hybrids and monsters http://sperber.club.fr/hybrids.htm
(In Method & Theory in the Study of Religion 8-2, (1996) 143-169 - Revised English
version of "Pourquoi les animaux parfaits, les hybrides et les monstres sont-ils bons Ä…
penser symboliquement?" L'Homme, XV (2) 1975) 5-24)
Why are perfect animals, hybrids, and monsters food for symbolic thought?
DAN SPERBER
Abstract
Work on animal symbolism, in particular that of Mary Douglas, suggests that the symbolic value of
some animals is grounded in taxonomic anomaly. Yet the work of ethno-zoologists tends to show that
folk-taxonomies are consistent and devoid of true anomalies. This raises a first problem. Moreover,
not only anomalous animals, but also exemplary animals often take on a symbolic value, thus raising
a second problem. A solution to both problems is suggested, based on an examination of the cognitive
organization of folk-taxonomies, and with illustrations drawn from Ethiopian, Biblical, and Western
culture.
Foreword (1995). Here is how this article came about. When working on what was to become Le
Symbolisme en Général (1974; in English, Rethinking Symbolism, 1975a), I wrote two sections, one
on rhetoric, the other on animal symbolism, that I had initially intended for the book. Both, however,
became too large, and were published as separate articles (Sperber 1975b, c). In 1980, I prepared a
revised English version of the article on animal symbolism for a collection of French anthropological
papers commissioned by Cambridge University Press, which, in the end, never came out. An Italian
version of this text was published in 1986 as a separate booklet. A year or so ago, I mentioned the
paper in conversation with Thomas Lawson; he mentioned it to the editors of Method and Theory in
the Study of Religion who kindly offered, after all these years, to publish the English version. I did
not have the modesty and good sense to say no.
The main point of the article - a point with which I am still in agreement - is that an understanding of
animal symbolism should be firmly grounded in an account of the manner in which zoological
knowledge is organized. Another important point, guiding the whole paper and stressed in the
conclusion, which, I believe, anticipated recent developments at the boundary of the cognitive and
the social sciences (see Hirschfeld and Gelman 1994, Tooby and Cosmides 1992), is that the
conceptual organization of the zoological domain does not merely follow general principle of
conceptual organization but rather exhibits domain-specific features, as do other conceptual domains.
The idea that our conceptual knowledge is organized differently in different domains has far-reaching
implications, including in the study of religion (see Boyer 1993). The paper attempts to develop these
two points by discussing in turn categorization, and symbolism.
I was unaware, when writing this paper, of the major developments that were, just then, taking place
in the psychological study of categorization (see Smith and Medin 1981, Medin 1989, Smith in press,
for an account of these, and later developments in the field). The "classical" view of mental concepts,
according to which concepts are mentally defined in terms of a set of individually necessary and
jointly sufficient features, was being challenged in the work of Eleanor Rosch (1978) and others.
New probabilistic approaches were emerging, according to which concepts are characterized in terms
of prototypes, and items are likely to fall under a concept to the extent that they resemble the
relevant prototype. The opposition between the classical view, and probabilistic views spawned a
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wealth of new research. For a while, the probabilistic views seemed to be absolute winners, but then
they too met with objections, both theoretical and empirical. Yet another approach emerged,
according to which a concept is based on a "theory" of the objects that fall under it. In particular, the
concept of a living kind is based on the idea that each living kind has some specific underlying
essence.
The view of categorization I was putting forward in the present paper might have seemed obsolete in
1980, when prototypes were carrying the day. However, now, a charitable reading might see it as
having been ahead of its time in some respects. Retrospectively, I should not have talked of semantic
and encyclopaedic "definitions," but of semantic features and of theories, and I trust the reader will
update the terminology. On the substantive side, however, I had argued that animal kinds were taken
to possess their properties (e.g. the tiger its stripes) by nature, and that, when a given property was
not manifested in a given individual animal, it was nevertheless virtually there. This anticipated
today's "psychological essentialism." Even so, the view of categorization I was sketching was very
rudimentary and poorly informed. My main motive of pride in this respect is that this paper, together
with many conversations we had at the time, may have encouraged Scott Atran to develop his
outstanding work on living kinds categorization, approached from a combined cognitive, historical
and anthropological perspective (see in particular Atran 1990).
My treatment of animal symbolism was intended as an illustration of the general view of cultural
symbolism I had articulated in Rethinking Symbolism, and took the form of a discussion of Mary
Douglas's deservedly influential views in the matter. What I find not uninteresting in retrospect was
my attempt to find a unified account of the symbolism of perfect animals, hybrids and monsters. This
is a sensible goal for the study of animal symbolism, in particular in the religious context, even if the
solution I offered was at best sketchy. In general, however, I am struck by my naivete in believing
that cognitive psychology as it was at the time allowed a clear understanding of the cognitive bases of
symbolism. The cognitive sciences have enormously progessed since the mid 70s (and I am much less
ignorant than I was), but there is still a huge way to go. My present feeling is that we are just begining
to be in a position to properly articulate the questions which I saw myself as answering (see Kelly, M.
& F.C. Keil 1985, for an example of recent relevant cognitive research).
Relevant to a better articulation of the problem is, I believe, my later work on the "epidemiology of
representations" (Sperber 1985, 1990, 1994), and the work I have done with Deirdre Wilson on
communication and cognition under the label "relevance theory" (Sperber and Wilson 1986/1995).
My involvement in this latter work, incidentally, came out of the article on rhetoric which I had
written at the same time as the one on animal symbolism, and initially intended as a section of
Rethinking Symbolism. I myself have not done more work on animal symbolism, but I have been led
to deepen my understanding of the issues through the work already mentioned of Scott Atran (1990),
and of Pascal Boyer (1993).
What follows is my 1980 English revised version of my 1975 article, with only minor stylistic
changes. I am grateful to Thomas Lawson and to Russell McCutcheon for the chance of seeing this
old manuscript come out of the drawer. I just hope it is not too, too dusty.
1. Introduction
Why are some animals more symbolic than others, that is, more apt to be involved in
ritual, in myth, in poetry, in metaphor? The first answer is that there is no single answer:
an animal may be symbolic for many, sundry reasons. It evokes, say, its former owner, or
distant places, it is symbolic because of the folk etymology of its name, or because it is
the first to fly back in the springtime. Still, is each and every case of animal symbolism to
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be accounted for separately? Is there no explanatory principle which would determine,
given a certain state of zoological knowledge, which animals are most likely to be
symbolic?
Such a principle has been suggested and widely accepted in contemporary anthropology:
the symbolic character of an animal would derive from its taxonomic anomaly. This is an
interesting suggestion which brings together a number of ethnographic intuitions, but it is
a vague one: the notion of taxonomic anomaly is left undefined and a general relationship
between the anomalous and the symbolic is postulated without being either explained or
explicated.
