Totalité, sens et comparaison: A propos de ‘culture, thought and social action’ par Stanley J. Tambiah: A review article

Ritual is the main topic of ‘Culture, Thought and Social Action’. Tambiah, in some of the most important essays of this collection, denies any efficiency to the dualistic approaches which contrast thought and action, word and deed, facts and representation. Marc Augé agrees with such a conception but wonders whether the definition of the sense as cultural and total which Tambiah tries to develop is congruent with the necessity of comparison he claims for in the same time.