Comparative Concepts of Time

Inspired by the work of L’Année Sociologique, I am interested in the comparative study of conceptual categories. My M.Litt. thesis, Some Problems in the Comparative Study of the Concept of Time, examined different approaches to the study and nature of time ranging from phenomenology and neo-Kantianism, to ethnographic description and language and linguistic approaches.

My approach distinguishes between time consciousness and temporal articulations both in calendars and historiography, and the reinterpretation, incorporation, recombination, and performance of historical memories. I am especially interested in "timequakes" where persons and events from different periods of history and varied mythologies are combined together as part of communal festivals.

I have continued to be fascinated by time, especially rituals of historical reversal, temporal dissolution, and eschatology, which are a re-occurrent theme in my books on Mexican masquerade and Portuguese popular art and theology.

Publications

1982 The Structure of Maya Historiography and the Consciousness of Historical Struggle. Cultures et Developpement: Revue Internationale de sciences du developpement XIV (2-3): 463-471.

1983 La Pensée Bourgeoise. Cultures et Developpement: Revue Internationale de sciences du developpement, XV (3): 557-574.

1986 The Recollection of Times Past: Memory and Event in Huichol Narrative. History and Anthropology (2): 335-378. (Republished in M. N Bourguet et al. 1990.)

1988 Huichol Natural Philosophy. Cosmos: The Yearbook of the Traditional Cosmology Society, Amerindian Cosmologies (4): 339-354.

1988 Los Huicholes en el Mundo de los Santos. Mexico Indigena (22): 48-50.

1989 Preliminary Notes on Some Structural Parallels in the Symbolic and Relational Classifications of Nahuatl and Huichol Deities. Cosmos: The Yearbook of the Traditional Cosmology Society, Polytheistic Systems (5): 151-183.

1990 The Recollection of Times Past: Memory and Event in Huichol Narrative. In M. N Bourguet, L.Valensi and N. Wachtel (eds), Between Memory and History. Chur, Harwood Academic Press. (First published in History and Anthropology 1986.)

1997 Bivak: Semana Santa among the Huichol of San Andres Cohamiata. In R. Spicer and R. Crumrine (eds), Performing the Renewal of Community. Indigenous Easter Rituals in North Mexico and Southwest United States. Lanham, University Press of America.

2017 Calendars, Dreams and Timequakes: Mexican Masks and Devotions. In A. Shelton and N. Levell (eds.), From Carnival to Lucha Libre. Mexican Masks and Devotions. Lisbon, Museu de Lisboa. Pp 31-84.