Comments on: Claude dit: http://savageminds.org/2008/11/15/claude-dit-11/ Notes and Queries in Anthropology — A Group Blog Fri, 25 May 2012 20:10:31 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 By: John McCreery http://savageminds.org/2008/11/15/claude-dit-11/comment-page-1/#comment-528231 John McCreery Sun, 16 Nov 2008 14:03:15 +0000 http://savageminds.org/?p=1389#comment-528231 It is also important to explore substitutions. For example, the proper way to dot the eyes of an idol and bring the god to life requires blood from the comb of a white cock. In the absence of the cock, cinnabar ink dissolved in alcohol may be used instead, said my Daoist master. Red and _yang_ are, it appears, the essential distinctive features. The prototypical white cock, however, adds numerous additional associations: male, crowing to greet the rising sun, taking the place of the phoenix, the mythical bird associated with the South, the direction of fire, where _yang_ reaches its apogee in the diurnal cycle. The lesson here is, once again, the importance of what Rex calls connoisseurship to analysis of symbols, in ads, I would add, as well as in rituals. Obsessive, geeky concern with detail is the very heart of the art. Without it, analysis spins off into vacuous generalities. It is also important to explore substitutions. For example, the proper way to dot the eyes of an idol and bring the god to life requires blood from the comb of a white cock. In the absence of the cock, cinnabar ink dissolved in alcohol may be used instead, said my Daoist master. Red and _yang_ are, it appears, the essential distinctive features. The prototypical white cock, however, adds numerous additional associations: male, crowing to greet the rising sun, taking the place of the phoenix, the mythical bird associated with the South, the direction of fire, where _yang_ reaches its apogee in the diurnal cycle.

The lesson here is, once again, the importance of what Rex calls connoisseurship to analysis of symbols, in ads, I would add, as well as in rituals. Obsessive, geeky concern with detail is the very heart of the art. Without it, analysis spins off into vacuous generalities.

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