuance it adds. Coyote (Wagner 2010). These different ways of organising text can be seen as another way to REFERENCES model the shifts in perspective. As in previous works, although many of the examples come Wagner, Roy 1981. The Invention of Culture. Chicago: from Wagner’s own ethnography among University of Chicago Press. the Daribi in Papua New Guinea and other Wagner, Roy 1986. Symbols that Stand for Themselves. anthropological and scholarly texts, he also uses Chicago: University of Chicago Press. a wide variety of examples from art, fiction, and Wagner, Roy 2010. Coyote Anthropology. Lincoln: in one instance, beekeeping. The fourth chapter, University of Nebraska Press. ‘The ontology of representation’, includes a compare and contrast of William Shakespeare’s MARIANNA KEISALO play Hamlet, featuring ‘royal incest’, to the SOCIAL AND CULTURAL swarming of actual bees to replace the queen ANTHROPOLOGY UNIVERSITY OF HELSINKI through ‘royal outcest’. [email protected] Wagner’s texts are not known for being easy to understand. As the approach has been built suomen antropologi | volume 45 issue 2 summer 2020 66 .