ABSTRACT
The notion of binary opposition has come to be associated largely with Levi-Strauss in anthropology, especially through his work on myth, in which contradictions are seen as being both identified and resolved through the manipulation of binary distinctions. But there is a separate tradition whose roots lie further back in the history of the discipline, though only developed fully much more recently, through the agency first of Rodney Needham, and later - and partly in explicit contradiction to Needham and to Hertz himself - by Louis Dumont and his followers. In essence, what started as a special case of the Durkheimian notion of sacred/profane developed first into a heuristic device for the understanding of a distinct and widespread form of classification (Needham), then into the essence of an interpretation of Indian society (Dumont), and finally into a general analytical tool in the comparison of societies (Daniel de Coppet, Cecile Barraud, Andre Iteanu, Serge Tcherkezoff, etc.). In this way, binary distinctions became linked not to myth, as with Levi-Strauss, but variously to primary factors of experience (Needham), to problems of classification (Dumont), and to the analysis of ritual (de Coppet, et al.). In one respect, this reflects a shift away from narrow Durkheimianism, given that sacred/profane quite rapidly became unsatisfactory for many anthropologists - here, Hertz has lasted somewhat better than his master. But at the same time continuity is shown in respect, variously, of a continuing concern with classification, and with ritual as the chief arena in which the integration of society is demonstrated to its members. This chapter will concern itself primarily with the development of Hertz's insights in this paper up to and including that introduced by Needham.
