Divination as Provocation: Notes for a Tactful Definition
Wednesday 29 October 2025, 3pm - 4.30pm
Seminar Room 63, Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities
All welcome
Join us for the first in our series of work-in-progress seminars, where researchers in our network present in-progress papers for discussion and feedback. This seminar will be a presentation followed by discussion.
David Zeitlyn
I discuss the problems of giving definitions of linguistic terms especially in contentious fields such as religious studies. Alternatives are considered in the form of ostension and the use of exemplars. Having considered problems with some definitions of divination, I provide a new one that couples a rubric with a list of exemplary types and exemplary questions. The exemplars demarcate the domain to which the rubric should be applied. This definition does not rely on beliefs, deities (the supernatural) or modes of cognition.
