Alfred Gell - The Anthropology of Time

A University College London Series

Series Editors: Barbara Bender, John Gledhill and Bruce Kapferer

First published in 1992 by Berg Publishers

Published 2020 by Routledge

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Alfred Gell 1992, 1996

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

Gell, Alfred

The anthropology of time: cultural constructions of temporal maps and

images. - (Explorations in anthropology)

I. Title II. Series

ISBN 13: 978-0-8549-6890-9 (pbk)

2.1 Space, genealogy and time

5.1 The Umeda annual cycle

5.2 Umeda hair-styles and masks

5.3 Time inversion

12.1 Piagets experiment

19.1 Expectational vs. mechanical time

19.2 Potential surprise for two competing projects

19.3 Gamblers indifference map

20.1 Hgerstrans time-map

20.2 Janes prism

20.3 (a) vertical and (b) horizontal partitioning of the time-supply

20.4 Time-supply and time-demand

21.1 The Becker model

23.1 Husserls model of internal time-consdousness

24.1 Husserls model as a perceptual cycle

24.2 A general model of time recognition

25.1 Modal accessibility relation in S.5, S.4 and S.4.3 modal systems

25.2 The branching future and/or past

25.3 Temporal cognitive map

5.1 Synoptic table of the Ida ritual

17.1 The A-series vs. the B-series

The composition of this book has occupied me, off and on, for more years than I care to contemplate, and over the course of this time I have amassed a number of debts. Of these, perhaps the most outstanding is the debt I owe to Bruce Kapferer, the editor of the series Explorations in Anthropology, who encouraged me to revise and publish the original manuscript of this book, which I had sadly concluded was not likely to appeal to anyone outside my immediate circle. Latterly, reading over the completed manuscript, I am more sanguine than hitherto, that among these pages there will be some capable of beguiling, even instructing, a more diverse audience than I feared in my more despondent moments. Bruce Kapferers editorial stimulus has been all the more noteworthy in that I am well aware that on theoretical questions I have frequently taken positions which are diametrically opposed to his own. His comments I have taken into account as best I could, and very useful they were too, but I am also particularly conscious of his editorial forbearance, and grateful for it. I can say the same for Jadran Mimica, who brought my manuscript to his attention initially. I can only conclude that these two have behaved in a genuinely altruistic manner throughout, and what framer of Acknowledgements can say more than that?

Among my other debts are those I owe to present and past colleagues at the London School of Economics, notably Maurice Bloch, whom I have repayed in typical departmental fashion with a bouquet of criticism and carping. He read the original manuscript and discussed many detailed points with me. Christina Toren also read the original version, and advised me on psychological questions. She is not, however to be held responsible in any way for my discussion of cognition. I am also particularly grateful to Ward Keeler, who provided me with the data on Bali which I have reported (I hope correctly) on pages 745, in the course of one of the most memorable anthropological conversations I have been privileged to enjoy. Needless to add, any deficiencies in my account of Bali are not attributable to him. Nancy Munn read the complete final draft, and though she was too much under pressure with her own forthcoming review of the Anthropology of Time literature to make detailed comments, I drew enormous reassurance from her generally favourable reaction. Sections of this work have also been presented at seminars at the L.S.E., the University of Oxford, and New York University, where audiences made a number of useful comments.