In his The Poetics of Evil: Toward an Aesthetic Theodicy , Philip Tallon examines Marilyn McCord Adams’s use of “horrendous evils” as a starting point for theodicy. Tallon writes, “One key advantage of horrors is that their unrelentingly negative vision drives us to look . . . . Continue Reading »
The most controversial portion of the Graeber article mentioned in a previous post is his claim that there are structural similarities between slavery and modern capitalism. He enumerates several: “Both rely on a separation of the place of social (re)production of the labor force, and the . . . . Continue Reading »
A reader pointed me to a fascinating article by David Graeber in a 2006 issue of Critique of Anthropology (available on the web). He examines the “naturalization” of capitalism that has developed even within Marxist theory, partly under the pressure from world-system analysis. . . . . Continue Reading »
Marx has many dimensions, but the humanist one is not typically noted. In his ethnographic notebooks, he writes this about ancient conceptions of wealth: “Among the ancients we discover no single inquiry as to which form of landed property etc. is the most productive, which creates maximum . . . . Continue Reading »
“Open your mouth wide and I will fill it,” the Lord promises (Psalm 81:10). I had always taken that as a reference to food. But it comes just after this: “I, Yahweh, am your God, who brought you up from the land of Egypt,” a clear allusion to the opening of the Ten Word . . . . Continue Reading »
In her Jacob’s Tears: The Priestly Work of Reconciliation , Mary Douglas summarizes her argument (from In the Wilderness: The Doctrine of Defilement in the Book of Numbers (Journal for the Study of the Old Testament. Supplement Series, 158) ) that the book of Numbers is a ring construction . . . . Continue Reading »
In Mark’s gospel, Jesus is the royal “son of God” (1:1), the stronger man who enters into combat with the “strong man” in order to plunder his house (3:20-35). Thus Jesus “casts out” ( ekballo ; cf. 1:34, 39, 43; 3:15, 22, 23; 6:13; 7:26) demons from the . . . . Continue Reading »
Mary Douglas and Baron Isherwood wrote The World of Goods out of exasperation with the limited view of consumption that has dominated discussions, the “tendency to suppose that people buy goods for two or three restricted purposes: material welfare, psychic welfare, and display. The first two . . . . Continue Reading »
In an essay on Mauss’ The Gift: The Form and Reason for Exchange in Archaic Societies in Risk and Blame: Essays in Cultural Theory , Mary Douglas makes an intriguing comparison between Mauss and Adam Smith: Mauss “discovered a mechanism by which individual interests combine to make a . . . . Continue Reading »
In a March 2011 NYT review of Tree of Life , AO Scott explains one of the achievements of this great movie: “There are very few films I can think of that convey the changing interior weather of a child’s mind with such fidelity and sensitivity. Nor are there many that penetrate so . . . . Continue Reading »
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