My aim in this paper is to discuss the notion of taxonomic anomaly and its explanatory
value, and to suggest an alternative. To do so, I shall take for granted one general
assumption about symbolism, which I have developed and argued for in Rethinking
Symbolism (1975a): when some information meets obstacles in conceptual processing, it
is symbolically processed, i.e., it evokes conditions under which its conceptual
processing would have been unproblematic. This is particularly the case with paradoxical
information which is symbolic of conditions under which the paradox would be solved.
Cultural symbolism is a social exploitation of this psychological mechanism. When some
representation, e.g., of an animal, is symbolic in a given culture, this is because it cannot
be fully processed solely with the conceptual means available.
2. Symbolism and anomaly
To begin with, a remark about fantastic animals whose symbolic character is manifest.
One might have expected these imaginary creatures to come and fill the gaps of the
empirically know fauna. Given a classification, a taxonomy of animals, some extra
species could fit in it not only without provoking a revision of classificatory principles,
but even corroborating them. Actually this is what generally happens when a new species
is discovered and classified: taxonomies are open and contain an indefinite number of
positions for new categories. In a given culture, some species might even come in handy
and give greater equilibrium and regularity to the set of known species. For instance,
since we know of zebras and tigers, i.e., striped equidae and felidae, we could use
striped bovidae, striped canidae, etc.
It is then worthy of remark that fantastic animals, instead of filling empty slots in existing
taxonomies, do not belong to them at all. Horses with two horns would not be so
upsetting, but why the unicorn with its single and quite singular horn? Why the dragon, a
snake with legs and feathered wings which spits fire, when what most distinguishes
snakes form other reptiles is that they are legless, when no reptile has feathered wings
and no animal spits fire?
Fantastic animals are hybrids or monsters. Sometimes they combine features of preferably
quite distant species or genera: like the minotaur (man and bull), the centaur (man and
horse), the sphinx (woman, bird, and lion in the Greek version), the griffin (eagle and
lion), the hippogriff (horse and griffin), the barometz (lamb and plant). Sometimes they
possess unparalleled features: the phoenix (immortal and periodic bird), the cerberus (a
three-headed dog), the catobeplas (with its deadly gaze but with a head so heavy it can
only stare at the ground), the dahu (legs shorter on one side). Of course hybrids and
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monsters can freely combine: thus the dragon, the hydra of Lerna, the chimaera. (For
other mythical and literary examples, see BorgÅs & Guerrero 1957).
Hybrids, monsters or monstrous hybrids, all fantastic animals, however diverse, are
taxonomic aberrations. Since they are also all symbolic, it is tempting to connect these
two features, to explain the symbolic character by the anomaly, and to try and generalize
the explanation so as to include real animals in its scope.
A number of recent studies, partly influenced by the work of Claude Lévi-Strauss, (in
particular by Mary Douglas [1957; 1966], Edmund Leach [1964], Ralph Bulmer [1967],
and S. J. Tambiah [1969]) have made such a connection between the symbolic character
of certain animals and the fact of their being marginal or aberrant relative to the
taxonomy of a given culture. Among these studies, those of Mary Douglas deserve a
special place. Indeed, Edmund Leach and S. J. Tambiah, discussing domestic animals,
rightly stress sociological factors as a source of their symbolic character and do not
consider taxonomic anomaly as an independent and determining factor. Ralph Bulmer
describes the marginal position of the cassowary in the zoological classification of the
Karam of New Guinea, but sees it more as an effect than as a cause of a symbolic
significance which he would rather explain by other factors, again sociological ones.
These excellent analyses have less theoretical import than those of Mary Douglas: she
alone attempts to isolate, from among all factors which may endow the conceptual
representation of an animal with a symbolic value, an independent and determining
factor: taxonomic anomaly. The assumption first seems to hold for individual animals
which fail to conform to the pattern of their species: calves with five legs, dogs which
love cats, white elephants, cocks which crow at midnight--and also for the human
species: giants, dwarves, albinos, bearded ladies--all, it seems, are symbolic because they
are anomalies. Even more interesting for anthropologists, some species are symbolic
because they depart too much from the pattern of their genus, or seem to partake of
several genera simultaneously. (Here I shall speak of species and genus, not in the strict
zoological sense but to refer to two arbitrary taxonomic levels, with the genus level being
more general than the species one.)
Mary Douglas offers several examples of this kind of deviation and of its symbolic
consequences. In Leviticus (11:3-7) and Deuteronomy (14:4-8) some species of mammals
are expressly listed as fit for human consumption: ox, sheep, goat, gazelle, roebuck, wild
goat, white-rumped deer; others are listed as abominable and unfit for consumption:
camel, hare, rock-hedge, and pig. Mary Douglas writes: "All the interpretations given so
far fall into one of two groups: either the rules are meaningless, arbitrary because their
intent is disciplinary and not doctrinal, or they are allegories of virtues and vices"
(Douglas 1966: 43). The first kind of interpretation explains nothing and merely asserts
that there is nothing to be explained. The second type of interpretation provides a special
explanation for each biblical injunction. But "any interpretation will fail which takes the
Do-Nots of the Old Testament in piecemeal fashion. ... Since each of the injunctions is
prefaced by the injunction to be holy, so they must be explained by that command. There
must be contrariness between holiness and abomination which will make overall sense of
all the particular restrictions" (Douglas 1996: 49). Now, holiness is "unity, integrity,
perfection of the individual and of the kind" (Douglas 1966: 54). Species which deviate
from the definition of their genus depart from holiness.
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Reconsidered in these terms, the abominations of Leviticus seem meaningful and
coherent: you may eat any animal which has a parted foot or a cloven hoof and also
chews the cud. A pure genus is characterized by the conjunction of two features:
rumination and cloven-hoovedness. Ruminants which are not cloven-hooved (camels, as
well as rock-hedges and hares taken for ruminants because of their constant chewing) and
cloven-hooved animals which do not ruminate (pigs) depart from the definition of the
genus and are branded impure. The abominations of Leviticus are thus neither arbitrary,
nor allegorical: they are anomalies with respect to the biblical taxonomy of animals.
The Lele of Kasai (Zaïre) give an important symbolic role to the pangolin. Now, the
pangolin "contradicts the most obvious animal categories. It is scaly like a fish, but it
climbs trees. It is more like an egg-laying lizard than a mammal, yet it suckles its young.
And most significant of all, unlike other small mammals its young are born singly"
(Douglas 1966: 168). This manner of conceiving sets the pangolin apart from other
animals with their large litters, and associates it with humans who also give birth singly:
when a pangolin is killed, the Lele treats its body like that of a chief; its ritual ingestion
protects human fertility.
Two more examples along the same lines: for the Dorze of Southern Ethiopia, snakes are
aberrant animals, the only large legless ones they ever see. They do not classify snakes
with any of the three large categories of animals they distinguish: domestic animals, birds,
and other wild animals. The snake is thought of as a quasi-supernatural being, related to
genii loci, object of taboos, beneficiary of sacrifices.
