Hostname: page-component-7479d7b7d-k7p5g Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-10T06:02:50.106Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The Problem of Invariance in Anthropology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 July 2024

Extract

In Iroquois and Algonquin legend there is the story of a girl who submits in the dark of night to a man she believes to be her brother. Every detail seems to identify him: physical appearance, clothing, a scratched cheek attesting to the heroine's virtue. When formally accused by her, the brother reveals that he has a second self (Sosie) or, more precisely, a double; the bond between them is so strong that everything befalling the one is automatically transmitted to the other : the torn garment, the wounded face. In order to convince his incredulous sister, the young man kills his double before her eyes, but with this single blow he pronounces his own death sentence, since their destinies are one.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © 1960 Fédération Internationale des Sociétés de Philosophie / International Federation of Philosophical Societies (FISP)

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

1.

Extract from the inaugural lecture of the chair of social anthropology at the Collège de France, given in Paris, January 5, 1960.