Dictionary of indo-european concepts and society

594 Pages·2016·2.349 MB·English

by  Benveniste, Émile

Dictionary of
inDo-EuropEan concEpts
anD sociEty
H
au
Books
Executive Editor
Giovanni da Col

Managing Editor
Sean M. Dowdy
Editorial Board
Anne-Christine Taylor
Carlos Fausto
Danilyn Rutherford
Ilana Gershon
Jason Throop
Joel Robbins
Jonathan Parry
Michael Lempert
Stephan Palmié
www.haubooks.com
Dictionary of
inDo-EuropEan concEpts
anD sociEty
Émile Benveniste

foreword by Giorgio agamben

Translated by Elizabeth Palmer
Hau Books
Chicago
© 2016 Hau Books.
Foreword: “The Vocabulary and the Voice” © 2016 Hau Books and Giorgio Agamben.
Original French edition, Le vocabulaire des institutions Indo-Europeenes, © 1969
Les Editions de Minuit, Paris.
English translation by Elizabeth Palmer (with summaries, table, and original index
by Jean Lallot), © 1973 Faber and Faber Ltd., London (also published in 1973 by
University of Miami Press).
Cover and layout design: Sheehan Moore
Cover image: “The Tower of Babel,” Hendrick van Cleve III (ca. 1525–1589), ca.
Sixteenth Century, Oil, Kröller-Müller Museum, Netherlands, KM 100.870
Typesetting: Prepress Plus (www.prepressplus.in)
ISBN: 978-0-9861325-9-9
LCCN: 2016955902
Hau Books
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Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper.
table of contents
foreword
“The Vocabulary and the Voice” by Giorgio Agamben ix
Preface xxi
List of Abbreviations xxvii
BOOK I: ECONOMY
section i: livestock and wealtH
Chapter One: Male and Sire 5
Chapter Two: A Lexical Opposition in Need of Revision:
sūs and porcus 9
Chapter Three: Próbaton and the Homeric Economy 19
Chapter Four: Livestock and Money: pecu and pecunia 27
section ii: giving and taking
Chapter Five: Gift and Exchange 43
Chapter Six: Giving, Taking, and Receiving 55
Chapter Seven: Hospitality 61
Chapter Eight: Personal Loyalty 75
vi Dictionary of inDo-EuropEan concEpts anD sociEty
section iii: purcHase
Chapter Nine: Two Ways of Buying 93
Chapter Ten: Purchase and Redemption 97
Chapter Eleven: An Occupation without a Name: Commerce 105
section iv: economic obligations
Chapter Twelve: Accountancy and Valuation 115
Chapter Thirteen: Hiring and Leasing 119
Chapter Fourteen: Price and Wages 125
Chapter Fifteen: Credence and Belief 133
Chapter Sixteen: Lending, Borrowing, and Debt 141
Chapter Seventeen: Gratuitousness and Gratefulness 155
BOOK II: THE VOCABULARY OF KINSHIP
Introduction 161
Chapter One: The Importance of the Concept of Paternity 165
Chapter Two: Status of the Mother and Matrilineal Descent 171
Chapter Three: The Principle of Exogamy and its Applications 177
Chapter Four: The Indo-European Expression for “Marriage” 191
Chapter Five: Kinship Resulting from Marriage 197
Chapter Six: Formation and Suffixation of the Terms for Kinship 205
Chapter Seven: Words Derived from the Terms for Kinship 215
BOOK III: SOCIAL STATUS
Chapter One: Tripartition of Functions 227
Chapter Two: The Four Divisions of Society 239
Chapter Three: The Free Man 261
Chapter Four: Phílos 273
Chapter Five: The Slave and the Stranger 289
Chapter Six: Cities and Communities 295
BOOK IV: ROYALTY AND ITS PRIVILEGES
Chapter One: Rex 307
Chapter Two: xšay- and Iranian Kingship 313
TABLE OF CONTENTS vii
Chapter Three: Hellenic Kingship 319
Chapter Four: The Authority of the King 329
Chapter Five: Honor and Honors 337
Chapter Six: Magic Power 349
Chapter Seven: Krátos 361
Chapter Eight: Royalty and Nobility 373
Chapter Nine: The King and His People 377
BOOK V: LAW
Chapter One: Thémis 385
Chapter Two: Díkē 391
Chapter Three: Ius and the Oath in Rome 395
Chapter Four: *med- and the Concept of Measure 405
Chapter Five: Fas 413
Chapter Six: The Censor and Auctoritas 423
Chapter Seven: The Quaestor and the *Prex 431
Chapter Eight: The Oath in Greece 439
BOOK VI: RELIGION
Chapter One: The “Sacred” 453
Chapter Two: The Libation 477
Chapter Three: The Sacrifice 489
Chapter Four: The Vow 497
Chapter Five: Prayer and Supplication 507
Chapter Six: The Latin Vocabulary of Signs and Omens 517
Chapter Seven: Religion and Superstition 525
Table 538
Bibliographical Note 541
Index 543

foreword
the Vocabulary and the Voice
giorgio agamben
Translation by Thomas Zummer
Émile Benveniste’s Le vocabulaire des institutions indo-européennes is cer-
tainly the culmination of twentieth-century linguistics, in both senses of the
term.1 It is here that the nineteenth-century project of comparative grammar had
reached its highest point, and, simultaneously, coincided with its end. While
there certainly will be further studies that prolong the scientific orientation em-
bodied in the prestigious genealogy of Bréal, Saussure, Meillet, and Benveniste,
it is also the case that, after the death of Benveniste, linguistics as a whole has
taken quite different paths, whereof the school of transformational-generative
grammar is such an outstanding example. It is all the more pressing, then, to
understand what gives Benveniste’s conception of language such an unusual
1. Works by Benveniste are cited in this foreword with the following abbreviations:
Voc. = Le vocabulaire des institutions indo-européennes, Minuit, Paris 1969,
Vols. 1 and II; Pr. = Problèmes de linguistique générale, Gallimard, vol. I, Paris
1966, vol.II, Paris 1974; L. = Dernières Leçons, Gallimard-Seuil, Paris 2012. Full
bibliographical citations of these texts are also included in the references list at the
end of the foreword. —Eds.