With respect to French folk taxonomy, the bat is a paradoxical animal: a mouse that flies
like a bird. It is the object of a fear out of proportion to the actual risk: bats, it is said, get
entangled in people's hair. Nowadays, this fear is given a seemingly scientific justification:
the sound waves which bats emit are not echoed back by human hair. However, even a
cursory look at bat folklore is enough to show that the relationship between bats and
human hair is first and foremost symbolic: baldness is said to be caused by bat urine,
tinea capitis by bat droppings (see Sébillot 1907: III, 14-15). That bats should affect the
heads of humans by means of their feet and excrement is to be contrasted with the fate of
mice, which go after human toes and waste matter and are sometimes trodden underfoot.
Further, the special association of bats with hair (evoked by their French name, chauve-
souris, i.e., "bald mouse") is to be related to their aberrant combination of features: they
are winged animals with hair instead of feathers.
Mary Douglas, puts forward a general explanation for all facts of this kind:
Any given system of classification must give rise to anomalies, and any given culture must confront
events which seem to defy its assumptions. It cannot ignore the anomalies which its scheme
produces, except at risk of forfeiting confidence. This is why, I suggest, we find in any culture worthy
of the name various provisions for dealing with ambiguous or anomalous events.
She then lists five types of such provisions:
First by settling for one or other interpretation, ambiguity is often reduced ... . Second, the existence
of anomaly can be physically controlled ... take night crowing cocks. If their necks are properly
wrung, they do not live to contradict the definition of a cock as a bird that crows at dawn ... . Third, a
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rule of avoiding anomalous things affirms and strengthens the definition to which they do not
conform [e.g., the abominations of Leviticus]. Fourth, anomalous events may be labelled dangerous
... . Fifth, ambiguous symbols can be used in ritual for the same ends as they are used in poetry and
mythology, to enrich meaning or to call attention to other levels of existence [e.g., in the case of the
pangolin]. (Douglas 1966: 39-40)
In short, a natural being which deviates from the taxonomic schema is symbolically set
apart from normal beings, thus avoiding any upsetting of this schema.
According to an older view put forward by functionalists, animals become symbolic
when they are particularly useful or harmful to humans. For Radcliffe-Brown this
follows from a more general law: "Any object or event which has important effects upon
the well-being (material or spiritual) of a society, or anything which stands for or
represents any such object or event tends to become an object of the ritual attitude"
(Radcliffe-Brown 1952: 129). Animals are symbolic because they are functional or
antifunctional. But actually, as is stressed by Lévi-Strauss in Totemism (1963), there is
no clear correlation between the practical and the symbolic significance of animals.
Radcliffe-Brown seems to have bean somewhat aware of this when he invoked not only
society's material well-being, but its spiritual well-being as well. As a result, his so-called
"law" becomes circular: "spiritual" and "ritual" (or symbolic) significance are but two
names for one and the same phenomenon rather than two phenomena related as cause
and effect.
Mary Douglas's view is not affected by such objections. For her, it is symbolic processing
itself (rather than the object processed) that fulfills a function (an intellectual, rather than
a practical one) of protecting taxonomic schemata. To Lévi-Strauss's point that animals
are symbolic not when they make good food, but when they make good food for thought,
one might add: they make good food for symbolic thought when they make bad food for
taxonomic thought.
However, the view according to which the symbolic character of animals follows from
their being anomalous--i.e., deviant with respect to a taxonomic norm--while intuitively
appealing, comes up against several objections.
To begin with, the functional explanation suggested does not stand up to the facts.
Imagine that symbolic treatment did have the function of ridding taxonomic schemata of
the anomalies they generate, of reconciling experience with a cultural image of the world
which, in order to be systematic has to be selective. Two kinds of data could not then be
explained: first, symbolic processing, far from merely drawing on anomalies generated by
the taxonomy, gives rise to many new ones, which goes against its alleged function. If it
were just a matter of setting apart natural hybrids and monsters, why create artificial
ones, those fantastic animals which complicate the task further? Why ascribe to normal
natural species properties which raise new taxonomic problems and do not solve any: for
example, why do the Dorze hold leopards to be Christians, and hyenas to be larger at
night?
Second, why should some taxonomic anomalies such as the Lele pangolin, instead of
being prohibited and set apart, be put right in the centre of cultural life, worshipped,
ritually eaten, etc.? Of course, privileged treatment does separate these animals from the
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common lot, but in a way such as to emphasize rather than play down the inadequate
and incomplete character of the taxonomic schema. In order to deal with such cases,
Mary Douglas has to invoke another function: "to enrich meaning or to call attention to
other levels of existence" (Douglas 1966: 40). Enriched meaning and other levels of
existence fit no more easily into the taxonomic schema than do fantastic animals. In
short, symbolic treatment introduces as many distortions as it removes between
experience and the taxonomic model of the world. It multiplies the problems (if they are
problems) which it is supposed to resolve.
Even leaving aside this suggested psychological functional explanation, Mary Douglas's
view comes under three more objections. Firstly, it is not established that anomaly is a
sufficient condition. To do this, instead of considering some symbolic animals and
showing them to be anomalous, one would have to consider a full taxonomy and check if
all anomalies undergo symbolic treatment. And, it should be shown that anomaly is the
determining factor. Secondly, anomaly is not a necessary condition: perfect or
paradigmatic animals also take on a symbolic value: e. g. the eagle, the paradigmatic
raptor, or the lion, the perfect wildcat. Thirdly, and most important of all, the notion of a
taxonomic norm is left too obscure to be of much value in clarifying our intuitions.
3. the logic of folk-taxonomies
While notions of taxonomic norm and anomaly are rather vague, the notion of a
taxonomy is, it seems, better understood and has been much studied, both formally and
empirically, in the past twenty years. A whole trend in American anthropology known
variously as ethnoscience, ethnosemantics, componential analysis, or cognitive
anthropology has made a specialty of this kind of study (see the collection edited by
Tyler 1969).
Take a set of objects. These objects are distributed among a number of mutually
exclusive categories, i.e., every object must belong to a category, no object can belong to
two categories. The set of these categories is itself distributed among a number of also
mutually exclusive categories of a hierarchically superordinate level. These second-level
categories may themselves be similarly distributed among third-level categories, etc. This
is a taxonomy. In other words, a taxonomy is a hierarchical classification such that, at
any given level, categories are mutually exclusive. All known cases of zoological
classification basically conform to this taxonomic pattern (with a variable number of
levels from culture to culture): no individual animal belongs to two species, no species
belongs to two genera, etc.
