Vehicles: Cars, Canoes, and Other Metaphors of Moral Imagination

Hardback Published on: 01/08/2014
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Synopsis

Metaphor, as an act of human fancy, combines ideas in improbable ways to sharpen meanings of life and experience. Theoretically, this arises from an association between a sign—for example, a cattle car—and its referent, the Holocaust. These “sign-vehicles” serve as modes of semiotic transportation through conceptual space. Likewise, on-the-ground vehicles can be rich metaphors for the moral imagination. Following on this insight, Vehicles presents a collection of ethnographic essays on the metaphoric significance of vehicles in different cultures. Analyses include canoes in Papua New Guinea, pedestrians and airplanes in North America, lowriders among Mexican-Americans, and cars in contemporary China, Japan, and Eastern Europe, as well as among African-Americans in the South. Vehicles not only “carry people around,” but also “carry” how they are understood in relation to the dynamics of culture, politics and history.

Publisher information

  • Publisher: Berghahn Books
  • ISBN: 9781782383758
  • Number of pages: 224
  • Dimensions: 229 x 152 mm
  • Weight: 476g
  • Languages: English

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