Comments on: John Curran posts Great Diagrams in Anthropology, Linguistics, and Social Theory

John Curran posts Great Diagrams in Anthropology, Linguistics, and Social Theory

puckish — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 13:39:57 -0800

Who said structuralism was dead? John Curran posts Great Diagrams in Anthropology, Linguistics, and Social Theory - an illustrated assortment of sociology's greatest hits, arranged neatly for your viewing pleasure.

By: grapefruitmoon

grapefruitmoon — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 13:42:46 -0800

This is a seriously awesome post. Since I have nothing cogent to add, I'm going to go ahead and dumb this down a notch by saying that whenever I see mention of "Great Diagrams" on the web, I think of this.

By: echo target

echo target — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 13:59:39 -0800

Nice to see Gary Larson represented, whose many contributions to these fields often go sadly unnoticed and unmentioned.

By: srboisvert

srboisvert — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 14:10:48 -0800

Larson's cartoon is even funnier if you know somebody on the examined side of the anthropological equation. I've been told by multiple First Nations peeps that lying to scientists is big time Indian entertainment and that they tell lies and than brag when they show up in the literature. Of course they were probably pulling my leg.

By: fourcheesemac

fourcheesemac — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 14:24:05 -0800

It is awesome, but it isn't all that erudite. Attribution appears a bit careless. For example, the "six functions of language" diagram, while it is reprinted in Schiffrin 2006 as labeled, first appeared (and very famously so) in Roman Jakobson's 1960 article "Linguistics and Poetics." That's only the first one I looked at because I recognized it immediately from the thumbnail -- it's that famous. Not getting that citation right means you don't really know the history of structuralism. Jakobson 1960 is perhaps the most cited paper in the history of structural linguistics. Still, a cool resource.

By: fourcheesemac

fourcheesemac — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 14:25:31 -0800

Also, that Gary Larson cartoon was on the office door of every creaky old professor in my anthropology PhD program about 20 years ago. We thought it was pretty lame then. Now it's downright archaic.

By: destro

destro — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 15:00:32 -0800

Amazing first post

By: salvia

salvia — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 16:20:03 -0800

This is my favorite: grid and group. Hmm, I'm not an anthropologist myself, but apparently grid varies directly with group. Unless that's an algorithmic scale.

By: painquale

painquale — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 16:55:55 -0800

Fabulous. Thanks for this.

By: nickyskye

nickyskye — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 17:50:37 -0800

Those are surprisingly interesting. I love the elegantly lean aesthetic of many of them. Quiet little geometries of meaning. Indexed (Jessica Hagy) is the Roz Chast of anthropological diagrams.

By: carter

carter — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 18:28:24 -0800

Very interesting; thanks, puckish!

By: spiderwire

spiderwire — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 18:54:18 -0800

Who said structuralism was dead? Derrida?

By: bodywithoutorgans

bodywithoutorgans — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 20:35:31 -0800

Whether or not it clarified anything, I've always been in enamored by this chart

By: Dr. Send

Dr. Send — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 21:17:41 -0800

This is off topic, but it seems like very few people who contribute to GraphJam actually understand Venn diagrams. Why is this?

By: stammer

stammer — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 00:01:48 -0800

Whether or not it clarified anything, I've always been in enamored by this chart Deleuze Cube is Above God. There is no organs, only ZERO ORGAN BODY. 1-Capital to labour is 24 hour rotation. 2-Signifier to signified is 24 hour rotation. 3-Structure to agency is 24 hour rotation. 4-Neurosis to psychosis is 24 hour rotation. YOU ARE DETERRITORIALISED STUPID BY KILLER "CAPITAL" DESPOTIC BODY OF DESIRING-PRODUCTION. Deleuze Cube reveals all humanity in Single Subject Constant Creation with perfect univocity & chaosmos. -Gilles Deleuze, Rhizomatic & Wisest Human

By: daniel_charms

daniel_charms — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 03:35:52 -0800

Personally, I've always been partial to Lacan's Graph of desire.