Interrogating “Likeness” Article Swipe
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· 2020
· Open Access
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· DOI: https://doi.org/10.7788/hian.2020.28.1.31
· OA: W3016785421
The question of how historians and anthropologists should make comparisons involves the nature of “likeness.” Bynum argues that similitude has been under-theorized by anthropologists, semioticians, and historians. Using recent discussions of “pseudomorphism” to query how we can be certain that things really “look alike,” Bynum treats several examples from the field of medieval studies. She argues that the most telling “likenesses” between objects can inhere in characteristics other than visual resemblance and that, conversely, apparent “looking like” can mask profound cultural differences. She concludes that both medieval cases and medieval theories can provide resources for a modern theorizing that would vest comparison in characteristics more complex than merely “looking like.”
