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Abstract
In this article, I argue that the word ‘resource’ can be used to denote what is considered to be of high value in a given society. These values may relate either to society as a whole or to its parts. In the former case, resources often acquire the characteristics of the sacred as identified by Émile Durkheim and others. It is here argued that the Durkheimian approach captures the symbolic dimension of the collective sacred but ignores the social effects of people's attempts to obtain access to the highest value. To understand how concrete social forms evolve, one may rather turn to the writings of Arthur Maurice Hocart. His approach draws our attention to values (of ‘life’) and the social processes deriving from people's engagement with the sacred. To illustrate this approach, an ethnographic example from Odisha, India is provided.
Contributor Notes
Roland Hardenberg is Head of Department of the Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology, Goethe-University, Frankfurt am Main. He is also Director of the Frobenius Institute for Research in Cultural Anthropology, which hosts one of the most important collections of rock art worldwide. His research focused on Hindu rituals (The Renewal of Jagannatha's Body, 2011), society and religion of an Indian tribal community (Children of the Earth Goddess, 2018) and death commemoration practices in Kyrgyzstan (ed. Approaching Ritual Economy, 2017). As a co-founder (with Peter Berger) of the ‘Frankfurt-Groningen Millet network’, he is currently engaged in research on the cultural meaning of cereals.