Note that taxonomic classification is just one pattern among many and has no logical
primacy. Sentiments for example are not classified into mutually exclusive and
hierarchically organized categories: a sentiment may be at the same time of love,
tenderness, and esteem. Again, cigars are classified according to their shade (oscuro,
maduro, colorado, claro), their shape (corona, perfecto, panatella, etc.) and their origin
(Havanas, Brazils, Manillas, etc.); these three criteria freely overlap so as to determine a
cross-classification rather than a taxonomy.
The classification of animals by means of a taxonomic ordering does not derive from any
abstract logical necessity. One might imagine that it is determined by the empirical
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organization of the animal kingdom into species, genera, etc., as established by scientific
zoology. However a brief look at folk taxonomies (the only ones this article is concerned
with) shows that they are not fully determined by empirical considerations. The modern
notion of a species revolves around the fact that like begets like. But what of natural
hybrids? In French folk taxonomy, for example, the mule has the logical status of a
species: a mule is not both a horse and a donkey, it is neither; in other words it
constitutes a category mutually exclusive of others on the same level; it is not a
conceptual hybrid even though its being a biological hybrid is well known. Further, there
are a number of exotic variations of the doctrine of spontaneous generation, especially
for insects, without this causing the notion of a species or taxonomic classification to be
called into question. Thus the notion of a species in folk taxonomies need not be defined
by the only criterion acceptable to modern zoological thinking: the reproduction of like
by like. The natural mode of reproduction, certainly well observed in all societies for the
greater part of their fauna, may be the object of a generalisation which, however
important, remains external to the principle of taxonomic classification.( For the
development of Western tradition in this respect, see Jacob 1970).
In folk taxonomies, empirical considerations are even less determining when one
considers the distribution not of individual animals into species, but of species into
genera. Thus among the Dorze, having feathers and eggs defines a first genus (kapho);
domestication defines a second genus (mehe); and having at least four legs and not
belonging to the other two genera defines a third genus (do'a); lastly snakes and fish are
two marginal genera, each with only one named species, in the two-tiered taxonomy of
the Dorze. The Dorze are aware of resemblances among insects, among felidae, among
bovidae, etc., but this knowledge is not part of their taxonomy, and in some cases could
not be part of it since, for instance, there are both domestic and wild bovidae. On the
other hand, the distinction between domesticated and wild animals could not define two
genera in French folk taxonomy where several species are found in both conditions. This
distinction belongs to encyclopaedic knowledge of animals, which extends far beyond
taxonomy proper.
The knowledge that the Dorze and many other people have of their fauna could be
expressed in a cross-classification (on the pattern of that of cigars) rather than in a
taxonomy. As overlapping criteria, one could have, for instance: mode of reproduction,
number of legs, size, type of skin (fur, feathers, scales, etc.), habitat, and food habits.
Plenty of knowledge for which taxonomic ordering has no use would become quite
relevant in such a mode of classification.
If a taxonomic mode is logically arbitrary and empirically under-determined, it is unclear
why it should be considered as defining a norm, and why then a zoological classification
which would deviate from it in places, i.e., which would not constitute a fully regular
taxonomy, should be considered 'anomalous' in those places. Still, in the absence of
logical or empirical necessity, the existence of a psychological necessity may be
suggested: the human mind might have a preference for the taxonomic mode, which could
be imperative in cases such as that of the fauna where the facts fit easily enough.
However vague, this hypothesis has the merit of suggesting an explanation as to why
animals should universally be classified taxonomically.
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I shall accept the hypothesis of a psychological imperative for yet another reason: I want
to disprove Mary Douglas's claim that "any given system of classification must give rise to
anomalies" (1966: 39). Now, if the taxonomic mode is not imperative, the points at which
a folk classification depart from it do not constitute anomalies and I would not have
much left to prove. However, it is possible that this mode is psychologically imperative.
What I have to show, then, is that even in that case, classification need not give rise to
anomalies.
To do this, I shall argue that folk classifications, precisely because they are empirically
under-determined, can always be made to conform to the taxonomic principle; that
apparent irregularities can be eliminated by simple logical devices available to the people
themselves; that anomalies turn up only when ethnographers fail to normalize their
descriptions. The ethnographers' failure need not reflect a similar failure on the part of
the subjects. Actually, it is worth noting that ethnozoologists generally describe folk
taxonomies without proper anomalies, while students of symbolism come up with as
many taxonomic anomalies as there are symbolic animals. This inconsistency surely must
be eliminated, while at the same time preserving the true contribution of both
approaches.
Consider the following statements:
[1] Every animal belongs to one and only one species.
[2] Every species belongs to one and only one genus.
These are not contingent but necessary truths given the taxonomic mode of animal
classification. Or again:
[3] What species does this animal belong to?
[4] What genus does this species belong to?
These two questions necessarily have an answer even in cases where a new species or a
new genus has to be identified before the answer can actually be given. In other words,
[5] must be understood in the sense of [6] or else it is necessarily false:
[5] This animal does not belong to any species.
[6] This animal does not belong to any known species.
Any statement which contradicts [l] or [2] is forever paradoxical and can only be
assimilated through symbolic processing. The only zoological identifications that are
clearly of this type are descriptions of fantastic animals: the minotaur belongs to no
species, dragons to no genus, independently of the fact that they borrow their features
from several species or genera. Fantastic animals are, as we have seen, outside all
taxonomy. Though they may be anomalies, they are not generated by the taxonomy but
by a contradiction--in discourse, not in nature--of the very principles of taxonomic
classification.
However, within the taxonomy itself there could exist cases where, for instance, a natural
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species would be described as not belonging to any genus, that is to say, cases where
taxonomic principles are not strictly obeyed. The difficulty for the anthropologist in
establishing the existence of such anomalies, is proportionate to the ease with which
natives could correct them. All they would have to do is give the term referring to the
isolated species a double meaning so that, in principle, it would also refer to a genus of
which the species concerned is the only known member.
Take the Dorze snake (shosh). It does not belong to any of the three main genera: kapho
('birds'), mehe ('domestic animals'), do'a ('wild animals'). In the Dorze highlands only one
species of snake is ever met. Hence the word shosh could be understood as referring to a
species without a genus or to both a species and a genus. How are we to decide which
interpretation is correct? There is an easy test in this instance which could, I imagine, be
extended to all similar cases. Near Dorze, in the Rift Valley, snakes are plentiful and
varied. When Dorzes go down in the Rift Valley, they come to recognize several species,
they borrow terms from other Ethiopian languages to name them, and they keep shosh to
describe the genus on the one hand, and the one species commonly found in Dorze on
the other hand. This shows that snakes are not a species without a genus, but a genus
which happens to include only one well-known species. When the Rift Valley is not
within walking distance, a similar test could be devised with the help of photographs.
