Analytic and concrete forms of the autonomy of culture

Kane, Anne

doi:10.1017/cbo9780511520808.008

Cited by 6 publications

(8 citation statements)

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“…For instance, Alexander (2003a) often uses the terms “polluted” (“impure”) and “profane” as technically equivalent, and explicitly rejects the twofoldness of the sacred. Anne Kane (1998) argues in her work on defining the problem of the autonomy of culture (which constitutes the very core of cultural sociology) that “Durkheim’s division of the world into the sacred and the profane” is the same as “more recent renditions … pure/polluted” (p. 75). Philip Smith (1999) follows this trend in his groundbreaking work on the elementary forms of place.…”

Section: Durkheim’s Legacy Actualized and Problematized: Cultural Socmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reassembling the ambiguity of the sacred: A neglected inconsistency in readings of Durkheim

Kurakin

2013

Journal of Classical Sociology

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The ambiguity of the sacred combines two opposite modes, the pure and the impure, as its fundamental feature. Present in the work of Durkheim and most scholars of the sacred, as well as in actual social practice, the impure sacred is not the profane, the sphere that opposes the sacred. However, in most interpretations of Durkheim, and even in aspects of his own argument, the ambiguity of the sacred is neglected and, in several important cases, treated as if it were profane: this has negative consequences for cultural sociology and the study of culture in contemporary society. In certain cases, the impure sacred and the profane can be hard to tell apart. Yet, if the boundaries between the sacred (pure and impure) and the profane are not clearly distinguished, the overall approach to culture in terms of distinctions and boundaries loses its logical and theoretical coherence. This article elucidates the ambiguity of the sacred and reintegrates that ambiguity into cultural sociology. The model proposed here treats the impure as a transient result of violation of the sacred/profane border with no independent status of its own.

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Section: Durkheim’s Legacy Actualized and Problematized: Cultural Socmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reassembling the ambiguity of the sacred: A neglected inconsistency in readings of Durkheim

Kurakin

2013

Journal of Classical Sociology

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“…The rst of these is social structural and psychological reductionism. Dominant trends in charisma theory have no place for what has become known as the 'autonomy of culture' (Kane 1991). That is to say, they fail to acknowledge culture as an independent level of analysis and as a crucial factor in the construction of charismatic authority.…”

Section: Theories Of Charisma: a Cultural Critiquementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Such narratives can be seen as working in structured ways, 'mythologizing' the concrete by aligning actors and events with plots, trajectories, destinies and moral codes (Frye 1976;Jacobs 1996). By reading culture as a structure maintained by internal grammars like these, such models provide strong grounds for asserting the 'analytic autonomy of culture' (Kane 1991). Like a language, its systems of meaning are generated by internal systems of resemblance and difference between symbols rather than merely echoing wider social structural forces.…”

Section: A Model Of Culture and Charismamentioning

confidence: 99%

Culture and Charisma: Outline of a Theory

Smith¹

2000

Acta Sociologica

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From the work of Weber onwards charisma has been primarily explained in terms of its relationship to underlying social structural and psychological environments. The paper redresses this imbalance and examines the cultural structures that operate as preconditions for the attribution of charisma to political and religious leaders. Drawing on Weberian, Durkheimian and semiotic theory the paper argues that charisma arises in conjunction with salvation narratives. The internal structure of these narratives requires binary oppositions contrasting good and evil. The model is exempli ed with reference to case studies of

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“…Dominant trends in charisma theory have no place for what has become known as the 'autonomy of culture' (Kane 1991). Theories of charisma: a cultural critique Two fault lines have run through the landscape of charisma theory in the 20th century.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The first of these is social structural and psychological reductionism. Dominant trends in charisma theory have no place for what has become known as the 'autonomy of culture' (Kane 1991). That is to say, they fail to acknowledge culture as an independent level of analysis and as a crucial factor in the construction of charismatic authority.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%