Cosmology, Gender, Structure, and Rhythm: Marcel Granet and Chinese Religion in the History of Social Theory

This article interrogates the near-complete absence of China as a source of materials and inspiration for constructing theoretical concepts and models in mainstream sociology and anthropology. I outline the story of the largely forgotten mutual engagements, influences, and missed connections between...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Review of Religion and Chinese Society
Main Author: Palmer, David A. 1969- (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Brill [2019]
In: Review of Religion and Chinese Society
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains:B Granet, Marcel 1884-1940 / China / Religion / Sociological theory / Durkheim, Émile 1858-1917 / Mauss, Marcel 1872-1950 / Lévi-Strauss, Claude 1908-2009
RelBib Classification:AB Philosophy of religion; criticism of religion; atheism
AD Sociology of religion; religious policy
AG Religious life; material religion
BM Chinese universism; Confucianism; Taoism
KBM Asia
Further subjects:B Marcel Granet
B Marcel Mauss
B 艾弥尔·涂尔干
B 马塞尔·莫斯
B China
B Emile Durkheim
B 马塞尔·葛兰言
B 中国
B 列维·斯特劳斯
B Claude Lévi-Strauss
Online Access: Volltext (Verlag)
Volltext (doi)
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Summary:This article interrogates the near-complete absence of China as a source of materials and inspiration for constructing theoretical concepts and models in mainstream sociology and anthropology. I outline the story of the largely forgotten mutual engagements, influences, and missed connections between the work of the French sociologist and sinologist Marcel Granet (1884-1940), whose work revolved around Chinese religion, and key figures in the history of sociological and anthropological theory, exemplified by Durkheim, Mauss, and Lévi-Strauss. My purpose is to restore Granet—and, through Granet, China—in the genealogy of classical anthropological and social theory. This involves showing how Granet’s work was informed by the theoretical debates that animated his mentors and colleagues in the French sociological school, and how he, in turn, directly or indirectly influenced subsequent theoretical developments. It also involves raising questions about the implications of connections that were missed, or only briefly evoked, by theoreticians in subsequent generations. These questions open bridges for advancing a mutually productive dialogue between the study of Chinese cosmology, religion, and society, and theory construction in sociology and anthropology.
ISSN:2214-3955
Contains:Enthalten in: Review of Religion and Chinese Society
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1163/22143955-00602002