In the same way, evidence suggesting that a species belongs to two genera simultaneously
should be considered critically. A bat is not half-bird half-rodent; it is a rodent which
flies like a bird or a bird which has fur like a rodent according to different taxonomies. It
is not contrary to principles of taxonomic classification that a species should in some
features resemble a species belonging to another genus. The catfish is definitely a fish
despite its whiskers. What would be needed is a case where investigating the taxonomy
itself i.e., the classification of empirical objects (and not mythical, fabulous, or
metaphoric discourse) would clearly bring out that a certain species belongs to two
genera. That is a case where "species X belongs to genus A" and "species X belongs to
genus B" would be put forward as equally true statements.
Imagine that the definition of some species X should conform to the definition of two
genera A and B. Couldn't this be remedied? Species X necessarily has some features
which no species of genus B possesses. It is enough then that the absence of that feature
or some other feature incompatible with it be made part of the definition of B for the
species X unequivocally to belong to genus A.
An example: recently a few Dorze have started breeding poultry. Poultry could then, it
seems, come both under "birds" and under "domestic animals" (which, as already
mentioned, are two distinct genera). However they are still strictly considered as "birds".
This is unproblematic if the definition of "domestic animals" is made to include the
feature "four-legged". In other words, this kind of anomaly can always be prevented by
some simple logical device.
In short, if we accept that the taxonomic principle constitutes a universal norm, then two
kinds of anomalies are conceivable in the relationships between species and genera: a
species so defined that it fits into no genus, or a species so defined that it fits into two
genera. I have argued that these two kinds of anomalies can be altogether avoided by
appropriately altering the definitions of species and genera. It seems then that not only
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does the taxonomic principle universally govern zoological classifications, but also all
species can be made to conform to it. The only clear cases where this principle is violated
are those of imaginary animals which are certainly anomalies but generated in opposition
to the taxonomy rather than by it.
4. Anomalous individuals
I shall now consider another range of possible anomalies which involve relationships not
between taxonomic categories, but between these categories and descriptions of the
individuals to whom they refer. A taxonomy is a set of categories with semantic
definitions and encyclopaedic characterizations. Semantic knowledge is analytically true.
Encyclopaedic knowledge is about things, not words; its truth is synthetic, i.e.,
empirically determined. Within encyclopaedic knowledge, two types of propositions have
to be distinguished. Propositions of the first kind are considered as theoretically
necessary; they constitute theories of things or, in other words, encyclopaedic definitions
as opposed to semantic ones. Propositions of the second kind are contingent; they are not
part of the encyclopaedic definitions of things. For instance:
[7] The salmon is a fish.
[8] The salmon is a migratory fish.
[9] Salmon are found in Scotland.
Here [7] is analytic; it would be a contradiction in terms to deny it. [8] is not
semantically necessary but it is part of the theory or encyclopaedic definition of the
salmon. A denial of [8] would not be a contradiction in terms but it would show
ignorance of what a salmon is. [9] is contingent both with respect to the semantic and to
the encyclopaedic definition of a salmon; its denial would involve neither contradiction
nor ignorance of what a salmon is.
It is quite difficult to decide for a given taxonomy which propositions are part of the
semantic definition of a species, which are part of its encyclopaedic definition, and which
are not definitional at all. The only clearly analytic propositions are of the type:
[10] The S is a G
where S is a species and G a genus; and:
[11] The S1 is not an S2
[12] The G1 is not a G2
where S1 and S2 refer to different species and G1 and G2 to different genera. In other
words, they are propositions which follow from the very principles of taxonomic
classification.
The only propositions which are clearly not definitional are those which are not about
the whole species or genus irrespective of time and place, as for instance [9].
On the other hand, propositions which ascribe a specific positive property to a genus or
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to a species as a whole have a logical status which is much less clear. Consider:
[13] Birds have feathers
If [13] is part of the semantic definition of "bird", it should follow that
[14] This bird has no feathers
is a contradiction just as, say: "this husband has no wife". But that is not so. If [13] is part
of the encyclopaedic definition of "bird", then [14] should always be false just as, say:
"this piece of flesh contains no proteins". But that is not so. The chicken I had for lunch
had no feathers, and yet was a bird. Similarly, if a lion loses its mane, or never had one, if
a lizard loses its tail, if a cat is born with three legs, they do not as a result change
species. They still conform to the definition of their species, even though they are
anomalous.
We are faced, then, with an apparent paradox: either [13] is a contingent generalization
of relative validity about birds--and the same should be true for their beaks, their laying
eggs, and any other positive features one might wish to ascribe to them, which,
intuitively, is hardly acceptable--or else animals which do not possess all the features of
their species do not in fact belong to it, which is equally unacceptable. If it could be
shown that this paradox admits of no solution, Mary Douglas' contention would thereby
be proved right, since, then, any zoological taxonomy could not but give rise to
anomalies. If the question is left pending with the paradox neither solved nor proved to
be unsolvable, no conclusion can be drawn in this respect. However there is a solution to
this paradox which at the same time disconfirms Mary Douglas' contention.
The statement [14] can be paraphrased as:
[15] This bird does not have its feathers
On the other hand [17] is not a paraphrase of [16]:
[16] This cat has no feathers
[17] This cat does not have its feathers
In other words, the difference between a featherless bird and a featherless cat is that, by
definition, the bird has at least virtual feathers while the cat has none.
Consider again:
[18] a perch's comb
[19] a cock's mane
[20] a lion's crow
[21] an exaltation of sparrows
Cases [18] to [21] are semantic anomalies since by definition "comb" only applies to
some birds, "mane" to some mammals, "crow" to cocks, and "exaltation" to larks. In other
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words, it is analytic that certain features belong to certain species.
Other features belong to certain species not because of the meaning of the word referring
to them but because of the encyclopaedic definition of these species. Consider:
[22] a turbot's song
[23] a sea urchin's tail
[24] a cat's burrow
These phrases are strange, not for semantic but for empirical reasons: turbot do not sing,
sea-urchins have no tail, cats do not make burrows, but the words "song", "tail", and
"burrow" are not semantically confined to particular species. Suppose now that a wicked
cat should decide to dig a burrow. How would that differ from a rabbit digging one? In
the following manner:
[25] the cat is making a burrow
[26] the rabbit is making its burrow
while [27] seems inappropriate:
[27] the cat is making its burrow.
In other words, that a rabbit should make a burrow is part of its encyclopaedic definition
and it is "its" burrow. Our cat, on the other hand, just makes believe.
In short: a number of features are confined to particular species, either semantically or
encyclopaedically. An individual animal need not possess all the features that belong to
its species. It does not possess any of the features that are semantically confined to other
species. (While a lion's roar might be comparable to a cock's crow, a lion could only
"crow" metaphorically.) If it possesses features encyclopaedically confined to other
species, it does not possess them in the same conceptual manner: it is not entitled to them
in the same way.
