This thesis puts forward the argument that the efficacy of ideas that have an impact on human subjects, causing them to act or behave in particular, noticeable ways, such as religion and ideology, is a product of the process of the necessary social labour involved in the production, circulation, exchange and consumption of symbolic property. Symbolic property is itself a product of the set-apart sacred, which is a basic, primary, socially constructed category that is strategically deployed in systems for the appropriation, expropriation, ownership, control and management of all property, whether material or symbolic. Socially effective ideas are expressed symbolically, whether they are signs of material, or real objects, or of imaginary things. It is further argued that to better comprehend these systems for managing the symbolic property, a critique of the political economy of the set-apart sacred must be developed. In developing this argument a literature review was conducted, primarily of structuralist and Marxist social theory, but also of key texts in the study of religion, political economy and of social theory more generally general. In the course of this review arguments to defend this hypothesis are developed and the critique of these arguments and the theory behind them also developed. Ideology, the fetish and money, three crucial categories of the set-apart sacred, are considered in terms of their function within the political economy of the sacred. Conclusions reached include the argument that religion as a category needs to be set aside and the set-apart sacred utilized as a pivotal concept in the study of religion, politics and the economy. Historical materialism, it is also concluded, has many flaws and weaknesses; including idealism, economism and a productivist bias, that make it essential to re-think and to re-materialise the methodology. The product of this work is a unique conversation between two schools of though often thought to stand in opposition to one another, namely, Durkheimian social theory and Marxist historical materialism. In the course of this argument, a materialist definition and theory of the setapart sacred is developed and a re-materialised historical materialist methodology is also proposed. These two theoretical premises are utilised to consider how systems for managing the set-apart sacred function.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:uct/oai:localhost:11427/31562 |
| Date | 11 March 2020 |
| Creators | Dexter, Phillip |
| Contributors | Chidester, David |
| Publisher | Faculty of Humanities, Department of Religious Studies |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Doctoral Thesis, Doctoral |
| Format | application/pdf |
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