Toward an Anthropology of "Calling"

Abstract

This paper first focuses on ontology presented by Marcel Mauss in his "Essai sur le don," noting its strong affinity with contemporary theories of animism, and then examines the chronological setting of that ontology. In this respect, it is interesting to note that Mauss's setting is consistent with the historical understanding that Karl Jaspers established as the "Axial Age." In other words, in Mauss's text, the term "modernity" is taken broadly to refer to the period after the "Axial Age," while the earlier period is characterized as the "archaic" period.

Second, after confirming this position, the paper takes the "Axial Age" as a ridge line and extracts two types of ontology, in identifying the earlier side of this line as "immanentism" and the later side as "transcendentalism." A preliminary discussion will be given to each of them.

Third, relying on the passage in which Mauss says, "To go outside oneself, in other words, to give," this paper will take up the argument that "going outside oneself" means "calling" to others, proceeding then to an examination of "calling" especially in an "imamanentist" context. Focusing on "names" given to others, we can point out the moment of "addressing by name" as something that should be inserted into the action-theoretic moments of "naming" and "name-taking." We can also take up the issue of "communality" before the division and articulation of "caller" and "called." In this paper, I will illustrate the linkage between "addressing by name" and "name-taking" on the basis of this communality through the events in precolonial Madagascar.

Fourth, based on the above considerations, this paper presents some insights on the nature of "calling" in a "transcendentalist" context.