Sharing and propagating a cultural world

Workshop on the sharing and propagation of a cultural world

The workshop is open to all and all are welcome.

14.15 - 15.30: Michael Schnegg (Anthropology, University of Hamburg), "Emanating bodies: Towards a comparative phenomenology."

The aim of this presentation is to explore how ethnographic material can be mobilized to advance phenomenological concepts. To do this, I take Tellenbach's (1968) notion of atmospheres as a starting point. As he suggests, Damara people in Namibia experience each other as bodies that emanate winds (ǂoan). Building on the ethnographic case, I show that this is not unusual and that we find ample cross-cultural evidence that this is part of how people experience each other bodily. To explore this further, I introduce a comparative methodology that combines a Husserlian idea of Wesensschau through eidetic variation with mathematical tools, namely formal concept analysis, to conduct an ethnographic Wesensschau empirically. The significant advantage of formal concept analysis is that it avoids simplistic essentializations and allows for different degrees and combinations in which the characteristics of a phenomenon are shared. In the end, the analysis indicates what the cross-cultural nature of bodily emanations is and what subtypes exist.

15.45-17.00: Andrew Inkpin (Philosophy, University of Melbourne), "Merleau-Ponty on painting, sedimentation, and the cultural world."

A distinctive feature of Merleau-Ponty’s thought in the 1950s is his attempt to use painting as a model for the production and cultural transmission of meaning (sens) and hence as a central paradigm of both social and philosophical history. This model is based on his appropriation of Husserl’s closely related notions of sedimentation and institution (Stiftung) and revises Phenomenology of Perception’s earlier position, which took sedimentation to be characteristic of language in contrast to painting. This paper aims to expound and critically assess Merleau-Ponty’s attempt to apply these Husserlian notions to the practice of painting, which differs in important ways from that of geometry for which they were designed. To this end, I begin by briefly reviewing the conception of sedimentation in Husserl that provides Merleau-Ponty’s point of departure. Focusing primarily on his mid-period works, I then explore how Merleau-Ponty conceives the role of sedimentation in painting – what is sedimented, how this sediment is used – and how this relates to its role in geometry and language. Finally, I offer some thoughts on the tenability of Merleau-Ponty’s conception of the role of sedimentation in painting and on whether it can be applied to other ‘cultural objects’ as Merleau-Ponty intends.