Elements for a Theory of the Frontier

"Frontier" is included in the general category of "limit" (limes: a road bordering a field). But what is at the origin of limit, frontier? An authority, a power that can exercise "the social function of ritual and social significance of the line, the limit whose ritual legit...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Raffestin, Claude (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Cambridge University Press 1986
In: Diogenes
Year: 1986, Volume: 34, Issue: 134, Pages: 1-18
Further subjects:B Girard, René (1923-2015)
Online Access: Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
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Summary:"Frontier" is included in the general category of "limit" (limes: a road bordering a field). But what is at the origin of limit, frontier? An authority, a power that can exercise "the social function of ritual and social significance of the line, the limit whose ritual legitimizes passage, transgression" (Bourdieu, 1982, p. 121). The limit, a traced line, sets up an order that is not only spatial but temporal, since it not only separates a "this side" from a "that side" but also a "before" and an "after". This dual nature of the limit is at work in the myth of the founding of Rome. Any limit, any frontier, is intentional: it proceeds from a will; it is never arbitrary. Its legitimacy was originally established by a religious ritual and later, by a political procedure.
Item Description:HN: 134
ISSN:1467-7695
Contains:Enthalten in: Diogenes
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1177/039219218603413401