[Anthropgrad] Paradox and Causal Thinking in a South Indian Fishing Village

[Assa Doron]

SOUTH ASIA SEMINAR SERIES
Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, ANU College of Asia and 
the Pacific

30 April 2008, Wednesday, 2.00-3.30pm, Seminar Room A, Coombs Bldg, ANU

Charles W. Nuckolls, Professor of Psychological Anthropology, Brigham 
Young University (USA)

Paradox and Causal Thinking in a South Indian Fishing Village
 
Divinatory practices in South India reveal the existence of intractable 
dilemmas in the logic of causal explanation.  Such dilemmas have their 
origin in the dynamics of kinship.  However, they bear a resemblance to 
the "antinomies" said by Kant to inspire the dialectics of pure reason.  
Here I explore the relevance of Kant to the understanding of divination, 
and to the social dialectics that give rise to the paradoxes of causal 
reasoning in a Telugu fishing village.

-- 

Dr Assa Doron
Research Fellow
Department of Anthropology
Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies
The Australian National University
Canberra ACT 0200 Australia
ph: 61-2-6125-3870
fax: 61-2-6125-3023
email: Assa.Doron at anu.edu.au
ANU CRICOS # 00120C