Pursue Good Fortune and Avoid Calamity: The Practice and Status of Divination in Contemporary Taiwan

Homola, Stéphanie

doi:10.1179/0737769x13z.0000000005

Cited by 11 publications

(3 citation statements)

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“…Six lines prediction, and arguably related Chinese mantic practices reliant on common correlative principles, such as fengshui geomancy (Feuchtwang 1974) and eight characters (bazi) horoscopy and purple star astrology (ziwei doushu) (Homola 2013), stand in marked contrast to generative forms of divination by minimising the possibility for intuitive associations. This section describes the correlative system on which six lines prediction is based, alongside the method of divination and interpretation to illustrate its reductive character.…”

Section: Reductive Interpretation With Six Lines Prediction As An Exa...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Reduction, Generation, and Truth

Matthews¹

2022

Current Anthropology

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The study of divination remains of central relevance to anthropology for what it reveals about the relationship between intuitive and reflective cognition. What marks divination out is the reflective elaboration of the role granted to intuitive associations in arriving at verdicts, which produces two distinct forms of divinatory interpretation. Generative interpretation, exemplified by Cuban Ifá, relies on maximising opportunity for intuitive association to render divinatory results relevant to clients' circumstances. In contrast, reductive interpretation, exemplified by Chinese six lines prediction, minimises the role of intuitive association by relying on highly formalised sets of fixed interpretive principles. Both approaches yield specific diagnoses, but arrive at them by emphasising different cognitive processes. A focus on the generative role of intuition has led some anthropologists of divination to argue that divinatory truth is properly understood as distinct from propositional or representational truth. Instead, anthropologists should take seriously diviners' claims to produce representational knowledge, demonstrating that claims for the 'alterity' of divinatory truth stem from a lack of due acknowledgement of the role of reflection in moving from polyvalent divinatory results to specific verdicts, or of the possibility of reductive interpretation as a key feature of certain divination systems.

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Section: Reductive Interpretation With Six Lines Prediction As An Exa...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Reduction, Generation, and Truth

Matthews¹

2022

Current Anthropology

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“…Les explications qui suivent se concentrent sur les procédures computationnelles des techniques divinatoires et ne se réfèrent que très peu aux contextes de leur utilisation et aux acteurs, lesquels sont décrits dans d'autres travaux (Homola 2013a(Homola , 2013c. Ces procédures ont été recueillies au cours d'enquêtes de terrain menées depuis 2008 auprès de devins professionnels et amateurs dans différents contextes urbains (Taipei, Pékin et Kaifeng).…”

Section: Le Reste Dans Les Arts Divinatoires Chinoisunclassified

La fabrique des restes

Homola

2018

Self Cite

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Les arts mantiques chinois sont fondés sur le postulat d’une dynamique cosmique cyclique dont la régularité rendrait les évènements futurs prédictibles. Cependant, du fait de la multiplicité des paramètres qui entrent en jeu dans cette dynamique, son déchiffrement est particulièrement complexe et nécessite des techniques élaborées de « calcul » du destin. Ce travail se concentre, en particulier, sur des opérations de décompte visant à produire des restes dans plusieurs pratiques divinatoires spécialisées et communes observées aujourd’hui dans le monde chinois. Ce processus opératoire est mis en relation avec des procédures divinatoires similaires dans d’autres contextes culturels ainsi qu’avec d’autres activités telles que le jeu. Cet article interroge la tension entre la complexité des techniques divinatoires (qui visent à inclure le maximum de paramètres pour rendre compte d’une situation de la manière la plus juste possible) et la nécessaire simplicité que requiert l’application de ces techniques dans des contextes d’action et de prise de décision. Il met ainsi en évidence à quel point les artefacts divinatoires et les schèmes de pensée qui leur sont associés fonctionnent comme des outils de déchiffrement et d’orientation en réduisant l’insondable diversité du cosmos à une échelle appréhendable par l’esprit humain.

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“…A paradox in contemporary Chinese and other Asian societies is that while people tend to embrace the idea that individuals can be the agents of their own fate, divination is still active in social life (Chenet 1985;Cook 1989;Bruun 1996;Empson 2006;Kim 2009;Miller 2011;Homola 2013). Divination is embedded in China's ritual and myth and has been solidly entrenched in its social and political life for at least 3000 years (Smith 1991).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Diviners with Membership and Certificates: An Inquiry into the Legitimation and Professionalisation of Chinese Diviners

Li¹

2015

The Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology

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In wrestling with the precariousness of their legitimacy and reputation, diviners in China have developed their own approaches to legitimating and professionalising their business and occupation. This paper discusses the strategy of incorporating the occupation of divination into modern knowledge production and expert systems by forming academic associations and purchasing professional certificates. Diviners' imitation of professionalism is interpreted as a struggle towards gaining membership of modern society. The efforts of diviners to seek legitimacy also provide an opportunity to observe how a marginalised social group whose behaviour is generally stigmatised justifies their role in society.

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Pursue Good Fortune and Avoid Calamity: The Practice and Status of Divination in Contemporary Taiwan

Cited by 11 publications

References 9 publications

Reduction, Generation, and Truth

Reduction, Generation, and Truth

La fabrique des restes

Diviners with Membership and Certificates: An Inquiry into the Legitimation and Professionalisation of Chinese Diviners

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