Culture and Enchantment

Max Weber viewed modern life as disenchanted, an arena from which scientific inquiry had banished magic. In contrast, Mark Schneider argues intriguingly that enchantment - the sense that we are confronted by inexplicable phenomena - persists in the world today, although it has shifted from the natural to the cultural arena. "Culture and Enchantment" shows that students of culture today operate in social and intellectual circumstances similar to those of 17th century natural philosophers. Just as Newton was drawn to alchemy, scholars today are fascinated by ghostly and mercurial agents thought to account for the meanings of cultural entities. Schneider demonstrates this using two case studies from anthropology: Clifford Geertz's description of Balinese cockfights and Yoruba statuary, and Claude Levi-Strauss's analyses of myths. These provide a basis for actively engaging disputes over the meaning and interpretation of culture.