The Chimera Principle: An Anthropology of Memory and Imagination

by Carlo Severi, David Graeber (Foreword), Janet Lloyd (Translator)

Available in English for the first time, anthropologist Carlo Severi’s The Chimera Principle breaks new theoretical ground for the study of ritual, iconographic technologies, and oral traditions among non-literate peoples. Setting himself against a tradition that has long seen the memory of people “without writing”—which relies on such ephemeral records as ornaments, body painting, and masks—as fundamentally disordered or doomed to failure, he argues strenuously that ritual actions in these societies pragmatically produce religious meaning and that they demonstrate what he calls a “chimeric” imagination.

Deploying philosophical and ethnographic theory, Severi unfolds new approaches to research in the anthropology of ritual and memory, ultimately building a new theory of imagination and an original anthropology of thought. This English-language edition, beautifully translated by Janet Lloyd and complete with a foreword by David Graeber, will spark widespread debate and be heralded as an instant classic for anthropologists, historians, and philosophers.

Genres: Anthropology

402 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2004

Reviews

[Valentín Serrano García · Rating 5 out of 5]

This author is a must for all those interested in the intersection between orality, anthropology, art and shamanism (even if it is difficult to agree with all his insights).

Alongside with the revolutionary works of art historians such as Hans Belting and Didi Huberman, Severi poses a new theory of image, iconography and memory that is also related, although indirectly, with the "pictorial turn" of Mitchell (we won't find lacanianism, but the outcomes are strikingly similar).

Severi convincently retrieves the great theory of Aby Warburg (and, with him, the golden thread of decimonic anthropology). With respect to the art of memory, one of the main focus of the research, Severi goes well beyond the mnemotecnic accounts of Frances Yeates.

[Gianmarco Serritelli · Rating 4 out of 5]

quelle che comunemente si considerano società senza scrittura, in quali modi, attraverso quali supporti "fanno memoria"? Come, interagendo, pittografia e canto danno vita a sofisticate mnemotecniche? Come cura la parola detta? Queste sono alcune tra le domande più rilevanti che sorreggono lo studio. Severi fa incominciare con Warburg una possibile genealogia dell'antropologia della memoria, alla quale si ricollega. Molto bella la parte in cui viene commentato l'articolo di C. L. Strauss in cui il grande antropologo francese affronta il tema dell'efficacia simbolica sforzandosi di gettare un ponte tra psicoanalisi e pratiche sciamaniche. Mi pare poi molto utile la ridiscussione di alcune idee fondamentali delle teorie del sincretismo religioso e del contatto culturale, utile per leggere i tempi in cui viviamo, contrassegnati per l'appunto da una fortissima tendenza alla mescolanza e alla creazione di ibridi culturali.