What then may the definition of a species be made of, semantically and
encyclopaedically? First, propositions on the pattern of [10]-[12] which are semantic and
which follow from the taxonomic principle. Second, semantic or encyclopaedic
propositions which ascribe a set of features to a given species. This does not imply that
all members of that species actually possess these features, nor that they do not possess
any others, but only this: that the specific features which they do not possess are missing,
while even if the non-specific features they possess were lost, they would not be missing.
In yet other terms, the definition is about the nature not the appearance of animals, and I
am suggesting that such a distinction is involved in any folk taxonomy.
This format of taxonomic definitions is quite different from a set of criteria which would
allow one to tell to which species a given animal belongs: while it can be perceived that
an animal actually has feathers, it cannot be similarly perceived that it virtually has
feathers. A definition is not a set of criteria for matching a percept with a concept, and
such a set of criteria is not a definition. If, for instance, at this very moment I heard the
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sound of hooves coming down the street, I would straightforwardly recognize the sound
of horses passing, since not far from where I live, there are the barracks of the Garde
Républicaine, a mounted corps, and since I have never seen herds of cows or zebra
roaming through the streets of Paris. But these considerations, although part of my
encyclopaedic knowledge, are of course not definitional of horses. On the other hand, it
is part of my definition of horses that they are ruminants, but this is of little help in
recognizing a horse. The encyclopaedic definition of a species is a theory of what that
species intrinsically is. The criteria by which its members are actually identified
determines a heuristic worth studying in its own right but different from the definition.
Anthropological work on folk taxonomies, and especially those which relate taxonomic
and symbolic aspects are not always careful to distinguish, on the one hand, semantic
from encyclopaedic definitions and, on the other hand, definition from identification
criteria. Here I have only emphasized the logical significance of those distinctions. To
establish them is in each case a matter of empirical investigations.
I take a herring, I paint it red, I cut off its tail and I put it in a swallow's nest: it is now
pretty difficult to identify it at first sight. But at the same time there is no doubt that only
one identification would be correct: it is a herring. The format suggested for taxonomic
definitions of animals resolves the paradox which such situations seem to involve. By the
same token, it should be clear that my red herring is aberrant not with respect to the
taxonomic definition of herrings, but with respect to the criteria standardly used to
identify them, that is to say, with respect to an encyclopaedic knowledge of herrings of
which their encyclopaedic definition is only a small part.
Thus norms and definitions are quite different: a featherless bird, a cat digging burrows, a
red herring are all anomalies, but they are still a bird, a cat, and a herring in conformity
with the definition of their species. An animal does not belong to a species according to
the features it actually possesses, but according to the features it is, so to speak, entitled
to possess. I shall try to show how the postulation of an identity between these two sets
of features partly characterizes a notion of norm. But conformity to this norm is not part
of the definition. With respect to a taxonomic definition, there need not be any anomaly.
If an animal does not actually possess a feature ascribed to it by its definition, then it
possesses it virtually: not in its appearance but in its nature. In such conditions it would
be hard for empirical evidence to contradict the definitions of folk taxonomies. These
definitions are not falsifiable theories of natural species and their confrontation with the
empirical world need not generate anomalies. The only anomalies to be observed in this
respect are internal to discourse and independent of experience: they are metaphorical
phrases using semantic anomalies as for instance in statements [18]-[21].
5. Taxonomy and knowledge
Folk taxonomies are often sophisticated and show a deep knowledge of the local
environment, not always equalled by scientific zoology. Thus Bulmer and Tyler note in
their study of frog taxonomy among the Karam of New Guinea:
Already since this paper was first drafted in 1965, one Karam discrimination, that between kosoj and
wyt (initially both placed by the biologist in the same species, Hyka becki) has been substantiated as
biologically valid. ... It is not inconceivable that the forms now known as H. angiana and N. dispupta
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will turn out eventually to be complexes of sibling species and the Karam also to be justified in
splitting these. (Bulmer ð& ðTyler 1968: 376)
It would not be accurate, though, to say that the Karam have anticipated the work of the
zoologists, or that the former were right where the latter were wrong. Only zoologists can
be right or wrong in such matters. When zoologists discriminate a species, they are
making a strong and falsifiable hypothesis about the genetic relationships among a set of
animals. When the Karam discriminate a species, they are deciding that among all the
differences observable in their fauna, some are relevant to their system of taxonomic
definitions. Their decision may be subtle or not, useful or not, but it cannot be right or
wrong.
Zoologists have a strong concept of a natural species. The Karam too have, according to
Bulmer and Tyler, a concept of a natural species, but it is a weaker one which does not
absolutely determine which discriminations are actually made. For instance,
there is a handful of cases, all applying to mammals, where the Karam believe that metamorphoses
sometimes occur between taxa, each of which also reproduces after its kind, which suggests that they
do not see separate ancestry and reproductive isolation as necessary features of the units they
distinguish. (Bulmer ð& ðTyler 1968: 335)
The Karam, further, group together several species under one category at the species level
as if they were a single species, or distinguish varieties belonging to a single species as if
they were different species, while being, we are told, "well aware of what they are
doing" (Bulmer &Tyler 1968: 335; my italics). They are then remarkable observers. But
should zoologists fail to incorporate in their taxonomy species distinctions of which they
would otherwise be well aware, they would be in serious trouble. In other words, not
only is the Karam concept of a species quite weak, but moreover taxonomic
discrimination need not match actually perceived generic differences. In these conditions
the Karam have no difficulty in conforming to the taxonomic principle. They can keep
whatever piece of knowledge might cause problems outside their taxonomy, thereby
ensuring that their classifications will not generate anomalies.
When Mary Douglas maintains that "[a]ny given system of classification must give rise to
anomalies" (1966: 39), she is hazarding a most questionable proposition. Neither the
structure of folk taxonomies, nor the manner in which they are used to describe
experience, render anomalies inevitable.
While Mary Douglas's formulations seem to me to be mistaken, I do believe that they rest
upon a fundamentally sound intuition. My purpose is not to eliminate this intuition but
to explicate it in an acceptable and useful way. There is a relationship between anomaly
and symbolism but it does not directly derive from a mismatch between experience and
classification. It indirectly derives, I shall argue, from the relationship between norms and
definitions. This approach should make it possible to explain why not only anomalous
animals but also exemplary ones take on a symbolic value.
Apart from semantic definitions of taxonomic categories and encyclopaedic definitions of
categorized species and genera, encyclopaedic memory contains zoological propositions
the truth of which is relative and independent of taxonomy. Many of the propositions are
of the following format:
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[28] Given a feature f which specifically belongs to certain species, members of
these species and they alone actually display this feature.
Propositions of this format are statistically true and, as such, crucial to identification of
animals. Exceptions to these propositions (e.g., featherless birds or herrings in swallows'
nests) pose problems not for categorization but for identification. There are a large
number of contingent propositions on animals in any cultural encyclopaedia. Each of
them is statistically true, i.e., admits of exceptions. However the conjunction of all these
propositions is not true, not even statistically. On the contrary, most individual animals
have a blemish of some sort and are an exception to one or several contingent
propositions on the species to which they belong. Similarly, most species are an
exception to one or several contingent propositions on their genus or on fauna in general.
