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Abstract

Time is both an aspect as well as a constituent of our experience. Both as aspect and as constituent postmodernity is characterized by a distinctive attitude to time. The present interest in periodization and genre, the replacement of objective reality by the prevalence of the sign, in other words, the linguistification of the world can no longer be encompassed by Newtonian and naturalistic concepts of time. In an electronic age where local time is a sub-unit of London/New York/Tokyo time, the other no longer has its own time. This paper recaptures other times as exemplified in a rural community in Northern Philippines. The constitution of time in ritual and practical structures of action gives this community a coherence sufficient for its maintenance and reproduction despite the disruptive aspects of daily life. Whereas other times and other places use ritual to orient themselves in time, post-modernity has reinvented time to suit its needs.

Keywords

anthropology chronometric modernity time ritual

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Time and the Local Constitution of Society

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