Clifford Geertz Meets the Triforce
Today, we trip into the more academic side of things with a critique of anthropologist Clifford Geertz, but we keep it Incidental Mythology by using the Triforce in Zelda to do so. We talk about Geertz's view of symbols, and the importance of multiplicity of meanings. The Triforce represents many things: the Hylian cosmology, the ideal characteristics of a person, the power of the Hylian royal family, and also a representation of the game series as a whole. So let's chat about symbols, religion, Geertz, and the Triforce!
Structuralism and Myth
In Structural anthropology, we understand these social categories are embedded in a lot of what we do. If this is what our worldview is based on, then the things we produce are going to also reflect this. This means that a society’s mythology also reflects these categories, and by analysing mythology we can get a detailed view of what this categorisation looks like.
Cosplay: A Research Reflection
Anthropology is supposed to be like Star Trek’s prime directive: observance without interference. But like how it doesn’t work out cleanly in Star Trek, it sure doesn't in anthropology either. We, as people, are like drops in a pool, little ripple effects that hit other ripples, and send new ripples from these shock waves. We influence the people around us even if we don’t speak to them - sometimes maybe expressly because we don’t speak to them.
Pop Culture Knowledge and Anthropology
The most difficulty thing I struggle with, personally, is the complicated struggle between cultural ignorance and cultural knowledge. I’ve mentioned on a different blog post, as well as in a couple more places, that an anthropologist’s job is to be annoying. We ask every question under the sun, and are supposed to act like newborn children, newly encountering the world and never taking anything for granted.
Table Top Role Playing Games and the Magic Circle
There’s a lot that can be said for the dynamics of the structure of the play environment and the way that people create that space. In many ways, we could talk about ritualisation, the concept of ritual space, and how play works with these dynamics. But I think, first, I need to talk about the magic circle, and how, I think, TTRPGs disprove the idea of it.
Bee and Puppycat and the Spirit of Anthropology
Bee and Puppycat: Lazy in Space on Netflix provides us with a wonderful blurring between categories. It really echoes a main theme of anthropology: making the familiar strange and the strange familiar. In this video, we explore the way Bee and Puppycat complicate subject matter and characters which are extremely familiar to the viewer, while also taking figures and setting incredibly unfamiliar to the viewer and making them incredibly relatable.
Making the Familiar Strange
Anthropology is all about making the familiar strange, and the strange familiar. Making the familiar strange and the strange familiar is a famous phrase anthropologists and sociologists use when approaching research and understanding our role in the whole process. What it means is simple: the point is to complicate the things we take for granted, and question them the way an outside would; we take the things typically considered the ‘Other’ and make them more relatable, and more similar to what it is that we recognise. Essentially, we like to shorten the distances between peoples, and push ourselves to break down the boundaries people use to distinguish between the ‘us’ and the ‘them’.