Perfect animals or a paradigmatic species are also statistical exceptions.
Hybrids, monsters, and perfect animals are marked exceptions to statistical knowledge. Is
this in any way sufficient to explain why they should be of particular symbolic
importance? I doubt it. Exceptions to statistically true propositions are expectable and
should raise no major problem for conceptual thinking. That they do is something to be
explained rather than an explanation. This, however, narrows down the problem and
suggests that beside taxonomic definitions and statistical knowledge, there may be some
idealized representations of the fauna in relationship to which statistical exceptions cause
conceptual problems and get symbolically processed.
6. Ideal norms and symbolic animals
Imagine that most contingent and statistical propositions about a species were necessarily
and absolutely true. Then their conjunctions would also be necessarily true and all
members of this species would be perfect. They would all actually display the features
which in their taxonomic definitions are only virtualities. The distinction between actual
and virtual features could be abolished. Moreover, animals of this species would all
possess--and necessarily so--features which, in the real world, only the majority of them
possess and contingently so. These features could then be included into the
encyclopaedic definition of the species. This enlarged definition would by itself provide
sufficient identification criteria.
Imagine that most contingent and statistical propositions on a genus were necessarily and
absolutely true, and true, therefore, the conjunction of these propositions. All the species
within the genus would be paradigmatic. Marginal species would not exist: there would
be no pangolin among mammals, no bats among rodents, etc.
Imagine again that most contingent propositions on fauna in general--and hence their
conjunction--were necessarily and absolutely true. Marginal genera such as snakes
among the Dorze would not exist at all.
No culture, no society ever mistakes this representation of an ideal world for reality. I
know of no society either where such a representation would be fully spelled out,
although some myths like that of Noah's ark and some institutions like zoos in modern
society come close to doing so. I suggest, however, that fragments or approximations of
this ideal representation are universally used as points of reference or of comparison in
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representing the real world or in passing value judgments on individual species and
genera.
While the taxonomic representation involves minor distinctions which are not always
easy to observe, the ideal representation develops strong contrasts. One corresponds to
actual experience; the other corresponds to ideal conditions for thought: if the ideal norm
were an adequate representation of the world, humans need never doubt and never err.
Normative discourse, however, is not a mere nostalgic evocation of an impossible world,
devoid of any empirical significance, a pure fiction that would be developed in myths and
tales without ever being confronted with actual knowledge of the world. The ideal norm
is invoked in discourses about the real world in a way which seems to suggest that
perhaps it is not humans but nature itself which stumbles and makes mistakes: that
ordinary animals should be like perfect ones and that abnormal animals should not exist.
While taxonomy is consistent both internally and externally, the ideal norm gives rise to
two kinds of anomalies: external anomalies when the world ostensibly deviates from the
norm, and internal anomalies when the norm of a species ostensibly deviates from the
norm of the genus to which it belongs.
The Bible, for instance, does not only distinguish ordinary animals which are edible from
abominations which are prohibited. Among edible animals it also distinguishes those
which because of their individual perfection or generic exemplariness can be used for
sacrifice. It further distinguishes degrees of perfection: only the most perfect animals of
exemplary species are suitable for fulfilling a vow. Animals which actually display all the
virtual features of an exemplary species, but whose proportions are not ideal are at best
suitable for a voluntary offering:
When a man presents a shared-offering to the Lord, whether cattle or sheep to fulfil a special vow or
as a freewill offering, if it is to be acceptable it must be perfect; there shall be no defect in it. You
shall present to the Lord nothing blind, disabled, mutilated, with running sore, scab, or eruption, nor
set any such creature on the altar as a food-offering to the Lord. If a bull or a sheep is overgrown or
stunted, you may make of it a freewill offering, but it will not be acceptable in fulfillment of a vow. If
its testicles have been crushed or bruised, torn or cut, you shall not present it to the Lord; this is
forbidden in your land. (Leviticus 22:21-24)
If any animal is defective, if it is lame or blind, or has any other serious defect, you must not sacrifice
it to the Lord your God. Eat it in your settlements; both clean and unclean alike may eat it as they
would the meat of gazelle or buck. (Deuteronomy 15:21-22)
In other words, some animals are perfect (with degrees of perfection) and may be
sacrificed; others are abominable and cannot even be eaten; most animals are neither
perfect nor abominable: they have food value but no marked symbolic value.
Here is a very different example. In European cities live animals are shown in four kinds
of places: at the zoo, at fairs, at the circus, and recently in dolphinariums. Animals in
zoos are expected to be paradigmatic: if the lion does not have a beautiful mane and fails
to roar, if the elephant does not make use of its trunk, if the monkeys do not get up to
monkey tricks, one feels vaguely disappointed. On the other hand, if a lioness has cubs
she gets into the headlines and visitors flock to see her in her exemplary role as a
watchful and jealous mother. In zoos, malformed animals are not to be seen.
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Monsters which would be out of place in a zoo are quite at home at fairs. An extra leg,
an extra hundred visitors. Half-animal, half-human monsters, mermaids, man-apes, etc.,
have the greatest success.
In this regard the circus is intermediary between the zoo and the fair. As at the zoo,
animals must be physically perfect. Actually, outside the main show, they are often
displayed in a zoo-like fashion in a menagerie. However, in the ring their behaviour must
radically depart from the ideal norm of their species. Big cats, for instance, must perform
tricks whose only function is to show their submission to their trainer. Still, from time to
time they must roar convincingly and look dangerous so as to remind us of the norm from
which they have been made to depart.
In a good dolphin show, on the other hand, the dolphins look as if they were doing as
they please: they play among themselves or with their human partner and it is never too
clear who is giving the orders. But the dolphin is itself already an anomaly: it is a great
sea animal, swift and strong3/4this is the norm of the genus; at the same time it is an
animal with a near-human intelligence: this ideal norm of the species contrasts not only
with that of the genus, but also with that of the whole animal kingdom. The acts
performed during the show alternately evoke these contrasting ideal norms: displays of
near-human intelligence are followed by exercises of purely animal strength and speed.
Zoo and fair animals are not socialized. On the contrary, separated from each other and
from the public they evoke at the zoo a perfect and a-social nature and at the fair an
a-social anti-nature. Circus and dolphinarium animals physically conform to the norm;
however they depart from it in their behaviour. In a Lévi-Straussian fashion we could say
that the former constitute a metonymic society and the latter a metaphorical society:
circus animals enter society from below as slaves of humans. It is fitting that they should
look dangerous since, ultimately, they serve to confirm human supremacy. Dolphins, on
the other hand, should look quite benign since the thrill of their display consists in
evoking not a submissive and integrated fauna but an independent and potentially
competitive animal society the idea of which, though at first attractive, might easily
become sinister as in Karel Capek's novel War with the Newts (1937). While dolphin
shows are quite recent, what they stand for in our culture has long been there and been
represented in literary works.
