The Enchantment of Writing: Notes toward a philological anthropology

本文基于对“无文字主义”人类学的反思,思考文字的“通神明”、“类万物”作用及其潜在的对于社会科学论述的启发。过去人类学总是注重研究“无文字社会”,民族志也多迷失于对文明与野蛮的二分中。用一种文字人类学观点,研究文字与巫术的继承性及文字的“通神明”、“类万物”作用,将有助于我们理解二者之间的连续性及文明的实质内涵。知识人是“文字阶级”,这个“阶级”在文明对“原始文化”的继承和发挥上起到了关键作用,其论述无论是“神话式的”,还是“逻辑式的”,都含有某种巫术力量。认识这种魔力的存在和表现方式,就是认识“话语”的拜物教与理性的双重实质。

In this comprehensive essay，the author writes to create what he would call “philological anthropology”. Drawing from philological considerations of the continuity between magic and writing ( and thus civilization )，the author considers “communicating with divinities” and “signifying all things” to be the original “functions” of writing. Criticizing the“illiteracisms”of structuralism，discourse theory， and“writing culture school”，the author aims to bring the study of writing into the forefront of anthropology and relate it to the anthropology of civilization.

王铭铭

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