image of RELIGION & METAPHOR #1 - James Watts: "Pollution, Cosmology, and Metaphor"
Lecture

RELIGION & METAPHOR #1 - James Watts: "Pollution, Cosmology, and Metaphor"


Online Event

Guest Lecture by Prof. Dr. James W. Watts (Syracuse University, NY)

Drawing from his forthcoming book (Yohan Yoo & James W. Watts, Cosmologies of Pure Realms and the Rhetoric of Pollution, Routledge, 2021), James W. Watts will discuss the role of metonymy and metaphor in connecting a culture's cosmological beliefs with its purification practices. Cognitive theories of metaphor, as well as other theoretical discussions of embodiment and affect, reinforce conclusions from our historical and ethnographic case studies that cosmologies not only shape pollution beliefs, but also that purification practices generate and reinforce cultural cosmologies. The metaphorical bases of cultural cosmologies and taxonomies often make them less consistent and systematic than they appear.

The lecture is open to all members of the university and academic audiences. Please contact ceres-coordination-office@rub.de in order to receive the access data for the lecture.  

Affiliated Persons

Photograph of Franziska Burstyn

Franziska Burstyn

Contact

Universitätsstr. 90a
44789  Bochum
Office 4.11
+49 234 32-21981
ceres-coordination-office@rub.de
Photograph of Prof. Dr. James Watts

Prof. Dr. James Watts

Speaker

jwwatts@syr.edu