Exhibitions of wild animals are not here to satisfy a simple curiosity: curiosity is never
simple. They are cultural institutions which prompt people and especially children to
think in a symbolic way about relations among animal species and between fauna and
humankind.
Symbolic animals in the Torah are characterised by the fulfillment or the transgression of
an ideal norm. Similarly, in our society, animals are symbolically exhibited in four
separate settings which correspond to four distinct modes of fulfillment or transgression
of the norm. This suggests that the way an individual animal or a species matches or
contradicts the ideal norm may endow it with symbolic value. However, while this
specifies the problem further, it does not yet solve it: what is the intellectual mechanism
at work? Under what conditions is it effective?
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The ideal norm can be invoked in describing an animal which either fulfills or violates it,
without the resulting representation being particularly symbolic:
[29] This horse has all the qualities a horse should have.
[30] This horse is a monster: it has five legs and only one ear.
Compare [29]-[30] with [31]-[34] which on the contrary have a straightforward
symbolic--and more specifically rhetorical--value:
[31] That's a horse worthy of the name!
[32] That's a real horse!
[33] You call that a horse?
[34] That nag is no horse!
In [29]-[30] the taxonomic identification is independent of the judgment of normality. In
[31]-[34], on the other hand, the judgment of normality is put forward as modifying the
taxonomic judgment and as either strengthening its import or as casting doubt on it: if the
horse conforms to the ideal norm then it is a "real" horse; if it clearly departs from the
norm, then its generic identity becomes dubious.
My hypothesis is that symbolism occurs when a judgment of normality is put forward as
modifying a taxonomic identification, i.e., when the ideal norm is considered as an
encyclopaedic component of the taxonomic definition. Logically, the norm cannot play
such a role. Taxonomic identification is a logical pre-condition for any judgment of
normality to be passed. For an individual animal to be a perfect or a monstrous horse, it
must first be a horse. For the ostrich to be a deviant bird, it must first be a bird. For the
snake to be an anomalous animal, it must first be an animal, etc. In no case, could a
judgment of normality entail a modification of the identification, since if the
identification turns out to have been wrong, then so does a fortiori the judgment of
normality.
I find a horse anomalous because it has black and white stripes on its body until I realize
I am looking at a zebra. When I give up my initial identification, I must by the same token
give up my judgment of abnormality. It would be illogical to maintain that this horse is
anomalous because it is a zebra, or that it is a zebra because it is an anomalous horse.
Such an illogicality can only serve to echo a misjudgment and bring out its absurdity.
Conversely, if I identify a horse without being too sure and then discover that it conforms
to the ideal norm of a horse, I feel surer of my identification. But the horse is not more of
a horse or more "real" than I initially thought it was. Taxonomic definitions are of the
all-or-nothing type. An animal does or does not belong to a given species; one can be
more or less sure that it belongs to it but it cannot belong to it more or less.
Yet in some statements a real horse is not an animal which would really be a horse as
opposed to a donkey, a mule or a zebra, or as opposed to a wooden or a china horse; a
horse is said to be "true" or "real" as opposed to other animals which are equally horses
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from a taxonomic point of view. It can be said that the eagle is more of a bird than the
ostrich, the bat almost a bird, the pangolin only just a mammal, of an old nag that it is
not a real horse, of a cock that crows at midnight that it is not a true cock (it is the devil
of course), etc. Such statements can take many different forms on different occasions,
with different speakers and different cultures; some are expressions of beliefs, others are
mere tropes; sometimes they may be developed into a systematic discourse on the fauna.
What is important here, however, is not the diversity of these statements, but the general
form of the conceptual representations which underlie them and can just as well exist in
the mind without being verbalized: in all these cases a normative judgment is considered
as modifying the taxonomic identification which it logically presupposes. Here is the
paradox that causes the representation of an animal or of a species to be processed
symbolically.
When the Bible prescribes that only perfect animals can be sacrificed, underlying this
prescription is the idea that only perfect animals really belong to their species and genus.
When certain species are forbidden as food because they are cloven-hooved but don't
chew the cud or because they chew the cud without being cloven-hooved, underlying
this proscription is the idea that these species do not properly belong to their genus. In
each of these cases the underlying idea is a paradox which could only be solved in an
imaginary world where the ideal norm would be fulfilled.
When the public seeks in the appearance or the behaviour of animals in the zoo proof
that they are "real" elephants, "real" monkeys etc.; when monsters at the fair are seen as
nature's own mistakes; when circus animals are seen as individuals removed from their
species, and dolphins as animals removed from animality by their very generic features, in
each case a paradox is involved: a representation where conformity to the ideal norm is
considered a condition for conformity to the taxonomic definition rather than the other
way around. The conceptual representation is constructed as if the ideal norm had to be
fulfilled, as if statistical and contingent propositions were absolutely and necessarily true
and hence part of the very definition of species, of genera, of the animal kingdom. Thus,
these conceptual representations operate not as descriptions of the real world but as
evocation, on the basis of a knowledge of the real world, of an ideal world where
definitions would encompass all identification criteria, and where the only mistakes
would be made not by humans but by nature.
Symbolic representations of animals do not serve to correct the taxonomic schema, which
is adequate. On the contrary, humans must know the world to wish it were different, have
definitions to conceive of norms, assume a rational description to elaborate a symbolic
representation which modifies it. For animals to be thought of symbolically they must
have been thought of taxonomically. From fantastic animals to perfect or unworthy
horses, symbolic representations of animals serve neither to fill in blanks, nor to space
out the taxonomy. They evoke a worse world, that of anomaly, and a better one, that of
perfection. They provide a contrasted and contrasting imaginary background for
knowledge of the world as it is.
7. Conclusion
I have tried in this paper to help make more explicit and harmonize our understanding of
zoological taxonomies on the one hand and of animal symbolism on the other. My
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approach has been to consider the general conceptual conditions which bear on
zoological representations, i.e., the principles of classification and the relationships
between classification and contingent zoological knowledge. When these conditions are
violated, when these principles are transgressed, when these relationships are reversed,
the resulting representations meet obstacles in conceptual processing and are
symbolically processed.
In the same way, to any conceptual domain with specific conditions--be it that of
numbers, of colours, of artifacts, etc. ð--correspond specific violations of these conditions
and a specific symbolic domain. Just as it is impossible to postulate the structure of a
conceptual domain (and in particular the norm it may contain), it is impossible to take for
granted, on the basis of some general theory, the structure of a symbolic domain. But in
each and every case, conceptual and symbolic domains should be studied together
without however being confused, because they are based on mechanisms which are at the
same time distinct and interdependent.
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